The Jesus Prayer Part 19 - Contemplative Prayer

Col 4:2
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

Eph 6:18
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

In this post I am going to write a little about contemplative prayer. The goal of contemplative prayer is to be aware of, focus on, and interact with, and draw closer to God in prayer. To quote a catechism entitled On the Law of God, "Contemplation of God is the description of the spiritual mood in which man intentionally introduces into, maintains in his conscience, the thought of God, of His highest properties, the matter of our salvation and of our eternal future, etc." Prayer is traditionally described as being done on three levels, the physical, the mental, and the heart.

We begin by physically saying the words that we offer up to God. We can start with the words the Lord Himself gave us in the Lord's prayer, the Psalms, or other hymns and prayers of the Church. We offer these words up to God because we know it is right to offer them up to God and that they express how we should relate to God.

We take the words that we are saying and focus on them and make them our own. They cease to be external words that we read and become our own words as they penetrate our mind and become our thoughts. This requires attention and perseverance as outside thoughts try to distract us from prayer. Being told that "he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" and "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you", we know we can trust God to reward our struggles in prayer to draw closer to Him and become transformed by the renewing of our mind. In the words of Fr. Thomas Hopko...

When reading or chanting the psalms, the person does not try to think about each word and phrase. Rather he cuts off all reasoning, and opens his heart to the Lord, uniting “his mouth with his mind,” (St Benedict) and allowing the Word of God to be planted within him to blossom in his soul with the fruits of the Spirit. This also is the case with churchly hymnology. It is sung for the glory of God and the edification and expansion of the soul through the contemplation of the Lord in His words and works of salvation, much more than for any intellectual instruction.

The next level of prayer is to penetrate from the mind into the heart. In order to properly pray from the heart, we must have our heart right with God, as Christ said "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God". This means not just saying the words, but meaning them and following God in our daily lives as Christians. We are told that our treasure is where our heart is and that it is from the heart that our actions come, so part of having a positive relationship with God is to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as a reflection of our love for God based on the love that we have received from God. This has been expressed in writings like where On the Law of God says "Orthodoxy teaches us that the Christian faith is inseparably bound to love for God. And love always demands a living, personal relationship with the one we love. In our relationship with God, this love is first of all made manifest in prayer." and where These Truths We Hold - The Holy Orthodox Church: Her Life and Teachings, a book of teachings compiled by a monk at St Tikhon's Monastery, says that "Our prayers will gradually grow more perfect as we improve the manner of our lives and cleanse our hearts of sinful passion. This banishment of sinful ways from our lives brings as its reward our success in prayer. At the same time, we must say that prayer cannot achieve perfection in isolation, but must be accompanied by all the virtues, for as we grow in virtue, so does our prayer grow ever more perfect."

Repetition of the Jesus prayer, along with psalms, hymns, and other short prayers, has traditionally been used as an exercise in  focusing the mind and heart on God. We can reflect on the words themselves of the prayer, as I have done in some of my previous posts. We can take those words and make them our own, and we can put those words into action in our lives as we grow closer to God by keeping Him in constant remembrance in prayer. To quote Fr. Thomas Hopko again...

The use of the Jesus Prayer outside the hesychast method for unceasing prayer is to repeat the prayer constantly and continually, whatever one is doing, without the employment of any particular bodily postures or breathing techniques. This is the way taught by St. Gregory Palamas in his short discourse about how unceasing mental prayer is the duty of all Christians. (see p. 130) Anyone can do this, whatever his occupation or position in life. This also is shown in The Way of the Pilgrim.

The purpose and results of this method of prayer are those generally of all prayer: that men might be continually united with God by unceasing remembrance of His presence and perpetual invocation of His name, so that one might always serve Him and all men with the virtues of Christ and the fruits of the Spirit.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

The Jesus Prayer Part 16 - Me

1Tim 1:15
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Ps 70:5
But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

The final word of the Jesus Prayer that I will write about here is the word "me". We do not approach God alone or by ourselves, but we do relate to Him on an individual and personal level. Just as God calls on us to relate to Him as a member of His family, the Church, "likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind", we are also called to relate to Him personally as it is written that "In my Father's house are many mansions" and "every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour". It is in this context of approaching God that we ask Him to "have mercy on me" in the Jesus Prayer. Just as we are called to unite ourselves together in Peter's confession of Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the Living God", we are to personally follow Him as our own Lord and call on Him as our own Savior and "me" is the sinner in need of God's mercy in Jesus Christ.

Just as scripture records the history of how God has related to mankind through a covenant established with a body of people (Adam's family, Noah's family, Abraham's family, the united Israel, Judah (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin), and finally the Church established by the apostles who received their authority from Christ Himself), scripture also bears witness of God's call to personally respond and relate to Him from within His covenanted community. This is why it is written that "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" and Paul writes that  Christ "loved me, and gave himself for me".

As we approach God, we are called to do so with humility. The apostle Thomas called Jesus "My LORD and my God" when seeing Him raised from the dead. In parables Jesus taught us to imitate the prodigal son in saying "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son" and to avoid imitating the pharisee who was blinded to his own sinfullness but rather to imitate the publican who "would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner" because "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted". This is why Paul writes "to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly", "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall", and James instructs us to "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

The Psalms also give us an example of how to approach God in prayer and how to form our own attitudes toward God. We have to ackowledge our need and reliance on God as the source of our life, to pick us up when we fall, and to know that in Him is great mercy for those who call on Him. It is written "But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.", "Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.", "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.", "O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.", "For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.", "O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.", "Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.", "For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:", "I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.", "In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.", "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.", and "In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.".

Jonah also cried to the Lord from the belly of the fish "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple."

MAKE HASTE, O GOD, TO DELIVER ME; MAKE HASTE TO HELP ME, O LORD.