Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
The jesus prayeralso known as the prayer of the choirzonis a brief invocation to Jesus, which is very present in the Eastern Christian churches, and used especially by the orthodox. It is a simple and repetitive prayer, which allows you to concentrate and avoid the dissipation of the mind. Therefore, it is considered a means to get into meditation, and have a kind of face to face with Jesus. In fact, thanks to its simple form and words, this prayer calls for humility and abandonment. On the other hand, the strength of its simplicity and its deep roots make it a powerful prayer that has stood the test of time.
A prayer born of hesychasm
Being a mystical prayer, the jesus prayer It is part of the hesychast tradition, whose objective is the search for union and peace in God.
This is a prayer that was inherited from the practice of the Desert Fathers, and seems to be a response to Saint Paul’s command in 1 Thess 5:17: “pray without ceasing“. To perform it, the praying person repeats a short phrase without ceasing and accompanies it with the movements of the breath:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, for I am a sinner”
In fact, this sentence acknowledges the importance and the power to invoke the name of Jesusand its objective is to lead the praying person to a greater dedication to Jesus, his savior.
In addition, this short invocation is a form of prayer that brings many graces, as Origen, one of the fathers of the Church, emphasized in the third century, when he said: “Even today, the name of Jesus calms troubled souls, casts out demons, cures illnesses; using it instills a kind of wonderful sweetness, ensures purity of morals and inspires humanity, generosity and gentleness.”
the prayer of the heart
More specifically, the prayer of the heart, which consists of repeating a short invocation, becomes a form of listening, just like Christian meditation. In addition to the Jesus prayer, other invocations can be repeated such as Kyrie eleison, Abba, Father, My God and my everything, Oh my Jesus. It is important to know that it is not about simple words, but about a repetition marked by the rhythm of the breath. This characteristic allows the invocation to take place naturally in our body, through the movement of breathing. In this way, we feel the prayer in our whole being, in the most intimate part of us.
It should be noted that, far from being a magic formula or a mantra, this form of repetitive prayer allows us to refocus on God (and not on ourselves). Furthermore, it allows us to open our hearts to his grace and surrender to his will.
Open your heart to the presence of God with
offers you numerous prayer proposals, so that you discover the spiritual treasures of the Christian traditions and you can be willing to feel the presence of God within you. For example:
- This community will allow you to open up to a spiritual experience, following small clues of the great richness of the path of the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. In this way, you will be able to walk towards a true interior encounter with Christ.
- In this community you will find every day a meditation on biblical texts and themes, contextualized for our time, so that you can reflect, grow and strengthen your faith.
- Through this community, we invite you to pray in community and receive a gospel meditation every day, because no matter how long or short, prayer is food for the soul!