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ElToro
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Is there a tradition of communal praying of the Jesus Prayer using the chotki/komboskini in the East as there is in praying the Rosary or various chaplets in the West? Any information avalable? Thanks.
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ciero
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The answer is yes and no. There is no tradition I am aware of of praying the Jesus prayer communally aloud. A few places have tried it but received much criticism and discontinued the practice. The Jesus prayer is really a personal prayer. That being said there is an old tradition of monks sitting quietly together and “praying the rope”. I have witnessed this on Mt Athos and in many monasteries in Russia. Here in the US I am aware that the OCA monastery of St John if Shanghai in Northern California and Holy Resurrection Monastery (Romanian Catholic) In Southern California (soon to be in Wisconsin) both continue thus tradition.Is there a tradition of communal praying of the Jesus Prayer using the chotki/komboskini in the East as there is in praying the Rosary or various chaplets in the West? Any information avalable? Thanks.
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I_Thirst
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I just heard about a book on this, Praying the Jesus Prayer Together, which is by two Anglicans. Could be of interest. Webpage has sample chapters.
hendrickson.com/html/product/39936.trade.html
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”
This simple saying derived from Scripture has long been used by Christians in the East as a form of contemplative prayer. In recent decades, understanding and use of the Jesus Prayer has spread from the Eastern Orthodox tradition and into the lives and spirituality of many Western Christians.
Both Brother Ramon, an Anglican Franciscan monk, and Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward, a former Anglican bishop, practiced, taught, and wrote about the Jesus Prayer for over twenty years. Then, stirred by a sense that the Holy Spirit was guiding them, they came together for a shared week of prayer at Glasshampton Monastery in England.
Praying the Jesus Prayer Together shares what they learned in an experience they describe as a “week of glory,” and a week marked by Brother Ramon’s physical suffering. Although Brother Ramon’s cancer ultimately disrupted their collaboration, they nevertheless discovered how profoundly it enriched and enhanced their communion as they prayed the Jesus Prayer together.
Also, in Frederica Mathewes-Green’s book, Jesus Prayer, she mentions this on page 161 …
At the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England, the community gathers to offer the Jesus Prayer in place of the morning and evening services. From 7:00 to 9:00am, and from 5:00 to 7:00pm, the nuns, monks, and visitors gather in the darkened church. A single voice in the congregation begins repeating the Jesus Prayer, clearly, reverently, in any one of any number of languages. After one hundred repetitions, another voice takes up the Prayer in another language.
Her book is from 2009.
hendrickson.com/html/product/39936.trade.html
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”
This simple saying derived from Scripture has long been used by Christians in the East as a form of contemplative prayer. In recent decades, understanding and use of the Jesus Prayer has spread from the Eastern Orthodox tradition and into the lives and spirituality of many Western Christians.
Both Brother Ramon, an Anglican Franciscan monk, and Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward, a former Anglican bishop, practiced, taught, and wrote about the Jesus Prayer for over twenty years. Then, stirred by a sense that the Holy Spirit was guiding them, they came together for a shared week of prayer at Glasshampton Monastery in England.
Praying the Jesus Prayer Together shares what they learned in an experience they describe as a “week of glory,” and a week marked by Brother Ramon’s physical suffering. Although Brother Ramon’s cancer ultimately disrupted their collaboration, they nevertheless discovered how profoundly it enriched and enhanced their communion as they prayed the Jesus Prayer together.
Also, in Frederica Mathewes-Green’s book, Jesus Prayer, she mentions this on page 161 …
At the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England, the community gathers to offer the Jesus Prayer in place of the morning and evening services. From 7:00 to 9:00am, and from 5:00 to 7:00pm, the nuns, monks, and visitors gather in the darkened church. A single voice in the congregation begins repeating the Jesus Prayer, clearly, reverently, in any one of any number of languages. After one hundred repetitions, another voice takes up the Prayer in another language.
Her book is from 2009.
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ElToro
Guest
Thank you for your wonderful response…I just heard about a book on this, Praying the Jesus Prayer Together, which is by two Anglicans. Could be of interest. Webpage has sample chapters.
hendrickson.com/html/product/39936.trade.html
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”
This simple saying derived from Scripture has long been used by Christians in the East as a form of contemplative prayer. In recent decades, understanding and use of the Jesus Prayer has spread from the Eastern Orthodox tradition and into the lives and spirituality of many Western Christians.
Both Brother Ramon, an Anglican Franciscan monk, and Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward, a former Anglican bishop, practiced, taught, and wrote about the Jesus Prayer for over twenty years. Then, stirred by a sense that the Holy Spirit was guiding them, they came together for a shared week of prayer at Glasshampton Monastery in England.
Praying the Jesus Prayer Together shares what they learned in an experience they describe as a “week of glory,” and a week marked by Brother Ramon’s physical suffering. Although Brother Ramon’s cancer ultimately disrupted their collaboration, they nevertheless discovered how profoundly it enriched and enhanced their communion as they prayed the Jesus Prayer together.
Also, in Frederica Mathewes-Green’s book, Jesus Prayer, she mentions this on page 161 …
At the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England, the community gathers to offer the Jesus Prayer in place of the morning and evening services. From 7:00 to 9:00am, and from 5:00 to 7:00pm, the nuns, monks, and visitors gather in the darkened church. A single voice in the congregation begins repeating the Jesus Prayer, clearly, reverently, in any one of any number of languages. After one hundred repetitions, another voice takes up the Prayer in another language.
Her book is from 2009.
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I_Thirst
Guest
You’re welcome, ElToro.
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Alexander_Roman
Guest
In fact, the Eastern monasteries have a daily communal praying of the Jesus Prayer in the following manner. (taken from a Slavonic book of monastic rules of prayer published by the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY):
The monks gather in church in the evening and the Abbot recites the Jesus Prayer out loud three times.
Then the monks, with prayer ropes in hand, begin to cross themselves, saying the Jesus Prayer, and make prostrations to the floor - and this thirty times or the first thirty knots/beads of the prayer rope.
Then they all stand and quietly say the Jesus Prayer together for the remaining 70 times.
Then they begin anew with the Abbot saying the Prayer three times etc.
And they say ten prayer ropes in this way, except that the tenth is a prayer rope to the Mother of God: “O Holy Sovereign Mother of God, save me a sinner” (thirty prostrations with this prayer and then 70 recited prayers).
The rule of prayer that is being fulfilled here is: 600 Jesus Prayers, 300 prostrations and 100 prayers to the Mother of God.
In some monasteries (e.g. the tradition of the Manyavsky Skete), this rule is said morning and night collectively by the monks.
There is also the Church of St Silouan of Mt Athos in Toronto which runs a soup kitchen and the St John’s Bakery (their patron saints are St John the Merciful of Constantinople, St Silouan of Mt Athos and St Maria Skobtsova of Paris). The parish priest has a daily public recital of 100 Jesus Prayers with whomever happens to be there. He simply recites the prayer out loud 100 times and anyone/everyone can join in. This is a great way to teach the praying of the Name of Jesus!
Alex
The monks gather in church in the evening and the Abbot recites the Jesus Prayer out loud three times.
Then the monks, with prayer ropes in hand, begin to cross themselves, saying the Jesus Prayer, and make prostrations to the floor - and this thirty times or the first thirty knots/beads of the prayer rope.
Then they all stand and quietly say the Jesus Prayer together for the remaining 70 times.
Then they begin anew with the Abbot saying the Prayer three times etc.
And they say ten prayer ropes in this way, except that the tenth is a prayer rope to the Mother of God: “O Holy Sovereign Mother of God, save me a sinner” (thirty prostrations with this prayer and then 70 recited prayers).
The rule of prayer that is being fulfilled here is: 600 Jesus Prayers, 300 prostrations and 100 prayers to the Mother of God.
In some monasteries (e.g. the tradition of the Manyavsky Skete), this rule is said morning and night collectively by the monks.
There is also the Church of St Silouan of Mt Athos in Toronto which runs a soup kitchen and the St John’s Bakery (their patron saints are St John the Merciful of Constantinople, St Silouan of Mt Athos and St Maria Skobtsova of Paris). The parish priest has a daily public recital of 100 Jesus Prayers with whomever happens to be there. He simply recites the prayer out loud 100 times and anyone/everyone can join in. This is a great way to teach the praying of the Name of Jesus!
Alex
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