Jesus Prayer history

[Jragzz123]

I know the Jesus Prayer is mostly an eastern catholic devotion however I was wondering if it spread into the west in any ways before any of the schisms with the East.

 

[steph03]

From Wikipedia about the Jesus Prayer;

Part four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church , which is dedicated to Christian prayer, devotes paragraphs 2665 to 2669 to prayer to Jesus.

To pray “Jesus” is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him. This simple invocation of faith developed in the tradition of prayer under many forms in East and West. The most usual formulation, transmitted by the spiritual writers of the Sinai, Syria, and Mt. Athos, is the invocation, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.” It combines the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 with the cry of the publican and the blind men begging for light. By it the heart is opened to human wretchedness and the Savior’s mercy. The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and “brings forth fruit with patience.” This prayer is possible “at all times” because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.[48]

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The Jesus Prayer is in Scripture, as steph03 pointed out, so it’s always been around in the West as part of Sacred Scripture as long as Philippians has been in the canon. My understanding is that while the Jesus Prayer was always prayed in the West to some extent, it was not as popular as it was in the East, and the theology of St. Gregory Palamas regarding the prayer was rejected in the West till the 20th century.

Since I grew up in the last half of the 20th century, my experience of this prayer is that it has always been around to some extent.