Question(s) on the Jesus Prayer

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  1. Do the Eastern and Oriental Catholic laity pray the Jesus prayer? I mean, instead of the rosary?
  2. In the Fatima prayer we say “…forgive us our sins…” but in the Jesus prayer we say “…have mercy on me…”. Why this focus on “me” in the Eastern tradition?
  3. Why thus focus on the Jesus prayer when Jesus gave us the Our Father?
 
jesusmademe said:
Do the Eastern and Oriental Catholic laity pray the Jesus prayer? I mean, instead of the rosary?
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Yes. The rosary is a wonderful devotion but not an eastern one as we have our own prayers to the Mother of God. Although, many eastern Catholics pray the rosary as a private devotion as well as some Orthodox saints of the past. The issue is when the rosary replaces our traditional liturgical prayers.
jesusmademe said:
In the Fatima prayer we say “…forgive us our sins…” but in the Jesus prayer we say “…have mercy on me…”. Why this focus on “me” in the Eastern tradition?
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I have read a couple of books on the Jesus Prayer but never has this been discussed. It is a prayer of the heart, very personal between the one praying and Jesus. We have many other prayers in the east where we pray for others so I’m not sure that saying the east focuses on “me” while the west focuses on “everyone” is a fair statement. Have you been to an eastern Divine Liturgy?
jesusmademe said:
Why thus focus on the Jesus prayer when Jesus gave us the Our Father?
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Why focus on the rosary, or any prayer for that matter, when Jesus gave us the Our Father?

ZP
 
  1. Yes, Eastern and Oriental Catholic laity pray the Jesus Prayer. You’ll find it also has a growing devotion in the West as well. Some from the Syriac traditions also pray the Jesus Prayer, but it’s not really part of the Syriac tradition per se. The rosary is also prayed in the East, but there’s not as much of an emphasis on it since it’s a Western devotion.
  2. There are a number of reasons the East focuses on "have mercy on me… One reason is humility. If you read Eastern mystics, they emphasize regarding oneself as the greatest of sinners, and even regarding others as angelic compared to oneself. It’s thought to be presumptuous to consider others needing God’s mercy more than oneself.
A second reason is the Eastern attitude of “save yourself, save the world” (if I may boil it down like that). A favorite quote from St. Seraphim of Sarov is “Acquire the Holy Spirit and thousands around you will be saved.” This is somewhat akin to the saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” In the Eastern mentality we don’t focus on ourselves as an end, but rather we believe that once we acquire the gift of the Holy Spirit (which only comes as a result of our purification from sin and as a gift/grace from God), then we become more effective instruments for evangelization.

Finally, it’s important to bear in mind that the formula for the Jesus Prayer isn’t as fixed as the “Hail Mary.” Variations abound, and one is free to vary the prayer to suit one’s own spiritual journey. Met. Kallistos Ware, for example, speaks of praying the Jesus Prayer as: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us.” St. Seraphim (and others) have also recommended offering the Jesus Prayer for others in this way, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on your servant/handmaid [Name].” I find the latter form a wonderful way to pray for the folks who ask me to pray for them.
  1. Why the focus on the Jesus Prayer? One could equally ask the West, why the focus on the rosary when Jesus gave us the Our Father? The East likes to focus on the Jesus Prayer because it sums up all that we believe and all that we hope for. Just like the Hail Mary does for Western Christians, the Jesus Prayer points us to key passages and stories from the Scriptures, offering those passages to us for our meditation.
The East also has a strong “theology of the Name.” Names in Eastern culture, particularly in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ time, point to the very essence of the person - who they are. They also, in a real way (made even more real by the fact that we are invoking God the Son Himself) invoke the very presence of the person. And, as you know, where Jesus is present, the devil cannot be.

That being said, the East certainly does not neglect the Our Father any more than does the West. It is prayed at all of our Liturgical celebrations. It is recommended for our morning and evening prayers. And Eastern Christians are encouraged to say it throughout the day along with the Jesus Prayer.

I hope that’s helpful!
 
Yes, Eastern Catholics recite the Jesus Prayer. In fact, our pastor gave everyone in the congregation beautiful prayer cards and asked that we put them where they will be seen, so it can be a reminder to say the prayer throughout our day.
 
The Jesus Prayer is typically prayed by individuals; it was designed by ancient desert fathers to satisfy St. Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonians to “pray unceasingly.” It is partially meant to accompany us throughout our hectic day, to help center our mind on Christ. For me, it makes sense that prayer focuses on the individual “me” seeking forgiveness from God.

Plenty of Orthodox/Byzantine Catholic prayers include the plural noun “us.”

“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal: have mercy on us. (THRICE)” For example.
 
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I have attende the Liturgy at the Melkites, Maronites, Eritrean-Ethiopians and Coptic Orthotodoxes
 
You see, I really want to focus on the Latin tradition(s) since I am no Eastern/Oriental.
I really liked your explanation of the way Easterns ussually pray.
I actually find it a bit strange that Latins want to pray Eastern prayers like the Jesus prayer. We have our own traditions.
What do you think about the Latins praying the Eastern Jesus prayer?
Why do you think Latins want to pray this prayer?
But the Latins do say Oriental prayers eg the Psalms. There might be Latin ways of saying/singing the Psalms but they are not Latin in origin. Dont you think? Even the first part of Hail Mary is oriental, right?

And my understanding is that the Orientals/Eastern eg Cops dont have as much private devotions so they pray the Divine Office instead. Right?
 
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Speaking as a cradle Latin Catholic, we were always encouraged to pray or at least think about the Jesus Prayer for the following reasons:
  • It’s from Scripture and there has been a big emphasis on Scripture-based prayer in the last few decades
  • It’s also presented in Scripture as being the right or preferred way to pray, as opposed to the Pharisee’s way of praying which is contrasted with it as being the wrong way to pray
  • It shows humility before Jesus and an appreciation of His mercy towards us
  • It’s short, so somebody who’s not likely to be praying entire Psalms can easily learn and pray the Jesus Prayer
  • It’s regarded as a type of Act of Contrition, where it also has the advantage of being short
I wasn’t even aware it had this huge connection to Eastern Catholicism until the last few years. It’s just a prayer that’s always been around, the type of thing one says when doing the deep bow to the exposed Eucharist, or that you read about saints saying on their deathbed. I believe St. Bernadette Soubirous died repeating something that sounded very like the Jesus Prayer.

From what I have read, some Eastern Catholics will say it meditatively over and over as a way of internalizing the prayer or similarly to how Latin Catholics might say the Rosary. It’s true that Latin Catholics are generally not taught to repeat the prayer in this way, but most of them are familiar with the prayer to say it once from time to time.
 
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Phillip R - Thank you for those reflections on the “Jesus Prayer” / the “Our Father”. At first glance it would appear that the Jesus Prayer, being “me” focused, is for less mature, less developed disciples of the Lord, seeing that the Our Father has concern for the whole Church (“Our”, “us” focused) or even for all humanity.

However, after longer pondering, your defense for the Jesus prayer comes forward as reflecting great depth of maturity and development. Many Catholics, I am sad to say, say the words of the Our Father as learned - “Our” and “us” pronounced as learned - but thinking only of the “I” and the “my” in the “Our”, my first concern. Much of our faith is self-centered, self-concerned.

Only after many years of praying the Our Father, do some of us actually “look into the mirror” and see the great sinner in great need of the great mercy of the Lord Jesus. Then, the maturity of the simple Jesus prayer becomes beautifully clear. Then, the reality of the full meaning of the Our Father begins to be appreciated.
 
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I would note that I happened to hear, yesterday on WAOB Radio (I believe on their program “St. Peter is Still Speaking”), the complete version of Pope Francis’ sixth catechesis on the Our Father in which he mentioned the business about no “I” in the Our Father.

The entire first part of the catechesis, which was not covered by the media, was a discussion of how we have to have an honest, individual communication with God, one on one, and that it might not even require words or a lot of words. The Pope discussed the individual looking at God and God looking at the individual. The Jesus Prayer would fit perfectly into that context.

From there, the Pope went into the discussion of the communal nature of the Our Father, which was a bit of an abrupt shift, but the point is that there is room for both focus on community and focus on the individual when it comes to prayer. What the Pope was preaching against was self-centeredness when it comes to prayer. I can’t imagine anyone who is humble enough to be saying the Jesus Prayer being terribly self-centered.
 
There is devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus in the West as well as in the East. I remember a little booklet that my family used to have on our bookshelves that was just about praying the Name of Jesus (I was raised in a Roman Catholic home). After my brother read it, he taped little pieces of paper with the Holy Name all over the doors of our house. I also remember once being given a penance from my childhood parish priest to pray simply, “My Jesus, mercy.” It was a wonderful penance and, I believe, prepared me to have a devotion to the Jesus Prayer.

Personally I don’t find it strange when Latins pick up Eastern traditions. Consider where our Faith originated. Jesus wasn’t from Rome, nor were the Apostles. And they certainly weren’t European. They were all Middle Eastern men. Our Faith originated in the East. The major dogmas of the Faith (as expressed in the Creed) were hammered out in the East. The Creed itself was written at an Ecumenical Council held in the East.

And when you look at the development of Catholic spirituality, Western spirituality itself originated in the East. One of the major influences on Western mystical theology is Pseudo-Dionysius - an Easterner. Monasticism was begun in the East and brought to the West by St. John Cassian. The Desert Fathers (much loved by St. John of the Cross) were all Easterners who lived in the deserts of Egypt and Syria.

And finally, as you alluded to in your post, the Scriptures themselves are an Eastern text. The New Testament was written in Greek. The Old Testament was originally a Hebrew text. Portions of the Scriptures are believed to have been written in Syriac first.

So no, it doesn’t really surprise me or bother me when Latins adopt Eastern traditions because our Faith originated in the East. Of course, inculturation must take place so that the Gospel can be preached throughout the world, but that doesn’t change the fact that this all started in a small town in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.

You are correct that Easterners tend not to have so many private devotions as the Latins do. The Byzantines have various prayers that, for lack of a better comparison, may parallel the Latin litanies, but that’s really about it. We tend to focus on the Divine Office, reading/praying the Scriptures, meditating on the writings of the Fathers, and meditating on the Four Last Things.

That being said, the East in general is very fond of short “ejaculatory” prayers - of which the Jesus Prayer is only one. I have a few favorites myself. “My God, instruct me and strengthen me,” has become one of my favorites, and I tend to repeat it as often as I repeat the Jesus Prayer.
 
I’m a huge advocate of the Rosary, but I’m learning more about the Jesus prayer and trying to work that into my prayer life. I’m firmly Catholic, but I very much respect the beauty of the Orthodox Church. I love the Byzantine Catholic rite.

Hoping and praying we can be reunited in my lifetime.
 
The Jesus Prayer is not a “me” focused prayer as in egocentric. Because it expresses our inability to do anything without Jesus’s help. “Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!” is not as much as invocation of help as a recognition of the humble position before Jesus as Savior. Jesus himself said “without me you will not succeed.”
The “me” in the prayer refers to a negation of self, an admittance of failure.
This being said the prayer can be said for others as well. I usually don’t add “the sinner” for others, only for myself. Example: Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on (Name)!
 
jesusmademe said:
  1. Do the Eastern and Oriental Catholic laity pray the Jesus prayer? I mean, instead of the rosary?
  2. In the Fatima prayer we say “…forgive us our sins…” but in the Jesus prayer we say “…have mercy on me…”. Why this focus on “me” in the Eastern tradition?
  3. Why thus focus on the Jesus prayer when Jesus gave us the Our Father?
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Not Eastern, but I think these are interesting so I’ll give my Anglo-Catholic thoughts.
  1. I pray the Jesus prayer, not typically in a prayer bead format. I say it at the Communion rail as I wait for the priest to reach me, and I sometimes say it as part of my daily prayers.
  2. What’s wrong with asking for mercy for your individual sins? It’s not either/or; you can pray for the forgiveness of your sins specifically and for the more general forgiveness of people’s sins.
  3. Different focuses. The Our Father is a complete prayer; it hits all the bases for what we need to pray for. The Jesus Prayer is not a general prayer. It is focused on the pray-er’s sinfulness and desire for mercy. Catholics pray plenty of prayers besides the Our Father; I’m not sure why it would be a bad thing to pray another prayer frequently.
 
jesusmademe said:
I mean, instead of the rosary?
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There is no “instead of”.

While there are some parallels in the places of these private devotions in Eastern and Western spiritual life, they are not equivalents; they are different private devotions.

“Instead of” implies the Rosary as normative, and the Jesus Prayer as a substitute, which is not correct.

I would call the varies Akathists to the Theotokos as the “most parallel”, but opinions can vary on this. Asking “Why don’t eastern pray the Rosary?” is parallel to “Why don’t Latins sing the Akathists?” . . .

hawk
 
The rosary is not a liturgical prayer. It should not replace western liturgical prayer either.
There is also a tradition similar to the Jesus prayer that can be found in the Mozarabic rite.
 
So what I meant by that is, for example, some Byzantine Catholic Churches recite the rosary before liturgy. That would be considered a latinization because the Eastern Churches traditionally pray the hours before Liturgy.

ZP
 
The rosary and the tradition of the Jesus Prayer actually have very similar origins. During the time of the Desert Fathers, young monks were expected to memorize the entire book of Psalms. If they were incapable or simply illiterate, they were given a short prayer to recite a specific number of times (i.e. a Prayer Rule). As the Liturgy of the Hours developed, these prayer rules were then permitted to be recited in place of the Divine Office. Even today, there are specific rules on the (Byzantine) books for replacing participation in the Divine Office with a specific number of repetitions of the Jesus Prayer.

It’s my understanding that the rosary is similar in that it was originally meant for laymen and mendicant preachers who couldn’t participate in the Divine Office but needed a “stand-in.”

The biggest difference between the rosary and the Jesus Prayer is that the rosary relies heavily on imaginative meditation on the mysteries, whereas the Jesus Prayer is meant to move us beyond such imaginative meditation. And just to be clear - there is a tradition of imaginative meditation in the East (the Byzantine East, as well as the rest of the Orient). But for the East the use of such meditation is meant to be an aid when a simple basking in the mystery of God isn’t given to us. This holds true for the West too, but the West likes to focus on the methods of such meditation (since it’s something that’s within our grasp and control), whereas the East is more concerned that we move beyond it.
 
Today it is very common to see the people pray the Liturgy of the Hours before mass. Could it be a mutual influence coming back and forth between the communities. I feel that this is a way for us to learn from one another.
 
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