The Jesus Prayer. Considering it, but Afraid to Try

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christofirst said:
Since the initiative to pray indeed always comes from God, why hesitate with discouraging thoughts of danger when the idea of praying the Jesus Prayer presents itself?
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Those who are seeking maturity in their faith deserve to be addressed honestly in charity and truth. To think of it as discouraging stresses even further the need for a director, for the pitfalls of our wounded nature are legion and surely show up in all our endeavors, even those initiated by God, and, as members of the Body of Christ, we should count on more those more experienced in walking with God to remain in this journey and not feel discouraged by failures, ours or otherwise, but renewed.

Pax Christi
 
mommyof4 said:
For the OP, or anyone else who is interested, there is a good podcast on Catholic Stuff You Should Know regarding the Jesus Prayer.

catholicstuffpodcast.com/?p=1976
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That was an interesting talk, and thanks for posting. Those two brought a refreshingly up-to-date and rather manly perspective to the topic of the Jesus Prayer, even if the first seven or eight minutes had more to do with mixed martial arts :).

If the podcast presented any danger or warning requiring the necessity of a spiritual director that I could discern, it was that certain individuals might go overboard with the Jesus Prayer, getting compulsively carried away with it to the neglect of their other responsibilities in life. This may indeed have been a greater concern when the saints and holy elders of the desert first issued these warnings many centuries ago, when some monks appeared to be engaged in an unbalanced competition to be the greatest spiritual athlete.

I still maintain that these days, the opposite is more than likely true. Our shortened attention spans and constant distraction from electronic media make it more likely that regularly saying the prayer uninterruptedly for as little as ten or twenty minutes would be a big accomplishment for many of us. But I suppose there may be some folks who take things to the extreme, so hopefully they can find a competent spiritual director.
 
Augustine said:
Those who are seeking maturity in their faith deserve to be addressed honestly in charity and truth. To think of it as discouraging stresses even further the need for a director, for the pitfalls of our wounded nature are legion and surely show up in all our endeavors, even those initiated by God, and, as members of the Body of Christ, we should count on more those more experienced in walking with God to remain in this journey and not feel discouraged by failures, ours or otherwise, but renewed.

Pax Christi
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Are you a spiritual director? Do you have one, and do they constantly tell you to be wary and suspicious of your every thought and motivation? I have encountered such notions in certain venerable old books myself, but I think that these days such ideas are more likely to feed a crippling scrupulosity in some people than to be as helpful as they once might have been. But that’s just my opinion, and you are free to maintain yours.
 
You are raising fallacious straw men, so I’ll leave you with them.

Pax Christi
 
Augustine said:
There truly are dangers in praying the Jesus Prayer or any other prayer, liturgical or not. Chiefly among the dangers, the temptation of routine or of mechanical recitation, forgetting, as St. Teresa of Avila warned about, Who one is talking to. As temptations go, they can have inner or outer origins, oneself or the enemy of human nature, yet always only on actor: oneself. This is why spiritual direction is important whenever one is called - for the initiative to pray always His first - to pray regularly, since one is seldom the best judge or guide of one’s actions, especially in one’s prayer life.

Pax Christi
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I like St. Teresa of Avila. She was not in favor of maintaining a journal. She warned against using all kinds of methods to practice contemplative prayer
 
Augustine said:
There truly are dangers in praying the Jesus Prayer or any other prayer, liturgical or not. Chiefly among the dangers, the temptation of routine or of mechanical recitation, forgetting, as St. Teresa of Avila warned about, Who one is talking to. As temptations go, they can have inner or outer origins, oneself or the enemy of human nature, yet always only on actor: oneself. This is why spiritual direction is important whenever one is called - for the initiative to pray always His first - to pray regularly, since one is seldom the best judge or guide of one’s actions, especially in one’s prayer life.

Pax Christi
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I like St. Teresa of Avilla. But I know that many people have different opinions about her writings than I have. The nuns that I worked with in detention ministry years ago were all into the feminist creation spirituality and they sometimes spoke of St. Theresa of Avilla and other saints, but their information was flawed. I like to get my information from the writings of saints themselves or from trusted spiritual writers like the late Fr. Thomas Dubay. I read that she is not in favor of methods of prayer that attempt to reach heights in contemplation, including some of those “centering prayer” exercises that were led by some of the nuns at the prison (But I’m not knocking all centering prayer). She also does not recommend keeping a journal. “It is not only a waste of time; it interferes with the soul’s freedom of action; and the, too, it may lead the nuns to imagine all kinds of things…If their experiences are of any substance, they will not forget them; and if they are of a king that can be forgotten, there is no point in writing them down…”

I love the rosary and know that it is a powerful prayer highly recommended by many of the saints. We do need to focus our attention and learn to meditate, think about, the mysteries of the life of Christ and not just pray out of routine with mechanical recitation as you mentioned. It is less difficult for me to pray the Jesus prayer than to constantly battle distractions and to call my attention back to the mysteries of the rosary. The words of the Jesus Prayer are so short that I have never had to battle with distractions, my mind stays focused exactly on the words- Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, a sinner. I was first introduced to the Jesus Prayer at a parish mission about 20 years ago I think by a Redeptorist but not sure. For me it is more of a spontaneous prayer that comes to mind at times. I have never practiced the repetitious mantra of the prayer but I have listened to the beautiful singing of it a couple of times and I still find it less distracting than meditating on the mysteries of the rosary. It is so peaceful and soothing to the soul.
 
St. Teresa couldn’t possibly be more for contemplative prayer, the charism of the reform she championed in the Carmelite Order. What she was against was any form of quietism, which is argue that centering prayer effectively is, but I digress.

Now, I’m no spiritual director, but I’d be inclined to acknowledge that you are living a healthy prayer life.

Christ is born!
 
SanctusDeus said:
Hello everyone.
So, here is the situation I’m facing. I was doing some reading on the Jesus Prayer and feel really drawn to the idea of constant prayer and always invoking not only the help of Our Lord but also His Mercy (He knows I need it). I want nothing more than to serve God, and I feel that constant prayer or at least always keeping God on my mind will help me do this. As I read more into the theology behind the Jesus Prayer, I saw that if I pray like this I run the risk of opening myself up to demonic possession as well as insanity. I wouldn’t be saying the Jesus Prayer constantly, just in the morning or afternoon for a little while (about ten to fifteen minutes at the very maximum). But what really has me confused is how invoking the Name of Jesus can possibly be dangerous. I am a freshman in college and have been spending roughly half an hour or so in silent prayer sometimes in the afternoon and my spiritual director had been working with me on meditation. The reason I mention this is because I want to know if this idea of praying the Jesus Prayer is something I should take to my spiritual director or if I should just drop it. I’m not doing this out of immature and childish curiosity, either. I’ve read a bit about the theology behind this form of prayer and I find it extremely beautiful and profound. I brought this to all of you is because I’m not sure how to approach my spiritual director with this. He’s a Capuchin so I’m sure how much he knows about the spirituality of the Eastern Churches. Any advice that you may be able to offer is deeply appreciated as well as any books that you may be able to recommend.

Thank you all and God bless,
SanctusDeus

EDIT: I’m not going to do the breathing techniques and I will be extremely careful so as to not let the words of the prayer become some kind of mantra.
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I pray the Jesus Prayer pretty much every day and whilst there are times I do not doubt I might be possessed by a demon I highly doubt it is from saying the Jesus Prayer. Jesus is the only name by which all men may be saved.
 
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