Prayer is a relationship word; it can never be thought of in abstraction, isolated from others or from God. Unfortunately, we have reduced prayer to a private act, an occasion for selfish concern or complaint. Yet prayer is never exclusive or divisive; it is inclusive and caring. Authentic prayer is never self-serving or self-complacent; it involves a sense of compassion for all people and all creation.
The whole Orthodox understanding, discipline, and teaching about prayer may be condensed into the short formula commonly known as the “Jesus prayer.” […]
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” This brief prayer is a simple prayer and not a complicated exercise. The Jesus Prayer can be used by everyone as a concise, arrow-prayer that leads directly from our heart to the heart of God via the heart of the world. It is the realization – beyond the recitation of conventional prayers – of the power of silence. For when prayer culminates in silence, we awaken to new awareness. Then, prayer becomes a way of noticing more clearly and responding more effectively to the world within us and around us.
His Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New
From the Foreword written by His Holiness
Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer by Norris J. Chumley
2011 Harper Collins Publishers
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