Contemplative Ways: "The Jesus Prayer" - Murray Dueck

There are many methods of interacting with God, maybe as many as there are people, but my favorite is the Orthodox method, handed down by the Desert Fathers. Technically this prayer would be known as Hesychasm, the prayer of rest or quiet. But it comes to us today maybe better known as, “The Jesus Prayer.”

Many of you know this little prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." And there are a few variations, including a very short one, "Lord, mercy."And I am going to assume here that if you are reading this blog you know all about being still, breathing, attention, repeating the prayer, etc...Therefore I am going to focus on an aspect of the Orthodox model that often gets over looked: the factor of where in our being the Orthodox Fathers would like us to say our prayer from - our “nous,”which dwells in our heart. In the Orthodox view¹ it is our heart that steers the ship of our being, (and I think we would agree with that, to a point, as we are to “Watch over our heart with all diligence, for from it flows the spring of life (Prov 4:23)).” However in our heart, in the Orthodox view, is the core of our being - our “nous.” In our Western thinking we would equate the nous with the “inner man,” however the Orthodox concept is a bit more difficult to grasp, and I must admit I am still struggling with it. Therefore let me give you the Orthodox definition out of the Philokalia:² 

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