The Jesus Prayer is this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” You say it. Again and again. That’s the basic answer.
But let’s talk about what that actually means and how to start.
What You’re Actually Doing
When you pray these words, you’re doing several things at once. You’re confessing that Jesus is Lord and Christ and the Son of God. That’s not a small thing, St. Paul says nobody can call Jesus “Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. You’re also putting yourself in the position of the tax collector in the temple, the one who beat his breast and couldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven. And you’re asking for mercy, which is what we all need every moment we’re breathing.
The prayer comes from Scripture. Blind Bartimaeus cried out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” when he heard Christ passing by. The tax collector prayed “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The Jesus Prayer weaves these biblical cries together into something you can carry with you all day long.
How to Start
Sit down somewhere quiet. Say the words slowly. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Don’t rush it. You’re not trying to rack up numbers.
Some people use a prayer rope, that’s the knotted wool cord you might’ve seen Orthodox Christians carrying. It helps you keep track without counting in your head, which can be distracting. You hold it in your left hand and move one knot with each repetition. But you don’t need one to start. Your fingers work fine.
Say it ten times. Twenty. However many feels right. The goal isn’t a quota. You’re learning to turn your mind toward Christ, to invoke His name, to stand before Him asking for mercy.
After you’ve prayed it during a set time, start carrying it into your day. Say it while you’re waiting at the red light on Dowlen Road. Say it when you’re standing in line at Brookshire Brothers. Say it when you wake up at 2 AM and can’t get back to sleep. Say it when temptation hits or when anxiety starts climbing up your spine.
What It’s Not
This isn’t Eastern meditation with Jesus’s name pasted on top. It’s not a mantra. You’re not trying to empty your mind or achieve some blank state. You’re doing the opposite, you’re filling your mind with the name of Jesus, which is the name above every name. You’re calling on Him. He’s a person, and you’re talking to Him.
Don’t worry about breathing techniques or special postures. Those show up in advanced hesychast practice, the “prayer of the heart” that monks on Mount Athos have been doing for centuries. That’s not where you start. You start by saying the words and meaning them.
Shorter Versions Are Fine
Sometimes the full prayer is too long for the moment. You can say “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” Or just “Lord, have mercy.” The Orthodox tradition has always allowed this. What matters is that you’re turning to Christ, invoking His name, asking for His mercy.
St. Theophan the Recluse wrote a whole book about the Jesus Prayer. So did the anonymous Russian pilgrim in The Way of a Pilgrim. The prayer shows up throughout the Philokalia, that collection of writings from the desert fathers and mothers. It goes back at least to the sixth century, probably earlier. This isn’t some recent fad.
It Grows on You
At first, you’ll pray it deliberately. You’ll set aside time, say it a certain number of times, and that’s that. But if you keep at it, something shifts. You’ll find it rising up in your mind without you deciding to pray it. You’ll wake up and it’s already there. You’ll be driving to work and realize you’ve been praying it for the last five miles.
That’s what “unceasing prayer” means. St. Paul told us to pray without ceasing, and for most of us, the Jesus Prayer is how that becomes possible. It descends from your head into your heart. Not your physical heart, but the center of your being, the place where you meet God.
Talk to Your Priest
If you want to go deeper with this prayer, talk to Fr. Michael. He can guide you, warn you about pitfalls, and help you integrate it into your life in a healthy way. The Jesus Prayer is for everyone, but like any powerful tool, it works best when you’re learning from someone who knows what they’re doing.
Start simple. Say the words. Mean them. Let Christ’s mercy become the background music of your life. You don’t have to be a monk or a mystic. You just have to be someone who knows you need mercy and knows where to find it.
