Priest-Martyr Gregory, Bishop of Great Armenia (284-305)
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Ephesians 1:22-2:3; Mark 10:46-52
In today’s Gospel, we find Scriptural bases for a prayer so closely connected to the Eastern Christian Spirituality: the Jesus prayer. The most common form nowadays is: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. The technique of prayer, when rightly understood, aims at the reality of the imparting of salvation as a spiritual-bodily event. Because both our body, spirit and intellect are involved in this prayer. Jesus Prayer sometimes is referred to as “prayer of the heart” because invocation “Lord Jesus Christ…” travels from the lips to the intellect and eventually abides in the heart. At this point, the whole person becomes a prayer: it is not a matter of saying the prayer from time to time but human being as a whole being a prayer.
The breathing is important too. When you breathe in you say the first part of prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.” For with the breathing-in, the name of Jesus Christ is to be implanted in the heart as the centre of life. When you exhale as if you were making room for that implantation to happen you say “have mercy on me a sinner.” Praying in this way you strive to achieve a state when the name of the Lord Jesus descends into the depth of the heart and heals the soul and makes it truly alive.
In the Philakolia we read,
Ceaselessly remain with the name of the Lord Jesus so that the heart may drink in the Lord and the Lord the heart so that both may become one. And, again, do not separate your heart from God, but keep and protect it with the remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ always, until the name of the Lord is inwardly implanted in the heart and it may not entertain any other thoughts, so that Christ may be great (praised) among you.