Skip to main content

The Art of Prayer


At the recommendation of an acquaintance I am reading "The Art of Prayer, an Orthodox Anthology," compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo. The book is intended as a text on developing a deeper prayer life through recitation of the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer, for those that aren't familiar with it, goes like this: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me." The book says that some add "...a sinner." The idea is that the repetition of the prayer keeps the name of Jesus at the front of one's life, and accesses the power inherent in the name of Jesus. But this is not the entirety of the book. It also includes reflections and teaching on a developing prayer life that approaches contemplation, or the actual experience of the presence of God. In this aspect the book reads somewhat like Western works, most notably to me, Thomas Merton. Merton has written many books on the topic of contemplation as well as a few others. His most well-known work on prayer is likely "New Seeds of Contemplation." In that book, Merton provides 39 short chapters on various aspects of being, living, and communing with God. The present book is following the same concepts, but rather than distinct chapters by individual people, "The Art of Prayer" is constituted primarily of quotations from Orthodox spiritual writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

He Remembers We Are But Flesh

In Job, often considered the first book written in the Bible, we are introduced to the accuser. In the introduction to the book, it is the accuser who accuses Job of being righteous and faithful to God only because of the blessings that God has given Job. We find the accuser again in Zechariah 3. The High Priest Joshua is standing in front of the Lord in filthy clothes, and the accuser is making accusations. The Lord rebukes the accuser and then says that he will cleanse Joshua.  Then in the New Testament, we see the appearance of the Advocate. The Spirit, we are told, is sent to walk beside us, to be a witness, to be an advocate for us. The accuser challenges us, questions our faithfulness, and questions our integrity as people who are supposed to follow God as His people, His disciples. This is an entre for being blamed and shamed. But God comes alongside us and advocates for us. We are told too that Jesus is our mediator with God. Jesus defends us and explains us to God so that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Elders redux

A reader (I am always amazed that people actually read this blog) submitted a rather long comment on the original post on Elders. It is apparent that the reader did some good homework as the comment has several, well, more than several, reference citations. It is clear that they both read the original post and did some Bible study before posting their comment. Because the comment was so long, I thought it appropriate to post another entry rather than bury the response in the comment log. In the following discussion, I have included the text of the comment without the Scripture references. If you want to read the comment in its entirety, scroll to the Elders post and click on the comment. --------------------------------------------------------- [Comment~~~~The church is expected to be a people in exactly this sense. We are the people of God who are charged with continuing and preserving the values, culture, hopes, and the identity of God’s people in our time.~~~~ Does this include th...
7 comments
Read more

Passover, The First Born, Abraham, and You

Israel has been in captivity in Egypt, Moses has completed his contests with Pharaoh, and the People of Israel have been expelled from Egypt. The death of Egyptian firstborn children and livestock has compelled their removal into the wilderness. At the end of Exodus 12, God institutes the Passover in remembrance of the Angel of Death passing by the homes of Jews on the night the Egyptian firstborn children were killed. Notably, they were spared if in a house with blood around the door.  The Passover is established for Israel herself, including their slaves who have been circumcised. If a sojourner wants to celebrate the Passover with you, he can after he circumcises all males with him. I suspect that pretty much eliminated any visitors participating. In chapter 13, the protocols include redeeming Israel's firstborn. In this discussion, God says your firstborn belongs to God, and you must redeem your firstborn or you must kill it. God has redeemed Israel's firstborn by the blood...
Post a Comment
Read more