Jesus Prayer

Definition and Meaning

The Jesus Prayer is a form of prayer in which a single short sentence is repeated, either inwardly or in a quiet voice. The most common wording is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The words "a sinner" are sometimes omitted, and the prayer may also be shortened to a form such as "Lord Jesus, have mercy." The prayer joins two confessions in one sentence: a confession of faith that addresses Jesus as Lord and Son of God, and an act of repentance in which the one praying acknowledges being a sinner and asks for mercy. Rather than being a prayer offered only at set times, it is regarded as a means of remembering God continually in daily life.

Biblical and Historical Background

The wording of the prayer is rooted in the cries of those in the Gospels who sought mercy.

• In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the publican prays, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13).
• The blind man Bartimaeus cries out, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me" (Mark 10:47).
• The exhortation "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and passages exalting the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9–11) are also cited as foundations.

Historically, the prayer is understood to have developed from the practice of repeating short prayers among the monks of the Egyptian and Syrian deserts in the fourth and fifth centuries. It later became joined, in Orthodox monasteries and especially on Mount Athos in Greece, with hesychasm, a monastic tradition that seeks encounter with God in inner stillness and whose name derives from a Greek word meaning "stillness." In the fourteenth century, Gregory Palamas offered a theological defense of this tradition. The prayer became widely known beyond the Orthodox Church through the Philokalia, an anthology of spiritual writings compiled in the late eighteenth century, and The Way of a Pilgrim, an anonymous nineteenth-century Russian work. Orthodox believers sometimes pray it while holding a prayer rope made of knots, using it to count repetitions.

Practice in Korean Churches

In Korea, the place of the Jesus Prayer varies by tradition.

• Orthodox Church: The Orthodox Church in Korea teaches and practices the Jesus Prayer as a basic prayer of personal devotion.
• Catholic and Anglican churches: The prayer is introduced at some retreats (periods of withdrawal from daily life devoted to prayer and meditation) and spiritual gatherings of the Catholic Church in Korea and the Anglican Church of Korea.
• Protestant churches: The Jesus Prayer is not a regular worship practice in Korean Protestantism. It is introduced in some seminary courses on spirituality and in spiritual formation groups, and some Protestants use it in personal devotion on the grounds that its content consists of repentance and confession of faith grounded in Scripture. Some pastors and theologians, however, regard the repetition of the same phrase as close to the "vain repetitions" of Matthew 6:7, and they caution that, like contemplative prayer, it may drift toward mystical spirituality. Such criticism is voiced comparatively often in churches of the Reformed tradition. The positions of Korean denominations and the debates concerning contemplative prayer are treated in the article Contemplative Prayer.

Compared with the petition-centered prayer familiar to Korean Protestants, such as tongseong gido (praying aloud together) or early morning prayer meetings, the Jesus Prayer differs in character, since it quietly repeats a short confession.