06/15/2026
When we consider prayer, many things come to mind. Perhaps even the heart.
Prayer is more than request, more than doxology and praise, more than self-condemnation vested in prose. Prayer is oxygen to the lungs of the soul. It is the sign of a transcendent dialogue.
To pray is to believe God is near.
What an invitation...
How does one close the doors?
Say the Holy Name of Jesus without pressure:
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
How does one find the heart?
Say the Holy Name of Christ without pride:
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
How does one return to prayer when the mind has wandered?
Say the Holy Name of the Merciful One, the friend of the martyrs the friend to the Woman of shame (St. Photini):
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.
The prayer will teach us. We begin with the lips. By grace, the mind begins to listen. And in time, without force and without pride, the prayer descends into the heart.
Years ago, I asked a hierarch in his final years about the Jesus Prayer. His answer was simple: “Just say the prayer.”
Years ago, I asked a monk from Mount Athos the same thing. His answer, “Just say the prayer.”
And once, on Athos, in the black of night, darker than most, where you could not even see the whites of the eyes of those beside you, we sat on a wooden porch above the Aegean Sea, beside the stone wall of a monastery built in the 900s. I asked a holy father if he had met St. Paisios, and what that had been like. Instead of offering his own stories, he quietly directed me to the bookstore and said to read Wounded by Love, the life and words of St. Porphyrios.
At the time, I was looking for a story.
But there is a deeper story, there is communion. While we can be inspired by the lives of the saints, their lives are an invitation for us to dialogue with our Bridegroom, to have a personal story with His person in communion where the breath of the Spirit and the breath of the soul are one.
There in that inner life, no one can rob or steal His Presence, not even death.
This is our foundation and our peace.
While we experience change and changes, we recall we were made in the image and likeness of the One who does not change. So we seek that inner place of deep communion. We go to the secret place. We close the door. We say the Holy Name.
And if we go to that inner table, we can trust He brings the Body and the Blood.
Like an echo in the night throughout the years, "Just say the prayer." However this past January the story expanded further... unexpectedly meeting a disciple of St. Paisios who asked if I had a question... that will be a story for another post.
Blessed evening to you and your beloved,
Fr. Jonathan
