A dear friend gifted me with this prayer cord, from Ukraine. Made by monks, one can see how Byzantine it looks.
With each breath (air inhaled and exhaled), with each knot/bead, one prays, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner." This is a fantastic devotion and easy for anybody.
Read about the Jesus Prayer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, number 2616.
3 comments:
I learned about the "Jesus Prayer" a few years ago when I read the book "The Way of a Pilgrim". Since then I always say it after each decade of my daily Rosary. It's a very humbling prayer for me, a sinner!
Here's some info on the prayer & book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_of_a_Pilgrim
Keep Blogging!
Deacon John Giglio (Florida)
"gift" is not a verb, JP.
The weirding of the language, accomplished in part by verbing nouns, has been a big way the bad guys have taken over the world.
Join the movement against verbing.
Everyone should be told that using the 'chotki' (Eastern Prayer Rope) is NOT that simple. To begin with, all Orthodox monastics are taught NOT to use the breathing with the praying of the Jesus Prayer in the beginning. One is to say the prayer (or a shortened version: Lord Jesus Mercy) with attention. It is recommended that the prayer be said WITH the breathing ONLY for advanced monastics and ONLY with constant direction of one's spiritual father (confessor). The reason given: that the 'evil one' is drawn to those who wish to advance to prayer and that the breathing WITH the prayer tends to bring all manner of difficulties (temptations) if one is not residing IN a monastic setting.
To pray the Jesus Prayer by itself with attention is fine---but beware of doing the more 'advanced' prayer with breathing!
Respectfully in the Risen Lord,
Fr. Pius (formerly an Orthodox priestmonk for many years and now happily in communion with the Holy See).
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