A Russian pilgrim introduces himself in the opening words of The Way of the Pilgrim with these words: "By the grace of God I am a Christian, by my deeds a great sinner, and by my calling a homeless wanderer of humblest origin, roaming from place to place. My possessions consist of a knapsack with dry crusts of bread on my back and in my bosom the Holy Bible. This is all!"1

Though the circumstances of his pilgrimage may differ from ours, his quest is an expression of the Christian’s longing for communion with God. John Bunyan used the pilgrimage motif as an allegory in Pilgrim’s Progress as Christian moved from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, always learning more and more about the way of salvation.

This nineteenth-century pilgrim is a very real person set in time and space, and he is seeking to understand Paul’s command to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). How is that possible? How would we get anything done? What about when we are asleep? The story of his quest told in The Way of the Pilgrim introduced the Orthodox devotional practice of the Jesus Prayer to many Christians in the West.

The words of the prayer are "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Often they are shortened to "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me," or "Lord, have mercy." The words are taken from the story of the blind man sitting by the roadside who calls out to Jesus, who is passing by, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." (Luke 18:38), and the prayer of the tax collector, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13). The words express the cry of the heart and the graciousness of God.

The pilgrim goes from church to church, seeking the answer to his question. He says, "Please explain to me how the mind can be always set on God, not be distracted but continuously praying." No one could help him. "’This is exceptionally difficult to understand unless God Himself reveals it,’ said the Father Superior and he did not explain" (15).

But the pilgrim finally receives instruction from one of the staretz of the Orthodox Church, whom he calls his elder. Finding him walking along the road, he tells the elder of his long quest, finally asking, "Please, be gracious, Reverend Father, and explain the meaning of ceaseless mental prayer to me and show me how I can learn to practice it. I can see that you are both well versed and experienced in this matter" (18).

During the course of the summer, the elder teaches him to pray the prayer of the heart: "The ceaseless Jesus Prayer is a continuous, uninterrupted call on the holy name of Jesus Christ with the lips, mind, and heart; and in the awareness of His abiding presence it is a plea for His blessing in all undertakings, in all places, at all times, even in sleep" (18).

The words of the Jesus Prayer call on the full name of Jesus, calling on him as our human brother Jesus, our redeemer Christ, and the Lord of our life. Later, as he begins to teach the prayer to others, he explains, "the holy name of Jesus Christ contains within itself all the truths of the Gospel. The holy Fathers say that the Jesus Prayer is the abbreviated form of the Gospel" (32–33).

Repeating the words of the Jesus Prayer, making it the basic default position of the brain, establishes a home base in prayer for our wandering minds. What do we think about when we aren’t thinking about anything? What if our minds returned to prayer as its customary position? Then, it becomes the prayer that prays itself. What if all our daily business were conducted against a backdrop of prayer? That is the prayer of the heart. What if every person we met were greeted with a silent prayer? That is the Jesus Prayer in action.

In the face of human need, it is a natural way to engage in intercessory prayer, as the words can spring to the mind in an instant. After learning it and practicing it for a summer, the pilgrim says, "I enjoyed great peace. During my sleep I often dreamed that I was praying. And if I happened to meet people during the day they all seemed as close to me as if they were my kinsmen, even though I did not know them. My thoughts had quieted down completely; I thought only of the Prayer, to which my mind now began to listen, and my heart produced certain warmth and gladness" (23).

The Jesus Prayer is the Orthodox contribution to the quest to pray without ceasing, to live constantly in the presence of God. Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century lay brother in a Carmelite monastery near Paris represents another approach to the Practice of the Presence of God.2 A humble kitchen helper, Brother Lawrence cultivated a life of prayer as he did all, no matter how humble the task, for God. Making the realities of his everyday life the subject of his prayer, he lived his life with God as his constant companion.

The effects of this constant communion with God on the Russian Pilgrim and on Brother Lawrence were similar. Both found themselves teachers of others. Even church leaders came to the monastery to talk, not just with the abbot but also with the dishwasher. The wisdom that comes from God through prayer is available to anyone. The Russian Pilgrim was accused of being a nobleman disguising himself as a humble peasant, since it was impossible to believe that a peasant could speak and reason so well. He says,

I was astonished to hear this and said, "I told the whole and simple truth of my background both to you and to your wife; it never occurred to me to lie or deceive you. And for what? Much of what I say I heard from my beloved and wise elder or I read it in the writings of the holy Fathers. But for the most part my ignorance has been enlightened by interior prayer, which is the result of God’s grace and the teachings of my late elder. What I have, every man can have. All that is necessary is to descend in silence into the depths of one’s heart and call on the name of Jesus Christ frequently. In this way one can experience interior light and many things will become clear to him even the mysteries of the kingdom of God." (73–74)

Notes and References

1. Helen Bacovcin, trans., The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way (Garden City, N.Y.: Image, 1978), 13.
2. Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach, Practicing His Presence (Beaumont, Texas: Seed Sowers, 1973).

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE