Pray Without Ceasing

'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me'.

In my pocket, I have a little prayer rope, made of wool with a few beads. When people see it, they imagine that it is some kind of Rosary. But this little rope is not used for Marian devotion. It comes from the Orthodox tradition. The rope is called a komboskini in Greek or a chotki in Russian. In the Orthodox tradition, these ropes are used for the Jesus Prayer, the words of which make a simple and elegant framework for prayer.

The words are to be repeated with each knot or bead on the rope. Sometimes this follows the pattern of our own breathing. Often known as 'the prayer of the heart', the Jesus Prayer perhaps finds inspiration in St Mark's description of the call of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, in his repetition of the phrase: 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me' (Mark 10.46-48). Certainly, this tradition of prayer is firmly embedded in the lives of the earliest Desert Fathers and Mothers from the fourth century.

Every time I place my hand in my pocket, I am reminded of St Paul's advice to 'pray without ceasing' (I Thessalonians 5.17). But the words of this prayer also help me to focus on the person of Jesus Christ himself, and in the hidden beauty of this prayer I discover again and again that in Jesus we always find mercy. As we deepen our understanding of this mercy, the prayer of the heart teaches us to draw ever closer to the one who is the source of all our joy and peace.

Why not try saying the Jesus Prayer this week?