Understanding Compunction and the Jesus Prayer

St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia on Mount Athos discusses how to pray the Jesus Prayer and why it is "the key to the spiritual life" for every Orthodox Christian. A reading of _Wounded by Love_ p. 118-122 📖 _Wounded by Love: The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios_ https://www.holycross.org/products/wounded-by-love-the-life-and-the-wisdom-of-elder-porphyrios?srsltid=AfmBOoorE21YcZGUDow6RQlSnMJLerM851JSD-JP01Rl_2lvrmd0tO7n 🎧 Original recording of Saint Porphyrios saying the Jesus Prayer: https://youtu.be/w7XSW7wpCfY?si=w3yUXGV94QMWg4FH 🎧 Divine Eros: Insatiable Love For Christ - St. Porphyrios https://youtu.be/v2iwE1FVYm0 📖 _Healing the Soul: Saint Porphyrios as a Model for Our Lives_ by Elder Savvas Hagiorite. The St. John Chrysostom Monastery in Wisconsin publishes this book. Email them to ask how to obtain a copy: https://www.stchrysostomoscrafts.com/ ⛪ FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you: https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/ _______ St. Porphyrios teaches: As the most effective prayer the Church Fathers use the short phrase, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me: This prayer is the key to he spiritual life. It is a prayer that cannot be taught either by books, or by spiritual fathers or by anyone else. Its sole teacher is divine grace. If tell you honey is sweet and runny, or this and that, you won't understand unless you taste it. The same is true of prayer. If I say, this is what it's like or 'this is how you'll feel, you won't understand, nor will you pray except in the Holy Spirit. When grace comes, when love comes, you say the name 'Christ and your mind and heart are flooded. This love, this craving, also has degrees. When you experience this love, you desire to acquire spiritual things, not only when you are awake, but even in your dreams you see the same things. You desire to do everything within the embrace of this love, to move within this love. You wish to engage in effort, in every effort, out of love for God. You feel love and gratitude towards God, without having in mind to achieve anything specific. What is of value is to repeat the Jesus Prayer with tenderness of soul, with love, with longing, and then it doesn't appear at all as a chore to you. It's like when you say, 'my mother...my father, and you feel perfect consolation. Force, therefore, is not the way to acquire prayer. Pray without forming images in your mind. Don't try to imagine Christ. The Fathers emphasized the need for prayer to be free of images. With an image, the focus of prayer is easily lost, because one image can easily be displaced by another. And the evil one may intrude images and we lose the grace. You can say the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, gently, without straining and without contortion wherever you happen to be — on a stool, on a chair, in a car, walking along the road, at school, in the office or at work. Don't tie yourself down to a specific place. What is all-important is love for Christ. If your soul repeats with worship and adoration the seven words, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, it never can have enough. They are insatiable words! Repeat them all your life. There is such life-giving sap hidden within them! _______ Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!