Please note:
It is often said that the hymnography for Holy Friday in the Christian East is anti-semitic. References are made to “the Jews,” or “the Hebrew race.” What is intended in the hymnography (and meant to be understood) by these references is those individuals who were behind the plot to do away with the Savior — often called “the leaders” of the people. Texts also refer to the “lawless ones” who nailed the Savior to the Cross: the Romans. Each of us, by virtue of our own sinful disobedience to God, has had a part to play in the crucifixion of the Lord. What is addressed to “the Jews,” or “the Romans” should be interpreted as being applicable to us.

This translation of the texts from the Triodion comes from Archimandrite Ephrem (Lash), as available on the Anastasis website.

It is hoped that by making a prayerful reading of these texts, you will be able to enter into the Passion of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ— and in so doing, you will “venerate Christ’s sufferings and then be shown His glorious Resurrection.”

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From the Matins of Holy Friday

Antiphon 10. Tone 6

He who wraps himself in light as a garment, stands naked for judgement, and accepts a blow on the cheek by the hands of those he fashioned; while the lawless people nailed to the Cross the Lord of glory. Then the veil of the Temple was rent; the sun grew dark, unable to endure seeing God, before whom all things tremble being outraged. Him let us worship.

The disciple denied, the Thief cried out, ‘Remember me, Lord, in your Kingdom’.

Give peace to the world, Lord, who accepted to put on flesh from a Virgin for the sake of your servants that with one accord we may glorify you, the lover of mankind.

Antiphon 12. Tone 8

Thus says the Lord to the Jews, ‘My people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I wearied you? I gave light to your blind, I cleansed your lepers, I set upright a man lying on a bed. My people, what have I done to you, and how have you repaid me? Instead of the manna, gall; instead of the water, vinegar; instead of loving me, you have nailed me to a cross. I can endure no longer; I will call my nations, and they will glorify me, with the Father and the Spirit; and I shall grant them eternal life.

Today the veil of the Temple is rent as a reproof to the transgressors; and the sun hides its own rays, as it sees the Master crucified.

Lawgivers of Israel, Jews and Pharisees, the choir of the Apostles cries out to you, ‘See a Temple, which you have destroyed; see a Lamb, whom you have crucified. You handed him over to a tomb, but by his own authority he has risen. Do not be deceived, O Jews, for it is he who saved you in the sea, and fed you in the desert. He is the life and the light and the peace of the world’.

Hail Gate of the King of glory, through which the Most High alone has passed, and left it sealed again, for the salvation of our souls.

Tone 8

When you stood before Kaiaphas, O God, and were handed over to Pilate, O Judge, the powers of heaven were shaken from fear; but then you were raised up on the Tree between two thieves and were numbered with transgressors, O sinless One, to save humankind. Long-suffering Lord, glory to you!

Tone 6

Today he who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon a Tree,
He who is King of the Angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heaven in clouds is wrapped in mocking purple.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan receives a blow on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a lance.
We worship your Sufferings, O Christ (x3)
Show us also your glorious Resurrection.

Let us not feast like Jews, for our Passover too has been sacrificed for us, Christ God. But let us purify ourselves from all defilement, and sincerely beseech him, ‘Arise, Lord, save us as you love humankind’.

Your Cross, Lord, is life and resurrection for your people; and putting our trust in it, we praise you our crucified God. Have mercy on us.

When she who bore you saw you hanging on the Cross, O Christ, she cried out, ‘What is this strange mystery that I see now, my Son? How are you dying on a tree, nailed in the flesh, O Giver of Life?

Then we sing the Beatitudes with verses, in Tone 4.

In your kingdom remember us, O Lord, when you come in your kingdom.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Through a tree Adam became an exile from Paradise; but through the tree of the Cross the Thief made Paradise his home: for the former through tasting set aside his Maker’s commandment, while the latter, crucified with him, confessed the hidden God, as he cried, ‘Remember me in your kingdom’.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled.

The lawless bought the Maker of the Law from a disciple, and as a lawbreaker stood him before Pilate’s judgement seat, crying, ‘Crucify’ the one who gave them manna in the desert. While we, imitating the just Thief, cry with faith, ‘Remember us also, O Saviour, in your kingdom’.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

The swarm of those who slew God, the lawless nation of the Jews, in their frenzy cried out to Pilate, ‘Crucify’ Christ, the innocent. They rather asked for Barabbas. But we address to him the words of the grateful Thief, ‘Remember us also, O Saviour, in your kingdom’.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Your life-bearing side, gushing up like a spring in Eden, gives drink to your Church, O Christ, as a spiritual Paradise, from there dividing, as into four heads, into four Gospels, it waters the World, making creation glad and faithfully teaching the nations to worship your Kingdom.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

You were crucified for my sake, that for me you might be a source of forgiveness. You were pierced in the side, that for me you might gush forth streams of life. You were transfixed by nails, that I, assured of the height of your power by the depth of your sufferings, might cry to you, O Christ, giver of life, ‘Glory to your Cross, O Saviour, glory to your Passion!

Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

When you were crucified, O Christ, all creation saw and trembled. The foundations of the earth quaked with fear of your might. The lamps of heaven hid themselves and the veil of the Temple was rent. The mountains quailed, and rocks were split, and with us the faithful Thief cries to you, O Saviour, ‘Remember’.

Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

On the Cross, Lord, you tore up our record, and numbered among the dead you bound the tyrant there, delivering all from the bonds of death by your Resurrection, through which we have been enlightened, O Lord who love humankind, and we cry to you, ‘Remember us also, Saviour, in your kingdom’.

Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

Lifted up on the Cross, destroying the power of death and as God wiping out the record against us, O Lord, only Lover of humankind, grant the repentance of the Thief also to us who worship in faith, Christ our God, and who cry to you, ‘Remember us also, Saviour, in your kingdom’.

Let all of us believers pray with one accord to glorify worthily the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, a Unity of godhead existing in three Persons, remaining without confusion, simple, undivided and unapproachable, through whom we are delivered from the fire of eternal punishment.

O Christ, your Mother, who bore you in the flesh without seed, was truly Virgin and remained inviolate after child-birth, we bring in intercession, most merciful Master, to grant pardon of offences to those who cry, “Remember us also, O Savior, when you come into your Kingdom.”

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From Vespers of Holy Friday

Verses on “Lord, I Call…”

Tone 1

All creation was changed by fear when it saw you hanging on the Cross, O Christ; the sun was darkened and the foundations of the earth were shaken; all things were suffering with you, the Creator of them all. You endured willingly for us. Lord, glory to you!

For your name’s sake I have waited for you, O Lord: my soul has waited on your word: my soul has hoped in the Lord.

All creation was changed by fear when it saw you hanging on the Cross, O Christ; the sun was darkened and the foundations of the earth were shaken; all things were suffering with you, the Creator of them all. You endured willingly for us. Lord, glory to you!

Tone 2

From the morning watch until night, from the morning watch: let Israel hope in the Lord.

Impious and lawless people, why do you meditate vain things? Why have you condemned the life of all to death? O great marvel! That the Creator of the world, who loves humankind, is betrayed into the hand of transgressors and lifted up on a tree, that he may free the prisoners in Hell. Long-suffering Lord, glory to you!

For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him plentiful redemption: and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Today the blameless Virgin, when she saw you hanging on the Cross, with a mother’s love she lamented, bitterly wounded in her heart, groaning in lamentation from the depth of her soul, she struck her cheeks and tore her hair; and so, beating her breast, she cried out with grief, ‘Woe is me, my divine child! Woe is me, light of the world! Why have you left my sight, Lamb of God?’ Therefore the armies of the Bodiless Powers were seized with terror as they said, ‘Lord, beyond understanding, glory to you!’

Praise the Lord, all you nations: praise him all you peoples.

When she saw you, O Christ, the Creator and God of all, hanging on the Cross, she who bore you without seed, cried bitterly: My Son, where has the beauty of your form departed? I cannot bear to see you unjustly crucified; hasten then, arise, that I too may see your resurrection from the dead on the third day.

Tone 2

For his mercy has been mighty towards us: and the truth of the Lord endures to the ages.

Today the Master of creation stands before Pilate, and the Creator of all things is given up to a Cross, led like a lamb by his own will. He has been transfixed with the nails, and he has been pierced in the side, and the lips of the One who rained down the manna are touched with a sponge. The Redeemer of the world is struck on the cheeks, and the Fashioner of all things is mocked by his own servants. O the Master’s love for mankind! For those who crucify him he implored his own Father, saying, ‘Forgive them this sin, for they do not know, the lawless, how wrongfully they act’.

Tone 6

Ah! how did the lawless assembly condemn the King of creation to death, without shame as they recalled benefits with which had protected them, as he reminded them, saying, ‘My people, what I have done to you? Have I not filled Judea with marvels? Have I not raised the dead with a word? Have I not healed every sickness and disease? How then have you repaid me? Why have you forgotten me, giving me blows for healings; putting me to death in return for life; hanging your benefactor on a Tree as a malefactor, the lawgiver as a lawbreaker, the King of all as one condemned’. Long-suffering Lord, glory to you!

A dread and marvellous mystery is seen to come to pass today. The Invisible is grasped, the One who loosed Adam from the curse is bound, the One who tries hearts and reins is tried; the One who shut the abyss is shut up in prison. He, before whom the Powers of heaven stand in fear, stands before Pilate; the Fashioner is struck by hand of the thing he fashioned; he who judges the living and the dead, is condemned to a Tree; the destroyer of Hell is shut up in a tomb. You bear all things with compassion, and save all from the curse, long-suffering Lord, glory to you!

The Reading is from the Prophecy of Isaias. [52:13-53:12]

Thus says the Lord: See, my servant will understand; he shall be exalted and glorified exceedingly. Just as there many will be astonished at you, so your appearance will be without glory from men, and your glory from the sons of men. So many nations will marvel at him; kings shall shut their mouths; for that which had not been told them about him they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate. Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We brought a report as of a child before him, as a root out of dry ground; he had no form or glory, and we saw him, and he had neither form nor beauty. But his form was without honour and inferior to the children of men. He was a man in suffering and acquainted with bearing weakness, because his face has been away, he was dishonoured and not esteemed. He bears our sins and is in pain for us. We reckoned him to be in toil and in affliction and trouble. But he was wounded for our sins and crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment of our peace, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; every one has gone astray in their own way, and the Lord handed him over for our sins. And he, because of his affliction, does not open his mouth; like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation his judgement was taken away; who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken away from the earth; because of the iniquities of my people he was led to death. And I will give the evil for his burial and the rich for his death, because he practised no iniquity, nor was there guile in his mouth. And the Lord wishes to cleanse him of his blow. If you give an offering for sin, your soul will seed a long-lived descendence. And the Lord wishes to take away from the toil of his soul, to show him light and to fashion him with understanding, to justify the just one, who serves many well, and he will bear their sins. Therefore he will inherit many and divide the spoils of the strong. Because his soul was handed over to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and was handed over because of their iniquities. Rejoice, barren one who do not give birth, break out and cry, you who are not in labour, for the children of the desolate are more than those of her that has a husband.

Prokeimenon. Tone 6. [Psalm 87]

They have placed me in the lowest pit; in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Verse: Lord God of my salvation, I called for help by day; and by night also before you.

The reading is from the 1st Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. [1:18-2:2]

Brethren, the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. Tone 5. [Psalm 68] Verse 1: Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even to my soul. Verse 2: And they gave me gall for my food; and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Verse 3: Let their eyes be darkened, so that they see not; and bow down their back continually.The Reading is from the holy Gospel according to Matthew. [27:1-38, Lk. 23:39-43, Matt. 27:39-54, Joh. 19:31-37, Matt. 27:55-61]

At that time all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, so as to put him to death. They bound him and led him away and handed him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, repented and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to it yourself.’ And flinging down the pieces of silver in the temple he went away and hanged himself. But the chief priests picked up the pieces of silver and said, ‘It is not permitted to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.’ So they conferred together and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. And so that field has been called ‘Field of Blood’ until today. Then what had been said by the prophet Jeremy was fulfilled, when he said, ‘And the took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one who was prized, whom they prized from the children of Israel, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord had commanded me’. But Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned him saying, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You say so.’ And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders he made no answer. Then Pilate says to him, ‘Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?’ But he did not answer him with s single word, so that the governor was greatly amazed. Now on the occasion of the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd one prisoner whom they wished. They had at the time a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had assembled Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do wish me to release to you? Barabbas or Jesus called Christ?’ For he knew that they had handed him over through envy. But while he was seated on the tribunal, his wife sent to him saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that just man. For I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.’ But the chief priests and elders had persuaded the crowds that they should ask for Barabbas. Pilate says to them, ‘So what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?’ They say to him, ‘Let him be crucified!’ The governor said, ‘Why, what evil has he done?’ But they shouted even louder, saying, ‘Let him be crucified!’ So Pilate, seeing that he was getting nowhere, but that a riot was starting instead, took water and washed his hands in full view of the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just man. You look to it.’ And the whole people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’ Then he released Barabbas to them, but Jesus he had scourged and handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort round him. They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet cloak, and having woven a crown of thorns, they placed it on his head and a reed in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They spat on him and took the reed and struck it on his head. And when they had mocked him, they took off the cloak and dressed him in his own clothes and led him away to crucify him. As they went out they found a Cyrenian named Simon; they forced him to carry his cross. And they came to a place called Golgotha, which means ‘place of a skull’, and they gave him vinegar to drink mixed with gall. And when he had tasted it he would not drink. When they had crucified him they divided his garments, casting lots, that saying by the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘They divided my garments among themselves, and cast lots for my raiment’. Then they sat down and watched him there. And over his head they placed his charge, which ran, ‘This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.’ Then they crucified with him two thieves, one on the right and one on the left. One of the criminals hanging there blasphemed him, saying, ‘If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.’ But the other answering, rebuked him and said, ‘Do you have no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; but he has done amiss.’ And he said to Jesus, ‘Remember me, Lord, when you come in your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ The passers by blasphemed him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days! Save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross.’ Likewise the chief priests also mocked him with the scribes and elders and Pharisees, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. If he is king of Israel, let him come down from the cross and we let us believe in him. He trusted in God, let him now deliver him, if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the son of God.’’ The thieves too, who had been crucified with him, reviled him in the same way. From the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘Eli, Eli, lama savachthani?’ That is, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ Some of those standing there when they heard said, ‘This one is calling Elias.’ And one of them ran quickly and taking a sponge filled it with vinegar, placed it on a reed and gave it him to drink. But the rest said, ‘Wait, let us see if Elias is coming to save him.’ But Jesus, having cried out again with a loud voice, gave up the spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom, and the earth was shaken and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who slept were raised, and coming out of their graves, after his rising they entered the holy city and appeared to many. But the centurion and those with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, were greatly afraid and said, ‘Truly, this was the son of God.’ So the Jews, that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, since it was the preparation—for that day was a great Sabbath—, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be removed. So the soldiers came and the broke the legs of the first and the other who was crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus, as they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers with a lance pierced his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And the one who saw it has borne witness, and his witness is true, and he knows that he speaks the truth, that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘Not a bone of him will be broken’. And again another scripture says, ‘They will look on him whom they pierced’. And there were many women there also watching from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, serving him. Among whom were Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Joses and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. When it grew late there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself also a disciple of Jesus. He approached Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered the body to be handed over. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean linen and placed it in his own new grave, which he had hewn from the rock. He rolled a great stone to the door of the grave and departed. But Mary Magdalen was there and the other Mary, seated in front of the tomb.

Then the Aposticha.

During the Aposticha takes place the solemn procession with the Winding Sheet [Epitaphion], which is placed in the middle of the Church.

Tone 2.

When from the Tree the Arimathean took you down as a dead body, O Christ, who are the life of all, he buried you, with myrrh and a shroud; and with love he embraced your immaculate body with heart and lips; yet, shrouded with fear, he cried out to you rejoicing, ‘Glory to your condescension, Lover of humankind!’

Verse 1: The Lord is King, he has robed himself with majesty. The Lord has robed, and girded himself with power.

When in the new tomb you, the Redeemer of all, had been laid for the sake of all, Hell became a laughing stock and, seeing you, quaked with fear; the bars were smashed, the gates were shattered, the graves were opened, the dead arose; then Adam with thanksgiving cried out to you rejoicing, ‘Glory to your condescension, Lover of humankind!’

Verse 2: He has made the world firm; it will not be shaken.

When in the tomb in the flesh you were enclosed by your own will, O Christ, who by the nature of your godhead are uncircumscribed and unbounded, you unlocked the storehouses of Hell and emptied all his palaces; then too you granted this Sabbath divine blessing and glory and your own splendour.

Verse 3: Holiness becomes your house, O Lord, forever.

When the Powers saw you, O Christ, falsely accused by lawless men as a deceiver, they trembled at your ineffable long-suffering, and at the gravestone, sealed by the hands with which they had speared your immaculate side; yet rejoicing at our salvation, they cried to you, ‘Glory to your condescension, Lover of humankind!’

When Joseph with Nikodemos took you, who are clothed with light as a garment, down from the Tree, and saw you a dead body, naked, unburied, he was filled with compassion, and raising a lament he grieved and said, ‘Alas, sweetest Jesu, when a little while ago the sun saw you hanging on the Cross, it wrapped itself in gloom, and the earth quaked with fear, and the veil of the temple was rent in two; but see, I now look on you, who for me have willingly undergone death; how shall I bury you, my God? Or how shall I wrap you in shrouds; with what hands shall I touch your immaculate body? Or what songs shall I sing at your departure? I magnify your sufferings and I hymn your burial, with your resurrection, as I cry: Lord, glory to you!’

I am afraid to speak
and touch with my tongue
this fearful narrative
concerning the Saviour.
For truly it is fearful
to narrate all this.

Our Lord
was given up today
into the hands of sinners!

For what reason then
was one who is holy
and without sin given up?

For having done no sin
he was given up today.

Come, let us examine closely
why Christ our Saviour
was given up.

For us, the ungodly,
the Master was given up.

Who would not marvel?
Who would not give glory?

When the slaves had sinned
the Master was given up.

The sons of perdition
and the children of darkness
went out in the darkness
to arrest the sun
who had the power
to consume them in an instant.

But the Master, knowing
their effrontery
and the force of their anger,
with gentleness,
by his own authority,
gave himself up
into the hands of the ungodly.

And lawless men, having bound
the most pure Master,
mocked the one
who had bound the strong one
with unbreakable bonds,
and set us free
from the bonds of sins.

They plaited a crown
of their own thorns,
the fruit borne
by the vine of the Jews.

In mockery
they called him ‘King’.
The lawless spat
in the face of the most pure,
at whose glance
all the Powers of heaven
and the ranks of Angels
quake with fear.

See, once again grief and tears
grip hold of my heart,
as I contemplate the Master
enduring outrage and insults,
scourgings, spitting
from slaves, and blows.

Come, observe well
the abundance of compassion,
the forbearance and mercy
of our sweet Master.

He had a useful slave
in the Paradise of delight,
and when he sinned
he was given to the torturers.

But when the Good One
saw his weakness of soul
he took compassion on the slave
and had mercy on him
and presented himself
to be scourged by him.

I wished to remain silent
because my mind
was utterly amazed;
but then again I was afraid
lest I reject
by my silence
my Saviour’s grace.
For my bones tremble
when I think of it.

The fashioner of all things,
our Lord himself,
was today arraigned
before Caiaphas,
like one of the condemned;
and one of the servants
struck him a blow.

My heart trembles
as I think on these things:
the slave is seated,
the Master stands,
and one full of iniquities
passes sentence
on the one who is sinless.

The heavens trembled,
earth’s foundations shuddered;
Angels and Archangels
all quailed with terror.
Gabriel and Michael
covered their faces
with their wings.

The Cherubim at the throne
were hidden beneath the wheels;
The Seraphim struck their wings
one with the other
at that moment,
when a servant gave
a blow to the Master.

How did earth’s foundations
endure the earthquake
and the tremor
at that moment,
when the Master was outraged?

I observe and I tremble
and again I am stunned,
when I see the long-suffering
of the loving Master.

For see my inward parts
tremble as I speak,
because the Creator,
who by grace fashioned
humanity from dust,
he the Fashioner is struck.

Let us fear, my brethren
and not simply listen.
The Saviour endured
all these things for us.

Wretched servant,
tell us why
you struck the Master?

All servants,
when they are set free,
receive a blow,
that they may obtain
freedom that perishes;
but you, miserable wretch,
unjustly gave a blow
to the liberator of all.

Did you perhaps expect
to receive from Caiaphas
a reward for your blow?

Had you perhaps not heard,
had you perhaps not learned
that Jesus is
the heavenly Master?

You gave a blow
to the Master of all things,
but became slave of slaves
to age on age,
a disgrace and abomination,
and condemned for ever
in unquenchable fire.

A great marvel, brethren,
it is to see the gentleness
of Christ the King!
Struck by a slave
he answered patiently,
with gentleness
and all reverence.

A servant is indignant,
the Master endures;
a servant is enraged,
the Master is kind.

At a time of anger,
who could endure
rage and disturbance?
But our Lord
submitted to all this
by his goodness.

Who can express
your long-suffering,
Master?

You that are longed for
and loved by Christ,
draw near, with compunction
and longing for the Saviour.

Come, let us learn
what took place today
in Sion, David’s city.

The longed-for and chosen
offspring of Abraham,
what did they do today?

They gave up to death
the most pure Master
on this day.

Christ our Saviour
was unjustly hanged
on the tree of the Cross
through lawless hands.

Come, let us all
wash our bodies
with tears and groans,
because our Lord,
the King of glory,
for us ungodly people
was given up to death.

If someone suddenly hears
of one truly beloved
having died,
or again, suddenly sees
the beloved himself
lying a dead corpse
before their eyes,
their appearance is altered,
and the brightness
of their sight is darkened.

So, in heaven’s height,
when it saw
the outrage to the Master
on the tree of the Cross,
the bright sun’s
appearance was altered;
it withdrew the rays
of its own brightness,
and unable to look on
the outrage to the Master,
clothed itself
in grief and darkness.

Likewise the Holy Spirit,
who is in the Father,
when he saw
the beloved Son
on the tree of the Cross,
rending the veil,
the temple’s adornment,
suddenly came forth
in the form of a dove.

All creation was
in fear and trembling
when the King of heaven,
the Saviour suffered;
while we sinners
for whom the only immortal
was given up
ever treat this with contempt.

We laugh each day
when we hear of the Saviour’s
sufferings and outrage.

We enjoy ourselves daily
filled with great zeal
to deck ourselves in fine clothing.

The sun in the sky
because of the outrage to its Master
changed its radiance
into darkness,
so that we, when we saw it,
might follow its example.

The Master on the Cross
was outraged for your sake,
while you, miserable wretch,
ever deck yourself
in splendid raiment.

Does your heart not tremble,
does your mind not quail,
when you hear such things?

The One who alone is sinless
was for you given over
to a shameful death,
to outrages and revilings,
while you hear all this
with lofty indifference.

The whole rational flock
should look intently
on its shepherd,
and ever long for him
and respect him,
because for its sake
he suffered, he
the dispassionate and all pure.

Nor should it deck itself
in corruptible garments,
nor yet indulge in pleasure
and worldly nourishment,
but should give its Maker pleasure
by ascesis and true reverence.

Let us not become
imitators of the Jews;
a people harsh and disobedient
and that ever rejects the blessings
and benefactions of God.

God Most High
for the sake of Abraham
and his covenant
from the beginning bore
the stubbornness of the people.

From heaven he gave
them Manna to eat;
but they, the unworthy,
longed for garlic,
evil-smelling foods.

Again, he gave them water
from the rock in the desert,
while they in place of these
gave him vinegar
when they hanged him on a Cross.

Let us be careful, brethren,
not to be found
as fellows of the Jews
who crucified the Master,
their own Creator.

Let us always be fearful,
keeping before our eyes
the Saviour’s sufferings.

Let us always keep in mind
his sufferings,
because it was for us he suffered,
the dispassionate Master;
for us he was crucified,
the only sinless One.

What return can we make
for all this, brethren?

Let us be attentive to ourselves
and not despise his sufferings.

Draw near all of you,
children of the Church,
bought with the precious
and holy blood
of the most pure Master.

Come, let us meditate
on his sufferings with tears,
thinking on fear,
meditating with trembling,
saying to ourselves,
‘Christ our Saviour
for us the impious
was given over to death’.

Learn well, brother,
what it is you hear:
God who is without sin,
Son of the Most High,
for you was given up.

Open your heart,
learn in detail
his sufferings
and say to yourself:
God who is without sin
today was given up,
today was mocked,
today was abused,
today was struck,
today was scourged,
today wore
a crown of thorns,
today was crucified,
he, the heavenly Lamb.

Your heart will tremble,
your soul will shudder.

Shed tears every day
by this meditation
on the Master’s sufferings.

Tears become sweet,
the soul is enlightened
that always meditates
on Christ’s sufferings.

Always meditating thus,
shedding tears every day,
giving thanks to the Master
for the sufferings
that he suffered for you,
so that in the day
of his Coming
your tears may become
your boast and exaltation
before the judgement seat.

Endure as you meditate
on the loving Master’s
sufferings,
endure temptations,
give thanks from your soul.

Blessed is the one
who has before his eyes
the heavenly Master
and his sufferings,
and has crucified himself
from all the passions
and earthly deeds,
who has become an imitator
of his own Master.

This is understanding,
this is the attitude
of servants who love God,
when they become ever
imitators of their Master
by good works.

Shameless man, do you watch
the most pure Master
hanging on the Cross,
while you pass the time
that you have to live on earth
in pleasure and laughter?

Don’t you know, miserable wretch,
that the crucified Lord
will demand an account
of all your disdainful deeds,
for which, when you hear of them, you show no concern,
and as you take your pleasure
you laugh
and enjoy yourself with indifference?

The day will come,
that fearful day,
for you to weep unceasingly
and cry out in the fire
from your pains,
and there will be no one at all
to answer
and have mercy on your soul.

I worship you, Master,
I bless you, O Good One,
I entreat you, O Holy One,
I fall down before you, Lover of humankind,
and I glorify you, O Christ,
because you, only-begotten
Master of all,
alone without sin,
for me the unworthy sinner
were given over to death,
death on a Cross,
that you might free
the sinner’s soul
from the bonds of sins.

And what shall I give you
in return for this, Master?

Glory to you, Lover of humankind!
Glory to you, O Merciful!
Glory to you, O Long-suffering!
Glory to you, who pardon
every fault!
Glory to you, who came down
to save our souls!
Glory to you, incarnate
in the Virgin’s womb!
Glory to you, who were bound!
Glory to you, who were scourged!
Glory to you, who were crucified!
Glory to you, who were buried!
Glory to you, who were raised!
Glory to you, who were proclaimed!
Glory to you, who were believed!
Glory to you, who were taken up!
Glory to you, who were enthroned
with great glory
at the Father’s right hand,
and are coming again
with the glory of the Father
and the holy Angels
to judge every soul
that has despised
your holy sufferings
in that dread
and fearful hour,
when the powers of heaven
will be shaken;
when Angels, Archangels,
Cherubim and Seraphim
will come all together
with fear and trembling
before your glory;
when all the foundations
of the earth will tremble,
and everything that has breath
will shudder at your great
and unendurable glory.

In that hour
your hand will hide me
under its wings
and my soul be delivered
from the fearful fire,
the gnashing of teeth,
the outer darkness
and unending weeping,
that blessing you, I may say,
‘Glory to the One, who wished
to save the sinner
through the many acts of pity
of his compassion.

(The Russian Typikon prescribes that a sermon by St Ephrem ‘On the Passion of the Saviour‘ be read be read after the Gospel at Matins on Great Friday. It may be that this is the one it has in mind.)

http://www.anastasis.org.uk/PassSer.htm

Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees. — Revelation 7:3

The saints embrace the whole world with their love. — St. Silouan the Athonite

On the Holy Mountain of Athos, the monks sometimes put up beside the forest paths special signposts, offering encouragement or warning to the pilgrim as he passes. One such notice used to give me particular pleasure. Its message was brief and clear: “Love the trees.”

Fr. Amphilochios, the geronta or “elder” on the island of Patmos when I first stayed there, would have been in full agreement. “Do you know,” he said, “that God gave us one more commandment, which is not recorded in Scripture? It is the commandment “love the trees.” Whoever does not love trees, so he believed, does not love God. “When you plant a tree,” he insisted, “you plant hope, you plant peace, you plant love, and you will receive God’s blessing.” An ecologist long before ecology had become fashionable, when hearing confessions of the local farmers he used to assign to them a penance, the task of planting a tree. During the long summer drought, he himself went round the island watering the young trees. His example and influence have transformed Patmos: photographs of the hillside near the Cave of the Apocalypse, taken at the start of the twentieth century, show bare and barren slopes, where today there is a thick and flourishing wood.

Fr. Amphilochios was by no means the first spiritual teacher in the modern Greek tradition to recognize the importance of trees. Two centuries earlier, the Athonite monk St. Kosmas the Aetolian, martyred in 1779, used to plant trees as he traveled around Greece on his missionary journeys, and in one of his “prophecies” he stated, “People will remain poor, because they have no love for trees.” We can see that prophecy fulfilled today in all too many parts of the world. Another saying attributed to him — not in this instance about trees — is equally applicable to the present age: “The time will come when the devil puts himself inside a box and starts shouting; and his horns will stick out from the roof-tiles.” That often comes to my mind as I survey the skyline in London with its serried ranks of television masts.” Love the trees.” Why should we do so? Is there indeed a connection between love of trees and love of God? How far is it true that a failure to reverence and honor our natural environment — animals, trees, earth, fire, air, and water — is also, in an immediate and soul-destroying way, a failure to reverence and honor the living God?

Let us begin with two visions of a tree. Have we not known, each of us, certain moments when we have started with sudden amazement at the lines before us on the printed page, words of poetry or prose which, once read, have forever remained luminous in our memory? One such moment happened to me at the age of eighteen as I was reading that magical anthology by Walter de la Mare, Behold, This Dreamer, and came across a passage from the book of Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds. “Has any one of us ever seen a tree?” asks Carpenter; and he answers, “I certainly do not think that I have — except most superficially.”

He continues: That very penetrating observer and naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, tells us that he would often make an appointment to visit a certain tree, miles away — but what he saw when he got there, he does not say. Walt Whitman, also a keen observer … mentions that, in a dream trance he actually once saw “his favorite trees step out and promenade up, down and around, very curiously.” Once the present writer seemed to have a partial vision of a tree. It was a beech, standing somewhat isolated, and still leafless in quite early Spring. Suddenly, I was aware of its skyward-reaching arms and up-turned finger-tips, as if some vivid life (or electricity) was streaming through them far into the spaces of heaven, and of its roots plunged in the earth and drawing the same energies from below. The day was quite still and there was no movement in the branches, but in that moment the tree was no longer a separate or separable organism, but a vast being ramifying far into space, sharing and uniting the life of Earth and Sky, and full of amazement.

Two things above all are noteworthy in Edward Carpenter’s “partial vision.” First, the tree is alive, vibrant with what he calls “energies” or “electricity”; it is “full of most amazing activity.” Second, the tree is cosmic in its dimensions: it is not “a separate or separable organism” but is “vast” and all-embracing in its scope, “ramifying far into space … uniting the life of Earth and Sky.”

Here is a vision of joyful wonder, inspired by an underlying sense of mystery. The tree has become a symbol pointing beyond itself, a sacrament that embodies some deep secret at the heart of the universe. The same sense of wonder and mystery — of the symbolic and sacramental character of the world — is strikingly manifest in Peaks and Llamas, the master-work of that spiritual mountaineer, Marco Pallis. Yet there are at the same time certain limitations in Carpenter’s tree-vision. The mystery to which the tree points is not spelt out by him in specifically personal terms. He makes no attempt to ascend through the creation to the Creator. There is nothing directly theistic about his vision, no reference to God or to Jesus Christ.

Let us turn to a second tree-vision, which is by contrast explicitly personal and theophanic: Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (Ex 3:1-6)

Comparing the experience of Moses with that of Carpenter, we observe three things: in the first place, the vision described in Exodus reaches out beyond the realm of the impersonal. The burning bush at Horeb acts as the locus of an interpersonal encounter, of a meeting face-to-face, of a dialogue between two subjects. God calls out to Moses by name, “Moses, Moses!” and Moses responds, “Here I am.”

“Through the creation to the Creator”: in and through the tree he beholds, Moses enters into communion with the living God. Nor is this all. On the interpretation accepted by the Orthodox Church, the personal encounter is to be understood in more specific terms. Moses does not simply meet God, but he meets Christ. All the theophanies in the Old Testament are manifestations, not of God the Father — Whom “no one has ever seen” (John 1:18) — but of the pre-incarnate Christ, God the eternal Logos. Visitors to St. Mark’s in Venice will recall that in the mosaics depicting the story of Genesis 1, the face of God the Creator bears unmistakably the lineaments of Christ. In the same way, when Isaiah sees God enthroned in the temple, “high and lifted up” (Isaiah 6:1), and when Ezekiel sees in the midst of the wheels and of the four living creatures “something that seemed like a human form” (Ezekiel 1:26), it is Christ the Logos Whom they both behold.

In the second place, God does not only appear to Moses but also issues a practical command to him: “Remove the sandals from your feet.” According to Greek Fathers such as St. Gregory of Nyssa, sandals or shoes — being made from the skins of dead animals — are something lifeless, inert, dead and earthly, and so they symbolize the heaviness, weariness, and mortality that assail our human nature as a result of the Fall. “Remove your sandals,” then, may be understood to signify: Strip off from yourself the deadness of familiarity and boredom; free yourself from the lifelessness of the trivial, the mechanical, the repetitive; wake up, open your eyes, cleanse the doors of your perception, look and see!

And what, in the third place, happens to us when in this manner we strip off the dead skins of boredom and triviality? At once we realize the truth of God’s next words to Moses: “The place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Set free from spiritual deadness, awakening from sleep, opening our eyes both outwardly and inwardly, we look upon the world around us in a different way. Everything appears to us, as it did to the infant Traherne, “new and strange … inexpressibly rare, and delightful, and beautiful.” We experience everything as vital and living, and we discover the truth of William Blake’s dictum , “Every thing that lives is Holy. So we enter the dimensions of sacred space and sacred time. We discern the great within the small, the extraordinary within the ordinary, “a world in a grain of sand … and eternity in an hour,” to quote Blake once more. This place where I am, this tree, this animal, this person to whom I am speaking, this moment of time through which I am living: each is holy, each is unique and unrepeatable, and each is therefore infinite in value.

Combining Edward Carpenter’s living tree, uniting earth and heaven and the burning bush of Moses, we can see emerging a precise and distinctive conception of the universe. Nature is sacred. The world is a sacrament of the divine presence, a means of communion with God. The environment consists not in dead matter but in living relationship. The entire cosmos is one vast burning bush, permeated by the fire of divine power and glory:

Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees, takes off his shoes, the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Certainly there is nothing in itself wrong about plucking blackberries. But as we enjoy the fruits of the earth, let us also look beyond our own immediate pleasure, and discern the deeper mystery that surround us on every side.

Essence and Energies, Logos and logoi: Does such an approach lead us to pantheism? Not necessarily. As a Christian in the tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy, I cannot accept any worldview that identifies God with the universe, and for that reason I cannot be a pantheist. But I find no difficulty in endorsing pan entheism — that is to say, the position which affirms, not “God is everything and everything is God,” but “God is in everything and everything is in God.” God, in other words, is both immanent and transcendent; present in all things. He is at the same time above and beyond them all. It is necessary to emphasize simultaneously both halves of the paradox beloved of the poet Charles Williams: “This also is Thou; neither is this Thou.” Upholding this “panentheistic” standpoint, the great Byzantine theologian St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) safeguarded the otherness-yet-nearness of the Eternal by making a distinction-in-unity between God’s essence and His energies. In His essence, God is infinitely transcendent, radically unknowable, utterly beyond all created being, beyond all understanding and all participation from the human side. But, in His energies, God is inexhaustibly immanent, the core of everything, the heart of its heart, closer to the heart of each thing than is that thing’s very own heart. These divine energies, according to the Palamite teaching, are not an intermediary between God and the world, not a created gift that He bestows upon us, but they are God Himself in action; and each uncreated energy is God in His indivisible totality, not a part of Him but the whole.

By virtue of this essence-energies distinction, Palamas is able to affirm without self-contradiction: Those who are counted worthy enjoy union with God the cause of all … He remains wholly within Himself and yet dwells wholly within us, making us share not in His nature but in His glory and radiance.

In this way, God is revealed and hidden — revealed in His energies, hidden in His essence:

Somehow He manifests Himself in His totality, and yet he does not manifest Himself; we apprehend Him with our intellect, and yet we do not apprehend Him; we participate in Him, and yet He remains beyond all participation.

Such is the antinomic stance of the true panentheist: God both is and is not; He is everywhere and nowhere; He has many names and He cannot be named; He is ever-moving and He is immovable; and, in short, He is everything and nothing.

What St. Gregory Palamas seeks to express through the essence-energies distinction, St. Maximus the Confessor indicates by speaking in terms of Logos and logoi, even though the specific concerns of Maximus, and the context in which he is writing, are not altogether identical with those of Palamas. According to Maximus, Christ the Creator-Logos has implanted in each created thing a characteristic logos, a “thought” or “word,” which is the divine presence in that thing, God’s intention for it, the inner essence of that thing, which makes it to be distinctively itself and at the same time draws it towards God. By virtue of these indwelling logoi, each created thing is not just an object but a personal word addressed to us by the Creator.

The divine Logos, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Wisdom and the Providence of God, constitutes at once the source and the end of the particular logoi, and in this fashion acts as an all-embracing and unifying cosmic presence. Anticipating Palamas, Maximus speaks of these logoi, as “energies,” and at the same time he likens them to birds in the branches of a tree:

The Logos of God is like a grain of mustard seed: before cultivation it looks extremely small, but when cultivated in the right way it grows so large that the highest principles (logoi) of both sensible and intelligible creation come like birds to revive themselves in it. For the principles or inner essences (logoi) of all things are embraced by the Logos, but the Logos is not embraced by any thing.

According to the interpretation of Maximus, then, the cosmic tree is Christ the Creator-Logos, while the birds in the branches are the logoi of you and me and all the created things. The Logos embraces all the logoi, but is not Himself embraced or circumscribed by them. Here Maximus seeks — as does Palamas in his use of the essence-energies distinction — to safeguard the double truth of God’s transcendence and His immanence. Whether we speak, as St. Maximus does, of the indwelling logoi , or prefer to use the Palamite word “energies” — and we can of course choose to employ both terms — our basic meaning and intention remain the same. All nature is theophanic. Each created person and thing is a point of encounter with “the Beyond That is in our midst,” to use Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s phrase. We are to see God in everything and everything in God. Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we can ascend through the creation to the Creator.

After listening to our two Eastern witnesses, Maximus and Palamas, let us also hear a Western prophet, St. Hildegard of Bingen, who is equally definite about the “panentheistic” character of the universe. In The Book of Divine Works she affirms, “All living creatures are, so to speak, sparks from the radiation of God’s brilliance, and these sparks emerge from God like the rays of the sun.”

Elsewhere in the same treatise she records the remarkable words addressed to her by the Holy Spirit:

I, the highest and fiery power, have kindled every living spark and I have breathed out nothing that can die … I am … the fiery life of the divine essence — I flame above the beauty of the fields; I shine in the waters; in the sun, the moon and the stars, I burn. And by means of the airy wind, I stir everything into quickness with a certain invisible life which sustains all. For the air lives in its green power and its blossoming; the waters flow as if they were alive. Even the sun is alive in its own light … I, the fiery power, lie hidden in these things and they blaze from Me, just as man is continually moved by his breath, and as the fire contains the nimble flame. All these things live in their own essence and are without death, since I am Life … I am the whole of life — life was not torn from stones; it did not bud from branches; nor is it rooted in the generative power of the male. Rather, every living thing is rooted in Me.

The approach adopted by Palamas, Maximus, and Hildegard has two important consequences for our understanding of God’s creative power.

First, when we speak of God creating the world, we are to envisage this, not as a single act in the past, but as a continuing presence here and now; and in that sense it is legitimate to speak in terms of continual creation. Second, and closely linked with the first point, we should think of God as creating the world, not as it were from the outside, but from within.

In the first place, when it is said, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), the word “beginning” is not to be interpreted in a temporal sense. Creation is not a once-for-all event happening in the remote past, an initial act that constitutes a chronological starting point. It is not a past event but a present relationship. We are to think and to speak not in the past but in the present tense; we are to say, not “God made the world, once upon a time, long ago,” but “God is making the world, and you and me in it, here and now, at this moment and always.” “In the beginning” (en arche), then, does not signify, “God started it all off, billions of years ago, and since then He has left things to keep going by their own momentum.” It means, on the contrary, that God is at each and every instant the constant and unceasing arche, the source, principle, cause and sustainer of all that exists. It means that, if God did not continue to exert His creative will at every split second of time, the universe would immediately collapse into the void of non-being. Without the active and uninterrupted presence of Christ the Creator-Logos throughout the cosmos, nothing would exist for a single moment.

Secondly, it follows from this that Christ as Creator-Logos is to be envisaged, not as on the outside, but as on the inside of everything. It is a frequent fault of religious writers that they speak of the created universe as if it were an artifact of a Maker Who has, so to speak, produced it from without. God the Creator becomes the celestial Clock-maker Who sets the cosmic process in motion, winding up the clock, but then leaving it to continue ticking on its own. This will not do. It is important to avoid such images as the divine architect, builder or engineer, and to speak rather in terms of indwelling (without thereby excluding the dimension of divine transcendence). Creation is not something upon which God acts from the outside, but something through which he expresses Himself from within. Transcendent, He is also immanent; above and beyond creation, He is also its true inwardness, its “within.”

Double Vision: If we adopt the sacramental understanding of the world implied in our “tale of two trees,” we shall gradually find that our contemplation of nature is marked above all by two qualities: distinctiveness and transparency.

Distinctiveness. If we are to see the world as sacrament, then this signifies that, first of all, we are to discover the distinctive and peculiar flavor of each created thing. We are to perceive and to value each thing in and for itself, viewing that thing in sharp relief, appreciating what in the Zen tradition is called the special “Ah!” of each thing, its “is-ness,” or haeccitas. The point is vividly expressed by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame … each mortal thing does one thing and the same … selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells; crying What I do is me: for that I came.

To see nature as sacred is, in the first instance, to recognize how each thing “selves” and “speaks myself.” We are to perceive each kingfisher, each frog, each human face, each blade of grass in its uniqueness.

Each is to be real for us, each is to be immediate. We are to explore the variety and the particularity of creation — what St. Paul calls the “glory” of each thing: “There is one glory of the sun, and another of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory” (I Corinthians 15:41).

Transparency: Having evoked and savored the particular “is-ness” of each thing, we can then take a second step: we can look within and beyond each thing, and discover in and through it the divine presence. After perceiving each kingfisher, each frog, each human face, each blade of grass in its uniqueness, in its full reality and immediacy, we are then to treat each as a means of communion with God, and so to ascend through the creation to the Creator. For it is impossible to make sense of the world unless we also look beyond the world; the world only acquires its true meaning when seen as the reflection of a reality that transcends it.

The first step, then, is to love the world for itself, in terms of its own consistency and integrity. The second step is to allow the world to become pellucid, so that it reveals to us the indwelling Creator-Logos. In this way we acquire Blake’s “double vision”:

For double the vision my Eyes do see, and a double vision is always with me … May God us keep, from Single vision and Newton’s sleep!

It is vital not to attempt the second step without previously embarking upon the first. We need to recognize the solidity of the world before we can discern its transparency; we need to rejoice in the abundant variety of creation before we ascertain how all things find their unity in God. Moreover, the second level, that of theophanic transparency, does not in any way cancel out the first level, that of particularity and distinctiveness. We do not cease to value the “is-ness” of each thing because we also apprehend the divine presence within it. On the contrary, by a strange paradox the more a thing becomes transparent, the more it is seen as uniquely itself. Blake was right to speak precisely of double vision; the “second sight” that God confers upon us does not obliterate but enhances our “first sight.” Created nature is never more beautiful than when it acts as an envoy or icon of the uncreated Beauty.

Never should it be imagined that this ascent through the creation to the Creator is easily accomplished, in a casual and automatic way. If we are to see God in all things and all things in God, this requires persistence, courage, imagination. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Truly You are a God Who hides Himself” (Isaiah 45:15). When we played hide-and-seek as children, did it not sometimes happen that we concealed ourselves in a marvelously secret spot, but then to our disappointment nobody bothered to come and look for us? After waiting for a long time, we came out crestfallen from our hiding place, only to find that the others had all gone home. As the Hasidic master Rabbi Barukh of Mezbizh observes, we disappoint God in exactly the same way. “I hide,” God says in sorrow, “but no one wants to seek Me.” This, then, is God’s word to us through His creation: Explore!

Our life with God continues…

Introduction

Once you have read and come to know some of the Old Testament, you should be able to take a look at a bit of the New Testament. This part of the Bible continues to tell us Who God is, who we are, and how God still reaches out to us.

Our map to help us find our way through some of the New Testament is this study guide. Every map has a specific way of presenting information. Some maps show political boundaries. Other maps show physical characteristics such as mountains and valleys. Still others indicate what natural resources can be found in any given locale. This “map” of the New Testament is intended to help you see the connection between many of the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah (i.e., the anointed one of God) — and how they have been fulfilled by Jesus Christ (the word “Christ” is from the Greek, meaning anointed) as recorded in the New Testament.

Remember:

As an Orthodox Christian, the Old Testament and the New Testament are not just books. They are your history with God. The stories they contain are your stories, they concern your ancestors. They are your scriptures.

Let’s begin by reading a lesson we hear at the Divine Liturgy on Tuesday of Bright Week (and also at Sunday Matins, Gospel selection # 5): Luke 24:13-35. This passage tells us that the Lord Jesus discussed with Luke and Cleopas all the Old Testament scriptures of the law and the Prophets that concerned Himself. But just what are these?

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Review of the Old Testament prophecies…

It is said that there were over 300 prophecies (spoken by different voices over 500 years) that the Lord Jesus fulfilled, including 29 major prophecies fulfilled in a single day — the day He was crucified. (Some of these prophecies may have found fulfillment on one level in the prophet’s own day, they found their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.)

Look briefly at some of the prophecies of the Messiah from Isaiah. Note the prophetic expectation found. (The texts marked with * indicate that they are taken from the lectionary appointed for the Nativity services.)

• Isaiah 2:1-5*
• Isaiah 7:10-15*
• Isaiah 8:9-10; 9:1-7*
• Isaiah 11:1-10
• Isaiah 29:17-19
• Isaiah 35:1-10

So, briefly what are some of the basic clues to recognize the Messiah from Isaiah’s prophecy?

(Isaiah — whose name means “The Lord gives salvation” — likely grew up in Jerusalem, the city where the Temple of the Lord stood. He lived around 742-701 B.C. He was primarily interested in the idea that the Messiah would come from the line of King David. Jerusalem was the capitol of the Kingdom of Judah where the southern tribes lived, and Isaiah prophesied of God’s protest to Judah for their wicked ways. Shechem was the capitol of the tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel.)

Now look at these prophecies:

• Micah 5:1-4*
• Jeremiah 23:5-6
• Baruch 4:21-22; 5:7-9
• Ezekiel 34:11-16

(Micah was from the country. He came from a little village about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem called Moresheth-gath. Micah spoke up for the poor farmers who suffered injustice at the hands of the rich landlords. He prophesied from 725 – 701 B.C.)

(Jeremiah was from a priestly family. He lived in Anathoth, a village about 4 miles to the northeast of Jerusalem. Jeremiah was called by God to prophesy in 626 B.C. when he was just a boy. Jeremiah was convinced that it was God Who was coming to execute judgment against Judah through Judah’s enemies.)

(Baruch was Jeremiah’s scribe or secretary. His prophecy was sent from Babylon back to Jerusalem in order to give the inhabitants there hope that ultimately God will bring about justice and overthrow the evil empire of Babylon.)

(Ezekiel was one of the first exiles to Babylon in 593 B.C. He was one of the cream of the Jerusalem crop. He was of priestly lineage. Ezekiel believed that the fall of Jerusalem was divinely-willed as a punishment for evil.)

Now look at these:

• Isaiah 40:1-11
• Isaiah 42:1-9
• Isaiah 50:5-6
• Isaiah 52:13-53:12
• Isaiah 60:1-6
• Isaiah 61:1-3, 10
• Zechariah 9:9

(“Second Isaiah” is likely not actually Isaiah at all. This prophet was likely one who prophesied during the Babylonian Captivity / Exile — about 540 B.C. — and whose message was attached to the end of the prophecy of Isaiah. His concern is with the “man of sorrows” — the Messiah.)

(Zechariah, who prophesied about 520-515 — was very interested in re-building the temple of Jerusalem once the exiles returned from Babylon. He sought to have a restored Jewish state under the co-leadership of the king and the high-priest. The Messiah was to come and herald this new kingdom.)

Now that we have looked at the major prophecies of the Messiah, try to summarize the basic expectations and characteristics you have discovered:

The Messiah

We are going to investigate the “seven signs” found in the Holy Gospel according to John. St. John tells us at the very end of his Gospel that “There are also many other things which Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would need to be written.” (Jn. 21:25)

The number 7 is an important number in the Bible. It usually indicates a certain fullnes, completion, totality, etc. St. John has chosen only seven wonders (miracles or signs) to include in his Gospel, but these seven simply point to the fact that all that the Lord Jesus did fulfils the prophecies of the Messiah. The Hebrew people looked for signs and wonders (Exod. 7:3; Deut. 4:34; Isa. 8:18; Jer. 32:20) as a test for the presence of the Anointed One.

St. John wrote his Gospel around A.D. 100. The Synoptic (meaning they see things in much the same way) Gospels of Ss. Matthew, Mark and Luke were written up to 50 years earlier. St. John’s Gospel is written more as a well-thought-out presentation of what he was an eye-witness of: giving us a contemplative interpretation of the “things which Jesus did.”

The First Sign

The Wedding at Cana — John 2:1-12.

We hear this at every celebration of Holy Matrimony as well as at the Divine Liturgy which is celebrated on the Monday after the Sunday of St. Thomas (9 days after Pascha). Although this is not directly a fulfillment of one of the Old Testament prophecies, the fact that the Savior changed water into wine is an indication of the blessing of the Messianic age. Wine makes glad our hearts (Ps. 104 (3): 13) and its abundance will mark the Messianic Kingdom (Gen. 49:11, ff.; Isa. 62:8, ff.) This sign, together with the multiplication of the loaves (the Fourth Sign recorded at 6:1-13), is an obvious verbal icon of the Sacramental Mystery of Holy Communion…and a fulfillment of the Passover Meal (Exod. 12:11, ff.) and the Manna in the Wilderness (Exod. 16:15, ff.). The Marriage Feast is also one of the single-most important images found in the Old and New Testaments. It is a symbol for the Kingdom of God; the union between God and His People (see Isa. 62:4-5; Mt. 22:1-14; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23; Apoc.19:7-9). There is no active action on the part of the Lord; His Word is sufficient to work wonders. (see Gen. 1:3, 6, 9; Isa. 55:11; Jn. 4:49-53; Mt. 8;8)

1. Why was this first Sign particularly important? (vs. 11)
2. How is the Lord Jesus revealed to be God in this event? (vs. 9)
3. Can you think of any specific significance for us today in the changing of water into wine at the wedding at Cana?

The Second Sign

Healing the Nobleman’s son — John 4:46-54

We hear this passage at the Divine Liturgy for the third Monday after Pascha. As with the previous Sign, the Lord Jesus’ might is shown here as a verbal power: the power of His creative Word. The prophecies stated that the Messiah would be able to heal (Isa. 35:5-6; 61:1-2; Joel 2:28-31). The Kingdom at the End of the Age will be characterized by healing (Apoc. 22:2). Even the Lord’s disciples will be empowered with the gift of healing (Lk. 9:6; Acts 2:16-21; 1 Cor. 12;10; James. 5:14-16).

1. How did the Lord Jesus test the faith of the nobleman? (vs. 50)
2. How did the man respond to this test? (vs. 50)
3. How is faith connected to healing? (vs. 50)
4. How can faith be a result of healing? (vs. 53)
5. Can you think of any significant for us today regarding this miraculous healing?

The Third Sign

Healing of the Paralytic — John 5:1-15

This passage is proclaimed in the Church on the 4th Sunday of Pascha. Once again, the prophecies of healing apply to this Sign. But this takes place at the Pool of Bethsda, near the Temple in Jerusalem. The water from this high-ground pool gurgled-up from underground springs. Among other uses, the water from this pool was taken to wash down and quench the thirst of the sacrificial lambs before they were slain in the Temple liturgy. There are a number of levels of significance here. First: Christ is the Passover Lamb (Jn. 1:29, 36; 19:17-37). Second, the pool is a symbol or figure or type of Baptism in which the faithful are washed and cleansed and healed — Acts 22:16 (This is why this passage is proclaimed in the Church during Paschaltide.) Finally, this event occurred near the Jewish Feast of Pentecost — i.e., 50 days after the Passover. The theme for Pentecost was the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai. The Law declared : “Keep the sabbath day holy.” — that is, no work…dedicate the day to God alone. Jesus, He Who Is the Lord of the Sabbath, instructs the paralytic-now-healed to carry his mat. To the super-orthodox Jews, this was considered to be unlawful labor. But Jesus states that the sabbath was made for mankind, not mankind for the sabbath. He taught that meeting the needs of people can be more important than following the letter of the law.

1. The sick people (vs. 3) were physically ill and waiting for a miraculous cure.
2. How might those who are not physically ill be in need of healing and health?
3. What are some ways that we might be excused from formal adherence to the rule, according to St. Basil (who calls these things “reasons worthy of a blessing”)? Why is this? (see Mt. 25)
4. What might some significance be for us today regarding this particular healing?

The Fourth Sign

Feeding the Five Thousand — John 6:1-13
(There are parallel stories in Mat. 14:13-21, Mk. 6:30-44 & Lk. 9:10-17.)
This passage is proclaimed in the Church at the Divine Liturgy on the 5th Wednesday of Paschaltide. In Isaiah 51:3 we learn that the Lord God will make the desert (i.e., the wilderness) a place of joy and gladness like Eden. (See Ps. 23) We read in John 6:31 that the people ate manna in the wilderness (see Exod. 4;15; 16:15-21; Numb. 11:8; Ps. 78:24 & Ps. 105:40). In this story we read that the Lord Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks (“eucharisto”) and distributed them. There is an obvious connection with the events of the Last Supper (Mt. 26, Mk. 14, Lk. 22 and Jn. 13) as well as with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Church (1 Cor. 11:23-26). “Our daily bread…” (Mt. 6:11) may refer to the Bread of the Holy Communion. “Daily” is an unfortunate translation of the original word which means “essential”. This, then would refer to the Bread of Life, the living bread, Christ Himself, given in the Holy Eucharistic Mysteries to those Who believe in Him and who receive Him. The giving of this bread in the wilderness is an image of the heavenly Bread. The bread and fish are reminiscent of the post-resurrection appearance on the shore of Galilee (Jn. 21:9), where the Risen Lord prepares breakfast for Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James and John. All of this is a fore-taste of eating in the Kingdom (see Apoc. 19:7-9). Refer, again, to the First Sign above for the Eucharistic connections. In 2 Kings 4:42-44 the Prophet Elisha fed 100 with 20 loaves. The Lord Jesus surpasses even that wonder.

1. Why did many in the multitude follow the Lord Jesus? (vs. 2)
2. He went up on the mountain to perform this Sign. What are other events on or near mountains that took place in the Bible?
3. Any thoughts on the significance of this extraordinary event for our lives today?

The Fifth Sign

Christ walks upon the water — John 6:16-21

(There are parallels in Mat. 14:22-33 and Mk. 6:45-52.)
We hear this Gospel passage proclaimed on the Second Saturday of Paschaltide. Chronologically, it took place immediately following the feeding of the multitude (the Fourth Johannine Sign, above). The Church has seen in this event a re-enactment of the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea to freedom(Exod. 15), and of their crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land (Numb. 35; Deut. 12; Josh. 4; 1 Sam. 13), for the Savior also leads His disciples to the land where they were going. Additionally, we understand this as an image also of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan (Mt. 3:13-17). Here the Savior tells the Apostle Peter “Fear not, I AM” (at least this is the literal Greek of the Gospel). This is a divine statement (Gen. 15:1, 26:24; Isa 41:10, 43:5; Apoc. 1:17 and especially Jn. 8:58), and St. Peter (well-versed in his Scriptures) recognizes it as such. God the Word manifests his lordship even over the cosmic elements — in this case, water (see Job 38:8-11; Pss. 65:5-8;107:29; Lk. 8:35-41). It is significant that a story such as this comes from John the son of Zebedee, a fisherman with experience of the lake and all its moods — accustomed very well to sudden storms.

1. Why was the Savior not with the disciples in the boat?
2. What was the reaction of the disciples when they saw Jesus walking on the sea?
3. What is the significance of His response to them?
4. What is the significance of this story for us today?

The Sixth Sign

Christ heals the man born blind — John 9:1-41

We proclaim this Gospel passage on the Sixth Sunday of Pascha each year. It has obvious baptismal allusions: washing (see Jn. 3:5), healing, faith, conversion, salvation, seeing (see Isa. 35:5), illumination (see Heb. 6:4), and anointing (in this case, spittle and dust from the ground — i.e., clay: see Gen. 2). Here we can see that the Savior rejects the universal assumption that malady and trouble are necessarily a consequence of sin. The two can be (and often are) connected, but this is not always the case, as seen here. The man’s blindness provides the occasion for God’s mighty signs and wonders to be revealed. The Savior also uses the divine statement again, “I AM” in verse 5. The Jewish leaders, says St. John Chrysostom, cast this man out of the Temple and the Lord of the Temple found him. We see in this story a progress of faith on the part of the blind man. At first he simply declares that ‘a man called Jesus” is the healer. Then he states that Jesus is form God. Next he declares that He is a prophet. Finally he says that he believes in Jesus as Lord and he then falls down in worship. In this passage we see Jesus as the Light of the World.

1. How do the Jewish authorities try to discredit this miracle?
2. Why is this?
3. What is the position that this man’s parents take concerning this whole event?
4. Is there any significance for us today in this story?
5. Do you ever feel that you have ever been punished by God for something you have done?
6. Do you ever feel as though you have brought about your own punishment?

The Seventh Sign

The Raising of Lazarus — John 11:1-54

We celebrate this Gospel passage each year on the day just before Palm Sunday: Lazarus Saturday. This is the Savior’s last and greatest sign. Jesus is the Source of eternal life and resurrection for all. In this passage we see Jesus as the Life of the World. Although Lazarus will die again (this is simply a resuscitation of his body) it is a first installment, so to speak, of the Resurrection and the Life (see Jn. 5:21, 25, 28). Again we hear the divine statement: “I AM” — there should be no mistake this time about just who Jesus says He Is. Nonetheless, He groans in the spirit and is “deeply moved, troubled” because He was face to face with the realm of Satan, here represented by death. He weeps. He undoubtedly knows that this ultimate and greatest Sign would bring about His own Passion and Death. The Father has given over to His Son the power over death and life (see Jn. 5:24-29). This last and greatest sign has two different effects: an outburst of faith in Jesus as the Messiah and an outburst of hostility on the part of the Jewish authorities. This leads to two “outcomes.” The authorities sentence Him to death — but ultimately this only paves the way to His (and our) Resurrection.

1. What is the statement Martha makes of Jesus before He declares to her “I AM’?
2. What are the three things that Martha declares about Jesus in verse 27?
3. Caiphas the evil high-priest prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. This is actually something that corresponds to prophecies in the Old Testament. Can you find it?
4. Are there any implications for us today in this awesome wonder worked by God?

Meditation #1

From Vladimir Lossky: “The Way of Union”
The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
James Clark, London, 1957

The heart must always be ardent. The spirit must remain calm. It is the spirit, which is the guardian of the heart. The heart is the center of the human being, the root of the “active” faculties, of the intellect and of the will, and the point from which the whole of the spiritual life proceeds, and upon which it converges. Source of all intellectual and spiritual activity, the heart, according to St. Macarius of Egypt, is a “workshop of justice and injustice.” It is a vessel, which contains all the vices, but where at the same time, “God, the angels, life and the Kingdom, light and the apostles, and the treasures of grace are to be found. Where grace fills the pastures of the heart, it reigns over all the parts and the thoughts: for there inhabit the intelligence and the thoughts of the soul.” In this way grace passes by way of the heart into the whole of man’s nature. (pp. 200-201)

There is a physical aspect involved (in hesychia) “certain procedures in regard to the control of breathing, the position of the body during prayer, the rhythm of prayer — but this exterior discipline has only one object in view: that of concentration” (p.210)

Evagrius states: “In your longing to see the face of the Father in heaven, never try to see any shape or form when you are praying.” …in freeing itself completely from all conceptualization of the godhead, “the spirit receives into itself the characteristics of the image of God, and becomes clothed with the ineffable beauty of the likeness of the Lord.” according to St. Mark the Hermit. (pp. 211-212)Union with God…is accomplished in persons by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit and our freedom. When St. Seraphim of Sarov was asked if the Christians of his own day lacked any of the conditions necessary to produce the same fruits of sanctity which had been so abundant in the past, he replied: there is one condition only lacking — a firm resolve. (p.216)

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Meditation #2

From Metropolitan Anthony Bloom:
Living Prayer
Darton, Longman, Todd, London, 1966

Once the Curé d’Ars, a French saint of the eighteenth century, asked an old peasant what he was doing sitting for hours in the church, seemingly not praying; the peasant replied: “I look at him, he looks at me and we are happy together.” The man learned to speak to God without breaking the silence of intimacy by words. (p. 6)

The main distinction between meditation and our usual haphazard thinking is coherence; it should be an ascetical exercise of intellectual sobriety. Theophan the Recluse, speaking of the way in which people usually think, says that thoughts buzz around in our heads like a swarm of mosquitoes, in all directions, monotonously, without order and without particular result.

The first thing to learn, whatever the chosen subject of thought, is to pursue a line. Whenever begin to think of God, of things divine, of anything that is the life of the soul, subsidiary thoughts appear; on every side we see so many possibilities, so many things that are full of interest and richness; but we must, having chosen the subject of our thinking, renounce all, except the chosen one. This is the only way I which our thoughts can be kept straight and can go deep.

The purpose of meditation is not to achieve an academic exercise in thinking; it is not meant to be purely intellectual performance, nor a beautiful piece of thinking without further consequences. It is meant to be a piece of straight thinking under God’s guidance and Godwards, and should lead us to draw connections about how to live. It is important to realize from the outset that meditation has been useful when, as a result, it enables us to live more precisely and more concretely in accordance with the gospel. (pp. 49-50)

Parallel with mental discipline, we must learn to acquire a peaceful body… Theophan the Recluse, in his advice to anyone wishing to attempt the spiritual life, says that one of the conditions indispensable to success is never to permit bodily slackness: “Be like a violin string, tuned to a precise note, without slackness or supertension, the body erect, shoulders back, carriage of the head easy, the tension of all muscles oriented toward the heart. A great deal has been written and said about the ways in which one can make use of the body to increase one’s ability to be attentive, but on a level accessible to many, Theophan’s advice seems to be simple, precise and practical. We must leant to relax and be alert at the same time.

Meditation is an activity of thought, while prayer is the rejection of every thought. According to the teaching of the eastern Fathers, even pious thoughts and the deepest and loftiest theological considerations, if they occur during prayer, must be considered as a temptation to be suppressed; because, as the Fathers say, it is foolish to think about God and forget that you are in his presence. All the spiritual guides of Orthodoxy warn us against replacing this meeting with God by thinking about him. Prayer is essentially standing face to face with God, consciously striving to remain collected and absolutely still and attentive in his presence. (p. 55)

St. John Climacus gives us a simple way of learning to concentrate. He says: choose a prayer, be it the Lord’s Prayer or any other, take your stand before God, become aware of where you are and what you are doing, and pronounce the words of the prayer attentively. After a certain time you will discover that your thoughts have wandered; then restart the prayer on the words of the sentence, which was the last you pronounced attentively. You may have to do that ten times, twenty times or fifty times; you may, in the time appointed for prayer be able to pronounce only three sentences, three petitions and go no further… (p. 57)

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Meditation #3

From Bishop Kallistos Ware:
The Inner Kingdom
“Silence in Prayer: The Meaning of Hesychia”
SVSPress, Crestwood, 2000

Silence is the mystery of the age to come. — St. Isaac the Syrian

Hesychia:
solitude / desert / wilderness (physical or spatial as well as spiritual or internal)
spiritual sobriety, alertness or vigilance, stillness, silence (active and creative silence), alert attentiveness, listening
to return to oneself so as to ascend to God — the real desert lies within the heart
laying aside or stripping the mind of thoughts, visual images, humanly devised concepts — transitioning from “my” prayer to the prayer of God working within me

Praxis / Praktike (active life) = inner struggle to subdue the passions and acquire the virtues (as opposed to the West’s term which signifies direct service to the world such as preaching, teaching, social work and the like).

Theoria (contemplative life) = to contemplate in purity the realm of God; lifted above the senses into pure silence — to aim at “self-naughting” so that one may be filled with an all-embracing sense of the divine indwelling: to enter into the activity of God “Not I but Christ in me” (Gal. 2:20 & “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30) “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps.45:11)

Therefore, hesychia = the general term for “inner prayer” — union with God by means of prayer or perpetual prayerfulness

Hesychia has also come to designate one spiritual path in particular: the invocation of the Name of Jesus.

“Occasionally the term “hesychasm” is employed in a yet more restricted sense to indicate the physical technique, involving especially control of the breathing, which is sometimes used in conjunction with the Jesus Prayer. (St. Gregory Palamas and the other Hesychast masters regard the physical technique [control of the breathing, inner "explorations," etc] as no more than an accessory, helpful to some but by no means obligatory or indispensable. Modern teachers add that the technique should be used only under the personal guidance of an experienced spiritual father. The Jesus Prayer can be practiced in its fullness without any bodily exercises at all, and it is thus a misnomer to call these exercises [as some writers do] “the hesychastic method of prayer.”)” (p.98)

“Thoughts move restlessly through our head, like the buzzing of flies (St. Theophan) or the capricious leaping of monkeys from branch to branch (Ramakrishna). This lack of concentration, this inability to be here and now with the whole of our being, is one of the most tragic consequences of the Fall. (I take these two similes from the article of Dr. André Bloom — now Metropolitan Anthony) Instead of fighting our thoughts directly and attempting to drive them out by an effort of will, we can seek to direct our attention away from them and look elsewhere. Our spiritual strategy in this way becomes positive instead of negative; our immediate objective is not to empty our mind of what is evil but rather to fill it with what is good. ‘Do not contradict the thoughts suggested to you by your enemies, for that is exactly what they want and they will not desist. But turn to the Lord for help against them, laying before Him your won helplessness; for he is able to expel them and reduce them to nothing.’ (Ss. Barsanuphius and John of Gaza) Now the Jesus Prayer is precisely a way — the supreme way — whereby we ‘turn to the Lord for help.’ The Jesus Prayer combats our temptations specifically by enabling us to look elsewhere. It is surely evident to each one of us that we cannon halt the inward flow of our images and thoughts by a crude exertion of will-power. It is of little or no value to say to ourselves, ‘Stop thinking’; we might as well say ‘Stop breathing.’ ‘The rational intellect cannot rest idle,’ insists St. Mark the Monk. How then are we to achieve spiritual poverty and inner silence? Although we cannon make the never-idle mind desist altogether from its restlessness, what we can do is to simplify and unify its activity by continually repeating a short formula of prayer. The flow of images and thoughts will persist, but we shall be enabled gradually to detach ourselves from it. The repeated invocation will help us to ‘let go’ the thoughts presented to us by our conscious or unconscious self. This ‘letting go’ seems to correspond to what Evagrius has in view when he speaks of prayer as a ‘laying aside’ or ‘shedding’ of thoughts — not a savage conflict, not a ruthless campaign or furious aggression, but a gentle yet persistent act of detachment.

This, then, is the strategy presupposed in the use of the Jesus Prayer. It assists us in applying the second or oblique method of combating thoughts: instead of trying to obliterate our corrupt or trivial imaginings by a direct confrontation, we turn aside and look at the Lord Jesus; instead of relying on our own power, we take refuge in the power and grace that act through the Divine Name. The repeated invocation helps us to detach ourselves from the ceaseless chattering of our ‘logismoi.’

…We concentrate and unify our ever-active mind by feeding it with a single thought, by nourishing it on a spiritual diet that is at once rich yet exceedingly simple.

Such in outline is the manner whereby the Jesus Prayer can be used to establish hesychia within the heart. First, to achieve its purpose the invocation should be rhythmical and regular, and in the case of an experienced hesychast — although not of the beginner, who needs to proceed with caution, if possible under the guidance of a spiritual father — it should be uninterrupted and continuous during long periods of the day. External aids, such as the use of a prayer rope and the control of breathing, have as their main purpose precisely the establishment of a regular rhythm.

In the second place, during the recitation of the Jesus Prayer the mind should be so far as possible empty of mental pictures. For this reason, it is best to practice the Prayer in a place where there are few if any outward sounds; it should be recited in darkness or with the eyes closed, rather than gazing at an icon illuminated by candles or a votive lamp….Those who invoke the Lord Jesus should have in their hearts an intense and burning conviction that they stand in the immediate presence of the Savior, that he is before them and within them, that He is listening to their invocation and replying in His turn…” (pp. 99-101)

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Meditation #4

Coming soon…

First Prayer:

Immaculate, undefiled, without beginning, invisible, incomprehensible, unsearchable, unchangeable, unsurpassable, immeasurable, long-suffering Lord, who alone possess immortality and dwell in unapproachable light; who made the heaven, the earth and the sea and all that was created in them; who grant to all their requests before they ask; we pray and beseech you, Master who love mankind, the Father of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who for our sake and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and Mary, the Ever-Virgin and glorious Mother of God.

Teaching us first by words and later also showing us by deeds, when he underwent the saving Passion, he granted us, your humble, sinful and unworthy servants, an example to offer supplications by the bending of neck and knees for our sins and those committed in ignorance by the people. Do you, then, who are full of mercy and love for mankind, hear us on whatever day we call upon you; but especially on this day of Pentecost, on which after our Lord Jesus Christ had been taken up and been enthroned at your right hand, God and Father, he sent down on his disciples and Apostles the holy Spirit, who settled on each one of them and they were all filled with his inexhaustible grace and spoke in strange tongues of your mighty works and prophesied.

Now therefore hear us as we pray, remember us, humble and condemned, and turn back the captivity of our souls. Receive us as we fall before you and cry out, ‘We have sinned’. On you we have been cast from the womb. From our mother’s womb you are our God. But because our days have wasted away in vanity, we have been stripped of your help, we have been deprived of all defence. But confident of your compassion we cry, ‘Do not remember the sins of our youth and cleanse us of our secret faults. Do not cast us aside in the time of old age. When our strength fails, do not abandon us. Before we return to the earth, count us worthy to turn back to you and give heed to us with kindness and grace. Measure our iniquities by your acts of compassion. Set against the multitude of our offences the depth of your compassion. Look from your holy height, Lord, upon your people here present and who await from you rich mercy. Visit us in your goodness; deliver us from the oppression of the devil; make our lives safe with your holy and sacred laws. Entrust your people to a faithful Angel guardian; gather us all into your kingdom; give pardon to all who hope in you; forgive their sins and ours; purify us by the operation of your holy Spirit; destroy all the wiles of the foe against us’.

And then this prayer is added:

Blessed are you Lord, Master almighty, who made the day light with the light of the sun and the night radiant with the rays of fire; who have granted us to pass through the length of the day and to draw near the beginnings of the night. Hear our supplication and that of all your people. And pardoning all of us our offences, voluntary and involuntary, accept our evening entreaties and send down the multitude of your rich mercy and acts of compassion on your inheritance. Wall us about with your holy Angels; arm us with the arms of justice; fence us with the rampart of your truth; guard us by your power; deliver us from every misfortune and from every trick of the adversary. Grant us also that both the present day with the coming night and all the days of our life may be perfect, holy, peaceful, sinless, without stumbling, without dreams, at the prayers of the holy Mother of God and of all the Saints who have been well-pleasing to you since time began.

Second Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ our God, who, while still present with us in this life, gave your peace to humankind, and ever grant the gift of the all-holy Spirit to the faithful as an inheritance which cannot be taken away, you sent down this grace today in a more manifest form to your Disciples and Apostles and gave eloquence to their lips with tongues of fire, through which we, every race of humankind, having received the knowledge of God in our own language by the hearing of the ear, have been enlightened by the light of the Spirit, delivered from the darkness of error and, by the distribution and supernatural force of the perceptible tongues of fire, have been taught faith in you and have been illumined to speak of you as God with the Father and the holy Spirit in one Godhead, power and authority.

Do you, then, the radiance of the Father, the unchangeable and unalterable stamp of his Essence and nature, the source of salvation and grace, open also the lips of me, a sinner, and teach me how I should and for whom I ought to pray, for you know the multitude of my sins, but your compassion will overcome their measureless number. For see, with fear I stand before you, having cast away despair of my soul into the sea of your mercy. Govern my life, by the ineffable power of your wisdom, you who govern all creation by a word, who are the fair haven of the storm-tossed, and make known to me the way in which I shall walk.

Grant to my thoughts the Spirit of your wisdom, to my folly the Spirit of understanding, with the Spirit of your fear overshadow my deeds. Renew a right Spirit within my inward parts and make firm the instability of my mind with the sovereign Spirit, so that guided each day by your good Spirit to what is profitable, I may be found worthy to do your commandments and always keep in mind your Coming, which searches out all that we have done. Do not neglect me, so that I become deceived by the corrupted pleasures of the world, but give me strength to yearn for the enjoyment of the treasures which are to come. For you said, Master, that whatever someone asks in your name they receive without restraint from your co-eternal God and Father. And so I a sinner at the coming of your holy Spirit implore your goodness, ‘The things that I have prayed for grant me for my salvation’. Yes, Lord, the loving and most generous giver of every benefaction, for it is you who give superabundantly more than we ask. It is you who are compassionate, merciful, who without sin became a partaker in our flesh and who in loving compassion bend down to those who bend the knee to you and became the atonement for our sins. Give your people, Lord, your acts of pity; hear us from your holy heaven; sanctify us by the power of your saving right hand; shelter us in the shelter of your wings; do not despise the works of your hands. Against you alone we have sinned, but it is you alone that we adore. We do not know how to worship a strange god, nor to spread out our hands, Master, to another god. Forgive us our offences and, accepting our supplications on our bended knees, stretch out to us all a helping hand. Accept the prayer of all as acceptable incense, rising up before your kingdom, above all goodness.

And then this prayer is added:

Lord, Lord, who have delivered us from every arrow that flies by day, deliver us also from every deed that walks in darkness. Accept as an evening sacrifice the lifting up of our hands. Count us worthy also to pass through the stadium of the night untried by evils, and rescue us from every disturbance and fear which comes to us from the Devil. Grant our souls the grace of compunction and our thoughts concern for the examination at your dread and just judgement. Nail down our flesh with fear of you, and deaden our members that are on earth, so that, in the calm of sleep, we may be made radiant with joy by the contemplation of your judgements. Remove from us every unseemly imagining and harmful desire. Raise us up at the time for prayer strengthened in the faith and advancing in your commandments

Third Prayer:

Christ our God, ever-flowing Spring, source of life and illumination, co-eternal creative power of the Father, for the salvation of mortals, who fulfilled the whole dispensation with surpassing goodness; tore apart the indissoluble bonds of Death and the bars of Hell, trampling down multitudes of evil spirits; offered yourself as an unblemished oblation for our sake, giving your most pure body, intangible and inaccessible to every sin, as a sacrifice, and through this dread and inexpressible offering you granting us the grace of everlasting life. You descended into Hell, smashed the everlasting bars and showed the way up to those who sat below. With a bait of divine wisdom you hooked the author of evil, the dragon of the deep, bound him with cords of darkness in Tartarus and secured him with the unquenchable fire and the exterior darkness through your infinitely powerful strength. Glorious wisdom of the Father, who appeared to those in distress as a mighty helper and enlightened those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, Lord of unending glory, beloved Son of the most high Father, eternal light from eternal light, Sun of justice, hear us who entreat you and give rest to the souls of your servants who have fallen asleep before us, our fathers, mothers and brethren and the rest of our relatives according to the flesh and all our kinsfolk of the household of the faith, whose memory we too now keep, because in you is the might of all things and in your hand you hold all the ends of the earth.

Master almighty, God of our fathers and Lord of mercy, Creator of the mortal and immortal race and of every human nature that is brought together and again dissolved, of life and death, of our sojourn here and our translation there, you apportion times to the living and establish the moments of death. You lead down to Hell and you lead up. You bind with weakness and release with power. You dispose all things for our use and direct what is to come for our advantage. You give life by hope of resurrection to those wounded by the sting of Death. Master of all things, our God and Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off upon the sea, who on this final, great and saving day of Pentecost revealed to us the mystery of the holy, consubstantial, co-eternal, undivided and uncompounded Trinity and the coming and presence of your holy and life-giving Spirit poured out in the form of tongues of fire on your holy Apostles, setting them as Evangelists of our true faith, revealing them as confessors and heralds of true theology; who have also been pleased on this most perfect and saving Feast to receive suppliant prayers of atonement for those who are immured in Hell, granting us great hopes that repose and comfort will be sent down from you to the departed from the pains which hold them, hear us, lowly and wretched, who entreat you, and give rest to the souls of your servants who have fallen asleep before us in a place of light, a place of green pasture, a place of refreshment, from which all grief, sorrow and sighing have fled away, and establish their spirits in the tents of the Just and count them worthy of peace and repose. Because the dead will not praise you, O Lord, nor do those in Hell have the freedom to offer you thanksgiving, but we the living bless you and implore you and bring before you atoning prayers and sacrifices on behalf of their souls

And then this prayer is added:

God, great and eternal, holy and lover of humankind, who have counted us worthy to stand at this hour before your unapproachable glory to hymn and praise your wonders, be gracious to us, your unworthy servants. Grant us grace to offer you without conceit and with a broken heart the thrice-holy hymn of glory and thanksgiving for your great gifts, which you have made us and always do so.

Remember, Lord, our weakness and do not destroy us with our iniquities, but in our humiliation show us your great mercy, so that fleeing the darkness of sin we may walk in the daylight of justice; and having put on the weapons of light we may persevere unassailed by any assault of the evil one, and that with boldness we may glorify you for all things, the only true God and lover of humankind. For indeed, Master and Maker of all things, truly great is your mystery: the temporary dissolution of your creatures and after this their restoration and repose to the ages. We give thanks to you for all things, for our entrances into this world and for our departures, which through your unfailing promise betoken for us beforehand our hopes of resurrection and unending life. Would that we may enjoy it at your future second Coming, for you are the author of our resurrection and the impartial judge who loves humankind of what we have done in life, the Master and Lord of our reward.

Through your supreme condescension you became a partaker with us in the same flesh and blood and in those passions of ours that are blameless by willingly submitting to temptation, and, possessing compassionate pity, having yourself suffered by being tempted, and, as you promised, have yourself become a helper for us who are tempted, and so you have also led us to dispassion. Accept therefore, Master, our supplications and entreaties, and give rest to all the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and children of each, and to every other kinsman and relative, and to all the souls who have gone to their rest before us in the hope of resurrection to eternal life, and establish their spirits and their names in the book of life and in the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and in the land of the living, for the kingdom of heaven, in the Paradise of pleasure, through your shining Angels introducing them into your holy mansions. With them raise our bodies also on the day which you have appointed in accordance with your holy and unfailing promises. There is therefore no death for your servants, Lord, when we go out from the body and come to you, O God, but a translation from sorrowful things to better and more desirable, and rest and joy. But if we have in anything sinned against you, be gracious to us and them, because no one is clean of defilement before you, though they last but a day, except you alone, who appeared sinless upon earth, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we all hope to obtain mercy and forgiveness of sins. Therefore, as you are good and love humankind, remit, forgive, pardon us our faults, voluntary and involuntary, in knowledge and in ignorance, manifest and unnoticed, in deed, in thought, in word, of all our actions and movements. Give freedom and respite to those who have gone before us and bless all of us here present, granting a good and peaceful end to us and to all your people, and opening to us the compassion of your mercy and love for humankind at your dread and fearful Second Coming, and make us all worthy of your kingdom.

“Every translator is a traitor.”
(attributed to Eusebius Hieronymus – St. Jerome)

“Because no translation of the Bible is perfect or is acceptable to all groups of readers, and because discoveries of older manuscripts and further investigation of linguistic features of the text continue to become available, renderings of the Bible have proliferated.” (from “To the Reader” in the NRSV)

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It was in A.D. 1382 – about 70 years before the invention of the printing press – that the first entire Bible was translated into English: The Oxford / Wycliffe hand-written edition. Last spring, the latest translation of the English language Bible (the New Revised Standard Version – NRSV) was made available from the eight publishers that were licensed to print it. The translating committee of the NRSV worked under the auspices of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, which also holds the copyright.

A FAMILY LINEAGE OF ENGLISH BIBLES

The NRSV is the most recent revision in a family lineage of Bibles. Here is a brief look at them:

The WYCLIFFE BIBLE (1382) was, in part, an absolutely literal translation of the Latin, Greek and Hebrew manuscripts then available. But it also contained very free renderings (almost paraphrase) into 14th-century colloquial English. The Wycliffe Bible was immediately condemned by the Western church hierarchy.

In England, the KING JAMES VERSION (1611) was considered by much of the reading public to be a “barbarous” translation. One London clergyman claimed that the KJV “sounds like yesterday’s newspaper, and denies the divinity of Christ.” The Pilgrims who came to the New World in 1620 thought that the KJV was less a true Bible than a written reflection of their contemporary secular culture. They refused to bring it with them across the Atlantic. The translators of the KJV were called “damnable corruptors of God’s word.” A fifty-year struggle ensued before it was finally “authorized” to be read in the Anglican and Calvanist Churches in Great Britain. It became known there as “THE AUTHORIZED VERSION.”

The REVISED VERSION (1881-1895) was an update of the KJV. In its day, some considered it to be an “unfavorable paraphrase” of holy writ. The next Bible in this series of revisions was the AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION (1901). Conservatives immediately labeled it as too liberal in its renderings. The ownership of the copyright of the ASV passed to the International Council of Religious Education (one of the predecessors of the NCC’s Division of Education and Ministry). This council eventually began work on the next Bible within this tradition of the KJV.

The REVISED STANDARD VERSION (RSV) was released in piecemeal fashion amid both fanfare and controversy. The New Testament was published in 1946, the Old Testament was published in 1952, and the Apocrypha was completed in 1977, by which time the copyright was owned by the NCC. Many critics of the RSV, both during the mid-century as well as today, have called it “blasphemous and heretical.”

The preparation of all these Bibles was purely a Protestant effort (although Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox advice was sought for the full edition of the RSV). All have used a modified Elizabethan or Shakespearean, 17th century-English. Up through the 1950s, people thought that the King James Bible was what the Bible should sound like (despite the fact that the Greek of the New Testament was in the “koine,” or common tongue, and the Latin “Vulgate” Bible of the early 5th-century West was so called because it was rendered in the “vulgar,” common, or universal language of the era).

Of these Bibles, the KJV and the RSV have proven to be the most enduring, despite negative reactions from certain circles. And now, within this same family lineage comes THE NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION – the NRSV (1990). Like its 17th-century British predecessor, the NRSV has 1) used the most currently available scholarship and authoritative manuscripts of the Hebrew O.T. and the Greek N.T., and it has 2) reflected the English language of its contemporary culture.

WHY CONTINUE TO REVISE?

As alluded to above, one reason for Biblical revision is that continual development in archaeological discoveries of secular and sacred sites, artifacts, and manuscripts help translators further their understanding of the vocabulary, grammar, and idioms of the Greek and Semitic texts. The result of all this is that the texts of the ancient documents have become more and more clear through serious and faithful study. Thus, the glaring errors and misunderstandings of earlier editions of the Bible have progressively been addressed, and what was once considered to be a definitive translation eventually became outdated.

A second reason for Biblical revision is the continual development of the “living” English language. Words and expressions of one generation do not necessarily carry the same meaning in successive generations. What may be considered in one era to be a venerable, dignified, majestic, reverent, and uplifting rendering may, in a later era, be misleading or even meaningless to the reader, the hearer, the one who chants the proclamation of the Scriptures, or even – sadly – the homilist.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE KING JAMES VERSION

The Old Testament of the KJV was based largely on manuscripts edited by Hebrew scribes between the 6th and the 9th centuries A.D. This text is called the “Masoretic” or Hebrew Bible. The N.T. of the KJV relied on very late Greek manuscripts that were based largely on originals from the 10th century. They were the only manuscripts available to the 17th-century scholars. Due to the obvious limitations of having only very late manuscripts from which to translate, the KJV is seen today to contain many defects and errors if compared to the most widely circulated (and thus, most widely accepted) and most ancient manuscripts.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE REVISIONS

Between 1611 and the mid-20th century, more ancient and more accurate Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Aramaic manuscripts and manuscript fragments of the Bible were located. For the O.T., these pre date the manuscripts that were available for the translation of the KJV in some cases by one thousand years. For the N.T., these newly recovered manuscripts had been copied only two or three centuries after the original composition of the books. These earlier editions of the Scriptures contain fewer accumulations of copyists’ errors that crept in over the centuries. (Take for example KJV 1 John 5:7: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This is a very interesting and theologically profound statement. But it is absent from the RV and descendents. Critical study has found that this verse was a late addition to the Bible, and despite its theological significance, it has been deleted.) So, as each revision of the Bible was produced, more and more ancient manuscripts were compared: more and more authenticity and reliability was achieved.

Like the RV of 1895 and the ASV of 1901, the RSV of 1977 still remained faithful in many ways to the KJV. Thus, while clearly remaining within the linguistic tradition of the KJV, the RSV became a more accurate and faithful translation of the original Scriptures in recovering the original wording of the Hebrew and Greek texts than the KJV had been.

The RSV sought to “embody the best results of modern scholarship as to the meaning of the Scriptures, and express this meaning in English diction which is designed for use in public and private worship and preserves those qualities which have given to the King James Version a supreme place in English literature” (from the Preface to the RSV). Linguistically, this meant that 17th-century English usage was still the basis of the text. The RSV was clearly not a new translation of the Bible in contemporary language. It was, rather, a modification of Elizabethan English. The RSV preserved archaic forms (e.g., the use of thee, thou, thy, thine). It also preserved the verb endings -eth and -th. And it kept such archaic (obsolete?) expressions as it came to pass, peradventure, must needs, etc. But there were other words that, in 1611, had been accurate translations of the Hebrew and Greek. By the mid-20th-century these words had changed in meaning (e.g., “prevent” once meant “precede,” “conversation” once meant “conduct,” “ghost” once meant “spirit,” etc.)

THE SEPTUAGINT AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

The SEPTUAGINT (LXX) is a 3rd-century B.C. translation of the Old Testament by Hebrew scholars into then-contemporary Greek, so that the Jews of the day could understand the Scriptures. (They no longer spoke nor understood Hebrew.) The LXX was the O.T. text most often (but not exclusively) quoted by the writers of the New Testament. The LXX was the version of the O.T. most widely used by the early Christian community. It was also the usual (but not exclusive) edition of the O.T. used by the Fathers of the Church in their writings and homilies. So the LXX, rather than the Hebrew Bible, became the authoritative version of the O.T. for Orthodox Christians. In the places where the wording of the LXX differs from the Hebrew (and this is frequent), the Church maintains that of the two, the LXX was made under the inspiration and revelation of the Holy Spirit. For example, see Psalm 51:5, Isaiah 26:17-18, or Isaiah 7:14 (and then Matthew 1:23) in various versions of the Bible. (See also T. Ware, THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, p. 208)

Neither the KJV nor any of its descendents mentioned in this article used the LXX as a primary text for the translation of the O.T. The LXX was a secondary reference, used only when the Hebrew or Aramaic Bible needed clarification. Thus, from the standpoint of the Eastern Orthodox Church (which considers the LXX as the official, authorized text of the O.T.) each version of the Bible cited here perpetuates a number of omissions, inaccuracies, and deficiencies.

At the suggestion in 1973 of His Eminence Athenagoras, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain THE OXFORD ANNOTATED BIBLE WITH THE APOCRYPHA – REVISED STANDARD VERSION was published in 1977. This version comprised the O.T., N.T., and the completed edition of the “Apocrypha” (as the Protestants call it) or “Deutero-Canonical books” (as the Roman Catholics call them). Archbishop Athenagoras then officially endorsed the use of this Bible. It should be noted that although this 1977 translation of the Apocrypha relied primarily upon a 1935 edition of the LXX, it remains a fact that in the overall translation of the RSV O.T., the LXX is largely absent. (Remember that the work done in the preparation of this Bible was overwhelmingly Protestant, so there was a Western bias against the use of the LXX.) Nonetheless, despite its limitations, this complete edition of the RSV has been used as a textbook in most Orthodox (and non-Orthodox) seminary and university courses in Holy Scripture. It has been the basis for more Orthodox and (non-Orthodox) scholarly works on the Bible than any other English translation. It has been used more often in Orthodox (and non-Orthodox) liturgical translations and services of worship, as well as in church school curricula than any other American translation. It has been a truly “standard” text for some time.

THE KING JAMES VERSION

An American modernization of the KJV, revising punctuation, pronouns, and some of the archaic vocabulary of the KJV appeared in 1982. It was produced independently of the “family lineage” of the KJV mentioned in this article. It is called THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION – (NKJV). In its preparation, Greek LXX texts (together with the Latin Vulgate, and resources from manuscripts from the Dead Sea Caves) were consulted, but they were incorporated into this Bible only very minimally. The NKJV, being the work of American Evangelical Protestants, does not contain the Apocrypha (as do British editions of the KJV). Thus, the many omissions, errors, and deficiencies of the KJV have been perpetuated in the NKJV.

THE NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION

For the past seventeen years, preparation of the NRSV has taken into account the continuous progress and developments in biblical scholarship, archaeological finds; clarification of Greek and Semitic texts and vocabulary; and the understanding of the historical, social, political, and religious backgrounds of scriptural writers. For its preparation, scholars were selected from throughout Christendom: twenty-four Protestant, five Roman Catholic, and one Eastern Orthodox. A Jewish scholar was also part of the translating committee. During the nearly two decades of preparation, the translators worked on the books of the Bible for which they were individually responsible, and then annually gathered for one week in January and one week in June to work together on the texts. The NRSV is termed, by the holder of the copyright, “A Standard for Our Time.”

Since the English language has changed more during the past four decades than at any time in history – and although these changes have been subtle, they have been substantive – it has been felt that a new revision within the lineage of the KJV was needed. The NRSV was intended to express Biblical terms in the literary style of today. The NRSV was intended to be “somewhat more literal than the RSV.” It departs less often from the Hebrew Masoretic text of the O.T. than the RSV. For the Orthodox, this fact creates obvious difficulties. However, even though the NRSV was to be as “literal as possible” in relation to the ancient manuscripts (Hebrew O.T. and Greek N.T.), it sought to be “as free as necessary” in order to guarantee that the English meaning is the same as it was in these original languages. Rather than continue with a modification of Elizabethan “churchley” language, the NRSV renders pronouns, verbs, and now-archaic expressions in the contemporary idiom. It corrects the often-confusing word order of the earlier versions, which followed the word order of an ancient language very closely, as in Zechariah 3:3 (compare KJV, RSV, and NRSV). It improves the clarity of the text for oral proclamation where it is impossible to distinguish between two homonyms, even given the context, as in Genesis 37:7 (again, compare KJV, RSV, and NRSV). The NRSV is not an “inclusive-language” Bible in the common understanding of that term. But, it thoroughly corrects the inaccuracies of the inherent masculine bias of the English language.

The initial reactions to the NRSV from Orthodox scholars (biblical and otherwise) have ranged from “I can find absolutely nothing good about it – nothing at all,” to “As far as I am concerned, the NRSV is the best translation available.” Most, however, being less zealous, give the NRSV qualified praise or qualified denunciation.

In order to keep any Orthodox Christian reaction to the NRSV in perspective, a noteworthy reminder would be that in Greece in 1901, the publication of a translation of the New Testament in contemporary Greek led to the downfall of the government and to student demonstrations in which eight people were killed. Although this is an extreme example, it typifies the intense concern for the Orthodox regarding the task of translating the Holy Scriptures.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE…

The NRSV uses common-gender nouns and pronouns in referring to both men and women, when this was the context of the ancient texts. Unfortunately, in the past, these pronouns have been traditionally rendered in English in masculine form. The word “ish” in Hebrew and the Greek word “anthropos” have invariably been translated into English as “man”. The original understanding of these terms was “human species,” “human person: man and woman,” not exclusively “adult male,” or “husband” (which are specifically meant by the Greek word “aner”). The NRSV happily does not perpetuate the use of “man” or “men” when humanity (both men and women) is intended. An example of this is the declaration that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:25).

Another instance of the use of common gender noun is the Greek “adelphos” or “adelphoi.” Previously this word has been translated into English as “brother,” “brethren,” or “brotherhood.” But the Greek (and its Hebrew equivalent) can mean either physical or spiritual relative/s or “brothers and sisters” and often referred to the whole Church. (See 1 Peter 2:17: RSV “Love the brotherhood.” NRSV: “Honor the family of believers.” – Vespers for Ss. Peter and Paul.) Note the manner in which most of the Epistles are introduced at Liturgy: “Brethren…” Clearly male exclusivity was NOT intended in the original texts. “Brother(s)” simply referred to the assembly of men and women which made up the local familial or ecclesial community. For examples, see Psalm 122:8 (RSV: “For my brethren and companions’ sake…” NRSV: “For the sake of my relatives and friends…”) and Psalm 133:1 (RSV: “Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” NRSV: “…when kindred live together in unity”). Both of these are chanted at Daily Lenten Vespers and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Other examples are Matthew 25:40 (RSV: “…one of the least of these, my brethren” NRSV: “…least of these who are members of my family” – Liturgy for the Sunday of the Last Judgement) and 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (RSV: “But we would not have you ignorant, brethren…” NRSV: “…brothers and sisters” – Liturgy for the Departed).

For the obvious distinction between brothers and sisters in the Greek, see Matthew 19:29 (Liturgy for the Sunday of All Saints). In correcting the innacuracies of the inherent masculine bias of the English language, the translators of the NRSV have attempted to undo the sexual bias of the original languages and cultures from which the Scriptures have been handed down. See Psalm 95:9; Luke 1:55, etc., where “father/s” and “forefather/s” mean “ancestor/s,” and “forebear/s.” In so doing, has the (historically factual, albeit inequitable) male domination within these cultures and their languages has been nuanced away?

HOWEVER…

When trying to be sensitive to the issues of legitimate gender-neutrality, and necessary intelligibility to the 20th-century reader, the English terms chosen by the translators at times provide awkward, forced, historically inaccurate, and even theologically questionable results.

In the NRSV, the terms “humankind” and “mortal/s” were often preferred over “people” or “humanity.” Regarding “humankind,” it might simply be a question of un-idiomatic grammar or lack of euphony. But the gender-neutral term “mortal” tends to focus not so much on humanity as such (the intended connotation of the original “anthropos”), but rather on mortality. Does this puzzle or enlighten? See Psalm 8:4 RSV: “what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?” NRSV: “what are human beings that you are mindful…mortals that you care for them?” (See also Psalm 144:3.)

The use of the stylistic title “son of man” (meaning “human”) in Ezekiel 2:1,ff and Daniel 8:17 is rendered in the NRSV “mortal” where the particular human being addressed was in fact a male. In addition, the Savior used this apocalyptic, messianic title for Himself – Matthew 25:13, Mark 13:26, John 3:13-14, and Apocalypse 1:13. This title is traced back to Daniel 7:13. The NRSV relegates this term to a footnote, giving as the actual TEXT of Daniel 7:13 “one like a human being.” Again, theological concerns might well be raised.

For further examples – good, not-so-good, and otherwise: Psalm 1:1 (RSV: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked…” NRSV: “Happy are those…” – Vespers on Saturday evenings and the eves of most Feasts); Mark 2:27 (RSV: “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” NRSV: “The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath” – Liturgy for the first Saturday of Great Lent); John 12:32 (RSV: “…and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” NRSV: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” – Matins for the Feast of the Holy Cross); 1 Corinthians 13:11 (RSV: “When I was a child (Greek = “infant”), I spoke like a child…; when I became a man (Greek = “aner,” English = “male”), I gave up childish ways.” NRSV: “…when I became an adult…”) But St. Paul was in fact a male human being.

For further comparisons, see KJV, RSV, and NRSV: Ephesians 5:22,ff (for the Crowning of a Marriage); 1 Tim 2:3; 12 (Liturgy for the 26th Thursday after Pentecost) – compare this with Exodus 21:2 (LXX).

Gender-neutral sensitivity is one thing. Theology is another. In Galatians 4:4-7: “But when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman…so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hears, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir.” (RSV – Liturgy for the Nativity of Christ). In each case, the NRSV changes “son/s” to “child/ren.” The obvious parallelism between the “Son” and “son/s” is lost. Also, the term “child/ren” does not necessarily connote the implied filial relationship, but rather, a stage of development between birth and puberty. Has fidelity to the text (and by extension, fidelity to the faith and worship of the Church) truly been preserved in the best possible manner?

Serious theological implications are also evident in the translation of Matthew 10:38 (Liturgy for All Saints Sunday). The Greek (and RSV) is: “…he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me…” The NRSV, in a well-intended attempt to avoid the masculine pronoun, runs: “whoever does not take up the cross and follow me…” Is it the Savior’s Cross, or our own individual Cross that must be taken up? Clearly the Greek means our OWN Cross. Vicarious suffering for us by the Lord Jesus is not the intent of this verse. All of the Saints (and that’s us as well) are called to a mystical if not actual co-crucifixion, and co-suffering with the Savior in order to rise with Him and reign with Him (see Colossians 2:11-12 and Romans 6:3-4).

In attempts to render the message more intellegible for 20th-century readers, the NRSV has modified elements of the original texts which reflect specifically the culture, customs, and elements of the Mediterranean world in the 1st century. Take for example the fact that at the tax-collector Levi’s banquet, the guests reclined at table – the usual manner of partaking of a meal (Luke 5:29 – Liturgy for the 21st Saturday after Pentecost). The NRSV reports that they were “sitting at the table,” and the footnote states that “reclining” is the Greek term. Should “reclining” have been preserved in the text of the Scriptures, with an explanatory footnote about Middle East practice?

For the Orthodox, these issues warrant study for two reasons. Faithful translation of the actual text of the Holy Scriptures is just as vital as faithful transmission of the actual context and historical situation (however limited and fallen) into which the actual text of the Holy Scriptures was revealed, incarnated, and recorded.

Another special concern to Orthodox Christians is the NRSV rendering of Psalm 51:5. This Psalm is important because it occurs quite often in the liturgy of the Church. It is also important because it is one of the instances where the Scriptures articulate most poignantly and eloquently the basis of our understanding of Christian anthropology, original (or ancestral) sin, and the theology of salvation. Remember that the O.T. for the Orthodox is the LXX. The LXX reads: “Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me…” This is quite different from the Masoretic Hebrew, used by the KJV, the RSV, NKJV, NRSV, and virtually all Western Bibles, English or otherwise. The emphasis of these Western editions is that: 1) in sin and/or guilt my mother conceived me; and 2) I was born guilty / in sin; etc. Although this is typical of the theology of Western Christendom, it is highly foreign to the theology of Eastern Christendom.

The greatly loved hymn of the Divine Liturgy, “Only-begotten Son and immortal Word of God…” (attributed to St. Justinian the Great) takes as its source the term “monogenes” from John 1:14; 3:16; 1 John 4:9 (see also 1 John 5:18). This is not the place for a detailed study of this expression. However, suffice it to state here that an only child (Luke 7:12: the son of the widow of Nain; Luke 8:42: Jairus’ daughter; Hebrews 11:7: Abraham’s son Isaac) AND the Only-begotten Son of God are simply different. The Risen Lord Jesus is the pre-existent, Only-begotten God, the Son. The NRSV has taken this title and rendered it “…the Father’s only Son.” Could a greater sensitivity to the Tradition of the doctrinal formuale and hymnography of the Church have been useful in rendering the translation of this term?

In the NRSV, the second verse of the very first book of the Bible (read at the Vespers of the first day of Great Lent and at certain feasts) becomes “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” The footnote states: “OR while the spirit of God OR while a mighty wind.” The KJV states: “And the Spirit of God moved…” The RSV: “the Spirit of God” (with the footnote: “OR wind”) Other contemporary English Bibles vary from “spirit of God,” to “a divine wind,” to “a great wind.” The Hebrew of Genesis 1:2 is “ruah;” the Greek is “pneuma.” Both of these terms may be translated “spirit,” “breath,” “life,” or “wind.” For obvious reasons, Christians might prefer the use of the word “spirit” for this verse. All these meanings are equally revelatory and significant. Sometimes it is simply not possible to find a single English equivalent term to render the full bredth, meaning and overtones of a Hebrew or Greek original. Perhpas the KJV and RSV take just as many liberties to project upon this word the Christian interpretation with a capitalized “Spirit” as does the NRSV and other Bibles in rendering it “wind,” “breath,” etc?

This present First Edition of the NRSV may not actually become “a standard for our time.” It is in many ways a verbal icon (if you will) OF our time. It has taken advantage of the very latest and best in the field of Biblical scholarship of the Hebrew O.T. and the Greek N.T. (but alas, not the LXX). Within the lineage of the KJV, it has consistently shifted English usage to the contemporary “koine” or “vulgate” of today’s America. It has avoided the enticements of “feminist theology” that would androgenize the language concerning the Holy One that He Himself has revealed to us (see Psalm 118). It has not (unfortunately) avoided some insensitivity to theological and cultural issues that are part of the faithful transmission and Tradition of the Word of God to His people. Because it has attempted to be inclusive to some, it has become exclusive to others (a sign of our times).

The NRSV is a human translation of the Divine revelation. And despite the tremendous scholarship, untiring dedication, and meticulous care of this work – or any “synergia” (our cooperation or fellow-working with God), we will always end up with a fallible, human product: limited and fallen – no matter HOW good, correct, and orthodox.

An Orthodox assessment of the NRSV? This author is unqualified for such a task. However, we must not deny the legitimite good work done in the NRSV. We would do well to give thanks to God for whatever in it is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8, NRSV). Where we see it to be less than illuminating, we would also do well not to curse its dark points, but seek to improve what calls out for improvement, fidelity, and enlightenment.

The NRSV may well prove to be just the catalyst to motivate English-speaking Orthdox Christians to begin the work of translating an edition of the Holy Scriptures. Perhpas the nine Orthodox jurisdictions belonging to the NCC (and any others, for that matter) could assign biblical and linguistic scholars from among their ranks to prepare an Orthodox Christian revision. (The Roman Catholics produced the RSV Catholic Edition in 1966.) Biblical translating is an awe-some vocation. The translator stands on holy ground, bearing the tremendous responsibility of articulating the revealed language of Theophany in the common language of humanity. The effort of a pan-Orthodox team of translators and editors could pick up where the NRSV has left off. They could produce an accurate, Orthodox verbal icon of the Good News of salvation adequate to and authorized for proclamation in the midst of the contemporary American liturgical assembly. This Bible would not be so much an icon of the present age (there are enough of those). Rather, it could be a verbal icon of Him Whose glory is unto the ages of ages – Who was revealed and became incarnate within this age.

The Jesus Prayer

Fr. Thomas Hopko

The most normal form of unceasing prayer in the Orthodox tradition is the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer is the form of invocation used by those practicing mental prayer, also called the “prayer of the heart.” The words of the prayer most usually said are “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The choice of this particular verse has a theological and spiritual meaning.

First of all, it is centered on the name of Jesus because this is the name of Him whom “God has highly exalted,” the name given to the Lord by God Himself (Luke 1:31), the “name which is above every name.” (Philippians 2:9-10, cf Ephesians 1:21)

…for there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

All prayer for Christians must be performed in the name of Jesus: “if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)

The fact that the prayer is addressed to Jesus as Lord and Christ and Son of God is because this is the center of the entire faith revealed by God in the Spirit.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered, “Blessed are you…for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven…and on this rock I will build my Church…” (Matthew 16:16-18)

That Jesus is the Christ, and that the Christ is Lord is the essence of the Christian faith and the foundation of the Christian church. To believe and proclaim this is granted by the Holy Spirit.

…no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:3)

… every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:11)

In calling Jesus the Son of God is to acknowledge God as His Father. To do this is, at the same time, to have God as one’s own Father, and this too is granted by the indwelling Spirit.

And when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:4-6)

When we cry “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God … (Romans 8:15-16)

Thus, to pray “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” is already to be a child of God, and already to be certain that the Holy Spirit is in you. In this way, the Jesus Prayer brings the Spirit of God into the heart of man.

“Have mercy on me a sinner” is the publican’s prayer. When uttered with humble conviction it brings divine justification. (cf. Luke 18:9-14) Generally speaking, divine mercy is what man needs most of all. It is for this reason that the numberless repetition of the request for the Lord’s mercy is found everywhere in the prayers of, the Church.

And finally, all men are sinners. To know this is a fact, and to confess it with faith is to be justified and forgiven by God. (cf. Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:1-3)

The Jesus Prayer basically is used in three different ways. First as the verse used for the “prayer of the heart” in silence in the hesychast method of prayer. Second as the continual mental and unceasing prayer of the faithful outside the hesychast tradition. And third as the brief ejaculatory prayer used to ward off temptations. Of course, in the actual life of a person these three uses of the prayer are often interrelated and combined.

In the hesychast method of prayer the person sits alone in a bodily position with his head bowed and his eyes directed toward his chest or his stomach. He continually repeats the prayer with each aspiration and breath, placing his “mind in his heart” by concentrated attention. He empties his mind of all rational thoughts and discursive reasoning, and also voids his mind of every picture and image. Then, without thought or imagination, but with all proper attention and concentration he rhythmically repeats the Jesus Prayer in silence – hesychia means silence – and through this method of contemplative prayer is united to God by the indwelling of Christ in the Spirit. According to the fathers, such a prayer, when faithfully practiced within the total life of the Church, brings the experience of the uncreated divine light of God and unspeakable joy to the soul. Its purpose is to make man a servant of God.

…the mind when it unites with the heart is filled with unspeakable joy and delight. Then a man sees that the Kingdom of heaven is truly within us.

When you enter the place of the heart…give thanks to God, and praising His mercy, keep always to this activity, and it will teach you things which you will learn in no other way.

…when your mind becomes established in the heart, it must not remain idle, but it should constantly repeat the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” and never cease.

For this practice, keeping the mind from dreaming, renders it invincible against all suggestions of the devil and every day leads it more and more to love and longing for God. (St. Nicephorus, 14th c., Discourse on Sobriety)

To practice the hesychast method of prayer requires always and without exception the guidance of a spiritual guide, one must not use this method unless one is a person of genuine humility and sanity, filled with all wisdom and peace. To use this method without guidance or humble wisdom, is to court spiritual disaster, for the temptations that come with it are many. Indeed, the abuses of the method became so great in recent centuries that its use was greatly curtailed. Bishop Theophan tells that the bodily postures and breathing techniques were virtually forbidden in his time since, instead of gaining the Spirit of God, people succeeded only “in ruining their lungs.” (cf. The Art of Prayer, lgumen Chariton, ed.)

Such abusive and abortive used of the method – itself something genuine and richly rewarding were already known in fourteenth century Byzantium when St. Gregory Palamas defended the tradition. And evidence exists from as early as the fourth century to show that even then people were using the prayer foolishly and to no avail by reducing it to a “thing in itself” and being captivated by its form without interest in its purpose. Indeed, the idolatrous interest in spiritual technique and in the pleasurable benefits of “spirituality” and “mysticism” are the constant temptations of the spiritual life – and the devil’s most potent weapon. Bishop Theophan called such interest “spiritual hedonism”; John of the Cross (16th c. Spain) called it “spiritual gluttony” and “spiritual luxury.” Thus, by way of example from various times and places, come the following admonitions.

Those who refuse to work with their hands under the pretext that one should pray without ceasing, in reality do not pray either. Through idleness…they entangle the soul in a labyrinth of thoughts…and make it incapable of prayer. (St. Nilus of Sinai, 5th c., Texts on Prayer)

As long as you pay attention only to bodily posture for prayer and your mind cares only for the external beauty of the tabernacle (i.e. proper forms), know that you have not yet found the place of prayer and its blessed way is still far from you.

Know that in the midst of all spiritual joy and consolation, that it is still more necessary to serve God with devotion and fear. (St. Nilus of Sinai, Texts on Prayer)

It is natural for the mind to reject what is at hand and dream of something else to come … to build fantasies and imaginings about achievements before he has attained them. Such a man is in considerable danger of losing what he has and failing into self-delusion and being deprived of good sense. He becomes only a dreamer and not a man of continual prayer (i.e. a hesychast). (St. Gregory of Sinai, 14th c., Texts on Commandments and Dogmas)

If you are truly practicing the continual prayer of silence, hoping to be with God and you see something sensory or spiritual, within or without, be it even the image of Christ, or an angel, or some saint, or if an image of light pervades your mind in no way accept it…always be displeased with such images, and keep your mind clear, without image or form…and you will suffer no harm. It has often happened that such things, even when sent by God as a test before victory, have turned into harm for many…who have then done harm to others equally unwise…leading to pride and self-conceit.

For the fathers say that those who live rightly and are faultless in their behavior with other men…who seek God with obedience, questioning and wise humility…will always be protected from harm by the grace of Christ. (St. Gregory of Sinai, Instructions to Hesychasts)

The use of the Jesus Prayer outside the hesychast method for unceasing prayer is to repeat the prayer constantly and continually, whatever one is doing, without the employment of any particular bodily postures or breathing techniques. This is the way taught by St. Gregory Palamas in his short discourse about how unceasing mental prayer is the duty of all Christians. (see p. 130) Anyone can do this, whatever his occupation or position in life. This also is shown in The Way of the Pilgrim.

The purpose and results of this method of prayer are those generally of all prayer: that men might be continually united with God by unceasing remembrance of His presence and perpetual invocation of His name, so that one might always serve Him and all men with the virtues of Christ and the fruits of the Spirit.

The third method of using the Jesus Prayer is to have it always ready for moments of temptation. In this way, as St. John Climacus has said, you can “flog your enemies, i.e. the temptations, with the name of Jesus for there is no stronger weapon in heaven or on earth.” (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 21) This method works best when one practices the prayer without ceasing, joining “to every breath a sober invocation of Jesus’ name.” (Evagrius of Pontus) When one practices the continual “prayer of the heart,” and when the temptations to sin enter the heart, they are met by the prayer and are defeated by grace.

Man cannot live in this world without being tempted. When temptation comes to a person, there are only three possible results. Either the person immediately yields to the temptation and sins, or he tries to ward off the temptation by the power of his will, and is ultimately defeated after great vexation and strife. Or else he fights off the temptation by the power of Christ in his heart which is present only by prayer. This does not mean that he “prays the temptation away.” Or that God miraculously and magically descends to deliver him. It means rather that his soul is so filled with the grace and the power of God that the temptation can have no effect. It is in this sense that the Apostle John has written: “no one who abides in Christ sins.” (1 John 3:6)

He who sins is of the devil…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God commits sins; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin for he is born of God. By this may be seen who are children of God, and who are children of the devil. (I John 3:8-10)

One becomes a child of God, born of God in the Church through baptism. One continues as a child of God and does not sin only by continual prayer: the remembrance of God, the abiding in Him, the calling upon His name without ceasing in the soul. The third use of the Jesus Prayer, like the first two, is to accomplish this end: that man might not sin.

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The Jesus Prayer

by Fr. Steven Peter Tsichlis

Prayer is the basis of our Christian life, the source of our experience of Jesus as the Risen Lord. Yet how few Christians know how to pray with any depth! For most of us, prayer means little more than standing in the pews for an hour or so on Sunday morning or perhaps reciting, in a mechanical fashion, prayers once learned by rote during childhood. Our prayer life-and thus our life as Christians-remains, for the most part, at this superficial level.

THE CHALLENGE OF ST. PAUL

But this approach to the life of prayer has nothing to do with the Christianity of St. Paul, who urges the Christians of first century Thessalonica to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:1~). And in his letter to Rome, the Apostle instructs the Christian community there to “be constant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12). He not only demands unceasing prayer of the Christians in his care, but practices it himself. “We constantly thank God for you” (I Thess. 2:13) he writes in his letter to the Thessalonian community; and he comforts Timothy, his “true child in the faith” (I Tim. 1:2) with the words: “Always I remember you in my prayers” (II Tim. 1:3). In fact, whenever St. Paul speaks of prayer in his letters, two Greek words repeatedly appear: PANTOTE (pantote), which means always; and ADIALEPTOS (adialeptos), meaning without interruption or unceasingly. Prayer is then not merely a part of life which we can conveniently lay aside if something we deem more important comes up; prayer is all of life. Prayer is as essential to our life as breathing. This raises some important questions. How can we be expected to pray all the time? We are, after all, very busy people. Our work, our spouse, our children, school-all place heavy demands upon our time. How can we fit more time for prayer into our already overcrowded lives? These questions and the many others like them which could be asked set up a false dichotomy in our lives as Christians. To pray does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things or to spend time with God in contrast to spending time with our family and friends. Rather, to pray means to think and live our entire life in the Presence of God. As Paul Evdokimov has remarked: “Our whole life, every act and gesture, even a smile must become a hymn or adoration, an offering, a prayer. We must become prayer-prayer incarnate.” This is what St. Paul means when he writes to the Corinthians that “whatever you do, do it for the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31).

THE JESUS PRAYER

In order to enter more deeply into the life of prayer and to come to grips with St. Paul’s challenge to pray unceasingly, the Orthodox Tradition offers the Jesus Prayer, which is sometimes called the prayer of the heart. The Jesus Prayer is offered as a means of concentration, as a focal point for our inner life. Though there are both longer and shorter versions, the most frequently used form of the Jesus Prayer is: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This prayer, in its simplicity and clarity, is rooted in the Scriptures and the new life granted by the Holy Spirit. It is first and foremost a prayer of the Spirit because of the fact that the prayer addresses Jesus as Lord, Christ and Son of God; and as St. Paul tells us, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (I Cor. 12:3).

THE SCRIPTURAL ROOTS OF THE JESUS PRAYER

The Scriptures give the Jesus Prayer both its concrete form and its theological content. It is rooted in the Scriptures in four ways:

1) In its brevity and simplicity, it is the fulfillment of Jesus’ command that “in praying” we are “not to heap up empty phrases as the heathen do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them . . . (Matt. 6:7-8).

2) The Jesus Prayer is rooted in the Name of the Lord. In the Scriptures, the power and glory of God are present in his Name. In the Old Testament to deliberately and attentively invoke God’s Name was to place oneself in his Presence. Jesus, whose name in Hebrew means God saves, is the living Word addressed to humanity. Jesus is the final Name of God. Jesus is “the Name which is above all other names” and it is written that “all beings should bend the knee at the Name of Jesus” (Phil. 2:9-10). In this Name devils are cast out (Luke 10:17), prayers are answered (John 14:13,14) and the lame are healed (Acts 3:6-7). The Name of Jesus is unbridled spiritual power.

3) The words of the Jesus Prayer are themselves based on Scriptural texts: the cry of the blind man sitting at the side of the road near Jericho, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Luke 18:38); the ten lepers who “called to him, ‘Jesus, Master, take pity on us’ ” (Luke 17:13); and the cry for mercy of the publican, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:14).

4) It is a prayer in which the first step of the spiritual journey is taken: the recognition of our own sinfulness, our essential estrangement from God and the people around us. The Jesus Prayer is a prayer in which we admit our desperate need of a Saviour. For “if we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth” (I John 1:8).

THE THREE LEVELS OF PRAYER

Because prayer is a living reality, a deeply personal encounter with the living God, it is not to be confined to any given classification or rigid analysis. However, in order to offer some broad, general guidelines for those interested in using the Jesus Prayer to develop their inner life, Theophan the Recluse, a 1 9th century Russian spiritual writer, distinguishes three levels in the saying of the Prayer:

1) It begins as oral prayer or prayer of the lips, a simple recitation which Theophan defines as prayers ‘verbal expression and shape.” Although very important, this level of prayer is still external to us and thus only the first step, for “the essence or soul of prayer is within a man’s mind and heart.”

2) As we enter more deeply into prayer, we reach a level at which we begin to pray without distraction. Theophan remarks that at this point, “the mind is focused upon the words” of the Prayer,”speaking them as if they were our own.”

3) The third and final level is prayer of the heart. At this stage prayer is no longer something we do but who we are. Such prayer, which is a gift of the Spirit, is to return to the Father as did the prodigal son (Luke 15~ 32). The prayer of the heart is the prayer of adoption, when “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit that cries ‘Abba, Father!’ ” (Gal. 4:6).

THE FRUITS OF THE JESUS PRAYER

This return to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit is the goal of all Christian spirituality. It is to be open to the presence of the Kingdom in our midst. The anonymous author of The Way of the Pilgrim reports that the Jesus Prayer has two very concrete effects upon his vision of the world. First, it transfigures his relation ship with the material creation around him; the world becomes transparent, a sign, a means of communicating God’s presence. He writes: “When I prayed in my heart, everything around me seemed delightful and marvelous. The trees, the grass, the birds, the air, the light seemed to be telling me that they existed for man’s sake, that they witnessed to the love of God for man, that all things prayed to God and sang his praise.” Second, the Prayer transfigures his relationship to his fellow human beings. His relationships are given form within their proper context: the forgiveness and compassion of the crucified and risen Lord. “Again I started off on my wanderings. But now I did not walk along as before, filled with care. The invocation of the Name of Jesus gladdened my way. Everybody was kind to me. If anyone harms me I have only to think, ‘How sweet is the Prayer of Jesus!’ and the injury and the anger alike pass away and I forget it all.”

ENDLESS GROWTH

“Growth in prayer has no end,” Theophan informs us. “If this growth ceases, it means that life ceases.” The way of the heart is endless because the God whom we seek is infinite in the depths of his glory. The Jesus Prayer is a signpost along the spiritual journey, a journey that all of us must take.

The purpose of this pamphlet is merely to introduce the practice of the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer cannot be separated from the sacramental life of the Church and asceticism. The following books are recommended for further study:

The Art of Prayer edited with an introduction by Kallistos Ware (Faber and Faber: London) 1966
The Power of the Name by Kallistos Ware (SLG Press: Oxford) 1974
The Way of a Pilgrim translated by R. M. French (Seabury Press: New York) 1965
Christ is in our Midst by Father John of New Valaamo (St. Vladimirs’ Seminary Press: New York) 1980
The Jesus Prayer by Per-Olof Sjogren (Fortress Press: Philadelphia) 1975
Prayer of the Heart by George A. Maloney (Ave Maria Press: Notre Dame) 1980

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The Jesus Prayer

by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

THOSE WHO HAVE read The way of a Pilgrim are familiar with the expression ‘The Jesus Prayer’. It refers to a short prayer the words of which are: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,’ constantly repeated. The Way of a Pilgrim is the story of a man who wanted to learn to pray constantly (1Thes 5:I7). As the man whose experience is being related is a pilgrim, a great many of his psychological characteristics, and the way in which he learned and applied the prayer, were conditioned by the fact that he lived in a certain way, which makes the book less universally applicable than it could be; and yet it is the best possible introduction to this prayer, which is one of the greatest treasures of the Orthodox Church.

The prayer is profoundly rooted in the spirit of the gospel, and it is not in vain that the great teachers of Orthodoxy have always insisted on the fact that the Jesus Prayer sums up the whole of the gospel. This is why the Jesus Prayer can only be used in its fullest sense if the person who uses it belongs to the gospel, is a member of the Church of Christ.

All the messages of the gospel, and more than the messages, the reality of the gospel, is contained in the name, in the Person of Jesus. If you take the first half of the prayer you will see how it expresses our faith in the Lord: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.’ At the heart we find the name of Jesus; it is the name before whom every knee shall bow (Is 45:3), and when we pronounce it we affirm the historical event of the incarnation. We affirm that God, the Word of God, co-eternal with the father, became man, and that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in our midst (Col 2:9) bodily in his Person.

To see in the man of Galilee, in the prophet of Israel, the incarnate Word of God, God become man, we must be guided by the spirit, because it is the spirit of God who reveals to us both the incarnation and the lordship of Christ. We call him Christ, and we affirm thereby that in him were fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. To affirm that Jesus is the Christ implies that the whole history of the Old Testament is ours, that we accept it as the truth of God. We call him Son of God, because we know that the Messiah expected by the Jews, the man who was called ‘Son of David’ by Bartimaeus, is the incarnate Son of God. These words sum up all we know, all we believe about Jesus Christ, from the Old Testament to the New, and from the experience of the Church through the ages. In these few words we make a complete and perfect profession of faith.

But it is not enough to make this profession of faith; it is not enough to believe. The devils also believe and tremble (James 2:I9). Faith is not sufficient to work salvation, it must lead to the right relationship with God; and so, having professed, in its integrity, sharply and clearly, our faith in the Lordship and in the Person, in the historicity and in the divinity of Christ, we put ourselves face to face with Him, in the right state of mind: ‘Have mercy on me, a sinner’.

These words ‘have mercy’ are used in all the Christian Churches and, in Orthodoxy, they are the response of the people to all the petitions suggested by the priest. Our modern translation ‘have mercy’ is a limited and insufficient one. The Greek word which we find in the gospel and in the early liturgies is eleison. Eleison is of the same root as elaion, which means olive tree and the oil from it. If we look up the Old and New Testament in search of the passages connected with this basic idea, we will find it described in a variety of parables and events which allow us to form a complete idea of the meaning of the word. We find the image of the olive tree in Genesis. After the flood Noah sends birds, one after the other, to find out whether there is any dry land or not, and one of them, a dove – and it is significant that it is a dove – brings back a small twig of olive. This twig conveys to Noah and to all with him in the ark the news that the wrath of God has ceased, that God is now offering man a fresh opportunity. All those who are in the ark will be able to settle again on firm ground and make an attempt to live, and never more perhaps, if they can help it, undergo the wrath of God.

In the New Testament, in the parable of the good Samaritan, olive oil is poured to soothe and to heal. In the anointing of kings and priests in the Old Testament, it is again oil that is poured on the head as an image of the grace of God that comes down and flows on them (Ps I33:2) giving them new power to fulfil what is beyond human capabilities. The king is to stand on the threshold, between the will of men and the will of God, and he is called to lead his people to the fulfilment of God’s will; the priest also stands on that threshold, to proclaim the will of God and to do even more: to act for God, to pronounce God’s decrees and to apply God’s decision.

The oil speaks first of all of the end of the wrath of God, of the peace which God offers to the people who have offended against him; further it speaks of God healing us in order that we should be able to live and become what we are called to be; and as he knows that we are not capable with our own strength of fulfilling either his will or the laws of our own created nature, he pours his grace abundantly on us (Rom 5:20). He gives us power to do what we could not otherwise do.

The words milost and pomiluy in Slavonic have the same root as those which express tenderness, endearing, and when we use the words eleison, ‘have mercy on us’, pomiluy, we are not just asking God to save us from His wrath – we are asking for love.

If we turn back to the words of the Jesus Prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’, we see that the first words express with exactness and integrity the gospel faith in Christ, the historical incarnation of the Word of God; and the end of the prayer expresses all the complex rich relationships of love that exist between God and his creatures.

The Jesus Prayer is known to innumerable Orthodox, either as a rule of prayer or in addition to it, as a form of devotion, a short focal point that can be used at any moment, whatever the situation.

Numerous writers have mentioned the physical aspects of the prayer, the breathing exercises, the attention which is paid to the beating of the heart and a number of other minor features. The Philokalia is full of detailed instructions about the prayer of the heart, even with references to the Sufi technique. Ancient and modern Fathers have dealt with the subject, always coming to the same conclusion: never to attempt the physical exercises without strict guidance by a spiritual father.

What is of general use, and God given, is the actual praying, the repetition of the words, without any physical endeavour – not even movements of the tongue – and which can be used systematically to achieve an inner transformation. More than any other prayer, the Jesus Prayer aims at bringing us to stand in God’s presence with no other thought but the miracle of our standing there and God with us, because in the use of the Jesus Prayer there is nothing and no one except God and us.

The use of the prayer is dual, it is an act of worship as is every prayer, and on the ascetical level, it is a focus that allows us to keep our attention still in the presence of God.

It is a very companionable prayer, a friendly one, always at hand and very individual in spite of its monotonous repetitions. Whether in joy or in sorrow, it is, when it has become habitual, a quickening of the soul, a response to any call of God. The words of St Symeon, the New Theologian, apply to all its possible effects on us: ‘Do not worry about what will come next, you will discover it when it comes’.

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The Jesus Prayer — Sanctifying the Present Moment

Father Kevin Hunt, OCSO

from Living Prayer, Templegate Publishers Springfield, IL, 1966, p. 84 – 88

The Jesus prayer is a very short phrase: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It springs from the word of Jesus that we have in the Gospel of Saint John, where Jesus in his last discourse to his disciples says, “You have never asked anything in my name. Now, anything you ask in my name will be given to you.” The idea of asking in the name of someone is something we’re not too accustomed to these days. We think instead of back door politics: Knock, knock, knock. “Who’s there?” “George sent me.” The door opens and out comes the little money bag and off we go.

In the Near East of Biblical times, “name” meant the presence or reality of the one whose name was called. That’s part of the reason why the name of the God of Israel became unspeakable: the name was never adequate to the reality. So asking in Jesus’ name is making present the full reality of what Jesus is, which is being present immediately to God.

This presence is not a confrontational one. It’s not the presence of speaking with someone on the phone. It is an immediate and absolute union, like the presence of two people in love: not something you intellectualize, not even necessarily emotional. It’s just there.

One of the best examples: two people who’ve been married a long time and have been through the good times and the bad together. One can be in the kitchen and the other in the living room, but they’re completely aware. Or one is doing a crossword puzzle and the other writing a letter, but they’re absolutely present to each other.

The Jesus prayer is a vehicle to achieving that presence with God. Using words makes it easier for us, just as between two people who love each other a glance or kiss makes it happen.

The Christian monastic tradition as a formal way of living goes back to the late third and early fourth centuries. The early monks, like the first Zen monks, were basically an uneducated people. They were the peasants of Egypt and Syria: hard-headed, ignorant, dumb people, at least according to the intellectuals of Alexandria and Jerusalem. At that time the name of Jesus was used as a prayer, in conjunction with various techniques. One of them was even watching your breath, which is so common in Zen meditation.

The monks would go into their cells and sit on small benches, four to five inches high. In Egypt they were made of papyrus; in Syria and Israel, probably clay or wood. Sitting on the bench, they would repeat this short prayer over and over again.

In repeating the Jesus prayer you are vocally making concrete who and what you are exactly at this moment. In Catholic tradition, we use the phrase “sacrament of the present moment,” indicating the reality of God right here. God is present because we’re sitting here, not because we would like to be walking outside. While fully conscious that I am sitting right here, I use this short prayer.

Tradition tells us that the prayer is a complete compendium of the Christian revelation. “Lord”: a term reserved for God, a translation of the word “adonai,” used in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. “Jesus Christ”: Jesus the ultimate and full revelation, God’s self-giving to us. “Son of God”: expressing the Christian realization that God in this person has given himself completely.

“Have mercy on me, a sinner”: this phrase is the hang-up for many of us. “Sinner” seems to represent all of our faults, all our failures to live up to some standard. I shave my head, my colleague doesn’t: sinner, sinner!

But the term “sinner” has a different significance in this prayer: we accept our condition as limited human beings, with all of the aches and pains that involves. We don’t set ourselves up as being holier-than-thou. We don’t make moral judgments on ourselves or others. In fact, in the Christian tradition, if anybody is sin, it’s Jesus Christ. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, “he became sin for us.” In the same way, he becomes sin for the totality of humanity. Christians believe that in Jesus, God himself became man: there’s nothing outside of the human condition that is foreign to, him. He became a human being exactly the way that you and I are human beings. All of my emotions, all of the things that transpire within me are brought into the loving compassion and mercy of God when I repeat the prayer.

The vocal repetition of this prayer creates a rhythm which becomes part of us as we go through life, especially when we go into meditation-and there’s no place like meditation for experiencing the limitations of what it means to be a human being. All of our pains and frustrations come back to us. The greatest problem in meditation is that we start chasing after all of these things, like a dog chasing its tail: around and around she goes, where she stops, nobody knows. “Why did I do this?” “Why didn’t they realize what I meant?” “But of course they should have known.”

To take all of that as it flows in and bring it to this prayer is to bring forgiveness. God’s forgiveness means we forgive ourselves, and in so doing accept ourselves for who we are.

Because I am who I am concretely, right here, right now, I am the, totality of the pain of humanity. I am the pain of what’s occurring in Iraq right now. I am the pain of all those whom I hurt. The mercy of God is poured forth in me and through me upon the whole of creation.

One of the great aids to this prayer over the ages has been beads, such as the rosary. It’s amazing how just making a bead pass through your fingers as you say a short prayer can be helpful to you. It makes you do something simple and physical. The traditional Eastern Orthodox set of beads has one hundred.

A lot of people find it helpful to set a certain number of repetitions a day. In “The Way of the Pilgrim,” the seeker asks how to pray and is told, “Pray continually; this is the way.” How do I do that? “I’ll say this Jesus prayer a thousand times a day. Twenty-eight beads: if I go around this many times a day, I’ll do a thousand.” You reach a thousand. “Then I’ll do two thousand.” You reach two thousand. “I’ll do three thousand.”

And you do it no matter what happens. If someone starts banging an ashcan and you think, “They know I’m in here meditating. Look what they’re doing!,” you’ll never get it done. But if you say, “I’ve got to go around this string twice in the next five minutes,” you’ll do it.

Gradually the prayer travels away from your lips. It’s a good thing to start off saying it aloud. There are even times when you have to go back to doing that. I’ve been in a monastery over thirty-five years. There are still days that I have to go back, moments when I’m as mad as can be with the people I live with. I go into church or go off by myself to meditate, and find that I’m strangling So-and-so. If they were there, aaarrrgghh!

John Climacus wrote a book called The Divine Ladder in the sixth century. He says, “Here I am, walking around the monastery. I go by the cells of hermits and I hear these raging arguments going on. I go in and I knock on the door, figuring that someone is being killed, and a solitary hermit comes and answers the door.” John was one of the great teachers of this prayer.

Or I find myself starving for affection. I go off by myself in the woods and shout “LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY ON ME, A SINNER!”

Gradually, it goes from the mouth to the ear. You find yourself running out of breath, running out of voice, just forming the words with your lips. Then the lips stop, and it goes in deeper, to the inner ear. The words are still there. It goes from the inner ear to the breath, by itself, as you inhale, exhale: inhale, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,” exhale, “have mercy on me, a sinner.”

We are accepting the totality of our humanity and transforming it. Not making it into an angelic nature, because we’re not angels-we’re human beings. Transforming it into what it is: that is the work of the prayer. Not looking for experiences, visions, special states, the twentyfive levels of consciousness, to walk on water, but to know that this, right now, is Jesus Christ, present to the whole world, in me, through me, because of me.

And so the Jesus prayer becomes a refrain. Driving your car, the Jesus prayer can be in your car. Taking a shower, the Jesus prayer is there. Going to sleep, the Jesus prayer is there. But as you do it, don’t get attached to the Jesus prayer. In the quiet, be quiet. ‘Me name of Jesus after a while becomes, as St. Bernard of Clairvaux says, “honey on the lips, music in the ear, and a melody in your heart.”

Father Hunt is at Saint Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. Adapted from a talk at a Christian-Buddhist workshop at Providence Zen Center in January, 1991.

“Remember God more often than you breathe.”
(St. Gregory Nazianzus, +389)

Prayer is more essential to us, more an integral part of ourselves, than the rhythm of our breathing or the beating of our heart. Without prayer there is no life. Prayer is our nature. As human persons we are created for prayer just as we are created to speak and think. The human animal is best defined, not as a logical or tool-making animal or an animal that laughs, but rather as an an animal that prays, a eucharistic animal, capable of offering the world back to God in thanksgiving and intercession.

Prayer is most specifically an encounter. It is a meeting between two living persons. It is a means of communion with God. It is where I meet God and He meets me…where I come to Him in my fragile brokenness. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (Jas. 4:8). It is our task to simply begin to pray. If we take one step toward the Lord, He takes ten towards us — He Who saw the prodigal son while he was yet at a distance and had compassion and ran to the edge of the property and embrced him.

The Didache (late 1st century) prescribes that Christians should pray three times daily: evening, morning, midday. (This is actually taken from the earlier biblical tradition of the Jews, carried over and fulfilled within the Christian community.) We see that even King David states “Seven times a day will I praise You.” (Ps. 119:164) It was from this that since the 4th century, many Christians punctuated each day with seven set times for prayer — especially (but not limited to) monks, nuns, solitaries and hermits. Thus, the Church set forth a series of Daily Offices: Vespers at sunset; Compline at bed time; Matins at sunrise; the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours with varioius biblical themes at 6:00 am, 9:00 am (see Acts 2:15), noon (see Lk. 23:44 & Acts 10:9), and 3:00 pm (see Mk. 15:34 & Acts 3:1), respectively. Much of the Daily Offices is comprised of the Psalter, the “Prayerbook of the Church” which are prayed or chanted in the Light of the Resurrection and seen as fulfilled in the Person of Jesus.

All prayer for the Eastern Orthodox is deeply Trinitarian. The three-fold invocation of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (whether explicitly stated, or simply implied as in the Jesus Prayer) sums up the very essence of our prayer. We do not simply address God. We pray to the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. To pray is to be taken up into the inner life of the Holy Trinity: the communion of Love, the interpersonal dialogue which exitst within God. God as Trinity is the source and end-point of all our prayer. (See Romans, chapter 8 — esp. vs. 26)

The most important theme for the spirituality of personal prayer in the Christian East is taken from St. Paul’s statement to “Pray without ceasing” (or alternatively, pray continually; pray constantly) found in 1 Thess. 5:17. It was from this that “The Jesus Prayer” emerged. This is a continual invocation of the Name of Jesus, which assists us in keeping guard, keeping vigilant, and provides us with a powerful confession of our faith. (See Phil. 2:9-11; 1 Cor. 12:3; Eph. 1:21; Lk. 1:31; Acts 4:12; Jn. 13:13-14; Gal. 4:4-6; etc.) “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Continual invocation of the Name of Jesus is not to be confused with the Lord’s own admonishment against “vain repetitions” of Matthew 6:7, where He refers to empty, endless phrases of pagn prayers. (The Holy Trinity = implied because 1] to call Jesus Lord is a gift of the Holy Spirit; and 2] if we call Him “Son of God” we are de facto affirming our belief in the Paternity of the Father.)

However, even when we pray in secret, with the door closed (Mt. 6:6), we are never really praying “alone”. Prayer is communal — prayer is something that is of the total family, of the entire Church, invisible as well as visible. Prayer is our entry into the communion of saints (see Heb. 12:1-2), the angels and archangels, and the whole company of heaven (see Apoc. chapters 4 & 5). In the Lord’s Prayer (i.e. the prayer par excellence) the words “us” and “our” appear each four times, but “me” and “mine” never occur at all.

Finally, regarding prayer, we must remember that it is not simply a vertical issue (i.e., relative to us and God Who is “in the heavens”). It is also horizontal (i.e., we must think about our involvement with the rest of humanity “on earth”). We are called to pray for all mankind. The Church, whose very nature is missionary and evangelical, outward-looking and apostolic, does not exist for itself. It exists for the sake of the world; for the life of the world, and for its salvation.

Our tradition of prayer tells us that the one who prays only when he or she gets up to pray is not really praying at all. Prayer is not what we do. It is not one activity that we do from time to time among our other activities. Prayer is what we are. Prayer is who we are all the time. Prayer is being.

St. Paul tells us to pray continually, unceasingly. Yet we also read in the first/second century manual of church practice called the Didache that Christians are called to pray specifically three times each day: evening, morning and at midday. (This is simply an inheritance from Jewish daily synagogue and domestic practice of prayer.)

All of this is little more than a description (and a prescription) of living in the presence of God — abiding in the life of the Holy Trinity. But being in God’s presence demands a response from us one way or the other. As in the story of Luke 6:28-39, we can either sit quietly at the feet of the Savior or we ask Him to depart from our regions.

Bishop Kallistos writes that prayer is precarious. (The word “prayer” actually comes from the Latin “precaria” which means being vulnerable; subject to un-known or un-stable conditions; being dependent upon the will of another.) Metropolitan Anthony Bloom goes further. He writes that prayer — as an encounter with the true and living God — is dangerous, a judgement, a crisis. The Epistle to the Hebrews declares that it is a terrible, awe-some thing to fall into the hands of the living God (10:31). Awe-some and dangerous because my ego and will are effected. I will have to give up something of myself; a true and continual conversion of life; a change of direction. Prayer presupposes that I am willing to take off my shoes and stand on holy ground — God’s turf. Prayer presupposes that I place myself in the hands of Another — and not my own hands. Prayer presupposes that I am willing to turn and go in a new direction. “…Thy will be done…” This is very much against my so-called natural ego. St. Maximus tells us that this is really conforming myself to my “natural will” (as created originally by God, but subject to the downward spiral and consequences of the Fall of Adam and Eve.)

So why pray if it is so potentially unsettling? Why strive to abide in God’s presence if it is so dangerous? We are told that prayer is one of the most important ways home to our true native homeland. We pray because the Lord tells us to do so (“When you pray…” Mt. 6). We pray because it is related to other inter-dependent and mutually-inclusive steps on the pathway home. (These include such things as the study and incorporation of the holy scriptures, detachment and fasting, the sacramental life, works of mercy and love.) We are called upon to go about establishing a moral and ethical condition for prayer. In the patristic literature, this is called practicing the virtues. This gets us in the proper condition to pray and the proper response in our lives as a result of our prayer. The command of our Lord to “go, first be reconciled to your brother” (Mt. 5:24) before making our offering is not only prescriptive. It is descriptive. I cannot pray well when I am at odds with somebody. “Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive…”

Prayer takes on many forms. First, there is formal corporate prayer such as Vespers, Matins and the Divine Liturgy where we participate communally in the Liturgy of the Church. Second, there is formal private prayer such as the Daily Offices, the Psalter, etc., where (on our own) we employ text, words, images, concepts. For others we can intercede. For ourselves we can petition and confess. To God we can give thanks and praise. And finally, there is private, informal prayer where quietly we simply sit still: “I look at Him and He looks at me and we’re both happy.” This can be considered to be “imageless” or “non-conceptual” prayer — where we drop below our scatteredness and frenetic, frantic existence to a prayerful presence: to be, to abide. Here is where we need to allow the bushel of the little monkeys of our thoughts to calm down (or at least not let ourselves dwell on their clamor). This seems to be the least-often employed type of prayer among us, though it is one for which Eastern Orthodox spirituality is very well-known. According to St. Nicephorus, the Jesus Prayer is the best way (not automatic, but best way) to do this. St. Augustine prayed that “Our hearts, O Lord, are restless until they rest in You.”

St. Gregory Nazianzus tells us that we should remember God more often than we breathe (i.e., ideally prayer should be as much a part of us as our breathing). St. Theophan the Recluse tells us that to pray is to stand before God with the mind in the heart, day and night until the end of life. Mind in the heart. This means that we see ourselves as a psycho-somatic, integral whole. And it is there where God meets our true self — our whole being: body, mind, heart. Me as I truly am: no facades.

But how often God appears to be absent when I am present. How often it seems that God is not there when I have finally gotten around to thinking about Him….during the few minutes out of the day that I have reserved for Him. Metropolitan Anthony, again: “But what about the 23 and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer ‘I am busy, I am sorry’ or we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our heart, our minds, our conscience, our life. So there is a situation in which we have no right to complain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than He ever is..”

How seldom we are ever really present to anybody else. Stop and think of the last time you were totally attentive and completely, reciprocally there with the one encountered — be it your spouse, child, parent or friend. We usually rush here and there, doing this and that, peripherally touching base with those who happen to come our way. Our day-to-day encounters are the school, the training ground for our encounters with God. We may be bodily present with these persons, but are we mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and thus actually elsewhere? As with other people, so too with God. This is why we are called to lay aside our earthly cares — and that wheelbarrow-full of monkeys — and receive the King Who comes.

So, set about a daily of Prayer that is not too heavy — you can always modify it, if appropriate. Have a quiet place where you can go to pray. Your Bible, an icon, a candle, and some incense are suggested. Make a firm resolve to be regular and consistent (ask God to help you with this one). Work on those spiritual, ethical and moral conditions which are necessary for an authentic life of prayer: the Beatitudes, Matthew 25, etc. Let this time apart be something that punctuates your life, let it become habitual — practice makes permanent. And finally before you go out and buy manuals of prayer such as the 5-volumes of the Philokalia in order to learn about how to pray, take heed from an unlikely source. Nike has a good suggestion for us all: “Just do it.”