“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
This Jesus Prayer in the Orthodox Church Hesychasm tradition, although only a short sentence, embodies the core kerygma of Christianity and the sacred wisdom of its supernatural spirituality. It is like a golden key handed to me, who has been keen on exploring the mysteries of Christian spirituality for more than 20 years, opening the door to the domain of the Holy Spirit. St. Palamas called the Hesychasts as the ones “practicing sacred quietude.”
It should be emphasized that Hesychasm is not about salvation, but a necessary resource for sanctification. In addition, “spiritual practice/formation” is the Chinese translation, and the original Greek term hesychia means “[seeking divine] quietness “; the former strengthens the principle of the latter, showing a conceptual advantage after being translated into Chinese.
1. The theological principles of the Jesus Prayer
The Jesus Prayer is based on a prayer model that pleases God (Luke 18:13), adopts the prayer model of the widow repeatedly calling on the unjust judge (Luke 18:6–7), and abides by the teaching of “praying without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). As a spiritual practice method in Christian monasteries, the earliest general record can be traced back to the tradition of the Desert Fathers in the 6th and 7th centuries, such as in “The Ladder of the Divine Ascent” (ca. 600), with an emphasis on the importance of “repeating the Jesus Prayer.”1
It is necessary to conduct a historical theology research of this Jesus Prayer, because Protestant Chinese Christians need to realize that this is a spiritual formation practice method that has been passed down for centuries before the split between Roman Catholicism and Byzantine Orthodoxy. It belongs to the tradition of the Patristic era and is a unique method discovered by Christianity itself. However, for those Christians who have benefited greatly from practicing the Jesus Prayer, the practical results brought by this ancient spiritual practice are undoubtedly greater than the theological significance. Although Protestantism has such spiritual practices as prayer, reading the Bible (Lectio Divina), and Eucharist, and fasting, it does need to learn from the precious resource of the Jesus Prayer practice.
2. Personal experience of practicing the Jesus Prayer
At the end of 2019, I came to the Russian Orthodox Church because of God’s wonderful guidance. The Holy Spirit opened the eyes of my soul, and I gazed for the first time in my life at the unseen and unknown with its overwhelming beauty. In early 2020, Fr. Spyridon taught me to practice the Jesus Prayer in the church. At that time, I was suffering from a painful disease and often couldn’t sleep at night, so I started practicing day and night. The key to practicing the Jesus Prayer is to concentrate your mind with full attention constantly, as if you are facing the King. You should focus on the words and meaning of the prayer as if it were the rational anchor in the mind.
On this basis, keep repeating this prayer, preferably out loud, so that you can also become a listener. Every time the mind is absent and can’t concentrate, stop temporarily, and then continue to pray. After recovering from the illness, I continued to practice and integrated it into my daily life, which lasted for about a year. During this period, I prayed before going to bed, when I woke up in the morning, while walking, and prayed while driving. I also found that practicing the Jesus Prayer in church generates quicker and better effects.
3. Experience sharing and promotion of the Jesus Prayer
After being baptized in April 2021, I notified my Christian acquaintances by email, briefly explaining that I had joined the Orthodox Church in Russian Tradition. Although everyone had different reactions, they were generally surprised and confessed they knew nothing about the Orthodox Church. In my communication with my friends, I explained the new spiritual continent I discovered through metaphors: God opened my eyes, and I saw the “burning bush” in the church. I also put forward a point of view: In the spiritual resources of the Orthodox Church, the Pentecostal Movement may find all the answers they need.
Stephen Wei Gao, a good friend living in Chicago, then had ears to listen, took it seriously and diligently practiced the Jesus Prayer. Soon, good results appeared and continued, to his amazement. In September, Gao Wei and I established the online Mount Sinai Fellowship with joy and hope, aiming to introduce Hesychasm as a valuable spiritual resource of the Orthodox tradition to bless Chinese Protestants. So, we held the first Zoom training class, detailing the practice methods and principles of the Jesus Prayer, and providing guidance, discernment, and appraisal.
4. Group practice of the Jesus Prayer
In the past nearly four years, we have held a total of five training sessions, limited to a small-scale acquaintance circle. As a pastor, Stephen Gao and I, as a teacher, lead this fellowship to practice this Jesus prayer as a type of Hesychasm, and through theology, hermeneutics, philosophy, and science, we carefully and comprehensively study, research, and verify this method and its results. Professor Zhang Bai-chun provides us with his academic research results, guiding and checking us from a high-level theory. For example, Dr. Zhang taught us the Hesychastic theology of the Orthodox Saint Palamas: Through Christian Hesychasm, one can gain the union with God through divine energy (power), but impossible through essence (ousia.)2
Currently, there are more than 10 brothers and sisters in this Fellowship. We have maintained the same rationality and enthusiasm from the beginning, hoping to share this precious blessing with more Chinese Protestant Christians who “have ears to hear”. In particular, we hope that more Chinese Protestant pastors can cross their denominational boundaries, liberate their minds, participate in our Hesychasm training, and humbly learn and practice. Once they obtain this simple and easy-to-use spiritual resource, it may be just around the corner to realize the substantive renewal of the lives of the believers they pastor and the revival of their churches—this is our current goal.
5. The sacred energy phenomenon of practicing the Jesus Prayer
According to the sweet fruits and experiences during the past five and a half years, the Orthodox method of practicing the Jesus Prayer through “confining our minds to what is being said and thought”3 has brought many unexpected and multi-faceted blessings to our group members, benefiting their souls, bodies, and lives (John 3:2). Among them, due to the transmission of God’s divine energy and the shining of the holy true Light, the effect of cleansing, renewing, and transforming the mind is particularly amazing to us. We have a deeper understanding of the great significance of Palamas’ “Sacred Energy Theory.”
According to scientific discoveries in the field of neuroscience, the function of the prefrontal cortex (mPFC), an important part of the human brain, is to process abstract information related to belief. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) includes two areas, the vmPFC and dmPFC, which store “belief in oneself” and “belief in the object” respectively. Relating this to the formal spiritual practice method of the Jesus Prayer, the vmPFC allows one to recognize their state as a sinner, and the dmPFC processes their beliefs about Jesus Christ the Savior. Through the organization of words (the Jesus Prayer), eye gaze (contemplating the Bible, the cross, holy images, etc.), and temporary working memory (my relationship with Christ), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) processes and carries out high-end belief thinking activities (Christ has mercy on me, a sinner).4
Therefore, the constant practice of the Jesus Prayer is a kind of intensive training of brain networks and human consciousness. The beauty of this method is that it confines our mental activity to the semantics of the prayer. Through the repeated act of believing in and recalling the words of the prayer, we gradually become the master of our own thoughts5—a great liberation indeed.
I further believe that an exploration of the energy principles of Christian Hesychasm through the knowledge of quantum physics would also be fruitful.
Conclusion
As a spiritual formation method in Orthodox Hesychasm, the ancient Christian Jesus Prayer blesses its practitioners in the name of Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. It is profound and attractive, just as Paul said “about Christ and the Church”—the “great mystery” of marriage (Ephesians 5:31–32). In the process of practicing this prayer, God’s great power and divine beauty are released, and manifested through the rational and focused recitation of the Jesus Prayer, allowing us to connect with the supernatural sacred energy and divine wisdom through the Holy Spirit, so that we can always be in Jesus Christ, like a grape branch grafted into a vine (John 15:1–10); only in this way can we love forever and ever.
For Chinese Christians, the renewal and transformation of the mind is the core task after the soul is saved, and it is even more urgent now. Why do I say this? This is a topic that needs to be discussed next time.
Editor’s note: Our thanks to the author for providing the Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions of this article.
- John Climacus, The Ladder of the Divine Ascent (ca. AD 600), Step 15 “On incorruptible purity and chastity to which the corruptible attain by toil and sweat” in 15:54 it says, “Always let the remembrance of death and the Prayer of Jesus said as a monologue go to sleep with you and get up with you; for you will find nothing to equal these aids during sleep.” The term monologue in Greek μονόλογος (mono+logos) means a single word or a single sentence.
Step 9 “On remembrance of wrongs” in 9:10 it says, “Let it be put to shame by the Prayer of Jesus which cannot be said with it.” Here, “Prayer of Jesus” is the Jesus Prayer used in the Orthodox Church.
Step 28 “On holy and blessed prayer, mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer” in 29: 10 it says, “Do not attempt to talk much when you pray lest your mind be distracted in searching for words. One word of the publican propitiated God, and one cry of faith saved the thief. Loquacity in prayer often distracts the mind and leads to phantasy, whereas brevity [Gk. monologia, repetition of a single word or sentence] makes for concentration.”
John Climacus was the abbot of the Mount Sinai Monastery. The English version of the book quoted is translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (Harper & Brothers, 1959).
- Gregory Palamas—A fourteenth-century Greek Orthodox theologian known for defending the practice of Hesychasm and clarifying the theological distinction between union with God in essence and in energy in his work Triads for the Defense of those Who Practice Sacred Quietude.. Fr. Spyridon of my church provides the endorsement of church authority for our fellowship and training.
- John Climacus, The Ladder of the Divine Ascent, Step 28 “On holy and blessed prayer, mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer”, 28:19.” The beginning of prayer consists in banishing the thoughts that come to us by single ejaculations1 the very moment that they appear; the middle stage consists in confining our minds to what is being said and thought; and its perfection is rapture in the Lord.”
- This paragraph is based on a May 2025 presentation by a young American neuroscience scholar, who also edited both this and the following paragraph.
- John Climacus, The Ladder of the Divine Ascent, Step 28 “On holy and blessed prayer, mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer”, 28:17, 21, 31.
