Jesus Prayer

as they're basically from Christmas to after Easter.

But their basic form of worship, apart from the regular Divine Liturgy on Saturday, Sunday, and once or twice during the week, would be to do two hours of Jesus Prayer communally in a very small chapel.

It was a very small community at the time.

So my entry back into the church was sitting down next to St. Sophrony doing two hours of Jesus Prayer morning and evening.

Oh, my

word.

It was only like eight or something like that.

So you're all jammed into this little chapel? Maybe a dozen nuns in their small chapel before they built all their new buildings.

It can simply be bringing oneself before God and allowing him to be the first thought we have.

So even our first prayer with the first breath could be the Jesus prayer.

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

that we are calling out, acknowledging who Christ is for us, but also acknowledging our poverty before him and our need for his grace.

And it can be a beautiful thing that bears great fruit for us.

A single prostration shifts the mind and the heart where it should be.

Or a single Jesus prayer allows us to begin the day with God.

And part of what we've been talking a lot about in the retreats is remaining before God and living our lives from Christ and from His Holy Spirit, that we see our lives in light of communion Again, relational.

And we read from the gospel of St. Matthew about the story of Christ healing one who was demon possessed, blind and mute, and how the Pharisees accused him of doing this with the power of evil and not in the name of God.

And I want to focus just on one aspect of the narrative of the story this morning, which is that as they were saying this in their minds, that Jesus casts out demon by the power of a demon, it says that Jesus knew their thoughts.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

And I think it's very important that we stop and reflect a little bit on this reality that Jesus knew the thoughts of the people.

He knew their thoughts, of course, because he is God.

But this is also something that we see has been granted as a gift to the church, to many of the saints, to know the thoughts of the others.

So I want to reflect a little bit on why is this something significant in the Gospels and in our spiritual lives? Again, there are many times throughout the Gospels, for example, also in Matthew chapter 9, after healing the paralytic, some of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes, how can he forgive sins? And it says that Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why do you think evil in your hearts? So Jesus exposes the evil thoughts in their minds and in their hearts, and And he says that these thoughts are important.

Our thoughts are significant.

Continuing his analysis, St. Gregory Palamas says that nous denotes both the noetic activity of the soul, which consists of thoughts and intuitions, and the power that activates these, which the Holy Scripture calls the heart.

In those who practice the Jesus Prayer, the noetic activity that initiates thoughts is easily purified, but the power that produces this activity, namely the heart, cannot be purified unless all the soul's other powers are also purified.

Obviously, St. Gregory is referring here to the three aspects of the soul and teaching that the rational aspect is purified through prayer, especially the Jesus prayer.

But it is also necessary that the passable part of the soul be healed.

In other words, its incensive and appetitive aspects.