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The prayer called the prayer of Jesus or that of the heart was developed on Mount Athos. Associated with the names of St. Macarius, Diadochus of Photike, St. John Climacus, St. Symeon and all the great spiritual leaders, it originated in the biblical conception of the name.
According to the Bible, the name of God is one of his attributes where he is present and where he shows himself. In a special manner, the invocation of the name of Jesus makes the grace of his incarnation universal, allowing each man his personal share and disposing his heart to receive the Lord. The strength of the divine presence in his name proves its greatness. “See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way be attentive to him... for my name is in him.”22.67
“My name is in him” and consequently the angel is the bearer of his formidable presence. When the divine name is pronounced over a country or a person, these enter into an intimate relationship with God. The invocation of the name of God is accompanied by its immediate manifestation, for the name is a form of his presence. This is why his name could only be pronounced by the great sacrificer on the day of Yom-Kippur, in “the holy of holies” of the temple in Jerusalem. The incarnation makes each man a similar sacrificer, but it is at every moment that he benefits from the name. The name of Jesus--Jeshua--means Savior. Nomen est omen; it contains in cipher the power of salvation. “The name of the Son of God sustains the entire world,” says Hermas,22.68 for he is present there and we adore him in his name.
The “prayer of the heart” frees and enlarges it, and attracts Jesus to it by the incessant invocation: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have pity on me, a sinner!”
In this prayer, which is that of the publican in the Gospel, the whole Bible with its entire message is reduced to its essential simplicity: confession of the Lordship of Jesus, of his divine filiation, therefore, of the trinity; then the fall that called for the abyss of divine mercy. The beginning and the end are gathered here in a single word charged with the sacramental presence of Christ in his name. This prayer ceaselessly resounds in the depths of a man's soul, even outside his will and consciousness. Finally, the name of Jesus resounds of itself, taking on the rhythm of the man's respiration, in some way “attached” to his breath; even during sleep: “I was sleeping, but my heart kept vigil.”22.69
When Jesus is drawn into the heart, the liturgy becomes interior and the kingdom is in the peaceful soul. The name dwells in man as in its temple, and there the divine presence transmutes and Christifies him. This was the experience of St. Paul, whom we can better understand in the light of this prayer: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.”
At the present time, a great number of believers of all confessions find an efficacious help in this essentially biblical practice that proves to be a privileged ecumenical means of unity and of encountering the name of Jesus.
“There are powerful beings like St. Michael, but for us, the weak, there remains nothing but to take refuge in the name of Jesus,” confesses St. Barsanuphius.22.70 St. John Climacus adds: “Strike your adversary with the name of Jesus; there is no more powerful weapon on the earth or in the skies.”22.71
The invocation of the name of Jesus is within the reach of every man in all the circumstances of his life. It places the name as a divine seal on everything, and makes the world its dwelling place. By this prayer, the most precious tradition of hesychasm adapts to man, causes to live within him the thousand-year experience of the greatest masters and makes of him a vigilant witness united to all men, giving them comfort and refreshment like a tree or a spring of water.
“Pray for those who do not know how to pray, who do not wish to do so, and especially for those who have never prayed,” said the Patriarch Justinian in Rumania in 1953. His exhortation is on the level of the prayer of Jesus.