Tips on Prayer from a Monk

When praying it would be a mistake to try to induce intensity and emotion, to raise our voice inwardly. When God manifested himself to the prophet Elijah, it was not in a strong wind, nor in an earthquake, nor in a afire, but in a gentle, whispering breeze that followed them. Little by little we are to concentrate our whole being around the name of Jesus, allowing it like a drop of oil silently to penetrate and impregnate our soul.

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Let us not think that an hour during which we have invoked the name of Jesus, without "feeling" anything, remaining apparently cold and arid, has been wasted and unfruitful.

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The name of Jesus gives peace tho those who are tempted: instead of arguing with the temptation, instead of thinking about the raging storm -that was Peter's mistake on the lake after his good beginning- why not go to Jesus alone and go to him walking on the waves, taking refuge in his name? Let the person tempted gather him [her]self together gently, and pronounce the name without anxiety, without feverishness; then his heart will be filled by the wind of the name and protected against violent winds.

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When we pray the name of Jesus, we enthrone him in our hearts, we put on Christ; we offer our flesh to the Word, so that he may assume it into his mystical body.

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Jesus, who after his resurrection chose several times to appear to his disciples "in another form" (Mk 16, 12)- the unknown traveler on the road to Emmaus, the gardener near the tomb, the stranger standing at the shore of the lake- continues to meet us in our daily life in a veiled way and continues to confront us with this all-important aspect of his presence: his presence in man. What we do to the least of our brethren, we do to him. Under the faces of men and women, we are able with the eyes of faith, to see the face of the Lord; by attending to the distress of the poor, of the sick, of sinners, of all men, we put our finger on the place of the nails, thrust our hands into his pierced side, and experience personally the resurrection and presence of Jesus Christ in his mystical body; and so we can say with St. Thomas "My Lord, and my God." (Jn 20, 28).

From a Monk of the eastern Church (Author of The Jesus Prayer)

Posted by Carlos J. Medina