Periodic Table of Prayer
Illustration Courtesy of Jim Burklo
At the University of Southern California, I'm struck with how hungry students are for experiential Christianity. To the degree they have any experience with the faith at all, they're rapidly losing interest in its dogma and taking much more interest in its ancient spiritual practices. They want God, not just talk about God.
To that end, last year, with a student, I started leading "Desert Contemplatio Retreats" - one-day forays into the Mojave for students to experience the spiritual disciplines of the early Christian monastic "Desert Fathers and Mothers". And now I'm teaching a non-credit course for students and staff entitled "Contemplative Christian Practices".
Our class practice this week is the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me...." It is the ancient Christian answer to St Paul's admonition in 1 Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing". This practice is central to the spirituality of early Christianity, and became integral to Eastern Orthodox mysticism. The foundational text of the Orthodox contemplative tradition is the Philokalia, which recommends the Jesus Prayer as the passageway into "hesychasm", or direct encounter with God.
I've been chanting the prayer aloud a few times a day, then repeating it in my mind, then releasing the repetition to contemplate its "echo" - the "aftertaste" of the prayer. I've prayed this way in the past, but had not done so for a long time until this week. I'm amazed at how powerful it is, and how timely.
Timely, because the volume in my head is way too high. The upcoming election will have enormous repercussions in our country and around the world. I'm preoccupied with it, specifically in my involvement with an ecumenical effort to urge all sides to show respect for the lawful process and ultimate result of the vote. If I had more hair, it would all be on fire! And the people around me are also engulfed in some combination of activism and panic.
Nothing clears the loud narrative running in my mind more completely than chanting the Jesus Prayer. It is the mercy for which it prays. It is a short, clear story that displaces, at least for a while, the stories that roar around and within me, and puts them in a much longer and deeper perspective. What is going on in America today could not be more important, and engagement is called from us all. But our efforts will be wiser and more effective if our souls are steady and our priorities are clear. We need mercy within in order to spread mercy in our country and world.
This ancient Christian practice gives us the spiritual re-set we need in times like these: "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me.... Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me.... Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me...." And upon us all!
The Rev. Jim Burklo serves as Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, University of Southern California. This post is republished with the author's permission from his blog, Musings, on ProgressiveChristianity.org.