The Jesus Prayer – The Discipline of Repetition

In the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In the previous two sessions, we first understood a brief introduction about the Jesus Prayer and then we started understanding the four elements embedded within the Jesus Prayer. In the last post, we understood the first element – the cry for mercy. Today, let us understand the second element -The Discipline of Repetition.

The discipline of repetition was first found in an explicit form among the Desert Fathers of Egypt in the 4th century. When we learn about the daily life of the desert monks, their daily work was of a very simple nature, such as basket making and plaiting of rush mats, making of candle sticks and so on. While doing such a work how was a monk to occupy his mind, as he undertook such uniform and monotonous task? How could he fulfill St. Paul’s injunction, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17)?

The solution adopted by the Desert Fathers was to practice ‘monologic prayer’, that is a the repetition of a single word or phrase. They found that this discipline of repetition helped to simplify the mind, bringing it from many disoriented thoughts to a unified thought.

Many Scriptural and non-Scriptural phrases were used by the Fathers of Egypt. Abba Apollo often burdened by the sin of his youth would repeat, “As man, I have sinned; as God, do You forgive.” St. Macarius suggests the prayer, “I beseech You, I beseech You, O Lord.” Other monologic prayer used by many Christians today, though not found among the Desert Fathers are, “Lord, remember me in Your kingdom” (Lk 23:42), and “Glory to You, O God, glory to You” (an invocation occurring at the start on most Orthodox services).

Saying the Holy Name

In the 4th-century, among the Desert Fathers there existed a variety of short prayers suitable for frequent repetition and some of the ‘monologic prayers’ contained the name of Jesus. But there was no special predominance of including the Holy Name of Jesus, so it was not yet possible to speak of a ‘Jesus-centered’ spirituality. That comes only in the 5th century.

In this manner the Jesus Prayer emerged initially as one among many such ‘monologic’ prayers. What led it to prevail – although it never possessed an exclusive monopoly – was the presence within it of the Holy Name of Jesus.

As the Desert Fathers recognized, and as contemporary psychologists confirm, the discipline of repetition is an intense and powerful method of recollection. It needs to be used with discretion.

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