In The Jesus Prayer: A Cry for Mercy, a Path of Renewal, John Michael Talbot examines an ancient prayer for every day: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Talbot explores the roots of the prayer in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, along with the theological and practical meaning of each word of the prayer in the lives of believers today. Talbot opens this devotional study by discussing his spiritual journey, noting that he has spent much fruitful time exploring the mystical tradition, and comments how “in the monastic and Franciscan Catholic and Orthodox streams I discovered the contemplative and mystical traditions of which the Jesus Prayer is a vital expression. This enlivened my faith in a way I had hungered for but had not found very often in my experience. After that, new richness and vast horizons began to open up.”
Talbot has been teaching the Jesus Prayer for a decade in retreats at the Little Portion Retreat Center and at three-day parish missions across the country, and now shares this teaching with readers. He notes that in his experience, “Roman Catholics and Protestants appreciate the practices from the Christian East that balance our largely Western approach to faith.” Talbot structures this text around each word of the prayer, in the hope that “reflecting on the words will bring us into a full understanding of the words of the Jesus Prayer . . . [and] after that we will pray the words with greater intuitive grasp.” Join Talbot on his exploration of this powerful prayer, as he walks through each word of the prayer, pausing to offer analysis, as “when we pray the Prayer we use the faculty of intuition to grasp its realities. But we cannot intuit them if we do not have at least a basic understanding of what the words actually mean.” Ideally suited to personal devotional reading, each chapter concludes with a brief practice using the prayer. The Jesus Prayer offers a fresh look at a rich tradition, full of insights for deepening your faith.
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