Jesus Prayer- Prayer of Transformation and Healing

Jesus Prayer- Prayer of Transformation and Healing

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)

The Life-Long Walk with Jesus- The Soul's Journey of Healing-
Quadratos- the four transformative movements of the Gospels:

Alexander Shaia, (Beyond the Biography of Jesus: The Journey of Quadratos) speaks of the soul's journey being told in the four canonical Gospels as the map of our transformative walk with Jesus. The Gospel of Mathew, the First Path, is "Climbing the Great Mountain." This Gospel was written at a time of great despair and challenge, when the Temple of Jerusalem had been destroyed. Our soul's awakening begins with the awareness that the egoic self and its patterns we have built our life around are crumbling. We feel lost, alone, and in need. We must give our life over to our life's companion, Yeshua, if we are to break out of our self-made prison and find resurrection.

The Second Path, "Crossing the Stormy Sea," is the Gospel of Mark. Historically this was written at the time of the terrible persecutions and martyrdom of Christians. Here we encounter the great life challenges and trials of change and loss in our journey with Christ. We are invited to take refuge in faithfulness and Yeshua's enduring love as our soul's salvation. Our companion, Yeshua, sustains us through the difficult journey, as we learn to rely ever more fully in trust on him alone.

In the Third Path, the Gospel of John, we come to "Rest in the Glorious Garden" in our deepening experience of union with him. Having left behind the ego-self and its patterns, we come to rest in his companionship in relational union. We are the beloved disciple, and like the apostle John, in Yeshua's embrace alone our soul finds its rest. Our head rests upon the breast of Christ and we are attuned to the beating of his heart as the guide of our life. This is the illumination phase of our journey of transformation. The healing of our wound of separateness brings us from death to Resurrection and to the consolations of peace and joy.

In the Gospel of Luke, in the Fourth Path we are "Walking the Remembered Road," returning to the world of human community, living the risen and apostolic life. Like the friends of Jesus on the road to Emmaus and in the Upper Room, we re-enter the world offering the gifts of the Spirit that arise from our ongoing union with Christ our constant companion. Through the soul's healing from the wound of separateness, we are forever "oned" to Christ and become the lit flame of his Light in the world. In the ceaseless practice of the Jesus Prayer we perpetually return to Yeshua's companioning and give ourselves and our need for healing over to him in every moment of life.

Ann's Story- "Soaking in Jesus"
Ann was a woman in her 70s. She came to see me for professional counseling referred by her doctor for treatment of clinical depression. She had a marginal response to medication alone so the physician believed there might be psychotherapeutic concerns to be addressed in her treatment. Her husband had died a couple of years prior and she appeared to be having a complicated grief reaction. I found Ann to be a person of great depth and compassion for others.

As I got to know her better Ann talked about a painful, early life with a childhood and adolescence of great suffering but had found stability as an adult. She made a happy marriage to a good man and raised two sons who remained close to her. The central wound in her early life was abandonment by her mother and an extensive history of sexual abuse by a stepfather. Her mother left her with her grandmother at an early age who raised her for a period of time. Her grandmother was not a warm person but did give her stability and discipline, and a grounding in Christian life and religious practice. When her mother returned and took back custody, Ann experienced a traumatic and tragic period of sexual abuse over a period of years at the hands of her stepfather, extending into adolescence. As might be imagined this deeply scarred her self-esteem and self-confidence and she was prone to despair and depressive moods, sometimes with suicidal thoughts. Ann began to recover as a young adult and rediscovered her Christian Faith and a growing experience of relationship with Christ. She married a good man and found a good life and enduring friendships through her experiences of faith community. She continued, however, to be plagued by bouts of depressive mood and self esteem problems.

Upon the death of her husband Ann was revisited with self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness from her childhood and adolescence. In the course of the therapeutic work we did together it became clear to me that her experience of trust, love, and communion with the person of Jesus was her most valuable healing resource. I also discovered that through the years she discovered through grace her own method of Prayer of the Heart. Ann reported that in times of crisis when she had been beset with despair and intrusive memories of abuse, taking her cue from the Bible verse of Matt 6:6, she literally went into her prayer "closet, " that is, her clothes closet. She hung a picture of Jesus on the wall and held it in her mind while she emptied herself of afflictive thoughts and feelings and, in her own words, "soaked in Jesus." This, she reported, was the only way she could find peace, safety, and well-being. She has continued this way of silent inner communion with Jesus through the years and it has brought her much healing and peace. I encouraged her to continue in this practice and allow the afflictive thoughts to arise and to be released, and to offer the wounded places in her soul to the healing touch of Jesus.

One day Ann arrived to our session, radiant and smiling. She reported that she had a vision of her own spirit. In the vision she saw her true self "as Jesus sees me." "I was so beautiful and lovely and cherished in his sight, and I have never been apart from him." Ann had one more session after that. Only a year and a half later Ann's son called me. He said she was in the hospital and was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and wanted to see me. I went to see her and talked with her briefly. Though she was groggy from medication she smiled and grasped my hand. A short time later I saw her again at her son's home, the night before she died. She couldn't speak but had a serene smile on her face and squeezed my hand. She was utterly at peace, knowing she was going to her true home in the Heart of Christ and wanted me to know she was just fine. The wounds of her soul had been healed and she was ready.

In her "soaking in Jesus" Ann was able to be healed and recover the image of God, her true identity as child of God. In healing from the wound of separateness she discovered her dignity and her worth as a lit flame of the Light of Christ in the world, brought forth in her own humanity.

Healing Our Soul
"The soul, transformed and infused with the love of Christ, is the gift we make to God in the life's spiritual journey. ….. Our spiritual work in this life is to bring forth a soul that is transparent, shining, and aflame with the Light of Christ, in harmony with the true spirit.

In the inner work of Prayer of the Heart (Jesus Prayer) we bring the wounds and dark spaces of our soul to the healing touch of Christ. We open every dark corner of the soul to the Light and Love of Christ to be offered to His limitless Love. …But the central wound of our soul and source of every spiritual ill is the wound of separateness. For Christians Christ is the healing balm for this injury, freeing us to live our human life fully united with His Life in every moment of life." (from Breathing Yeshua- by William Ryan)

Our Life of Companioning and Devotional Love with Jesus-

In the Garden- (hymn)
"And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known." Charles Miles

This traditional hymn is cherished in many Christian communities because it speaks of a simple reality that is the heart of the Christian Revelation. A healing union with Christ is the essence of what we call religion. This union can be experienced as an every day, every moment companioning that we receive and surrender our life to. When we surrender fully to Yeshua, and leave all else behind, we find our true Life.

The four Rs of companionship with Christ through praying with Scripture-

Prayer of the Heart- It is not with the mind, or the intellect we hear the Living Word, but it is with the Heart we open to experience the Living Word of Christ's Presence within us. In the Prayer of the Heart, or the Jesus Prayer we come to experience the Living Word of Christ, Jesus the Christ, the Word of God. The transformation of one’s life may be seen as the transition from living life from the mind, the thoughts, the emotions and the instincts to living life fully from the Heart of Christ. In this way he can come fully alive in us, so that “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”

Lectio Divina or Divine Reading is the formalized movement from the mind and conceptual reflection on scripture to listening and experiencing the Presence of Christ in the Heart. One way to remember the four movements of Lectio Divina or Divine Reading is the four Rs:

1. Reading-(Lectio)- At this level we listen deeply to the written word of God, listening to those words or phrases in the reading which seem to speak to us in a special way. This is a receptive way of reading and listening, open to receive, as the parable of the seed falling on fertile ground.

2. Reflecting (meditatio)- In this movement we are focusing on the word or words or phrases which stand out for us. We are listening receptively rather than analyzing or interpreting. We ask the question, in what way Jesus is directing us, speaking to us about our own life? It is important to remember that this is not Bible study or objective interpretation, or a theological study, but a personal reflection to the Living Word of God speaking to us through the written word. It is a deeper movement toward listening and pondering in the heart as Christ is speaking individually to us through the text.

3. Responding ( oratio)- The third movement of Lectio is that of allowing spontaneous prayer in response to the listening and reflecting. How do we open in our desire in response God’s word? How do we open in our longing for the Living Word of God, Christ, to flame up within us? In what way do we respond to the call to be transformed in God’s Love? With praise, gratitude, contrition, new commitment? We express this response in words and in human emotion.

4. Resting in Christ (contemplatio) This is the movement into intimacy beyond words and concepts. This is the movement into pure Faith or Trust. It is enough to rest in the Presence of Jesus alone within. We move beyond the mediation of words and thoughts, into Yeshua's pure Presence, pure Love. This longing, this desire, this commitment to take refuge, to rest in him alone, rather than our own thoughts, emotions, agendas, and inclinations is the movement into pure Prayer of the Heart or Jesus Prayer.

The life of prayer is a circle with rhythms which extend from experiencing the Living Word of God in our own Hearts within, to expressing and living the Word of God in all of life through compassion and service. It is a process of consecrating self and the world to the love of God, it is the life of transformation and every-moment companionship in Christ.


The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Made Real in our Life:

Our Daily Cross
"How do we take up our cross daily, when do we do this? In our practice of Prayer of the Heart both in stillness and in the middle of life we cultivate the interior movements of presence and adoration. In our adoration we bow in self-offering love to Christ who is our Life. In the ceaseless invocation of the name of Yeshua we unite our human life to the Life of the Risen One and we enter the life of Resurrection.

Our cross of human vulnerability and impermanence, our cross of separateness, are the raw material of our daily bowing in adoration and self-offering in love. All of us, without exception, come through life wounded, especially in the earlier years when we are most vulnerable and least defended. Our wounds, the wounds we often deny and run away from, can be seen as the sacred wounds of Christ. We may have hidden them in shame, or in fear. The way we defend our wounds and protect ourselves from further harm may keep us from loving more deeply. Yet it is these very wounds that are the way of our salvation. If we look closely in our journey, it is the way that we have been hurt or injured in life and our search for healing and strength that become our Way into Christ. For me the early injuries of insecurity and isolation, became the fuel for my finding true sanctuary and true belonging in the Heart of Christ.

The main purpose of God's redemptive work is that we may be restored to a life of participation in His Life in Christ. Hence true redemption, true salvation, is the healing of the soul's capacity to receive and manifest the love of Christ, present within us from the beginning.

Our Sacred Wounds
Our Wounds in the Paschal Mystery are the means of our redemption and opening to the Risen Life of Christ. Think of those times in your life when you are brought closest to your wounds, to your vulnerability as a human being. They are times of crisis, when the habitual patterns don't work, when the usual supports aren't present. They are a time of trial when the temptation is to dig a hole and climb into it, or lash out in anger or self-defense and fear. This is the moment when the cross of Christ is our redemptive path. In this moment when we allow Christ to choose, and say "yes"- that we are given in love, given in trust to love more deeply, more fully, more completely. That is a Resurrection moment. The beatitudes teach us that Resurrection happens only in our vulnerability when we really exercise Faith to take refuge in Christ. When things are going well, when the mind and psyche feel secure, we are comfortable in our habitual patterns and old husks. When things fall apart, through grace, the self of separateness can fall apart into the life of communion with Christ. Holding it together isn't always a good thing. When we fall apart into the arms of Christ, that is a good thing indeed and we break free from our husks into butterfly glory and flight.

Jesus said, " I am the Resurrection and the Life, those who believe in me, though they die, will live."( John 11:25) The way we come to that realization is through our humanity. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (I CO 1:23) said that he came to proclaim neither the law of the Jews nor the wisdom of the Greeks but Christ crucified. No high minded philosophy will bring us to oneness with Christ, but only the cross of our life experience, if we let grace happen. He was talking to people about what is real, that life is tough, and you can't realize goodness by making rules or expounding lofty ideals; rather you come to love's completion through the hard things in life. M. Scott Peck said that life is a school for loving. And so it is in our relationships, they are a dimension of the cross, the school of our life, where we learn to love, fully and deeply

Resurrection Life in Ordinary Life
As we deepen our practice in the Way of the Heart we come to live Resurrection in ordinary daily life. We experience not just crucifixion but the glory and joy of the Risen Life of Christ. Our Resurrection becomes our journey of singular refuge in Christ alone.

We find extraordinary joy in the ordinary life of walking with others, it is the road to Emmaus, eating, drinking, cooking the fish for others. We find joy in breaking bread; we sail on the sea of Galilee with Yeshua in the everyday lives of service. Resurrection life is sailing with Yeshua in this way, in the ordinary life of ours. True enlightenment and mystic union leads to this state, of living ordinary life with exquisite and extraordinary joy and love. Resurrection leads not to separation but joining fully the unitive life of humanity and all Creation. In us Christ can love and serve our loved ones, our community, and the created world of all things around us. It is a life of consecrated love and concern for all things. The true measure of a life then is agape, unitive love, and its measure is the tender concern we bring to all we do.

The transforming union is the birthing of Agape, self -offering love, the journey that began in exile and alienation takes us back into community. The Way of the Cross takes us to the Golgotha of our lives, and from there to the empty tomb. Resurrection takes us on the road to Emmaus where we walk with others. Resurrection takes us on to the sea of Galilee and sailing with Jesus and our brothers and sisters, back into community, back into service and finding the Christ at the center of our own heart, equally in the world and in others. It is the work of the Risen Christ, His Resurrection and Life in us, coming to fruition in our life." ( from Breathing Yeshua- by Bill Ryan)


Healing the Soul of the World- Prayer of Mercy-Our soul's healing does not take place in isolation. In becoming a vessel of Christ's mercy, we enter the stream of his healing love and we offer and bring the soul of the world with us. Hence we pray daily and without ceasing - Lifting up the soul wounds of the world to Christ's Self-Offering Love and Healing Touch. In this way the Jesus prayer is the prayer of our soul's healing and the healing of the soul of the world. They are not separate. All are one in the body of Christ.

Prayer of Healing and Transformation from St. Symeon - 10th cent.

With my friend, Ann, may we all pray this prayer of refuge in the healing love of Jesus. May all of us, like Ann, find our peace and joy in arms of Jesus, when he says, "Come to me, all you who are heavy burdened, …and I will give you a place to rest your soul."

“We awaken in Christ’s body,
As Christ awakens in our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ.
He enters my foot and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly whole seamless in God’s Nature)

I move my foot and at once he appears like a flash of
lightning.
Do my words seems blasphemous?-- Then open your
heart to Him.

and let yourself receive the One who is opening so
deeply. For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body.

Where all our body, all over, every hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us , utterly real.

and everything that is hurt, everything that seemed to us dark,
harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged, is in Him
transformed.
and recognized as whole, as lovely;
and radiant in His light.
We awaken as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.”