Meg Funk

the Jesus Prayer - Part XV

(Meg Funk) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:43:12 EST

God as personal

Prayer of the heart focuses upon the divine Name because that Name itself is a personal theophany, a manifestation of God in Trinity.

By invoking the Name of Jesus, with faith and love, the worshiper ascends Mount Sinai in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, to stand in awe before the divine Presence.

Byzantine theologians developed this image of ascent, the passage of the soul through divine darkness to the uncreated light, on the basis of the primal experience of God as personal.

Within the “immanent Trinity,” the inner life of the Godhead, the three Persons exist in an eternal communion of love, united in a common nature and a common will.

Accordingly, the Trinity ad extra – the “economic” Trinity which is present and active within creation – reveals itself as three personal realities who bear the “names” of Father, Son and Spirit.

Meg: This inner and outer distinction about God is quite helpful and avoids the Scholastic distinctions that rendered talk about God more of a conceptual abstraction. Our personal God that we know through Christ Jesus, who has a face, is available to each of us and all of us humans.

The Jesus Prayer is a distinctive method to bring us into this very inner experience of Trinity.

The Jesus Prayer - Part XIV

(Meg Funk) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:15:20 EST

That God is

Yet the Name he does reveal to Moses conveys all the truth about God that can ever be known or expressed.

“I AM,” he declares. “This is my Name forever.”

In the person of the incarnate Son, God continues to manifest himself as “I AM.”

The revelatory formula “Be not afraid!” is often couple with the added word, “I AM.” Translations that render ego eimi as “It is I,” do a great disservice. They obscure the point that in encounters with Jesus-whether they occur to the disciples on the Lake of Galilee (Mt 14:27), or in the Upper Room on the night of his betrayal (Jn 14:6), or during a resurrection appearance (Lk 24:39, ego eimi autos)- the designation “I am” signals a theophany, a manifestation of divine life and purpose.

God’s being is revealed by his acts, and beyond those “mighty acts” nothing can be known of him. “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come, the Almighty!” (Rev 1:8).

Meg: This important point about the Name is clearly a teaching in the Cloud of Unknowing. That God is, is the burden of the faith claim. We cannot desiginate who God is as that is God's domain and distinctive role. We, as Creatures, can only bow to the fact that God is. Jesus, has a name given to us, so we can call on God through Jesus. This is amazing and more than a belief, but a skillful way to pray.

The Jesus Prayer - Part XIII

(Meg Funk) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:23:25 EST

Name

Both the object and the content of such repetitive prayer is the divine Name.

According to Hebrew thought, a name bears or expresses the essence of the person or thing that bears it.

By extension, knowing the name of an adversary gives some measure of control over him. The patriarch Jacob wins the struggle with the angel of God, then immediately seeks to learn his name. Although the angel refuses to divulge it, he bestows upon Jacob the new name “Israel,” prophetically announcing the salvation of God’s elect people (Gen 32:27-29).

Jesus gains power over demons by asking their name: “Legion is my name,” he/they reply, “for we are many” (Mk 5:1-20). In this same encounter, the demons identify Jesus by name, adding a christological confession that even his disciples are incapable of making: “What is your concern with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”

The name reveals one’s authentic identity, the innermost reality or truth (aletheia) of one’s being. Accordingly, Moses seeks to learn the name of God at the theophany on Mount Sinai.

As he will with Jacob, God refuses to give his Name. Instead, he affirms the truth of his being: “I AM” (ego eimi, Exod 3:13-15). 15 (The designation “I AM” is the equivalent of “ho on,” “He who exits.”

This is another form of the divine Name, invoked in the final blessing of the Byzantine office (“Christ our God, the Existing One, is blessed�”), and inscribed on icons of the Holy Face.)

In philosophical language, this is an existential rather than an ontological identification. Nothing is revealed of the divine essence, the inner being of the Godhead. Rather, God declares that he IS: Yahweh is the God who is present and active within human life and experience.

Meg: In American culture words are trite and talking has replaced communication. This usage of the Name is a wonderful corrective to casual language. This shifts from thinking about or from talking about to a profound bow toward. The Name of Jesus is a gift to our deepest sensitivities so that we have a medium for adoration. The Name is a way for us to pray, to lift up our hearts and minds to God. To know the Name is to connect with the Holy One. Mystery!

The Jesus Prayer - Part XII

(Meg Funk) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:15:13 EST

Repetition

A key element in hesychasm is frequent repetition: continual prayer as a means to uninterrupted and ever deeper communion with God.

The psalmist declared, “I keep the Lord always before me;/ because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Ps 15/16:8).

The apostle Paul exhorts his follower to “pray without ceasing” (adialeiptos proseuchesthe, 1 Thess 5:17), urging them to persevere, seeking constancy in prayer (tei proseuchei proskarterountes, Rom 12:12).

14 (The same idea is expressed in Col 4:2, “Be constant in prayer”; and he adds, “being watchful (gregorountes) in it with thanksgiving.”)

em>Meg: Repetition as constant as our breath or our heart beat is the discipline of the Jesus Prayer. Unless we move beyond the right effort stage that makes the prayer a habit we cannot enjoy the benefits of this prayer.

The Jesus Prayer is ultimately at the contemplative level, but to learn it we must do the ascetical work of repetition until it becomes self-acting. To do it sometimes and sometimes not keeps this prayer form at a superficial level. To pray from time to time is a different form of prayer, not the tradition of the Jesus Prayer. When the repetition becomes ceaseless and self-acting the experience of this prayer form becomes what the tradition calls, Prayer of the Heart.

Irish Report of Sexual Abuse Part VII

(PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:50:40 EST

words fail

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

MARY McAleese has expressed “heartfelt sorrow” on behalf of the people of Ireland to former residents of State institutions for the abuse and neglect they suffered as children.

Speaking at a reception in �ras an Uachtar�in attended by more than 300 people, the President said: “The people of Ireland are desperately sorry for the many ways in which you were not cherished, in the abuse itself, in the silence, in the failure to act, in the failure to listen, hear and believe in time.”

She told abuse victims, their families and friends that she wanted to recognise “the suffering and bravery’’ of former residents.

“Today thanks to the courage of the children who were abused and grew into an adulthood from which they took a stand against abuse, the veils of silence, authority, deference, pretence, power, powerlessness, and impunity are pulled aside and we see what so many tried to ensure we would never see,” she said.

“In their name I offer every one here and all those whose little lives were robbed of the joys of childhood our heartfelt sorrow,’’ she said.

The response from victims afterwards was very positive, with John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abused describing the reception as “a very moving day for all concerned, a momentous, historic day”. Christine Buckley of the Aislinn Centre, who was a resident of the Goldenbridge orphanage said that “the overall picture was one of great happiness’’.

Extending a warm welcome, on behalf of her husband Martin and herself, President McAleese said “There are moments in a life when words simply fail as a means of expression. No amount of them, no matter how heartfelt, can seem adequate to the moment. The publication of the Ryan report was one such moment in the life of this nation.”
The invitation to �ras an Uachtar�in was “an expression of the massive public wish to let you know how deeply your stories have struck a chord,” she said.

“For so long your suffering seemed to make strangers of you in your own land. Today, we simply seek to be family to each other, to assert our common care for one another and to acknowledge that what was done to those of you who are survivors of abuse in institutional care, not only damaged your precious lives but diminished our society,” she said.

She acknowledged that one day in the Phoenix Park “cannot hope to restore to your lives all the things that were taken from you”. But she hoped it would send out a message “that your lives and the lives of all those damaged by such abuse are our care and that most important of all we stand together in our determination to ensure that our country will honour the ambition set out in the Proclamation in 1916 to be a republic which cherishes its children equally”.

What happened had been “at such a dreadful cost to the abused, their childhoods lost, their families scattered, their adult lives and relationships so often deeply affected by their early suffering.
“From that suffering, however, you have created a force that will in time bring much good to Ireland’s children, for you challenge our society to hold to account all those who engrave on their innocent and dependant little lives.

“What’s learnt in childhood is engraved in stone. You met bad engravers, the children of today and tomorrow rely on us to engrave well,” she said.
Among those at the reception were representative of nine survivor groups, Aislinn, Alliance Victim Support Group, Irish Soca, Irish Women Survivors Support Group, Justice and Healing for Institutional Abuse, Right of Peace Group, Right of Place and Soca UK.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

The Jesus Prayer - Part XI

(Meg Funk) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:10:35 EST

Traditional Levels of Prayer

Prayer, then, requires our cooperation with the Spirit of God through “a watchful mind, pure thoughts, and a sober heart.” (From the “Evening Prayer to Christ” of the Byzantine Compline service.)

With this conviction, the fathers turned to Holy Scripture in order to discern various levels of prayer that can be attained in the spiritual life.

A key passage is 1 Timothy 2:1, “First of all, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all.”

To the patristic mind these represent four stages or orders of prayer, from the most elementary to the most sublime.

13 Examples of this kind of exegesis can be found in many sources. On the question in general, see esp. The Art of Prayer, ed. Igumen Chariton of Valamo (London: Faber, 1966), with an excellent introduction by Kallistos Ware; and Unseen Warfare (by Lorenzo Scupoli, ed. By Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, revised by Theophan the Recluse), (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1978).)

The apostle first names “petitions” or “supplications” (deeseis).

These include confession of sins, together with requests for spiritual cleansing and wholeness.

Their thrust is basically negative, seeking liberation from all that impedes progress toward perfection.

Second, he speaks of “prayers” (proseuchas), meaning positive requests for the gifts and fruit of the Spirit, for virtue and the attainment of righteousness.

The third order or level consists of “intercessions” (enteuxeis). At this stage, one turns from one’s own spiritual concerns to focus on the needs of others through intercession; this is in essence a prayer of mediation that seeks another’s salvation.

Finally, one reaches the level of “thanksgiving” (eucharistias), in which the heart rises toward God in joyous adoration, offered in response to his saving grace.

Yet as the fathers insist, the four stages exist simultaneously in the spiritual life.

Thanksgiving must be complemented by ongoing repentance and petition for the forgiveness of sin, just as intercessions on behalf of others go hand in hand with prayers for one’s self.

Beyond these four levels or orders of prayer, however, there is another about which we can say virtually nothing; yet we shall have to return to it when we raise the question of the way hesychast prayer is internalized.

This ultimate form or degree is known as kathara proseuche, “pure prayer,” that issues from the ineffable experience of union with God, in peace, love and joy.

Although it defies any attempt to express it with words or images (all of which inevitably deteriorate into logismoi and phantasiai), it is the truest prayer of all, the utterance of the Spirit himself. As unitive prayer, it is both the goal and the fulfillment of hesychia.

Meg: the stages of prayer are simultaneous in practice rather than sequential. Logically the stages build one upon the other, but in one's heart it dances around from one movement to the other. The ineffable, called pure prayer, is a felt experience by the spiritual senses.

Today we have every opportunity to experience the pure prayer as did those who lived in the 4th C.E. The skillful use of the Jesus Prayer is a hallowed method into this hesychiac tradition.

The Jesus Prayer - Part X

(Meg Funk) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:54:28 EST

nepsis

Prayer, then, is not merely a gift; it is work.

It demands patience, persistence and ascetic discipline. It also demands the constant vigilance known as nepsis or “watchfulness.”

The Hebrew sage admonished, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” 10 (Prov 4:23, New American Standard translation.) “Watch!”

Jesus commanded His disciples at the close of his apocalyptic warnings. “What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mk 13:33-37).

Such watchfulness raises a bulwark against demonic images (phantasiai) or thoughts (logismoi), enabling the mind and heart to concentrate on “the one thing needful” (cf. Lk 10:42).

More than by any other virtue, we cooperate with God in the activity of prayer through “nepsis.” This is the attitude of sober vigilance exemplified by the five virgins who welcomed the Bridegroom, and by the maiden who awaited her lover: “I slept, but my heart kept watch.” 11 (Mt 25:1-13; Song 5:2.)

Meg: This teaching is an imperative! In the words of Christ there are few directives that must be heeded. This is one of them. Most of the teachings of Jesus are wisdom sayings that are understood only after one has acted into living that way of life. But this directive is to get started, to do it without any experience of its benefit.

To watch our thoughts and guard our heart is so important because we will never know Jesus if we do not invite His Presence into our inner consciousness. We literally have to back out all that is not God so that Jesus can be our inner reign rather than our bent self. The Jesus Prayer is a perfect tool for this inner work.

Can not afford expressing Anger

(ROBERT ALLAN) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:29:13 EST

Anger

From the New York Times
June 25, 2009, 10:10 PM
When the Heart Pays the Price of Anger
By ROBERT ALLAN

Not long ago, a cardiac patient in a cardiac support group I was leading told of his response to a recent incident: He and a female friend were on the plaza at Lincoln Center after seeing a performance of Verdi’s opera “Il Trovatore” when a car nearly hit the woman.

She ran after the vehicle, which was slowly moving away, and slammed the trunk with her rolled up program. The driver emerged from the car hurling expletives in her direction. The patient then hit the driver with his cane. The driver shoved the patient into a fender, at which point, the patient insisted, he had no choice � It was no ordinary cane he was carrying, but a beautiful 19th-century model with a sleek, sharp sword concealed within.

He then insisted that the driver “apologize at swordpoint” in front of a small crowd that had gathered. The characters in “Il Trovatore,” he added, proudly brandished swords.

The patient shared this story at his first — and only — session of the support group. (He terminated treatment, insisting that the others needed my help with their anger far more than he did.) Even after deliberating for several weeks, the patient felt justified and vindicated, totally satisfied by his actions.

Many of us harbor the “make my day” fantasy, emblazoned into the American psyche by Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. Americans get mad — and get even. However, when people pursue such satisfaction they run the risk of triggering someone else’s thirst for revenge, and so begins a recurring, sometimes escalating, cycle. Soon, one always has to look behind his or her back in fear that a former adversary will find an opportunity for the proverbial knifing.

Not many people on earth can claim regular, deep, long-lasting satisfaction. Satisfaction is fleeting, and often whittled away by recorded telephone menus, rude waiters and any number of other indignities of contemporary society. And of course, this has particular currency today. Many of us are justifiably angry at our former employers for loss of jobs or at the financial service industry’s inability to protect our life savings.

Challenging times certainly increase the tendency for negative moods and aggressive behavior (this dynamic was described in the “frustration-aggression hypothesis” first put forth in the 1940s.[1] However, giving way to an angry impulse makes nearly any situation worse.

The aforementioned patient’s life, in spite of considerable intelligence, advanced degrees, and a personable demeanor, was one of mere survival in a cramped studio apartment. When we met, he was selling some of his few remaining valuables to make the next month’s rent. This patient’s career was marked with disappointments – in others who disappointed him. Moreover, he was a cardiac patient with a bad family history and suffered a heart attack at a young age. The swordsman was keenly aware of the link between chronic anger and heart disease. Indeed, a recent meta-analysis of 44 prospective studies in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology[2] confirms a strong relationship between anger and both the onset and outcome from coronary heart disease; moreover, approximately 1.5 percent of heart attacks are “triggered” by intense anger.

While it is not possible to make a definitive causal connection between the swordsman’s actions and unfortunate life circumstances, the experience of a 35-year practice as a clinical psychologist and abundant literature on the subject all inform me that the sort of satisfaction of which he was so fond ultimately did him in, both in health and life. Expressing his anger didn’t benefit him at all.

People often challenge this view with the idea that unexpressed anger “builds up,” leading to resentment, high blood pressure, a heart attack or stroke. Many of us conceive of anger just as we fill a balloon with (hot) air. We get angry, the balloon expands. An injustice befalls us, we get angrier — the balloon gets larger. Something else “bad” happens and the balloon gets so big that it � bursts! The comedian Jonathan Katz described a moment like this in a joke about having dinner with his father: “I meant to say, ‘Can you pass me the salt, please?’ But it comes out, You creep, you ruined my childhood!”

Jokes aside, anger is not a measurable substance. There is no organ, gland, or other repository in our bodies for anger. Yet, we have myriad terms that make reference to anger as an accumulating substance. Anger “builds up,” “leaks out,” and is sometimes transformed into “explosive rage.” The idea that anger accumulates is a myth that can sometimes lead to the sort of “satisfaction” achieved by my patient. He didn’t “bottle-up” his anger; he “released” it (“it,” in his thinking, transformed into a substance). My patient obtained “real satisfaction” by drawing his sword — but ultimately slashed his existence to a sliver of what he might have become.

When faced with frustrating disappointments, we may all secretly wish to advise our money managers, as well those with whom we are close, about their expanding waistline, receding hairline, or the pimple that has suddenly sprung up in the middle of their forehead. But such “satisfaction” inevitably comes back to haunt us as others are even more likely to remember our insult than we are to relish getting the best of them. To quote another patient, “life is very lonely when you are always right.”

References:

[1] The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis, Neal E. Miller (1941) (with the collaboration of Robert R. Sears, O.H. Mowrer, Leonard W. Doob & John Dollard), Institute of Human Relations, Yale University. First published in Psychological Review, 48, 337-342

[2] The association of anger and hostility with future coronary heart disease: a meta-analytic review of prospective evidence. Chida Y, Steptoe A., Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2009 Mar 17;53(11):936-46. PMID: 19281923

Also:

Anger-induced T-wave alternans predicts future ventricular arrhythmias in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators. Lampert R, Shusterman V, Burg M, McPherson C, Batsford W, Goldberg A, Soufer R., Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2009 Mar 3;53(9):774-8. PMID: 19245968

Robert Allan is a clinical psychologist, the author of “Getting Control of Your Anger” and co-editor of “Heart and Mind: the Practice of Cardiac Psychology” (American Psychological Association), currently under revision. Dr. Allan holds appointments at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital. His Web site is RobertAllanPhD.com

The Jesus Prayer - Part IX

(Meg Funk) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:41:31 EST

Mantra

Synergia

Such prayer, however, must never be treated as a technique, a Christianized mantra, whose use enables one to attain a particular spiritual end.

Prayer, as St. Paul insists, can never be manipulated, since in its essence it is not a human undertaking at all.

“We do not know how to pray as we should,” he declares, “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26).

True prayer occurs when the Spirit addresses the Father, “Abba,” in the temple of the human heart. Prayer, therefore, is essentially a divine activity. Yet like every aspect of the spiritual life, it demands synergeia or cooperation on our part.

To attain theoria, the contemplative vision of God, one must proceed by way of praxis, active struggle toward purification and acquisition of virtue through obedience to the divine commandments.

Meg: The Orthodox are quite consistent that the Jesus Prayer is not a technique, a mantra in the strict sense of the word. They are quite right to insist on this distinction. I can remember His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaching us at Gethsemani Abbey in 1996: the difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that Buddhism is self-effort. There is no concept or doctrine of grace in Buddhism as there is in Christianity.

This distinction needs to be honored in our Christian practices. We actually cooperate with grace. The practice of prayer is really a practice of discernment. We follow the impulse of grace wholeheartedly and with humble zeal.

The Jesus Prayer - Part VIII

(Meg Funk) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:13:46 EST

Within you

2. The Biblical Foundations of the Jesus Prayer

In answer to the Pharisees’ question as to when the Kingdom would come, Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God is not coming with observable signs�behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:20-21).

While most modern commentators take the Greek expression entos hymon to mean “among you,” “in your midst” – that is, as present in Jesus’ person – patristic interpreters tended to render it “within you.”

From this point of view, the Kingdom is a mystical reality, a divine gift to be cherished and cultivated within the inward being, in the depths of the secret heart. Access to that inner reality is provided by prayer, particularly continual prayer that centers upon the divine Name.

Meg: The interior life without prayer is tricky. To be self reflective is certainly a human privilege, but the propensity of the human condition is to be self–reflective toward the self, the ego–self. This self consciousness can be a window toward a dominant concern about, for and with one's own interest rather than the balanced concern for others and the all. Our culture is both self conscious and individual consciousness more than considering the other and the whole of living beings on our planet earth. The corrective is to have astute awareness of oneself before God, our Creator of all living beings. God teaches us our true self and our humble relationship with others. Compassion is a natural sense of right relationship. “The Kingdom of God is within” is another way of saying we are keenly aware of God and other creatures in relationship with our precious life.

The Jesus Prayer - Part VII

(Meg Funk) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:10:37 EST

Christian Tradition

the Hesychast Movement

The Jesus Prayer is often said to have originated in the context of the hesychast movement associated with St. Gregory Palamas and the Athonite monks of the 13th to 14th centuries.

“Palamism,” however, must be seen as the culmination of a long tradition which begins with the Holy Scriptures and the frequent invocations of the Name of Jesus they contain (Mk 10:47; Acts 4:12; Rev 22:20; etc.).

In one form or another the Jesus Prayer was practiced by anchorites of Syria, Palestine and Egypt during the 4th and 5th centuries. It flourished on Mt. Sinai under the spiritual direction of St. John of the Ladder from the 6th century, then on Mt. Athos from the 10th century.

Only some four hundred years later did the Prayer become the focus of the controversy between Gregory Palamas (died 1359) and Barlaam the Calabrian. By the 15th century the Jesus Prayer had become the cornerstone of much Russian Orthodox piety, finally inspiring the nineteenth-century classic known as “The Way of a Pilgrim.”

Footnote 8 (The most well-known English translation of this work is by R.M. French (London, 1954). Numerous other editions have appeared in recent years.

The first four chapters consist of a spiritual biography of a handicapped Russian peasant, who undertakes a spiritual pilgrimage toward (the heavenly) Jerusalem.

It recounts his experience with the Jesus Prayer, which he learns to interiorize through constant repetition guided by a spiritual father.

The last three chapters (“The Pilgrim Continues His Way”) offer an in-depth meditation on the nature of hesychast prayer.)

During the second half of the preceding century, Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (“the Hagiorite”), together with his friend Macarius of Corinth, enshrined traditional teaching on the Jesus Prayer in five tomes entitled the Philokalia (first translated into Russian by Paisy Velichkovsky of Dobrotolubiye).

Footnote 9 (For a useful overview of the respective contributions of Macarius and Nicodemus, see K. Ware, “The Spirituality of the Philokalia,” in Sobormost 13/1 (1991), 7-24.)

The complete collection contains sayings from the fathers on prayer, beginning with Anthony the Great (died 356) and concluding with Gregory Palamas, thus embracing more than a millennium of Eastern contemplative tradition.

The title of the work, “Philokalia,” signifies “love of beauty.” The expression conveys the truth about the divine life and purpose which the heart learns through practice of the Prayer.

God is love; but he is also the source of all that is truly beautiful, resplendent with divine glory. Such beauty, the Russian philosophers held, “will save the world.”

Meg: While this history is full of names and dates and might not interest the practitioner I want to point out that the Jesus Prayer is the fullest teaching in the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer that is most akin to Asian Eastern Prayer Practices.

The Jesus Prayer - Part VI

(Meg Funk) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:59:20 EST

Simple form

Fixed formula

In human experience prayer offers the way to recover that language, for authentic prayer transcends human language and issues in the silence of God. It is this intuition, confirmed by ecclesial experience, that led ancient spiritual guides to develop what is called “hesychast” prayer.

The term hesychia signifies inner calm, stillness, silence. It describes not so much a method as an attitude, a disposition of mind and heart, that facilitates remembrance of God and concentration upon him to whom prayer is directed.

In its earliest expression, hesychast prayer took the form of jaculatory petitions, single words or phrases fired like an arrow toward God. “Marana tha!,” “Our Lord, Come!” may be one of the earliest examples, together with Peter’s cry as he sank in the waters of the Lake of Galilee, “Lord, save me!” 4(1 Cor 16:23, Rev 22:20, Mt 14:30)

These and similar petitions could be spoken aloud in the church assembly or repeated silently by someone praying in solitude. From virtually the time of the resurrection, however, special emphasis was placed on the Name of Jesus as having unique, life-giving power.

“There is salvation in no one else [but Jesus Christ], for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” 5(Acts 4:12.

See the monograph by Bp. Kallistos Ware, “The Power of the Name,” (Fairacres, Oxford: SLG Press, 1974)). The name “Jesus,” given by the angel at the Annunciation, signifies “God is salvation.” Therefore it was very naturally taken up and incorporated into such brief, frequently repeated petitions.

Gradually, out of the experience of the desert monastics during the fourth and fifth centuries, there grew a more or less fixed formula that we know as “the Jesus Prayer”: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

6(Kurie Iesou Christe huie tou theou, eleson me [ton hamartolon]. K. Ware, “The Jesus Prayer in St. Gregory of Sinai,” Eastern Churches Review IV/1 (1972), 12 and note 44, locates the origin of the “standard” formula in the Life of Abba Philemon from 6th-7th century Egypt, but without the final phrase, “a sinner.”

It existed in many other forms, the most primitive of which, as he notes, may have been simply invocation of the name: “Lord Jesus.” See especially his contribution “Ways of Prayer and Contemplation. I. Eastern,” in Christian Spirituality. Origins to the Twelfth Century, ed. Bernard McGinn, John Meyendorff, and Jean Leclercq (New York: Crossroad, 1985), 305-414. This is an excellent study both of the history of the development of the Jesus Prayer and of its spiritual significance.) In this classic form, it combines a doctrinal confession (“Jesus is Lord”) with a supplication that seeks forgiveness and healing.

7(The Greek term for “mercy” (eleeson) is closely related to the word for “oil” (elaion). The petition “have mercy on me,” like the Kyrie eleeson that serves as a leitmotif of the Eastern liturgies, is in effect a request that God anoint the individual or community with “the old of gladness.” It recalls the wine and oil applied by the Good Samaritan in Jesus’ parable (Lk 10:34), with its properties of purification and healing.)

Because some persons receive the grace by which this simple formula is gradually internalized, becoming rooted in the innermost sanctuary of one’s being, it is virtually synonymous with “prayer of the heart.”

Meg:I have left in the footnotes of John Breck's teaching in his Chapter 12 because many use a different formula for their mantra. It is always recommended to follow the tradition rather than make up one's own mantra. This is not like a conversation with God as in colloquy. We are swimming in the stream of saints who provide a proven way of prayer.

The Jesus Prayer - Part V

(Meg Funk) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:49:09 EST

no noise

Teaching on Jesus Prayer: Part V

No noise

p. 213 continued. Yet silence, at least in present times, seems to be the most difficult of virtues to acquire.

We fear it, and we run from it in a relentless search for noise and distraction. A stroll on the beach requires the companionship of a ipod. At the workplace, or waiting on the phone, or shopping for groceries, we expect to be “entertained” by music – any music, so long as it focuses our attention outside ourselves and away from the inner being.

Silence means a void, a dreadful emptiness that demands to be filled. What we choose to fill that void with most often produces not only noise but agitation through overstimulation. Sensory overload is addictive. It becomes an escape from the present, from the self, from God.

Like any addiction, it is pathological and life-threatening. From the news media to MTV to contemporary works of art, American culture is marked by an insatiable hunger for stimuli that divert our attention from “the place of the heart,” the place of inner silence and solitude.

To some degree, however, this has always been the case. When Adam was cast forth from the Garden, he lost more than life in paradise. He lost the gift of silence, and with it he lost “the language of the world to come.”

Meg: We cannot expect silence to perk up through the noise. We can train our minds to shift from the noise and find that silent place in the heart. This is why the Jesus Prayer mantra is so helpful. These teachings from John Breck are extensive and will take us about a month to study. For now, simply notice the noise in your environment inside and out.

Sacred Heart of Jesus

(Meg Funk) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:22:59 EST

Sacred Heart of Jesus

Feast of the Sacred Heart

Summer hot days and short nights are conducive to this feast of Our Lord's Sacred Heart.

No need for catechesis about this feast. Those of us who have a devotion to Our Lord's humanity know from the inside the value of pausing before the pictures of Jesus and let our heart's desire have the quality of time to meet.

We had a long festive mass this morning for Eucharist and there were special antiphons. We sang all the verses of the songs and even the service music was done in harmony like Sunday.

No one minds longer prayers when they come from the heart.

A poem:

When
all the motion stops
noise quiets
there's nothing
more to say

and,
when there is
a certain thin
line of certitude
that fractures not
into two, nor three

we
report that
all is holy
now as it was before

or,
is all that is human
be
the way it is
just now

Fear not,
You say

The heart
says
all is at
rest.

The Jesus Prayer - Part IV

(Meg Funk) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:23:03 EST

silence and stillness

Silence of the Heart

continued: p. 212 from Scripture in Tradition by John Breck

The first prayer of thanksgiving after communion, in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, declares: "Thou art the true desire and the ineffable joy of those who love, thee, O Christ our God, and all creation hymns thy praise forever!"

The longing for communion with God is a major incentive to prayer, which may be described as "conversation" with God at the level of the heart.

Prayer in the first instance involves praise and glorification of God, and it includes personal supplication as well as intercession on behalf of others.

Prayer marked by the intense longing that leads to union with the Divine, on the other hand, requires silence.

In addition to the scriptures, the liturgy and other sources of revelation recognized by the Church, Christian mystical tradition has always known another avenue of divine self-disclosure:

God reveals himself in the silence of the heart. In his leteter to the Magnesians, St. Ignatius of Antioch declared,
"there is one God who manifested himself through Jesus Christ his Son, who is his Word, proceeding from silence." (Mag VII,2) St. Isaac the Syrian expressed a similar thought with his familiar statement,

"Silence is the sacrament of the world to come, words are the instrument of this present age. (Letter no.3. Recall the ancient hymn sung in Byzantine tradition at the Holy Saturday Liturgy: "Let all mortal flesh keep silence...")

Revelation that conveys knowledge of God, normally requires words, as do petitions that address needs and conditions of our daily life. Prayer uttered out of the deepest long for God, however, demands silence.

Meg: In most icons Jesus has a closed mouth. This is to teach that He is the Word that is spoken, but also we know him when we keep the door of our words closed. In silence we know Him and we are known. The sweetness of silence is tasted only when we practice outer silence and inner stillness of thoughts and emotions.

The Jesus Prayer - Part III

(Meg Funk) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:00:43 EST

Object of Desire

Penthos

continued: p. 212 on Prayer of the Heart: Sacrament of the Presence of God from Scripture in Tradition: The Bible and its Interpretation in the Orthodox Church by John Breck

Each of us, without exception, bears within the inner recesses of our being the “image” of our Creator. Fashioned in that divine image, the holy fathers declare, we are called to grow toward the divine “likeness” (Gen 1:26f).

In the words of St. Basil the Great, the human person “is an animal who received the command to become god,” that is, to become a participant in the very life of God through the deifying power of the divine energies or operations of the indwelling Spirit. The motivating force behind this sublime vocation is eros or epithymia, an intense longing or deep affective desire for union with the Beloved.

Perverted by sin, that longing becomes narcissistic, and the soul goes whoring after other gods, idols fabricated in her own image. Purified by grace, the soul is redirected toward the original Object of her love. Like the Prodigal, she returns back home, in repentance and compunction (penthos), to discover the Father waiting for her with open arms.

The love that inspires her return, however, is a response to the prior love of God. “This is love,” the apostle tells us, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an expiation for our sins” (1Jn 3:10).

Acquisition of the divine likeness, then, is predicated entirely on divine initiative. The longing of the soul for eternal life, like that life itself, is a gift of grace, whole dependent on the object of the soul’s affection.

Meg: Today there is much talk about non–duality. In this thinking there is no separation between desire and object of desire. I find that to be not our tradition. We are not God, but we have a desire for God. Our object of desire is an entity with essence and existence.

What I think the attraction to non dualistic thinking is, is to make judgment of good/bad and inner and outer so rigid that it is a false dichotomy. In a cosmic sense we are all one, but as Creature we need to be profoundly aware of our being, as a Creature.

This is the Christian revelation and is not to be found in Hinduism or Buddhism. We cannot mix these differing revelations that have an entirely coherent thought system that comes from a differing Revelation of the God of the Cosmos.

The Jesus Prayer - Part II

(Meg Funk) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:00:32 EST

Deepest Desire

Deepest Desire: Hesychia and Prayer of the Heart

continued: p. 211 from Scripture in Tradition: The Bible and its Interpretation in the Orthodox Church by John Breck

The deepest sadness and the greatest joy in Christian life are caused by an innate longing for God, a passionate quest for intimate and eternal communion with the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

Such longing brings sadness, because in this life it goes largely unfulfilled. Yet rather than lead to frustration, it can produce an ineffable joy, nourished by the certitude that ultimately nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, that our desire for union with him will ultimately be answered beyond our most fervent hope.

This profoundly spiritual longing is often called “bright sadness” or “joyful sorrow” (charmolupe). In Christian mystical experience, it is the impulse that leads, through ascetic struggle and purification, to theosis or “deification.”

Meg: This desire is our deepest sense of our self. Once when I was studying Buddhist's text concerning the “no–self” I did a self test....what would I say is the very essence of my inner being that I can actually report through my own inner experience?

The answer came quickly and through sustained conviction that has never shifted out: my deepest felt–self is a sense of desire! And not just any desire, but this deeply felt longing for God.

More about this deepest longing for the Object of our desire tomorrow.

The Jesus Prayer - Part I

(Meg Funk) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 05:07:35 EST

from our tradition

The Jesus Prayer, a Teaching

Meg: For several years I've taught and practiced the Jesus Prayer. It is so powerful I would like to take several sessions on this blog to present it once again as if I've never taught it before.

For my basic text I am going to use John Breck's Scripture in Tradition: The Bible and its Interpretation in the Orthodox Church, Chapter 12, p. 211. The book is published by St Vladimir's Seminary Press New York: 2001 ISBN 0-88141-226-0. The entire book is brilliant, but for now I'll simply attend to the Chapter on the Jesus Prayer.

Chapter 12. Prayer of the Heart: Sacrament of the Presence of God

John Breck: In the realm of prayer, as in the realm of dogmatic theology, developing tradition within the Church must be rooted and shaped by the canonical Scriptures. We address our Prayer to the Father, through the mediation of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

As this final chapter attempts to make clear, prayer is essentially a divine activity, accomplished by God working through his “two hands,” the Son and the Spirit. This trinitarian operation is particularly evident in the hesychast tradition of “prayer of the heart.” Such prayer, particularly dear to the Orthodox Christians, illustrates once again that Scripture derives from living Tradition, while it serves as the canonical or normative expression of that Tradition.

Meg: This little introduction sets up the point that the Jesus Prayer is not a particular devotion from some saint, like the Chaplet of Divine Mercy or other devotions. The Jesus Prayer is the sturdiest way of practice of prayer within our Christian Tradition. Tomorrow I’ll post the first teaching about our longing for God.

USA's Report on Sexual Abuse

(Nancy Frazier O'Brien) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:35:35 EST

rise again

Meg: Many of us are reading through the 3,000 pages of the Ryan Report from Dublin. This view on USA story of the past three years gives some perspective of the size, depth, breadth of the moral crisis among clergy and religious. Compassion must prevail, but action must be taken to prevent this today and tomorrow.

Costs for clergy sex abuse at $2.6 billion

Mar. 14, 2009
By Nancy Frazier O'Brien,
Catholic News Service

Accountability

2009 report on clergy abuse

WASHINGTON U.S. dioceses and religious orders spent more than $436 million in 2008 on settlements and other costs related to clergy sex abuse, a decrease of 29 percent over the $615 million paid out in the peak year of 2007.

Those figures were in the information made public March 13 in the sixth annual report on implementation of the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," adopted by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 2002. The report was produced under the direction of the all-lay National Review Board, established by the bishops to monitor compliance with the charter.

The report summarized data collected from dioceses, eparchies and religious orders for calendar year 2008 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, as well as the results of audits of most U.S. dioceses and eparchies conducted between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008.

CARA found that in 2008 U.S. dioceses and eparchies received 625 new allegations of child sex abuse by clergy, but only 10 of them involved children who were under the age of 18 in 2008. Similarly, in 2008 U.S. religious orders that include priests and brothers or priests alone received 178 new credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, only three of which involved children who were minors in 2008.

Twelve percent, or 78, of the new allegations made against diocesan clergy in 2008 were unsubstantiated or determined to be false by the end of the year. Another 51 allegations received prior to 2008 were unsubstantiated or proven false during 2008.

The majority of new allegations were related to abuse reported to have occurred in the 1970s, for diocesan clergy, and in the 1960s, for members of religious orders.

In a letter submitted with the report, Teresa M. Kettelkamp, executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the report contains “good news&#d8221; that often goes unreported.

“Clearly, we have faced horrible situations, but I believe that the Catholic Church has turned a corner on addressing sexual abuse of children,” she said. “Is every diocese doing everything perfectly? No, we are not there yet, though we're far closer than we were last year and the year before that and all previous years.”

Kettelkamp said the Catholic Church is becoming “one of the safest havens in our world for children and young people“ and ”a resource for people beyond the Catholic Church who seek to confront this societal scourge.“

“The bishops can be proud of what they have accomplished and their ongoing commitment to address this issue,” she added. “That's progress and that's good news.”

Victims’ advocates, however, raised questions about a section in the report that said “many dioceses are conducting ... investigations themselves without also making a report to civil authorities,” which would be a direct violation of the bishops' 2002 reforms.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told Religion News Service that he worries that children may be at risk while church officials sift through allegations without first alerting law enforcement.

“To be honest, this is precisely what got us into this mess to begin with: untrained, biased church amateurs trying to be cops, investigators, forensic experts and prosecutors,” Clohessy said.

Kettlekamp, however, said her report raised the issue only as a cautionary warning to dioceses not to try to handle criminal behavior on their own. She said she would not include it in a “problem category.”

“Our rule of thumb is that if it involves a current minor, you involve the civil authorities immediately and rely on their expertise,” she said in an interview. “I'm not saying we have this problem; I'm saying I don't want this to become a problem.”

The increase from 691 total allegations in 2007 to 803 in 2008 appears to be fueled by a 93 percent spike in abuse involving members of religious communities. Those allegations nearly doubled, from 92 to 178; 40 percent of the 2008 allegations involved one religious order.

By comparison, the total number of allegations reported by the nation's 195 dioceses increased by 26, or 4 percent, from 2007.

The report showed that dioceses, eparchies and religious orders spent nearly $2.1 billion in the years 2004-2008 on settlements, therapy for victims, support for offenders, attorneys’ fees and other costs related to clerical sex abuse.

The Associated Press reported that total cost to the U.S. church have run to $2.6 billion.

The $23 million spent by dioceses and eparchies on child protection efforts in 2008 represented a $2 million increase over the previous year but a $2 million decrease over the amount spent in 2006.

The other costs – totaling $4.2 million in 2008 – included payments for investigations of allegations, medical costs and other support for victims or survivors, costs for mediation, travel expenses for victims, costs for victims– assistance offices and victim hot lines, clergy misconduct review boards, public service announcements and outreach materials, canonical trials and case processing, bankruptcy expenses and USCCB compliance audit costs.

Two dioceses – Baker, Oregon, and Lincoln, Nebraska, – and five ethnic Eastern rite jurisdictions refused to allow on–site audits of their compliance with the bishops’ sex abuse policies.

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln also refused to cooperate with researchers from Georgetown University who collected data from all 194 other dioceses.

Participating in the CARA study in 2008 were 194 of the 195 U.S. dioceses and eparchies and 160 of the 219 clerical or mixed religious orders belonging to the (U.S.) Conference of Major Superiors of Men.

The CARA study also found that:
Allegations of sex abuse reported by dioceses or eparchies predominantly involved male victims (84 percent male vs. 16 percent female), but females made up 33 percent of the alleged victims of religious-order priests in 2008.

More than half (51 percent) of the allegations against diocesan or eparchial clergy in 2008 were reported by the victim, while 60 percent of those against religious–order priests were made by an attorney.

Sixteen priests or deacons were returned to ministry in 2008 after sex abuse allegations against them were found to be unsubstantiated or proven false.

More than half (52 percent) of the victims who made new allegations of sex abuse against diocesan/eparchial clergy in 2008 and 30 percent of those making new charges against religious–order priests were between the ages of 10 and 14 when the abuse began. But in 5 percent of the diocesan cases and 45 percent of the religious–order cases the age of the victims at the time the abuse started was not known.

Forty–one percent of the diocesan priests and deacons and 55 percent of the religious–order priests accused of abuse in 2008 had had no prior allegations against them.

The vast majority of priests or deacons against whom new allegations of sex abuse were received in 2008 – 83 percent of the diocesan/eparchial clergy and nearly 70 percent of the religious–order priests – were deceased, already removed from ministry or missing when the charges were made. Another 5 percent of diocesan and 12 percent of religious–order priests were permanently removed from ministry because of allegations received against them that year.

Editor's Note: The full report is available online at USCCB.
(Report by Kevin Eckstrom of Religion News Service was included in this article.)

Dying Condition

(Meg Funk) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:45:33 EST

arise

One of our nuns is in a dying condition. Her room is just below mine here at Our Lady of Grace in Beech Grove. I visit her everyday and pray with her, mostly in sweet silence. She seems to be at peace and in no pain. She used to carry around the house this book, He and I, by Gabrielle Bossis. Here's a quote she’d remember:

March 20, p.251 Holy Hour

“You are worried about the passage from this life to the next? But since it is the greatest proof of love that you can give Me, be glad. Offer your death to Me now with complete detachment, ready even for heroism. Say, ‘Even if I did not have to suffer death, I would choose it in order to be more one with Him.’ And in this way you will give Me the greatest glory a creature can give his Creator. Oh, precious death of the saints that echoes even in the heavenly courts of the Father Home!

So don't be afraid of losing your brief life on earth for the eternal Meeting with the Beloved. And since I'll be there with you, what a moment of faith, hope and love! Try to take this approach. And then, as always---simplicity. You are with your Father, your Bridegroom. You belong to God's family. Live, think, love as among your own folk. It will be a sign of love.”

“When you give Me a token of your love, you give Me so much joy. If you could only know! No longer to feel a stranger, the one left out in the cold as I am for most people. Gabrielle, get to know Me better. Talk to Me intimately. I'll place your words like a bouquet of myrrh on My heart.

Adore My love. My need – love for you. Adore the extremely delicate way in which I share My secret thoughts with you and make you ware of My desires; and try to be for Me a little of what I am for you. You see how awkward I am at asking? Your freedom often prevents Me from saying what I should like to say to you. It is as though I were waiting for you to discover by yourself what My hearts desires. And what is not My joy when you guess!”