“Kyrie Iesou Christe, Yie tou Theou, eleison me, ton amartalon”
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”
When speaking of the meaning of words that have been given to us by the Holy Spirit, we must remember first of all, that every word that the Spirit has taught is subject to the limitations of human language. On the other hand, the actual content of those words is unlimited, and this is why there is no limit to how many ways the Spirit can formulate a prayer; the finite can never approach the Infinite. We remember then, that when we pray we are first of all placing ourselves in the presence of God by our invocation, and every definite meaning is secondary. Every word the Spirit gives us is firstly a sign which brings us closer to God, and secondly a form which limits Him.
The Jesus Prayer contains two immediately obvious definite meanings, even though, as we have said, it is unlimited in its essence. The meaning which is clearer in English is the human soul crying out for God’s mercy, reflecting our existential situation here on Earth. The meaning which is prevalent in Greek is that God IS merciful, and it is therefore more concerned with the actual nature of things rather than with our personal relationship with God. Both of these meanings are vital to our spiritual life, we must know that God is merciful and that all of his other qualities are absorbed in his mercy for us. If God is wrathful, it is only because we need him to be, if God punishes us, it is because we need to be punished for the sake of our spiritual well-being. God’s mercy is revealed to us in the Son, and it is to him that we give our petition. We must ask for God’s mercy, not because he may not be merciful, but because we must reach out to God for our own sake. God will always give us everything we need and our greatest need is to pray, to actively place ourselves in His presence. We could never give God anything that he does not already have, for God is without any limitation, nor could we possibly take anything away from him. Our need to ask for God’s mercy, even if we know that he is merciful, is due to our own spiritual deficiency. We must place ourselves in the presence of God and ask him to lift the veils which hide Him from us. By doing this we are fulfilling our own spiritual duties, given that we are both affirming both the reality and the nature of God.
These are fundamental truths contained within the Jesus Prayer, and as such it is capable of absorbing every human prayer into this simple phrase. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.
any divinity, any goodness!
It is currently common for biblical scholars to study the “historical Jesus”.1,2 This interest is paralleled, and to a small extent influential on general interest in the topic among the public. In Christians, some of this takes the form of interest in details of Jesus’ “personality”, or even his physical appearance, as religious accessories.3,4,5
This focus on what Huxley calls the “selfness” or “I” of Jesus is irrelevant to the purpose of religion. That is, if the goal of metaphysical study is to know what is True (and what is true is eternal, 
occur at times of the year that are of spiritual and ritual significance to many other traditions, particularly those that predate Christianity. Apparently it follows from this that if pre-Christian Europe held festivals during the winter solstice and the advent of spring, then Christian holidays are held at those times because of older traditions, not because they reflect the true timeline of the savior’s life.¹’² This in turn suggests that the origins of Christianity are mundane rather than divine.
A miracle occurs when the supernatural order directly intervenes in the natural order. Through a modern abuse of language, the latter term has come to connote rationality, and the former irrationality. However, there is nothing irrational in the nature of a miracle. It is logical that the possibility of direct contact between the natural and supernatural orders must be realized, given that they are only separate in appearance. If the natural order was truly divorced from the supernatural, and therefore there was no possibility of a miracle, then it would have no existence whatsoever, because it would have no principle or root. If the inverse is true, then miracles are a necessity by the very fact that they are possible. The bolt of lightning, with its suddenness and blinding whiteness reflects the principle of the miracle in the natural order proper.
