“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”.
