2. Are you hesychastic?

3. Lord Jesus Christ Son of God Have mercy on me A sinner.

4. Desert Fathers – 3 rd and 4 th century Pray without ceasing

6. St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain Philokalia

7. St Seraphim of Sarov “…around these few words many Orthodox over the centuries have built their spiritual life and through this one prayer they have entered into the deepest mysteries of Christian knowledge.”

8. Biblical roots “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Symbolic of the deepest cry of our hearts. Humility and boldness.

9. Contains all that Jesus is – divine, human, saviour. “The way of the Name.” Contains all that we are.

10. “Sit down alone and in silence. Lower your head, shut your eyes, breathe out gently and imagine yourself looking into your own heart. Carry your mind i.e., your thoughts, from your head to your heart. As you breathe out, say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” Say it moving your lips gently, or simply say it in your mind. Try to put all other thoughts aside. Be calm, be patient, and repeat the process very frequently.”

11. “Under his guidance I spent the whole summer in ceaseless oral prayer to Jesus Christ, and I felt absolute peace in my soul. During sleep I often dreamed that I was saying the Prayer….When the bitter cold pierces me, I begin to say my prayer more earnestly and I get warm all over…If anyone harms me I have only to think, “How sweet is the Prayer of Jesus!” and the injury and the anger alike pass away and I forget it all.”

12. “Do not trouble about the number of times you say the prayer. Let this be your sole concern, that it should spring up in your heart with quickening power like a fountain of living water. Expel entirely from your mind all thoughts of quantity.”

13. “Hesychasm – inner stillness, repose. ““After no great lapse of time I had the feeling that the Prayer had, so to speak, by its own action passed from my lips to my heart. That is to say, it seemed as though my heart in its ordinary beating began to say the words of the Prayer within at each beat…I gave up saying the Prayer with my lips. I simply listened to what my heart was saying.

14. It seemed as though my eyes looked right down into it. Then I felt something like a slight pain in my heart, and in my thoughts so great a love for Jesus Christ, that I pictured myself, if only I could see him, throwing myself at his feet and not letting them go in my embrace, kissing them tenderly, and thanking Him with tears for having of His love and grace allowed me to find so great a consolation in his name, me, his unworthy and sinful creature!”

16. “I will remind you of only one thing: one must descend with the mind into the heart, and there stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all seeing within you. The prayer takes a firm and steadfast hold, when a small fire begins to burn in the heart. Try not to quench this fire, and it will become established in such a way that the prayer repeats itself: and then you will have within you a small murmuring stream.”