AS WE SLOW DOWN to hear our breathing, we can become aware of an inner vastness opening up, a new dimension to our awareness. This is the beginning of an awareness of the holy presence of God. Within that space we can become alert to God guiding and strengthening us, aware of His voice. We slowly become aware of Him as our strength and our song. When I first began to give retreats in Orthodox
If we speak about the practical aspects of the Jesus prayer: usually one is seated and one says the prayer silently, in the place of the heart. This prayer may be linked with breathing. When one breathes in, one says: ‘Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God’. Then when one breathes out, one says: ‘Have mercy upon me’. One concentrates all one’s attention on the name of Christ and on the words ‘Have mercy upon me’.
AS WE SLOW DOWN to hear our breathing, we can become aware of an inner vastness opening up, a new dimension to our awareness. This is the beginning of an awareness of the holy presence of God. Within that space we can become alert to God guiding and strengthening us, aware of His voice. We slowly become aware of Him as our strength and our song. When I first began to give retreats in Orthodox
Breathing the Name Jesus AS WE TRY TO BECOME STILL, what do we do? The Fathers suggest that we begin by becoming aware of our breathing. We go gently inside. As the sixth-century monk St. John Climacus said in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, in the chapter “A Brief Summary of All the Preceding Steps,” “Let the remembrance of Jesus be present with your every breath. Then indeed you will appreciate the value of stillness.”5
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