The Jesus Prayer and the Julian Prayer

I’ve always had an ambivalent fondness toward the Jesus prayer. For those of my readers who may not be familiar with it, it is a short prayer, originating in Eastern Orthodoxy, that is to be prayed repetitively, ideally without ceasing:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

While I love the emphasis on mercy, I think it also invests too much energy into declaring one’s status as a sinner. Sure, that’s endemic in the Christian tradition. But in all honesty, I think the endemic focus-on-sinfulness ranks right up there with dualism, sexism, and body-hostiity as being among the chief problems within the tradition.

I’ve recently begun reading Ritamary Bradley’s study of the theology of my favorite mystic, Julian’s Way: A Practical Commentary on Julian of Norwich, and tonight I read her discussion on Julian’s definition of prayer. Bradley suggests that at the heart of Julian’s theology of prayer are blessing, bliss, beholding, and beseeching. She comments on how again and again, Julian’s prayers include the ejaculatory statement “Blessed may He be!” or “Blessed may you be!” Blessing is so central to Julian’s prayer. Bradley goes on to quote two of Julian’s short prayers, from chapters 41 and 85 of the longer version of her book: “Good Lord, grant mercy. Blessed may you be.” and “Lord, blessed may you be. For things are thus, and all is well.” That second prayer seems especially powerful, for Julian comments how those who are transformed by Divine Love will not bother to pray about how things would be well if only there were different, but rather will affirm the essential splendour of Divine Love and presence even in the midst of things-just-as-they-are: “For things are thus, and all is well.” In reading all this, I suddenly was struck with an insight: what kind of spiritual nurture could we cultivate in ourselves and in our relationship with the Divine, if we combined these two prayers of Julian into a prayer that could be used in a manner similar to the Jesus prayer:

Good Lord, grant mercy. Blessed may you be. For things are thus, and all is well.

How could one’s consciousness be transformed by Divine Love, if that prayer were repeated, without ceasing? It’s a question worth pondering, methinks.