Personal Prayer

Personal Prayer

Personal prayer complements communal liturgy as an essential, ongoing dialogue with God. It fosters inner stillness (hesychia), repentance, and union with Christ, often through established prayer rules (e.g., morning and evening prayers from prayer books) and spontaneous supplication.

St. Paul commands: "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17), urging constant communion with God amid daily life.

This ties directly to the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." It is a short, repetitive invocation rooted in Scripture, such as the publican's plea in Luke 18:13 and blind Bartimaeus' cry in Mark 10:47.

Practiced with a prayer rope (komboskini), the Jesus Prayer cultivates unceasing prayer, guards the heart, and invokes the name of Christ for grace and purification.