Greek · Original
Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, Υἱὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλόν.
The Jesus Prayer
5th–6th century, Egyptian and Sinaitic desert tradition
The continuous prayer of the desert fathers and the Hesychast tradition — 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
The Prayer · Multiple Versions
Church Slavonic
Господи Иисусе Христе, Сыне Божий, помилуй мя грѣшнаго.
English
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
When the Prayer is Said
Continuously throughout the day, especially on the prayer rope. In the Eastern monastic tradition, the prayer is the very fabric of the spiritual life.
History & Background
The Jesus Prayer grew out of the practice of the desert fathers and mothers of Egypt and Sinai in the 4th–6th centuries: the constant repetition of a single short phrase as a 'prayer of the heart' that could be prayed during any activity — walking, working, eating. The fullest early form ('Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner') appears in the writings of Diadochos of Photiki (c. 450) and St. John Climacus (Ladder of Divine Ascent, c. 600).
The prayer is the heart of the Hesychast tradition formalized on Mount Athos in the 13th–14th centuries by St. Gregory Palamas and his disciples. It is recited on a wool prayer rope (chotki) of 33, 50, 100, or 300 knots, often coordinated with the breath.
It became known to the wider Christian world through The Way of a Pilgrim, an anonymous 19th-century Russian text in which a wandering peasant learns to pray the Jesus Prayer 'incessantly,' literally fulfilling St. Paul's command in 1 Thess 5:17.