How I learned the Jesus Prayer...

I think it's interesting how people come to learn the Jesus Prayer, so I thought I'd share my experience. I was 18 and studying at London University; I used to visit the Catholic Chaplaincy in Gower Street. While there I came into contact with a woman called Mary Durnan - Mary was from Canada, had retired and was using her time to travel and to volunteer.

She was kind to me, and one day she asked me if I ever woke up in the middle of the night praying. Strangely enough it had happened a couple of times recently, and she went on to ask me if I'd heard of the Jesus Prayer. Well I had read of it in Carlo Carretto's book Letters from the Desert when I was at school - I'd even hitchhiked to Morrocco wanting to get to Carretto's Hermitage in Tamanrasset Algeria; I only got as far as the Little Sisters of Jesus in Fez though!

Anyway, Mary said, 'Would you like your own Jesus Prayer, Andrew?', and she prayed for me right there and then - I think it was on the bus - for me to receive it. Later I was praying through Psalm 19 - I was taking one psalm a day at that time, and I came to the last verse: 'Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer' and I thought, 'That's it! just change the words to Jesus, my Rock, my Redeemer' and I've been praying it ever since.

It was a beautiful gift and I shall be forever grateful to Mary, who I lost contact with. Do you have a Jesus Prayer story to share? Post a Comment or email me.