Healing In The Spirituality Of The Desert Fathers

In my pastoral care class, we've had a number of sessions on a variety of themes related to healing during times of physical illness, but to my disappointment many of the sessions focused largely on psychology and therapy as avenues towards healing, often relegating the spiritual realm to that of "emotions" and "feelings."

To remedy what I felt is an underemphasis of spirituality, not to mention theology, in the area of healing, I prepared a didactic session on healing in the Christian tradition, focusing particularly on how the desert fathers of the 4th century and later viewed healing.  Even more than that, I focused on the Jesus Prayer, and how it in many ways functioned as the "ideal" prayer in time of illness of any kind: physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, whatever the case may be.  The Jesus Prayer goes as follows: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."

Today I presented my findings, and I was pleasantly surprised by the response I got from my classmates and supervisor.  Throughout the presentation they showed great interest, and they asked many questions.  Here, in short, is what I presented:

In the spirituality of the desert fathers and mothers:

* The Jesus Prayer is the ideal prayer not only for every day living but especially also in times of great physical and spiritual need

* There is healing power in the name of Jesus (therefore, the prayer is repeated often throughout the day, sometimes into the hundreds and even thousands of times)

* We pray the Jesus Prayer because we are aware of our sickness, and that we:

- desire healing (a movement towards mercy, forgiveness)

- can't do it ourselves (a movement towards self-awareness, repentance)

- trust in the God of healing (a movement towards humility, awe)

Summary: the healing process is a movement from sinner to saint, from self-deception to self-awareness

* Healing is only the beginning of our journey: healing begins with God's presence in our lives, moves us to "union" with God, and culminates in "theosis" (divinization, deification)

* The world (all of creation) is an integrated "whole", consisting of the material and spiritual realms.  Therefore, God works through our prayers.  Miracles are real.  But the devil is real also, and he tries to undermine God's work.  This makes our prayers all-the-more needed!

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!

The sources that I used for this presentation are:

* The Jesus Prayer, Frederica Mathewes-Green

* Philokalia: The Eastern Christian Texts.  Selections Annotated & Explained, translated by G. E. H. Palmer

* The Way of the Pilgrim, and The Pilgrim Continues his Way, translated by Helen Bacovcin

* The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, translated by Benedicta Ward, SLG

* The Wisdom of the Desert, by Thomas Merton

Desert Healing

It's been such a treat, preparing for the didactic session on healing in the eyes of the Egyptian desert fathers.  Here are some gems that I've come across.

On stability:

"A certain brother went to Abba Moses in Scete, and asked him for a good word.  And the elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything."  (Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, 30).

On humility:

"One of the brethren had sinned, and the priest told him to leave the community.  So then Abba Besarion got up and walked out with him, saying: I too am a sinner!" (Wisdom of Desert, 40).

"To one of the brethren appeared a devil, transformed into an angel of light, who said to him: I am the angel Gabriel, and I have been sent to thee.  But the brother said: think again - you must have been sent to someone else.  I haven't done anything to deserve an angel.  Immediately the devil ceased to appear." (Wisdom of the Desert, 54).

On prayer:

"One of the Elders said: Pray attentively and you will soon straighten out your thoughts." (Wisdom of Desert, 78)

On the Name (of Jesus):

"The energy of the Holy Spirit. . . is manifested to those under spiritual guidance through the continuous invocation of the Lord Jesus, repeated with conscious awareness, that is, through mindfulness of God." (St. Gregory of Sinai, in Philokalia, translated by G. E. H. Palmer, 121).

On Repentance:

"Let us acquire the fruits of repentance: a humble disposition, compunction and spiritual grief, a gentle and merciful heart that loves righteousness and pursues purity, peaceful, peacemaking, patient in toil, glad to endure persecution, loss, outrage, slander, and suffering for the sake of truth and righteousness.  For...the king of heaven...is within us (Luke 17:21), and to him we should cleave through acts of repentance and patient endurance, loving as much as we can him who so dearly has loved us." (Gregory of Palamas, in Philokalia, 29).

On Theosis: 

"God made us so that we might become 'partakers of the divine nature' (II. Peter 1:4) and sharers in His eternity, and so that we might come to be like him (I. John 3:2) through deification by grace." (St. Maximus the Confessor, in Philokalia, 201).

On Miracles:

"Abba Poemen said of Abba Nisterus that he was like the serpent of brass which Moses made for the healing of the people: he possessed all virtue and without speaking, he healed everyone." (Abba Poemen, in Sayings of the Desert Fathers, translated by Benedicta Ward, SLG, 155)

Jesus Prayer: The Perfect "Constant Prayer"

 One of the questions I have often asked myself is how: how do we pray constantly, as St. Paul exhorted us to do in the New Testament.  It seems that this was quite important to him, because he mentions it 4 times in his letters, and to 4 different faith communities:

* the Romans: "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." (12:12)

* the Ephesians: "...praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." (6:18)

* the Colossians: "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." (4:2)

* the Thessalonians: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing." (I. 5:16-18)

The desert fathers of the 4th century and onward asked themselves the same question, looked within the Scriptures for an answer, and found it, based on the following 5 gospel-stories:

* the Canaanite woman who says "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." (Matthew 15:22)

* the ten lepers: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." (Luke 17:11-19)

* Bartimaeus the blind, begs "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." (Mark 10:46-48)

* a desperate father pleads "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers greatly." (Matthew 17:14-15)

* the tax collector who says "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." (Luke 18:13)

Based on St. Paul's exhortations, and the examples given in Scriptures, the desert fathers then came up with various versions of a prayer.  Here are the main variations:

Lord have mercy!

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

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

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

But the one that has stood the test of time, the one that has stuck not only in the Orthodox Church, but is used by Christians of many other stripes also, goes as follows:

Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

It's the simplest of prayers, really, and covers the whole of the Christian gospel: it proclaims Jesus as Lord, it proclaims Him as the Christ of God, it points to our need for healing, it implies awareness that we cannot heal ourselves, and trust that God in Christ can!

The prayer can be used in virtually any context.  It can be a(n):

* declaration of faith

* act of praise

* act of confession

* act of submission

* act of centering (our hearts on Jesus)

* cry for help


Whatever version we choose for ourselves, each of the them is short and to the point, allowing for easy memorization and therefore, constant repetition throughout our day, no matter where or when.  And there you have it: there's the "constancy" that we're looking for.  Constant prayer.

It's the perfect prayer, really: it's biblical, theological, spiritual, historical, flexible, short, contextual, and portable.

Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!