The well known prayer is as follows:
“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
“I often pray it with the Rosary,” says the archbishop. “Instead of saying Hail Mary’s, I say the Jesus Prayer.
“I like it because it is so simple, it is so biblical and it is a part of our tradition of faith.”
The Jesus Prayer has its roots in Christian society of the sixth or seventh centuries and is still widely used by Orthodox Christians and Eastern-rite Catholics today as a form of centring prayer. It is often said over and over to help the person praying to centre all their thoughts on Jesus Christ and ask for pardon.
The Jesus Prayer was popularized in the 19th century anonymously written book, The Way of a Pilgrim, in which a Russian pilgrim seeks to find a way to “pray without ceasing” and is drawn to this short, profound appeal to Jesus.
In North America, the prayer became celebrated as a focus of the novel Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger.
Our favourite prayers
By Catholic Register Staff
Editor’s note: Lent is a time of almsgiving, fasting and abstinence, but most importantly, it is a time of prayer. During the six weeks of Lent, The Catholic Register will present the favourite prayers of well known Canadians. We start the series with Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto.
Archbishop Thomas Collins says one of his favourite prayers — probably the one he resorts to most often during the day — is the Jesus Prayer.
Please support The Catholic Register
Unlike many media companies, The Catholic Register has never charged readers for access to the news and information on our website. We want to keep our award-winning journalism as widely available as possible. But we need your help.
For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.
DONATE