Breathing the Name Jesus
AS WE TRY TO BECOME STILL, what do we do? The Fathers suggest that we begin by becoming aware of our breathing. We go gently inside.
As the sixth-century monk St. John Climacus said in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, in the chapter “A Brief Summary of All the Preceding Steps,” “Let the remembrance of Jesus be present with your every breath. Then indeed you will appreciate the value of stillness.”5 St. Maximus said simply that God is breath. And Philotheos stated, “We must always breathe God.”
In our silence we try to become centered. As St. Ignatius Brianchaninov recommends in his book On the Jesus Prayer, we try to be aware of our “quiet steady breathing.” He goes on to say, “Breathe with care, gently and slowly.”
This all may seem basic, but in today’s culture and probably in our own lives, it isn’t easy. When my wife and I took the children camping, I was amazed at the campground scene in the early evening. After supper and the dishes were cleaned, many families went into their tent for “family time in the woods.” Many of those tents had a portable TV, and families sat in those tents watching what they would have watched at home. Hmmm. When we went downhill skiing and appreciated the sights and sounds of the majestic mountain, many other skiers had their trusty iPods along so they could listen to whatever they listened to in their usual lives. Hmmm. We are all tempted to squash silence one way or another. I am not immune to such diversions.
Let us utter the name of Jesus as often as we breathe. For it is light to our darkened mind. The guarding of the mind is rightly and worthily called light-giving, producer of light, source of light, and bearer of fire.
We should always be turning the name of Jesus Christ around the spaces of our heart as lightning circles around the skies before rain.6
The Name as Breath
WHAT DO WE BREATHE? We breathe the name of Jesus. His Person is mysteriously encapsulated in His name. His name is His Presence. “I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in His Name” (Zech. 10:12).
We are told in the Bible, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17).
We just breathe His name. As Father Lev Gillet suggests, we “let the Name penetrate our soul-as a drop of oil spreads out and impregnates a cloth. Let nothing of yourself escape. Surrender your whole self and enclose it within the Name.”7
I illustrated this quotation during a class I taught at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. During the class, I recited the quotation and put a piece of linen cloth on the desk. Then I put a drop of oil on the cloth. The seminarians and I looked at the single, tan spot of oil on the white cloth. Near the end of class, I picked up the cloth to show the students how the spot had disappeared into the cloth. The white linen had become slightly olive-colored throughout. The “spot” became the entire cloth. That’s the way the name of Jesus penetrates our souls and bodies.
Many Orthodox spiritual writers say that one way to embark on this journey inward is through the invocation of the name “Lord Jesus.” They say this isn’t the only way, but it is a way of utmost simplicity.
According to Father Gillet, “The Name itself is a means of purification, a touchstone, a filter through which our thoughts, words, and deeds have to pass to be freed from their impurities. None of them ought to be admitted by us until we pass them through the Name—and the Name excludes all sinful elements.” And, he continues, “This is a severe asceticism. It requires a forgetfulness of self, a dying to self as the Holy Name grows in our soul.”
Popular bookstores are replete with books on living in the present moment. What does that really mean? When we live in the present moment, are we alone with the moment of awareness—or is there more?
We breathe with care, gently and slowly. The gentle repetition of the name may be likened to the beating of wings by which a bird rises into the air. The breathing and repetition of the name must never be labored or forced, hurried, or in the nature of flapping. Rather, it must be gentle, easy, and-let us give the word its deepest meaning-graceful. When the bird has reached its desired height, it glides effortlessly in flight. It beats its wings only from time to time to remain aloft. So, too, with us. When we attain an awareness of Jesus, then we say His holy name intermittently to keep us focused on Him. The repetition is resumed only when other thoughts threaten to crowd out the awareness of the Lord.8
In On the Invocation of the Name of Jesus, Father Gillet says, “Let us not regard our prayer in relation to fulfillment in the future but in relation to fulfillment in Jesus now. Jesus is more than the giver of what others and we need. He is both giver and gift, containing in Himself all good things.” And he adds, “The Name of Jesus brings victory and peace when we are tempted.”
~Albert S. Rossi, Becoming a Healing Presence
5 John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1982), p. 270.
6 E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer, trans., Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart (London: Faber & Faber, 1961), p. 300.
7 Lev Gillet, On the Invocation of the Name of Jesus (Springfield, IL: Templegate Publishers, 1985), p. 30.
8 Gillet, On the Invocation, p. 21.
