07 December 2007

Interview with Father Jonah

A while back I heard a great interview on Our Life in Christ with Father Jonah, abbot of the Monastery of St. John of San Fransisco in which Father Jonah spoke about the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." I still find myself contemplating all that he said. So much was made (more) clear to me.

One thing I specifically found enlightening was when he clarified that in this prayer we are asking more than for clemency--we are asking for God to re-affirm his activity and presence in the world and in me, a sinner. Another way to say it is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, anoint me, a sinner, with your Presence." Here we humbly call upon Christ's self-offering of love.

Also, one of the most important things to realize, he mentioned, is that the purest prayer is free of images, concepts, sounds, emotions...anything that comes from our imagination. "Orthodoxy is stone-cold sober." He said that our emotions actually are not the same thing as our heart. Deep in our heart is the perception of God and it is here where noetic prayer dwells. Our emotions, on the other hand, are products of our rational consciousness which is where data processing and perception of our senses occurs.

But since we often equate our emotions with our heart, and since most of us are tainted with delusional ego-centrism, we tend to mistake thoughts, images and emotions for the will of God. This really struck me...it explains why the emotional praise songs, pentecostal-type gatherings, 'God literally spoke to me' bits feel more and more unreal or just off to me. The next thing he said I have quoted before: "Thoughts are a self-constructed reality that we function within; we mistake our thoughts for reality." This goes even deeper and into my every day life. "Return to the humility of God." In other words, return to humility. A humble heart can see things for what they are, can love purely, and can pray without an agenda.

This review is sorely lacking the depth and breadth of all Father Jonah offered in the interview. You can listen to it in the archives at ourlifeinchrist.com. Look for April 2007, Father Jonah, and The Jesus Prayer and the Healing of the Human Person.

2 comments:

Martha said...

What a great thing to focus on during this Nativity fast...the Jesus prayer, it would be great for us to each institute this in our daily life, too.

Petra, although we may have some different opinions, I always enjoy reading what you write, you get me thinking! And yes, we have the one thing needful in common...the Orthodox faith!

Justinian said...

Abbot Jonah is such a great teacher! I, too, enjoyed Steve's interviews with him. There are, I think, about 3 hours of talks with Fr. Jonah up on their archives site, and they are all totally worth listening to, several times. He really got through to me when he was talking about the noetic heart; it's not about grandstanding for God, or coming up with a "praise service" that gets God standing ovations...that's all human-focused crap (pardon the language, but it's true).

True worship of God, true communion with God, takes place through the noetic consciousness; the psyche has to be stilled so that the nous can take the reigns. This is the goal of our spiritual life--to reintegrate the nous and the psyche, literally to draw the MIND into the HEART. Oh, it was just great. I hope I get the opportunity to meet him someday.

best,
Justinian