Busy people living in a secular society find it difficult to pray. Many of us begin the day with the Fourth Church daily devotion and prayer online, but not all, not every day. Sometimes we can’t find time for that even. It is important to take time to pray: to be intentionally in the presence of God. I’ve always thought that it is equally important to learn how to pray on the run. And so I’ve always been interested in, and sometimes use, one of the most ancient Christian prayers, devised by fifth-century monks in monasteries in the Egyptian desert, a prayer known as “the Jesus prayer”: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” The monks chanted the prayer over and over again. Sometimes they called it the “Breath Prayer,” saying the first phrase as you inhale, the second as you exhale. Fifteen centuries later, medical science understands that breathing deeply and regularly and intentionally has positive physical effects. Harvard’s Dr. Herbert Benson wrote a book, The Relaxation Response, that advocates deep breathing to relieve stress and relates it to the ancient monastic Jesus prayer. You can do it while you’re jogging, on the treadmill, exercise bike, or walking down Michigan Avenue. As you inhale “Lord Jesus Christ”; as you exhale “have mercy”; “Lord Jesus Christ” . . . “grant me peace.”

Further on in the sermon –

That is where it rests then. We believe in a God who loves us so much as to have high expectations for us; loves us enough to hold us accountable for how we live our lives. We believe in a God who is forgiving, a God of second chances, a God who wants reconciliation and restoration and healing and wholeness for every one of us. Jesus taught us to believe in a God who can be addressed intimately, deeply personally—Abba, as a trusting child addresses a strong and loving mother or father; a God, the psalmist promised, who does not count or remember our iniquities, who will not define us by our failures and sin; a God who wants us to be free to live whole and joyful and faithful lives.

John M. Buchanan

March 20, 2011

Full Sermon

https://www.fourthchurch.org/sermons/2011/032011.html