In the Darkest Moments: THIS PRAYER WILL SAVE YOU! - Fr. Mark Goring, CC

praise be Jesus Christ I believe that every person if he can should learn how to ride a bicycle and should learn how to swim and so too I believe that every Christian every Catholic should learn how to pray the Jesus Prayer are you familiar with the Jesus Prayer a common formulation of the Jesus Prayer is Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner and it's meant to be repeated over and over again now some people try to pray that Jesus prayer like all the time others like myself pray the Jesus Prayer at certain times for example if I'm sick at night and I can't fall asleep I'll pray the Jesus Prayer and sometimes I'll breathe it I'll say the first half as I inhale and the second half as I exhale some people when they're in a jam you know they they feel like they're under attack they begin to pray calmly and peacefully the Jesus Prayer other times you know when we when we really mess up and we know we need to go to confession we know that we've we've sinned against God we feel awful we pray the jesus prayer over and over again calling on His mercy now the Jesus prayer became really popular among the monks in the East and it has spread to the Western Church it's pretty universally now among Christians but a lot of people don't realize that the Jesus Prayer has a biblical basis I want to explain this to you I'm giving a 45-minute talk in about four minutes which is what I love to do on my youtube channel so I'm gonna be talking about in Luke chapter 18 it begins by saying Jesus has told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary and then he tells the story of the woman who demanded justice from the unjust judge and finally the judge says listen she's gonna drive me nuts I'll grant her justice and the Lord says will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night will he be slow to answer them so again the Lord Jesus is calling us to call upon him day and night and then it tells the story of the the Pharisee in the tax collectors st. chapter and the the the tax collectors is the one who's at the back and he's just he's praying God be merciful to me a sinner and he's repeating this and Jesus says I tell you the ladder went home justified not the Pharisee who was praying to himself thank you God that I'm not like the rest of all of humanity so that Jesus Prayer it's a prayer of humility repeatedly imploring the Lord's mercy upon ourselves now Paul seems to call us to a similar practice of calling on the name of the Lord Jesus we're very familiar in Romans chapter 11 Paul reminds us which is from the Old Testament everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and he also says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved this was this whole reality that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow every tongue will confess that he's Lord but it's a gift from God to be able to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God that's a grace it's given to us by the father it's the Holy Spirit who allows us to say that Jesus is Lord and we should say it often we should say it without ceasing in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 Paul says and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit and do you see how Paul calling us to repeat the name of Jesus is calling on the name of Jesus because it's a gift of the Holy Spirit and first John chapter 4 John says whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God God remains in him and he in God to say that Jesus prayer is a grace it's a grace from the Holy Spirit it saves us God remains with us when we call humbly on the name of the Lord Jesus when we implored His mercy and as it says in Luke chapter 17 preceding the call to pray without ceasing Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is with him so call on the name of Jesus without ceasing and delight in the presence and the power that comes from this most holy name Viva Cristo Rey

Channel: Fr. Mark Goring

Views: 368,596

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Id: 5UwAY8xBCKc

Length: 4min 50sec (290 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 02 2020