“By the grace of God, I am a Christian man, by my own actions a great sinner, and by calling a homeless wanderer of the humblest origins, roaming from place to place. My worldly belongings consist of a knapsack on my back, containing dried bread, and a Holy Bible in my breast pocket. That is all.” —The Way of a Pilgrim

Eastern Christians around the world have now embarked our Lenten journey. Monday, Feb. 12, was “Clean Monday,” as we call it — the first step on our pilgrimage. All Christians can benefit by thinking of their Lenten journey as a pilgrimage. As with all pilgrimages, we have to know our destination. The destination is the terminus point; it is the whole reason for the efforts that we expend. The toil, the unexpected delays, the roadblocks and the fatigue all pass away when we reach the destination. I would like to recommend to our readers a “guidebook” for your Lenten journey. Pilgrimages need guidebooks, as they lessen the unexpected delays we could encounter on the pilgrim road.

The Way of a Pilgrim is a book well-known to the Christian East. For many, it is the first step in learning about Eastern Christian spirituality. The book is anonymously authored and was written in the 19th century. It chronicles the story of a man, only known as “the Pilgrim,” who goes to church and hears the reading of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 — “pray without ceasing.” These words transfix the heart of the Pilgrim. He spends the remainder of the book going from place to place, church to church, monastery to monastery, trying to find wise and holy counsel on how to fulfill this injunction of St. Paul. After all, St. Paul’s words are a reminder of the importance to all of us of the practice of the Presence of God.

And what is “the practice of the Presence of God?” Beyond being the title of a wonderful work in Western spirituality by Brother Lawrence, the practice of the Presence of God is a growing consciousness of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in the soul. Through baptism, the Blessed Trinity dwells within each of us. However, because of sin and human weakness, we lose sight of the indwelling of God. We forget that he is in our midst and we distract ourselves with all kinds of diversions.

I would suggest that the destination of all Christians for Lent is to clear out the distractions that we’ve put in the way of our conscious and active awareness of the indwelling of God in the soul. We are exhorted by the Church to the practice of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Why? Precisely because these practices clear out the delays, roadblocks and fatigue that we encounter on our earthly pilgrimage.

The “Pilgrim” in The Way of a Pilgrim engages in a kind of “perpetual Lent.” He is constantly praying, fasting and giving alms. The focus, based on the Pauline text, is obviously growing in ceaseless prayer (with fasting and almsgiving accentuating his prayer practice). The prayer that he is taught along his journey is called the “Jesus Prayer.” In its most traditional form, the prayer is: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. The Pilgrim is constantly saying this prayer. It is a prayer rooted in Scripture. The blind man cries out to the Lord, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me” (Mark 10:47), and the Publican in the Temple in humility prays, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

The Jesus Prayer is also a catechism in miniature. “Lord Jesus Christ” identifies that Christ is Lord (of our lives and Lord of all). The title “Christ” points to him as the anointed one of God and his name “Jesus” means “God saves.” We could spend eternity just contemplating those three words — Lord Jesus Christ! “Son of God” identifies him as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, as the one who has the power to save us. “Have mercy on me,” makes the prayer personal. We need his mercy! “Mercy” means more than clemency from the just punishment due to our sins. Mercy invokes the Lord to pour his healing balm upon our souls. And, his healing is not just the restoration of spiritual health, but also the empowerment for growth in holiness. Finally, the reminder “a sinner,” is not a self-convicting statement meant to depress us. Rather, it is a reminder of our human condition and the need for God’s grace to heal and redeem our fallen humanity.

The “Pilgrim” in The Way of a Pilgrim, through the repetitive use of the Jesus Prayer, comes to move the prayer from the head and the lips, into the heart. This is key. The heart is where the Trinity dwells within the person. Prayer of the heart moves beyond an intellectual exercise to meet God, “heart speaking to heart” (to paraphrase St. John Henry Newman’s motto). Our “Pilgrim” becomes so adept at the Jesus Prayer that he is praying even when he is sleeping. In this way, the Jesus Prayer guards him from the slings and arrows of the demons when awake or when asleep. The effect is that he fulfills Our Lord’s command to be watchful. In Mark 13, Our Lord describes the need to keep vigil so that we are not caught off guard when the Master of the House (Our Lord himself) returns in his glory. The practice of the Jesus Prayer keeps the soul awake and attuned to the Presence of God. If we are praying “without ceasing” as St. Paul enjoins us to, then we will not be unprepared when the Lord returns.

I hope that I have encouraged you to pick up the book The Way of a Pilgrim to use as a guidebook for your Lenten journey. But you may want to begin praying the Jesus Prayer now. I know many monks and nuns who have attained ceaseless prayer. Learn from them. I have written about their monasteries several times — you can find that here (Holy Resurrection Monastery and Christ the Bridegroom are good places to start).

What poor advice I can give you to get started is this. Begin with one minute, praying the Jesus Prayer. Pray with attention and conviction, paying attention to the meaning of the words that you are praying. An image that I use is that of my hope that when I stand before the Lord, he’ll say “Remember that one time you prayed my Holy Name with attention and with your whole heart? That’s when I gave you my mercy!” That’s all, we who live in the world, can hope for! If I’ve prayed well one time, perhaps that may be enough to save this sinner.

We are all setting out on the journey of Lent. If we start today or on Wednesday does not matter. Our goal is the destination. The destination is Pascha … the Risen Lord himself. He dwells in you now, through your Baptism. He desires that you grow in the intentional knowledge that he dwells in you at every moment that we are in his grace. That’s the journey of Lent. The Risen Lord Jesus dwelling in our souls at every moment of our lives — Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Please pray for this sinner.

I highly recommend the editions of The Way of a Pilgrim with forewords written by Father Thomas Hopko or by Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek. They can be easily obtained online.