In beginning to speak of the Prayer of Jesus, I recall the righteous Simeon’s utterance concerning the Lord: Behold, this One is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (Luke 2:34).
Just as the Lord was and is a true sign, a sign that is spoken against, an object of dispute and disagreement between those who know Him and those who do not, so too prayer in His all-holy name, which in the fullest sense is a great and wonderful sign, has become a subject of dispute and disagreement between those who practice it and those who do not.
A certain Father justly remarks that this way of prayer is rejected only by those who do not know it; they reject it through prejudice and through false ideas that they have formed of it.
Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov
