The Jesus Prayer by Fr. Steven Peter Tsichlis Prayer is the basis of our Christian life, the source of our experience of Jesus as the Risen Lord. For most of us, prayer means little more than standing in the pews for an hour or so on Sunday morning or perhaps reciting, in a mechanical fashion, prayers once learned by rote during childhood. He not only demands unceasing prayer of the Christians in his care, but practices it himself.
Prayer is as essential to our life as breathing.
This raises some important questions. We are, after all, very busy people. Our work, our spouse, our children, school-all place heavy demands upon our time. These questions and the many others like them which could be asked set up a false dichotomy in our lives as Christians. To pray does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things or to spend time with God in contrast to spending time with our family and friends.