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IMAGINAL's avatar

Having practiced and studied the Jesus Prayer for over 40 years I have to say that these are the best short essays on it that I have ever read. Thank you! I am not Orthodox, but this prayer is the center of my spirituality. My image is erosion: the prayer wears down the false self over time until you realize its effect. And yes humility is absolutely key.

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Scott Lipscomb's avatar

The importance you (rightly) place on the danger of distractions to prayer raises a critical concern: if it's true that we are, generally speaking, much more distracted than we were in the past (due to streaming, social media, etc., and especially their convenience access via smartphones that we always have with us), then it would follow that in 2025 we will find it much harder to reach any given spiritual threshold.

I certainly find myself less able to simply be bored for a bit now than I was in the past. I have at least some degree of addiction to screens (and I think I am probably less addicted than many, especially than many younger adults). I don't have an easy solution to this, but I think it's worth thinking on. Perhaps the beginning of a spiritual practice will need to be finding ways of simply cutting back time online.

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