April 27, 2013

49 of 65

The Way of a Pilgrim

 Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I had heard the Jesus Prayer from time to time.  I appreciated its simplicity without knowing its tradition.  Finally, when I was over 40 years old, I read the anonymous 19^th Century Russian spiritual classic, The Way of a Pilgrim.  That book gave me some context, then I set it aside.

Two or three years later, I felt I should read it again.  It is a simple book that can be read in one sitting.  The basics of the Jesus Prayer may be found in the first pages of the book.  There is more to it, though, that I understood as I read it again.  Another two or three years passed and it was time to re-read and learn and understand even more.

When the spirit moved me between readings, I did a bit of research, learning more and understanding more.

Our church, St. Joan of Arc, used to have a deacon – Deacon Buddy – who was in charge of the adult “spiritual growth” ministry.  Each month he conducted a book club to discuss a spiritual work with parishoners.  They always discussed books I had never heard of and did not want to read, so I never attended.  I don’t like to attend groups like that, anyway.  However, one Sunday I glanced at the church bulletin and saw the book club was going to discuss The Way of a Pilgrim.

I had loaned my copy to a friend several months before and it had not been returned.  I called that friend, asking if he was through with it.  I got it back the day before the book club meeting and quickly read it again that night.  The next evening I was at church for the book club, looking forward to others’ insights into the work.

Everyone else there was a “regular,” who came each month.  I didn’t know any of them, so the session started out with introductions for my benefit.  I found it interesting that the only ones in attendance with a copy of the book were Deacon Buddy and me.  It seems that this book club was not exactly what I had expected.  Rather than a group discussion, Buddy would essentially give a book report and a short lecture to the group.  If anyone was interested afterward, copies were available to borrow or purchase.

This particular evening, Buddy started out by explaining that it had been several years since he actually read the book.  He had been very busy for the past week, so the previous day he had perused the first portion so he could talk about the Jesus Prayer.  Since I had my copy with me, he asked me how I liked it before he began the presentation.

I said it was deservedly considered a classic.  Buddy asked me a few more questions, and before I knew it, I was lecturing to the group.

I told them it was the story of a Russian peasant who found himself homeless.  His older brother had caused him to injure his arm as a child, leaving the narrator crippled and unable to work.  Later, the same brother was drunk and burned down the narrator’s house.  His wife had supported him through the meager income she received as a seamstress until she took sick and died.  Left with nothing, he took to the road, living on handouts and the hospitality of strangers.

His physical journey is secondary to an inner journey begun when he attended mass and was struck by St. Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing.”  His travels then took him to churches and monasteries, to ask how such a thing is possible.  No one could answer him until he met an old starets – a spiritual leader or father in the Eastern Orthodox monastic tradition.  The starets taught him the Jesus Prayer, instructing him to begin saying it 1,000 times each day; and then 2,000 times; and so on until the prayer was so engraved in his heart and mind and soul that he repeated it subconsciously at all times.

Next I explained how the rest of the book describes his travels, mostly across Siberia, and of the people he met who are helped when he told them of the Jesus Prayer.  It is not explicitly stated, but repeated readings make evident that each person he met – thiefs, beggars, landowners, madmen – had been molded by society.  However, society could not save or redeem them.  That was possible only through spirituality.  After each meeting, the pilgrim continued on his way, usually without any clear earthly destination.

Besides teaching the Jesus Prayer, the pilgrim told those he met of the Philokalia, which is a collection of writings by influential saints and teachers of the Eastern Church on praying ceaselessly.  As important as those works were to the pilgrim, we see it is the prayer itself that changes lives.

I mentioned how the manuscript was found at a Mt. Athos monastery near the end of the 19^th Century, along with another work entitled A Pilgrim Continues on His Way, which seems to me, and most readers, to have been written later by a different author.  I digressed to explain about Mt. Athos in Greece to those present who did not know about it.

After reviewing the book, I mentioned that the Jesus Prayer continues to be a staple in the lives of many Orthodox Christians, and is now practiced by many in the West, particularly pointing out J. D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, which describes it as a way to “see God.”  No one at the meeting had read Franny and Zooey, so the reference did not have much meaning.

Then, for some strange reason – especially considering the group – I started talking about the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed.  To some, it may seem a little strange, but they did do a song entitled “Jesus,” in which the lyrics were just the following lines repeated over and over:

Jesus, Jesus, help me find my proper place,
Jesus, Jesus, help me find my proper place,
Help me in my weakness
‘Cos I’m falling out of grace,
Jesus, Jesus.

Clearly, it is a rock and roll version of the Jesus Prayer.

It turned out that none of the book club members was familiar with the Velvet Underground, either.  Except … after the book club adjourned, Deacon Buddy struck up a conversation with me.  It seems he grew up in the New York City area in the 1960s and was a huge Velvet Underground fan, though he was not familiar with “Jesus’ (which was from the early 1970s when the band was moving in a different direction and was not nearly as popular as it had been).  We spent the next 30 minutes talking about Lou Reed and Andy Warhol and the 60s Greenwich Village folk scene with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and so many others.  I learned how he had left the Church, but then was called back and became a deacon.  It was a great discussion.  I also understood why I had suddenly wanted to discuss the Velvet Underground.

A few weeks later, Buddy decided he no longer wished to be a deacon and suddenly left our parish.  Someone told me he had begun “drinking again.”  I am not sure what that means.  Nearly a year later I learned he had returned to the deaconate at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Denver – an historic parish with more than a century of history and now with a large Spanish-speaking and bilingual congregation.

Jesus seems to be working hard to help Buddy find his proper place in society and spirituality.  I don’t think he is praying ceaselessly.  I do think he is singing to himself, “Jesus, Jesus, help me ….”  I taught him that.