Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer: Experiencing the Presence of God and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of an Ancient Spirituality

“Norris Chumley traverses a spiritual landscape unfamiliar to most Westerners. . . . Take this book and read. Even better, read this book and accept its invitation to pray.” —Diana Butler Bass, author of A People's History of Christianity 

Norris Chumley presents a lavishly illustrated companion to the PBS documentary Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer. Readers can follow Chumley on a pilgrimage through the holiest sites of the early Christian world as he searches for modern-day practitioners of the ancient Eastern mystical tradition and its most sacred prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This beautifully illustrated volume includes black-and-white and full-color images of the author's travels through Eastern Europe, including rare pictures from visits to holy sites where photographers are only rarely granted access.

For nearly two millennia, the holy menand women of Eastern Christianity havebuilt lives of reflection, humility, andconstant connection to God around asimple sentence, the Jesus Prayer. Now,Norris J. Chumley—a documentarian andprofessor—reveals the history, practices,and abiding wisdom of this mysticaltradition to the rest of the world.

Chumley traveled to some of the earlyChurch’s holiest sites with the VeryReverend Dr. John A. McGuckin, a priestand professor—to St. Anthony’s Monasteryin the Egyptian desert and St. Catherine’sMonastery on Mount Sinai, to convents inTransylvania and to monasteries in Russia,the Ukraine, and Greece—in search ofChristianity’s first mystical tradition andits modern-day practitioners. The monksand nuns he met taught him how to movethrough the stages of the Jesus Prayer, andhow it can foster an unceasing, and everdeepening,conversation with God.

Enriched with stunning color photographsof these holy sites, where photography israrely allowed, Mysteries of the Jesus Prayerreveals the powerful theology packed intothis prayer’s few words.