"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" (This is the famous Jesus Prayer, which is prayed, repeating it many times) The tradition of using words addressed to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in prayer begins in the Gospel times, when people who met Christ turned to Him with their requests. Christ's closest disciples - the apostles saw and knew the effectiveness of such an appeal. Thus, the first Christians began to call on the Name of Christ both in church and in private prayer, and this tradition has never diminished. The prayer that we now call the Jesus Prayer took shape in the words we are familiar with later, when especially zealous ascetics began to leave the world for the desert. Calling on the Name of God was a living need for them. The experience of these ancient fathers is captured in the books of the "Philokalia". There are different opinions about who and how can perform the Jesus Prayer. Some saints believed that it has an extraordinary power to transform the human mind and heal the soul. Provided, of course, that it is treated wisely and responsibly. They advised using this prayer not only to hermits, but also to all Christians living in the world, even those just beginning their spiritual life. It was believed that if this prayer, which belongs to the kind of penitential prayer, is performed with heartfelt attention and constantly, it will bring benefit and cleanse even people who are not very spiritually high from many sins. Other fathers, on the contrary, believed that not everyone can use this prayer. Especially if you take it into service and use it constantly. Because just as a flame, flaring up, requires more and more fuel, so the heartfelt prayer performed constantly, gaining strength, requires from a person an increasingly complete dedication, more and more steps, dedication of all oneself to prayerful work, later called smart work. And one must be especially prepared for it - fasting, abstinence from extraneous entertainment and strict observance of the commandments of Christ are required. Without such a foundation, prayer can cause spiritual harm. From the "Philokalia" we know that one of the highest stages of mental prayer is contemplation. This is a special state, which the Holy Fathers spoke of as the threshold of the Kingdom of God. The soul is so elevated and purified from passions that it, mysteriously united with Christ through prayer, becomes capable of seeing Him. But for us this activity is too high. We can learn about these states only from books. Ascetics close to us in time say that modern man, having lost the integrity of life, can no longer claim to perform such stages of mental prayer. Therefore, when some people - this is especially characteristic of neophytes - fervently take up the invocation of the Jesus Name of the Lord in prayer, they can be exposed to all sorts of dangers that they will not be ready to accept. Every believer wants to pray. Saint Gregory Palamas says: as many human souls in the world, so many levels and images of prayer. Everyone brings their own inner experience, their own feelings to prayer. And everyone's experiences are different. One has a prayerful spirit from childhood, by nature, by the grace of God - he can pray right away. Another needs to go a long way in life, and only in the middle of this path will he understand that he must pray. And he will begin to take small steps with difficulty, to comprehend the basics. Prayer is food. If a person is alive, he needs food. After all, we strengthen ourselves with food more than once a day. The same is spiritually - the soul also needs food. But here we need understanding, a living need to drink living water, and not the formal side, not a habit, not a ritual. Living water is the word of God. When there is this thirst, then the correct structure of prayer begins. God Himself builds it. Because it is said that without the action of grace we cannot pray, we cannot even turn to God "Abba Father", according to the Apostle Paul, without the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us a prayer in our hearts - He sets it and turns it to God the Heavenly Father, to Christ. People who love prayer even change their appearance, be they laymen or monastics. Of course, appearance is not a very convincing factor, but still, you can usually tell by a person if he is a prayerful person. Prayer is the path that leads a person to God. And if a person stops halfway, he can lose what he has already acquired. Prayer cultivates high, subtle nobility. The soul becomes reasonable, retreats from crude passions, gains insight, and is strengthened in faith. The Holy Spirit acts both in prayer and in the Holy Scripture. A person begins to see the wondrous harmony of the Divine Word, the Scripture. Because prayer prepares the human heart as a vessel, which then contains all the gifts of grace of the Holy Spirit. Without prayer it is impossible to achieve this.