The Jesus Prayer Burns the Demons
An excerpt from the letters of Elder Ephraim
Do thoughts war against us? Prayer is a great weapon. The attraction of sin pulls the mind towards evil. But when the mind takes hold of the ax of prayer and lifts it and begins to chop, it uproots even the hardest of thoughts. As long as one gets a good grip of the ax and wields it skillfully, it really brings about wonderful results.
Because the devil knows this, he hinders us from saying the prayer so that he can capture us more easily. He brings negligence upon us; he brings us cares; he brings us a thousand and one obstacles with the sole aim of hindering prayer. As experience has shown many times, the demons shudder at the name of Christ. They themselves admit, through people’s mouths, that they are burned when a person prays.
There was a monk who had fallen into so much negligence that he not only abandoned his rule but was also ready to return to the world. He went to his homeland, the island of Cephalonia, where people possessed by demons stream to be healed at the shrine of St. Gerasimos.
Since he was near the shrine he also went to venerate the Saint, but a possessed woman met him on the way and said to him, “Do you know what you’re holding in your hand? Ah, if you only knew what you’re holding in your hand, you wretch! If you only knew how much that prayer rope of yours burns me! And you just carry it like that out of habit, as a formality!”
The monk stood thunderstruck. It was from God that the demon spoke like that. The monk came to himself. God enlightened him, and he said to himself, “See what a fool I am!I hold in my hand the most powerful weapon and I can’t even strike one demon. And not only am I unable to strike him, but he drags me captive wherever he wants. I have sinned, my God!”
And at that very moment, he set out in repentance for his monastery. Once he got there, he made a good beginning again. He made so much progress in the prayer and in the monastic life in general that he became a model for the benefit of many others. I, the lowly one, also had the chance to meet with this Elder. All you ever heard him say was, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”—unceasingly. If you said something to him, he would answer with a few words and then his tongue immediately returned to the prayer. That is how accustomed to it he was. That is how much it had changed him. And imagine that the value of the prayer and of the prayer rope had been revealed to him by the devil—involuntarily, of course—according to the judgments and the unfathomable plans of the Most High!
Let me tell you another similar story: When we were at New Skete, when my Elder, Joseph, was still alive, a young man who was possessed came to us. The Elder, out of compassion, welcomed these unfortunate people. They stayed as long as they liked and then left of their own accord. These people are not able to stay for long in one place. All those who lack consolation from God within themselves seek it by moving from place to place, and from one group of people to another. This young man had the demon of a prostitute. When its seized him, his voice changed into the voice of a common woman, and he said things which “it is shameful even to speak of,” as the Apostle says.
He was a barrel-maker by trade. He stayed in our synodia for some time, and during the work hours he came to help however he could. On the third day he said to me, “Father, won’t you teach me to carve prosphora seals, too? Those barrels I make are hard work, and I’ve got this thing inside me that constantly disgraces me.”
“I will teach you, my brother; may it be blessed! Look, this is how you do it. The tools are here, the wood is there, and the samples are in front of you. You will work at this bench. The only thing is that, as you see, all the fathers here in this synodia don’t talk; they are always saying the prayer.”
I said this to avoid, as much as possible, idle talk and distraction from prayer. But also something else crossed my mind at that moment: I wondered if demoniacs can say “the prayer.” So we began to work, saying the prayer. Only a few moments passed and the demon flared up within him. His speech changed and he started shouting, using foul language, threatening, and swearing: “Shut up, you scum!” it said from within him. “Shut up! Stop that muttering! Why do you keep saying the same words over and over again?
Quit saying those words. You make me dizzy. I’m fine inside you—why do you want to disturb me?”
It went on like this for a while. It tormented him. Then it stopped.
“See what it does to me?” the poor fellow said. “This is what I go through all the time.”
“Patience, my brother, patience!” I said to him. “Don’t pay any attention to it. These are not your own words, so don’t get upset. You just concentrate on the prayer.”
We stopped working and went to the Elder. On the way, he said to me, “Father, should I say a prayer also for the one inside me, for God to have mercy on him as well?” What a thing for that poor fellow to say! At once the demon seized him, lifted him up, and slammed him down. The whole places hook. His voice changed and it started up again:
“Shut up, you scum!!! Shut up, I told you. What are you saying? What do you mean, “mercy”? Not mercy! I don’t want mercy! No! What have I done to ask for mercy? God is unjust! For one little sin, for one proud thought, He banished me from my glory. It’s not our fault; it’s His fault! He should repent, not us! Get mercy far away from me!”
It tormented him terribly and left him a wreck. I shuddered at what the demon said. In a few minutes I had learned more about demons through experience than I could have grasped from reading thousands of books. We went on to my Elder. My Elder always received him and talked to him with great love, and that young man was always calm when he was with him. He prayed a great deal for such people, for he knew what a martyrdom they went through from the demons. And he said to us:
“If we, who have the demons outside of us, are so tormented by thoughts and passions, what a martyrdom must these unfortunate people endure, who have the demons inside them day and night!” And shaking his head sadly, he concluded, “Perhaps they are going through their hell here. But woe to those who will not repent so that God may chasten them compassionately in one way or another in this present life!” And quoted the words of a saint, who said, “If you see a person who sins openly and does not repent, and nothing grievous happens to him in the present life up to the hour of his death, then know that the examination of this person will be without mercy in the hour of judgment.” As the Elder said these things, we regarded that troubled brother with more and more sympathy.
During the services, he did not come inside the church with the fathers, but wandered around outside on the rocks with his prayer rope and kept shouting out the prayer continuously:“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” The whole place echoed with it.
He had experienced how much the prayer burns the demon. And as he roamed around the rocks, incessantly saying the prayer, suddenly his voice would change and the demon would start: “Shut up, I told you, shut up! You’re choking me! Why do you stay out here wandering around the rocks and muttering? Go inside with the others and stop this muttering. Why do you keep repeating the same thing day and night and not give me a moment’s rest? You’ve made me dizzy, you’ve scorched me; you’re burning me don’t you understand?” And when the time of temptation was over, he would go back to the prayer with the prayer rope: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. . . .” He had understood very well something that the demon thought he could not understand. It was with pain of soul and yet with hope that we saw him suffer, struggle, and endure. Anyway, he stayed with us for a while and then left, considerably improved. We never saw him again, though. God knows what became of him.
Do you see the power of the prayer and the demons’ refusal to repent? They are consumed with fire and they cry out, “Not mercy!” And they never stop blaming God. Oh, what satanic pride! I wonder, how does an egotist, a person who is utterly unrepentant, differ from a demon? Someone who does not deign to confess Christ as God and man and to seek His mercy and compassion as long as he lives? Do you now see the deeper significance of the prayer and that it reveals how near or far people are from Christ? We let our thoughts loose, and they take control of us. We let our thoughts loose, and they imprison us, while we could use the resplendent weapon of prayer—that weapon which is called fire and flame. This prayer is a whip that scourges every demonic thought.
Source:
Elder Ephraim. 1999. Counsels from the Holy Mountain. Saint Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery. p. 320-324
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