The Prayer of the Name of Jesus is the life and joy of Holy Orthodoxy, because it plants Christ’s Name of Truth in the heart, awakens wisdom to renew all things in the Spirit of Truth and unveils uncreated light, restoring glory through glory to the Father. Holy Orthodoxy has always centred in right-glorification of the saving Name of hallowing Truth, curing fear and terror which obscure all awareness and presence of Truth. Orthodox right-glorification frees hearts from counterfeit parodies of Truth that superimpose deceptive confusions spewing out countless divisions. Separating awareness from presence, these addictive fixations shatter communion of wisdom and glory in the Name. Of course, the Name of Truth is not confused nor is the Spirit of Truth divided, even when fear arises and then descends from terror into the horrors of terrorism. Fear has no substance, like fog, and terror is without subsistence, like mist. The Prayer of the Name of Jesus dispells addictive fixations which release of themselves like warm sunlight dissolving fog in high summer. As the Name of Truth, grace dispels the turbulence of terror’s thunderous clouds, together with the obscurations of fear’s fogs and mists, enlightening hearts with hallowing purification, healing hearts with deifying glorification. The Name of Truth purifies hearts in deifying awareness at centre, unveiling presence of glory wherever turning turns. The Spirit of Truth is always a faithful witness to the deifying union of awareness and presence, communion of wisdom and glory in the Holy Name.
The Prayer of Jesus imparts knowing that rejoices in being divinely loved and known, knowing that glorifies God and is over-awed by wonder at being glorified by God. This is what has sometimes been called the doxological reciprocity of the hallowing Name. Wisdom both glorifies God and is glorified by God when the Name is hallowed. The Father imparts the Name through the Son in prophecy, assimilating the Truth of the Name in pure prayer, the Spirit’s wordless prayer of intercession for all. The Spirit’s unceasing prayer is the inmost heart of Holy Orthodoxy, but this has often been overlooked in conventional orthodox circles, anxious to stress the ethnic character of orthodoxy. It is the unspoken task of Orthodox Christian wisdom in the desert to hold wisdom steady in the Name, to bear steadfast witness to the unselfish love of the slaughtered Lamb, to face into fear and unveil the face of terror, glorifying the unveiled Face of God in the midst of fear and terror.
The Father knows by name all those who hallow his saving Name, those who are sons by grace in his only-begotten Son. In ineffable words of prophecy, the Name ‘I AM’ calls out, ‘turn and see.’ In the Spirit of pure prayer, the Name answers, ‘Here, am I, struck dumb by ‘I AM’ in the midst.’ Turning I am turned, seeing I am seen, for ‘I AM’ is God’s Name revealing God. Fear may be aware and terror present, but the Name is aware of God and present in his presence. Christ is the Word that names the Name, the glory that crowns awareness with presence right in the midst of fear’s terrors and terror’s relentless terrorism. Holy Orthodoxy treasures the witness of the hallowing Name, knowing it rises above envy and strife by imparting healing wisdom, wisdom that embraces hallowing glory, healing anxious fear and anguished terror.
The prayer of the hallowing Name of Jesus empowers incompleteness to bear witness in the Spirit of Truth to Christ’s consummate completeness. Fear and terror are defined by deficiency they perceive to be definitive, whereas such lack can never define incompleteness because it knows as it is known, knowing the Spirit’s witness to completeness, knowing with the Spirit of the Son, the hidden completeness of his communion with the Father. Holy Trinity has always been the living heart of Holy Orthodoxy, although some orthodox think it is what they believe and do as orthodox believers that defines the heart of orthodoxy, not God the Holy Trinity. The fissure between conventional ethnic religion and Holy Orthodoxy grows wider the more external religion is ruled by fear. Mountains of separation divide wisdom from mounting fear but the moment wisdom turns to see, there is never the least trace of them. The two-edged sword of Truth severs confusions that spawn divisions, releasing error into Truth and ignorance into wisdom. The Spirit is the breath of the Father anointing seers in the Son, dispelling the terrors of terrorism like nightmares dissolved upon awakening. Holy Orthodoxy is wholesome God-centred glorification of God, wondrous completeness of God, revealed in Holy Trinity, the Name lived as healing, hallowing Prayer of Great Peace, harrowing the hells of fear and terror.
Prayer of the Name of Jesus in Holy Orthodoxy is prayer in the saving Name that gave Jesus his name. The Father truly gives himself in person when he gives his Name to the Son, sharing with the Son his throne of glory that upholds the glory of both Father and Son. Although the Name is inherently invisible, it unveils the Father’s glory enthroning the Son, ensuring that all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, belonging by grace to hidden sons of God as well. The Name remains veiled until the Son unveils it to sons of God by grace and graced daughters of wisdom’s gentle embrace. The Name in Holy Orthodoxy is not nominal, nor is it understood by a rationalistic nominalism that sees only the conventions of naming and a consensual usage of names. The Name of the Father reveals the Father’s real first-personal presence, so God’s naming of his Name is no mere convention but divine self-revelation, unveiling the Father through the Son. The Name of Jesus communicates the ineffable completeness of the Father through his Christ, so that those who are his lack nothing. Prayer of the Name is revelation of the Father’s completeness shared with the Son, abiding in the Spirit that shares his completeness with all. It is the place of abiding rest which communicates Great Glory, the place of stillness that abides in Great Peace.