Practicing the Jesus Prayer - 8 - Progress is in Steps

Remember, this is a process and you will go through stages. Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov reminds us that our simple attentive beginnings lead us to the temple of the heart.

It is one thing to pray with attention with the participation of the heart; it is another thing to descend with the mind into the temple of the heart and from there to offer mystical prayer filled with divine grace and power. The second is a result of the first. The attention of the mind during prayer draws the heart into sympathy. With the strengthening of the attention, sympathy of heart and mind is turned into union of heart and mind. Finally, when the attention makes the prayer its own, the mind descends into the heart for the most profound and sacred service of prayer.
All this is accomplished under the guidance of the grace of God. It is harmful to strive for the second before acquiring the first.

Saint Igantius Brianchaninov (On the Prayer of Jesus, p 48)