几年前，我学到了一个被称为“耶稣祷告”的东西，这就是这样的：

耶稣基督，
神之子，
可怜我吧
一个罪人。

我发现它在一个名为的书中梧桐树的梳妆台那由Garrett Keizer，在一章中，他讲述了一个关于一个人在他呼吸下咕evymus祷告的男人的故事。那个男人可能来自东正教传统，那里祷告往往是不断重复的，作为个人苦行法的一部分。虽然它从未被广泛接受罗马天主教徒，但它让我想起了你经常在那种传统中听到的“海盗玛丽”：

冰雹玛丽，充满恩典，
主与你在一起;
祝福艺术，女人，
祝福是耶稣的果实。

Hail Mary的结束线是这些：

圣玛丽，上帝的母亲，为美国罪人祈祷，
现在和在我们死亡的时刻。阿门。

这是关于“我们死亡的小时”的那条线，让我思考。

假设耶稣祈祷是有些人不断咕的祷告，因为他们不知道他们的死亡时间何时会来，他们试图准备好。Wouldn’t you love to think that those words would be on your lips in that hour, so that when you looked up and saw the 18-wheeler coming straight toward you on the interstate you would continue to say (though with a bit more urgency), “Jesus Christ! Son of God! Have mercy on me a sinner!” Wouldn’t that pretty much get you a free pass into Heaven?

So, that’s what I’m thinking today: that there may be some people who have been practicing that prayer for years, trying to make it such a regular part of their life that it will be the first thing they say in the hour of their death. And I’m thinking that sometimes (when they are startled by a loud noise for instance), they might shout out the first part of the prayer almost as a reflex, and they might be so startled they forget to say the rest of it. Their children might grow up thinking that’s just what you say when you almost get hit by a truck—“Jesus Christ!”—without knowing that there’s more to the prayer. So, the next time I hear someone yell the first part of the Jesus prayer I’m just going to finish it for him, quietly, under my breath:

耶稣基督，
神之子，
怜悯
穷人。