Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer : Experiencing the Mysteries of God and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of an Ancient Spirituality

“Norris Chumley traverses a spiritual landscape unfamiliar to most Westerners. . . . Take this book and read. Even better, read this book and accept its invitation to pray.” —Diana Butler Bass, author of A People's History of Christianity Norris Chumley presents a lavishly illustrated companion to the PBS documentary Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer . Readers can follow Chumley on a pilgrimage through the holiest sites of the early Christian world as he searches for modern-day practitioners of the ancient Eastern mystical tradition and its most sacred prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This beautifully illustrated volume includes black-and-white and full-color images of the author's travels through Eastern Europe, including rare pictures from visits to holy sites where photographers are only rarely granted access. For nearly two millennia, the holy menand women of Eastern Christianity havebuilt lives of reflection, humility, andconstant connection to God around asimple sentence, the Jesus Prayer. Now, Norris J. Chumley'a documentarian andprofessor'reveals the history, practices, and abiding wisdom of this mysticaltradition to the rest of the world.