Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer
345–399 Greece
← All quotes by Evagrius Ponticus
15 quotes
First pray for the gift of tears, so that through sorrowing you may tame what is savage in your soul. And having confessed your transgressions to the Lord, you will obtain forgiveness from Him.
26. Prayer is a state of the mind destructive of every earthly mental representation.
85. Psalm-singing is an image of wisdom which is many-sided; prayer is the prelude to immaterial and uniform knowledge.
101. Just as bread is nourishment for the body and virtue for the soul, so is spiritual prayer nourishment for the intelligence.
4. The state of the mind is an intelligible height resembling the colour of heaven, to which the light of the Holy Trinity comes in the time of prayer.
114. Do not by any means strive to fashion some image or visualize some form at the time of prayer.
153. When you give yourself to prayer, rise above every other joy — then you will find true prayer.
119. Happy is the spirit that becomes free of all matter and is stripped of all at the time of prayer.
27. Prayer is a state of the mind that arises under the influence of the unique light of the Holy Trinity.
120. Happy is the spirit that attains to complete unconsciousness of all sensible experience at the time of prayer.
35. Prayer is an ascent of the spirit to God.
150. Just as sight is the most worthy of the sense, so also is prayer the most divine of the virtues.
113. By true prayer a monk becomes another angel, for he ardently longs to see the face of the Father in heaven.
65. If you long to pray, then avoid all that is opposed to prayer. Then when God draws near, he has only to go along with you.
86. Knowledge! The great possession of man. It is a fellow-worker with prayer, acting to awaken the power of thought to contemplate the divine knowledge.