“If you deprive yourself of prayer, you will do the same thing in your soul that cutting off your nerves does in you: it will freeze; or, in another comparison, it will be the same as taking a fish out of water, for just as life is water for a fish, so is prayer for your soul. With it you can rush through the air, as through water, ascend to heaven and become close to God.”
Saint John Chrysostom
“The work of prayer is the first work of Christian life. If in relation to the usual order of affairs the proverb is true: “Live forever, learn forever,” then all the more it applies to prayer, the action of which should not have an interruption and the extent of which has no limit.”
Saint Theophan the Recluse
“Prayer is primarily the fulfillment of the first and most important commandment of those two commandments in which the law, the prophets and the Gospel are concentrated (Matthew 22:37-40): You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself; All the law and the prophets are based on these two commandments. It is impossible for a person to strive with all his thoughts, with all his strength, with all his being towards God except through the action of prayer, when it rises from the dead (in the words of John Climacus, word 28) and is revived, as if by a soul, by the power of grace.”
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
“If you want to pray properly, then you need God, who gives prayer to the one who prays. Call upon Him in prayer, saying: Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come.”
Venerable Neil of Sinai
“According to the importance of prayer, before practicing it, you need to prepare yourself for it. <...> The first preparation is to reject the memory of malice and condemnation of neighbors. This preparation is commanded by the Lord himself. When you stand in prayer, He commands, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Heavenly Father may forgive you your sins. If you do not forgive, then your Heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins (Mark 11:25-26). Further preparation is: the rejection of care through the power of faith in God, the power of obedience and devotion to the will of God, the consciousness of one’s sinfulness and the contrition and humility of spirit flowing from this consciousness.”
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
“It seems that what would be simpler and more natural for us if not prayer, or the aspiration of our hearts to God? And yet it does not happen to everyone and does not always happen. It must be aroused and the excited one must be strengthened - or, what is the same, one must cultivate in oneself a spirit of prayer. The first way to do this is through reading or listening prayer. Perform prayers properly, and you will certainly arouse and strengthen the ascent in your heart to God, or you will enter into the spirit of prayer.
Our prayer books contain the prayers of the holy fathers - Ephraim the Syrian, Macarius of Egypt: to go not quite correctly, let him not deviate from what he started, but let him use new and new efforts, just as a student of a craft does. If he works patiently in this way, without losing spirit, God will look upon the work of his will and give him the strength to do everything without coercion.”
Venerable Zosimas of Palestine (Philokalia, vol. 3)
“Force yourself a little to pray, and soon cheerfulness and strength will come.”
Abba Isaiah
“The dignity of prayer lies solely in quality, and not in quantity. Then quantity is commendable when it leads to quality. Quality always leads to quantity; quantity leads to quality when the worshiper prays carefully.
The quality of true prayer is when the mind is attentive during prayer, and the heart sympathizes with the mind.”
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
“Prayer done with carelessness and laziness is idle talk.”
Venerable Anthony the Great