Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis: Understand only the prayer

 As much as you can, my child, fall noetically with the fear of God, like the gypsy, at the feet of our Christ. And know this. You have come from the world. You are still carrying the world with you. The evil one will run through all the scenes of the world that you have inside you, all of them, like a tape in your mind. Continue to say the prayer. With perseverance, patience, and forcefulness. As much and you can, drive away whatever fantasy¹ is in your mind, whether it's good or bad. Compel yourself to understand only those five words of the prayer.

This is the first lesson, today. Let's see whether you have understood it.

+Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis, from Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis; The teacher of noetic prayer, Part 2, chapter A
¹ Fantasy is here understood as A mental image formed in the nous either by oneself or by the demons.

Archimandrite Roman (Braga): Prayer must be the beginning of any spiritual work.

 Father, do you think that the ascetic effort associated with the Prayer of the Heart should be the same for monks and for lay people?

The first step should be the Prayer, I mean the formula. If you repeatedly recite the Jesus Prayer, the rest come naturally. Man cannot become dispassionate without falling on his knees and asking God for this grace, because everything comes by the grace of God. Attaining dispassion is not the result of personal effort, but it comes by the grace of God; so you must fall on your knees, see yourself as a sinner, and ask for God's help. Prayer and the purification of passions happen at the same time. I think that priority must be given to prayer. It is said that there is no pure prayer without first attaining dispassion. But I say that whether pure prayer or forced prayer, prayer must be the beginning of any spiritual work.

+Archimandrite Roman (Braga), from Exploring the Inner Universe, Joy - the Mystery of Life, from an interview with Dina Cruga.

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra: The Jesus Prayer as our Deification

 The prayer of Jesus is not an occasional petition that we direct to God. It is in fact our own deification. There would be no reason to stay all day in conversation with God if it were simply a matter of addressing words to him. God hears very well, even to the noises of our bowels. There would be no need to pray day and night. Rather, the prayer consists before all in feeding upon Christ, the Lamb of God, and of drinking the Savior Himself, by the invocation of His Holy Name. It is an intoxicating beverage, one that carries man into the heavens. It is the whole Christ whom we then absorb, and we become thus participants in God, reflecting - as Christ Himself - the divine attributes. We share in God and subsequently act, we too, mysteriously as gods.

+Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra, from The Living Witness of the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos: Sacred Vessel of the Prayer of Jesus