St. Gregory the Sinaite: On what Prayer is

 For beginners prayer is like a joyous fire kindled in the heart; for the perfect, it is like a vigorous, sweet-scented light. Or again, prayer is the preaching of the Apostles, and action of faith, or rather, faith itself, "the substance of things hoped for" (Heb. 11:1)... the Gospel of God... a sign of purity, a token of holiness... baptism made manifest...f a pledge of the Holy Spirit... God's mercy... the seal of Christ, a ray of the noetic sun, the heart's dawn star, the confirmation of the Christian faith, the disclosure of reconciliation with God, God's grace, God's wisdom or, rather, the origin of true and absolute Wisdom; the revelation of God, the work of monks, the life of hesychasts, the source of stillness, an expression of the angelic state. Why say more? Prayer is God, who accomplishes everything in everyone, for there is a single action of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, activating all things through Christ Jesus.

+St. Gregory the Sinaite, Commandments and Doctrines #113 in The Philokalia, volume 4

St. Gregory Dialogos: Let us give the Gifts of the Magi

 The Magi brought gold, incense and myrrh. Gold befits a king; incense is offered in sacrifice to God; the bodies of the dead are embalmed with myrrh. Therefore the Magi, [with their mystical gifts], also preach Him whom they worshipped, a king with the gold, God with the incense, a human being with the myrrh...

we too offer gold to the new-born King if we shine in His sight with the brightness of the wisdom from on high; we offer Him incense if we enkindle on the altar of our hearts the thoughts of our human minds by our holy pursuit of prayer, so as to give forth a sweet smell to God by our heavenly desire; we offer Him myrrh if we mortify the vices of our bodies by our self-denial.

+St. Gregory Dialogos, from Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 8

St. Macarius the Great: Cleanse Thou me a sinner

 O God, cleanse Thou me a sinner, inasmuch as I have never done any good thing before Thee. Yea, deliver me from the evil one and let Thy will abide within me, so that I may without condemnation open my unworthy lips and praise Thy Holy name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

+St. Macarius the Great, from The Orthodox Prayer Book

Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev): On true prayer and humility

 It seems to us that we pray very well. Some schema-monks actually say many prayers, only it is not worth a thing. It is a "castrated" work; in reality it goes nowhere. And if this is not so, then how can one explain that a priest can stand thirty-odd years before the throne of God - he should have become a wonderworker or a clairvoyant long ago. However, not only is he unable to see what goes on within another's soul, but he does not even understand his own. Perhaps we shall accuse God of favoritism? No. The fact of the matter is that God bestows these gifts not for the sheer labor of such a one, but for humility. The latter quality is acquired only through pure prayer, and pure prayer only through humility.

+Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev), from New Confessors of Russia by Archimandrite Damascene (Orlovsky), chapter 7.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: Pray to God incessantly

 When you wish to live piously and be a true Christian and so be saved, pray to God incessantly and beg help of Him with fervor. Just as according to His love for man God commanded us to pray and ask of Him every good thing, He also promised to give us what we ask for, and most of all what is needful for our salvation.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (Matt 7:7-8). Know, beloved, that a Christian without prayer is as a bird without wings and as a warrior weapons.

Pray fervently, then, to Christ the Lord and give yourself to Him for direction, and He will correct and guide you to eternal blessedness according to His love for man. Only be careful and watch yourself, and seeing you care He will help you in everything. Read the Beatitudes, and the rest, often and with fervor.

+St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, from Journey to Heaven, Part 2, chapter 13

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.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: On the Beginning of the Spiritual Life

 Brother! If you have not yet sensed the union of mind, soul, and body, then practice attentive prayer, uniting the prayer of the lips - sometimes spoken, sometimes whispered - with the mind. Act according to the commandments of the Gospel, battling the passions with endurance and long-suffering, never slipping into despair or hopelessness when you are defeated by sinful thoughts or emotions. At the same time, do not allow yourself to be defeated easily. Having fallen down, stand up. If you fall again, stand up again, until you learn how to walk without tripping. The cup of infirmity has its uses; until a proper time, the providence of God allows it, so that the ascetic can be purified of pride, anger, remembrance of evil, condemnation of others, arrogance, and vanity. It is especially important to recognize the action of vanity within yourself and to rein it in. While it acts in you, you will not be able to enter the domain of the spiritual life, for [the] price of entrance is a lack of passionate attachments, which is a gift received after the coming of the peace of Christ.

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Refuge: Anchoring the Soul in God, Chapter 16 The Prayer of the Mind, the Heart, and the Soul.

St. Sophrony (Sakharov): When God comes to us

 God is indivisible in Himself. When He comes, He comes wholly, as He is in His eternal Being. We do not contain Him. He reveals Himself to us at the 'point' where we knock: "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Luke 11:9). He speaks in brief dicta but life is not long enough to uncover their full content. Reverently we sense His Fatherhood, His clemency. We see that He hungers to communicate to us His eternal life: to have us attain the perfection of His Son, Who is the equal mold of the Father. Incomprehensible is His design for us. From 'nothing' He creates gods like Himself. And our whole being bows before Him - not in dread before the stern Master but in humble love for the Father.

+St. Sophrony (Sakharov), from On Prayer, chapter 2 Prayer - The Way to Knowledge.

St. Isaac the Syrian: Humility in prayer

 When the humble-minded man approaches prayer or becomes worthy of it, he still does not dare to petition God or ask for anything. He does not yet know for what he should pray; all his thoughts are silent, awaiting only the mercy and the will of the God Whom he worships. His face is bowed to the earth, and the inner eye of his heart is raised to the exalted gates of the Holy of Holies. There is He Whose dominion is the darkness that dims the eyes of the Seraphim, Whose goodness inspires countless legions of angles to worship in complete silence. The boldness of this man only extends to the follow words that he dares utter in prayer: "O Lord, let it be with me according to Thy will." (cf. Luke 1:38).

+ St. Isaac the Syrian, from Ascetic Homilies, homily 49.

St. John Climacus: On undistracted prayer

 It is not proper for anyone to engage in any accessory work, or rather distraction, during the time of prayer. For the angel who attended Anthony the Great taught him this clearly.

+St. John Climacus, from The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 19 On sleep, prayer, and psalm-singing in the chapel, #7

Panagiotis Trembelas: Prayer before the ambo

 What praise or what hymn or what thanks can we give You in repayment, our God who loves mankind? For when we were condemned to death and immersed in sins, You bestowed freedom upon us and gave us a share in the immortal and heavenly delight of the hoy Body and Blood of Your Christ. Therefore we pray to You, keep us and Your servants the deacons free from condemnation. Preserve with us the people here present in an honorable and reverent way of life; count us worthy until our last breath to partake at this mystical Table unto sanctification of soul and body, that we may be accounted worthy of Your heavenly Kingdom with all who have been well-pleasing to You: by the prayers of the all-holy, pure Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and of all Your saints. For You are holy God and love mankind, and to You we give glory, to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

+Panagiotis Trembelas, an old prayer before the ambo, quoted in The Three Liturgies According to the Athenian Code

St. John Chrysostom: On fervent prayer

 Just as incense is good and fragrant even on its own, but displays its fragrance properly when it comes in contact with fire, so it is with prayer. It is good even on its own, but it becomes even better and more fragrant when it is offered up with a warm and ardent soul, when the soul becomes a censer and is burning with fierce fire... First set your hear on fire by your eagerness, and then pray.

+St. John Chrysostom, from Homily 3 on Psalm 140.

Frederica Matthews-Green: On prayer at traditional times

 Actually, when I decided to adopt the habit of stopping for prayer at the traditional times of the day, it turned out to be the single most effective thing I ever did to improve my prayer life. It was effective even though I usually didn’t find those prayer times particularly moving. I offered those prayers in a dutiful way, by rote repetition, simply because the time for prayer had rolled around again. The beneficial effect came from the fact that I had to make a stop in the headlong flow of the day, and turn to face the Lord. These interruptions reminded me that God is always present; even when I forgot all about him. he was still here. Sometimes I would check the clock and find it was not yet time to pray, but that moment of checking turned my memory again to God, itself a fleeting prayer.

+ Frederica Matthews-Green, from Welcome to the Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity, chapter 23, "Built His House upon a Rock". 

St. John Cassian: On the Prayer "Thy will be done..."

 "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There cannot be a greater prayer than to desire that earthly things should deserve to equal heavenly ones. For what does it mean to say: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," if not that human beings should be like angels and that, just as God's will is fulfilled by them in heaven, so also all those who are on earth should do not their own but His will? No one will really be able to say this but him who believes that God regulates all things that are seen, whether fortunate or unfortunate, for the sake of our well-being, and that He is more provident and careful with regard to the salvation and interests of those who are His own than we are for ourselves.

+St. John Cassian, from The Conferences, conference 9 On Prayer XX.1

Hieromonk Moses of Mt Athos: On the prayers of others

 The prayers of others are particularly helpful when we too participate. We should not expect significant results from the prayers of others if we ourselves are not actively involved. Prayers for others are appropriate and should be offered, especially when requested of us. And we should ask for the prayers of the saints, but we should be prepared to exert ourselves as well and not to expect anything from them. Holiness is not contagious is a passive way. The saints both censure us and strengthen, but their prayers will be more decisive as we participate more fully.

+Hieromonk Moses of Mt Athos, from Athonite Flowers, The Power of Prayer

St. John Chrysostom: On the benefit of common prayer

 It is possible, of course, to pray at home; but it is impossible to pray at home as you would in church, where there is such a throng of Fathers, and where powerful prayer is offered up to God with one mind. When you petition the Lord on your own, you are not heard as when you petition Him together with your brethren. For here in the church there is something in addition: the concord and agreement of the faithful, the bond of love and the prayers of the priests.

+St. John Chrysostom, from Homily #3 On the Incomprehensible Nature of God.

Hieromonk Moses of Mount Athos: Prayer and the Sacraments

 As there is no healthy plant without roots, there can be no life of prayer without the sacraments, especially Holy Eucharist. For, as Abba Apollos says, "He who withdraws from communing the Sacred Mysteries, causes God Himself to withdraw from him." It is customary for monks to complete prayers begun in their cell when they have gathered in church. And common prayers started in church are completed in their cells. The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in which they participated during the Divine Liturgy is continued on the sacred altar of their hearts with ongoing prayer.
+Hieromonk Moses of Mount Athos, from Athonite Flowers, The Life of Prayer.

St. Maximos the Confessor: The relationship between prayer and love for God

 He who genuinely loves God prays entirely without distraction, and he who prays entirely without distraction loves God genuinely. But he whose mind is fixed on any worldly thing does not pray without distraction, and consequently he does not love God.
+St. Maximos the Confessor, from The Four Centuries on Charity, century 2, #1.

St. Elias the Cave Dweller: Prayer and works

 He who works with his hands and prays in his heart becomes doubly rich because he serves Jesus present in the person of the poor like Martha and he attends to the sayings of the Word of God with his intellect, like Mary.
+St. Elias the Cave Dweller, quoted in his life in The Synaxarion, Volume 1, Entry for September 11.

St. Joseph the Hesychast: on the importance of prayer

Well-justified claims might extract from [Elder Joseph] corresponding concessions regarding any practical matter that concerned him. But no concessions could be made in the order and rule of prayer. His strictness and perseverance in this divine work of prayer testified to the height and breadth of his fervor, and the corresponding results were very evident. In the judgment of our Fathers, the clearest sign of a soul's spirituality is ceaseless prayer, as a constant state and not as a product of effort. An in our spiritual elder, we could see that prayer was his chief preoccupation and his chief goal.
The ever-memorable Elder instructed us and untiringly pointed out the value and richness of the fruit of prayer. He would often say emphatically, "This strictness in keeping this commandment and this effort in prayer will open the door of prayer to you", or This mistake will get in the way of your prayer."
+St. Joseph the Hesychast, teaching on prayer described by Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi in Elder Joseph the Hesychast, Struggles, Experiences, Teachings