1. Pagan antiquity generally aimed at placating and keeping dangerous deities at a distance.

2. Pious Judaism emphasized necessity for holiness of one who prays.

3. Jesus invites notoriously impure to CALL GOD  FATHER - this had been the sole privilege of saintly rabbis in Jesus’ day)

4. Jesus tells parable of widow and unjust judge “so that they would PRAY ALWAYS  (πάντοτε προσεύχεσθαι  - pantote proseuchesthai) and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1)

5. St. Paul urges UNCEASING PRAYER: 1 Thes. 5:17: PRAY UNCEASINGLY (ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθε - adialeiptōs proseuchesthe)

6. Christian virtue of parrhesia in speaking to God:  ... in [Christ Jesus our Lord] we have boldness and confidence of access (παρρησίαν/parrhesian) through our faith in him. (Ephesians 3:12)

7. Didache recommends thrice-daily Lord’s Prayer; Cyprian and Tertullian recommend consecration of different hours of day with prayer

8. Clement of Alexandria and Origen maintain that the Christian gnostic does not always need to use words in order to pray always.

9. Evagrius Ponticus recommends short, intense prayer during temptations (de.Orat. 98) and encourages “pure” (imageless) prayer (68, 71, 73).

(see: introduction to lectio divina)

1. Compare lengthy self-glorifying prayer of pharisee with brief monologistic plea of  “justified” tax collector in Luke 18:13: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner ( Ὁ θεός͵ ἱλάσθητί μοι τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ).

 

2. Paul emphasizes significance and power of Jesus’ name: At the name of Jesus every knee should bend (Phil 2:10); Always give thanks in the name of our lord Jesus Christ to God the Father (Eph 5:10).

... WHEN you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret (ἐν τῷ κρυπτῳ); and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ⁷ And in praying do not heap up empty phrases (βατταλογήσητε) as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹ Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven . . . (Mat. 6:7-9)

ἐν τῷ κρυπτῳ / en to krupto:  κρυπτός / kruptos : secret, hidden private; inward, inmost

βατταλογήσητε / battalogeo: babble, use many words

MONOLOGISTIC prayer generally but not always (the Rosary is one important exception to this rule) tends towards apophatic, (imageless, wordless, non-iconic) experience of God.

To these defining characteristics can be added other prominent themes:

This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 2003 ....x....  ’ “”.

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