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A) UNCEASING PRAYER
UNIQUELY CHRISTIAN GOAL:
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 (pa/ntote proseu/xesqai - pantote proseuchesthai) and not lose heart." (Luke 18:1)
5) St. Paul urges UNCEASING PRAYER: 1 Thes. 5:17: PRAY UNCEASINGLY (a)dialei/ptwj proseu/xesqai - adialeptos proseuchesthe) and
Didache recommends thrice-daily Lord's Prayer; Cyprian and Tertullian recommend consecration of different hours of day with prayer
Clement of Alexandria and Origen maintain that the Christian gnostic does not always need to use words in order to pray always.
B) MONOLOGISTIC PRAYER
(see: introduction to lectio divina)
1) Compare lengthy self-glorifying prayer of pharisee in Luke 18:1 with brief monologistic plea of “justified” tax collector: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner (o( qeo/j, i(la/sqhti/ moi t%= a(martwl%).
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).
This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1997
