Staying Connected
Striving toward a life of Unceasing Prayer
Focus Quote
“We are not commanded to work, keep vigil or fast without ceasing, but we are commanded to pray without ceasing. For prayer purifies and strengthens the mind which was created to pray and to fight the demons for the protection of all the powers of the soul.”
Evagrius Ponticus
St Paul calls us to ‘unceasing prayer’. How are we to understand how to do this? Are we always to have a word to God on our lips and minds or is this impossible and too hard-line a task? Could, perhaps, prayer take multiple forms?
There are two traditions for understanding this teaching (along with Romans 12:12 “be constant in prayer”). The first is mentioned by Origen (c.184-253 AD):
“Now, since the performance of actions enjoined by virtue or by the commandments is also a constituent part of prayer, he prays without ceasing who combines prayer with right actions, and becoming actions with prayer. For the saying “pray without ceasing” can only be accepted by us as a possibility if we may speak of the whole life of a saint as one great continuous prayer.”
Importantly, he also writes “Of such prayer what is usually termed ‘prayer’ is indeed a part.” This is to say, that although my life has become a prayer, this doesn’t exonerate me from performing ‘actual prayer.’ In fact, one could perform ‘actual prayer’ always. This is common among monastics (though we are all called to an ascetic life and so this doesn’t exclude lay persons from participating). This is commonly accomplished by constant recitation of a short prayer, the most famous of which is called the Jesus Prayer: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Another, made common by St John Cassian (360-435 AD), is “Come to my help, O God; Lord, hurry to my rescue.” Both are good interpretations. Perhaps we who are weak should strive to live out the latter interpretation via the former.