Prayer in the Early Patristic Literature

Abstract

Prayer in ancient Christianity is an expression of the constant effort of Christians unite themselves with God. We see this very clearly in the works of several authors during the first four centuries of the history of the Church. Constant prayer and attention of the mind is a model for the ascetic life in the monastic milieu. Christian prayer has its roots in Judaism, while many of its elements have been inherited from the worship in the Jerusa-lem temple, for example the three daily prayers. At the same time, private prayers in various occasions have also been based on Old Testament models, however, they were developed a re-interpreted in the context of Christian teaching. Thus, we see a number of prayers in the New Testament texts, such as the epistles of Apostle Paul, the Acts of the Apostles and, of course, the Gospels, which remain as examples of prayer practice for Christians in the 2nd 3rd century and after that, along with certain postures, gestures and a certain kind of conduct. Moreover, significant are the restrictions on joint prayers and the various regulations of community prayers, which are formed for purely practical reasons in the Church in the period under study. Consequently, it is evident that modern prayer, although situated in a very different world, has retained some of the basic practical dimensions of early Christian prayer. Within the liturgy, however, we see the expansion, musical embellishment and the incredible enrichment of prayer in musical forms, especially in Orthodox worship. Even today, this worship remains a valuable source of spirituality not only for Orthodox Christians but also for other Christian denominations.