People who pray live, and those who don’t pray, die. A person was created by God with two component parts: the seen body, the “flesh” and an unseen, immaterial part, “the soul.”

As the body takes its strength from food such as bread, water and other delicious dishes prepared for lunch and dinner, together with the fresh air we breathe at every moment, in a similar way our soul takes its strength from the Word of God “the divine teachings” so abundantly present in the Holy Scripture and the Holy Tradition, bound together by incessant prayer, divine reasoning and a life lived according to God’s will. Those who persist in prayer are burdened by temptations, but God, together with His angels watch upon them and strengthen them.

(Translation from Protosinghelos Nicodim Măndiță, Învățături despre rugăciune, Editura Agapis, București, 2008, p. 9)