If you call prayer a haven, you are not mistaken because there is the place where a ship tormented by storm finds its peace, salvation and safety. Prayer changes the selfish, passionate heart and transforms it into a pure one. When the centre will be purified then the same will happen with the periphery as well. Prayer will cast away despair, idleness because new wishes and fights will be created.

How wonderful prayer is! Those who pray are enlightened and know the will of God. And when do they know it? When they pray correctly. And when do people pray correctly? When they send their prayer to God with all its “ingredients”. And which are its “ingredients”? Humbleness, tears, self-rebuke, simplicity and listening through love. Prayer spreads light and this light leads towards the right path to God.

Prayer is “the catapult” against demons, passions, sin and in general against everything that is opposed to the path of salvation. If you call prayer a haven, you are not mistaken because there is the place where a ship tormented by storm finds its peace, salvation and safety. If you call prayer a spade, ax, compass, light or anything else, you will not be mistaken!

For this reason, prayer needs to change the selfish, passionate heart and transform it into a pure one. When the centre will be purified then the same will happen with the periphery as well. Prayer will cast away despair, idleness because new desires and fights will be created.

(Translation from: Avva Efrem Filotheitul, Sfaturi duhovniceşti, traducere Părintele Victor Manolache, Editura Egumeniţa, Alexandria, 2012, pp. 36-37)