Nothing equals prayer, wrote John Chrysostom. It makes possible what is impossible, easy what is difficult. It is not possible for the person who prays to fall into sin.

Theophane the Recluse explained why the fathers wrote so many treatises on prayer: Prayer is everything, it is the summary of faith, life according to the faith and salvation. For prayer is the expression of the life of the Holy Spirit within us, the breath of the spirit, the barometer of the spiritual life. The entire Church breathes through prayer. The monks of old called prayer the divine philosophy, the science of sciences.

According to the ancient liturgical rule, prayer is addressed to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Origen believed that one ought to prayer not to Christ but through Christ. Only later would the direct invocations to the intermediaries become more frequent.

During prayer, the soul is guided by the Spirit of God. It prays in the Spirit. It is therefore a sort of inspiration, because the Spirit prays in us. Only in this way do we know what to ask and does our voice reach God. Our prayer is, furthermore, a participation in the prayer of the Word who, in Origen’s expression, is not alone in his prayer. In the modern idiom we would say that we participate in the prayer of the mystical Christ. Here is how one author expresses the ecclesial character of prayer:

No one can rely on his private prayer. Anyone who prays asks for the intercession
of the entire Church. Let the angels pray for us, the apostles, the martyrs, the patriarchs
and the one who is greatest of all, the Mother of our Savior. This holy union constitutes
the true life of the Church

Before proposing their own definitions of prayer, the medieval theologians collected those inherited from the Fathers. Most frequently these have no claim to being definitions in the true sense of the word. I shall explore these in the issues to come.