SHOULD ALL
CHRISTIANS PRAY CEASELESSLY?
-by St.
Nikodemos the Hagiorite-
My beloved
Christians, let no one think that only members of the clergy and monastics are
obligated to pray ceaselessly at all times, whereas laypeople are exempt from
this. No! Not at all!
All Christians in general have the obligation to
constantly be in a state of prayer.
The most-holy patriarch of Constantinople
Philotheos writes the following in regard to this matter, in his biography of
St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki: The divine St. Gregory was
close friends with a guileless and virtuous monk named Job. Once, while
conversing with him, he referred to the fact that every Christian in general
must make a sustained effort to pray ceaselessly, citing the Apostle Paul who
commands all Christians: “Pray ceaselessly” (1 Thes. 5:17); the prophet David
who—despite the fact that he was a king and had to attend to all the matters of
his kingdom—states: “I beheld the Lord ever before me” [through prayer] (Ps.
15:8); and St. Gregory the Theologian who similarly advises all Christians that
it is necessary to commemorate the name of God through prayer more frequently
than we breathe.
