There are various types of prayer that can be used to connect with one’s beliefs and a higher power. These types of prayers allow people a variety of ways to worship and feel unified with God. Cassian in his work (Conferences), expounds on prayer and connecting via the highest form of prayer. Evagrius in a similar fashion has the same kind of desire to explain what such a prayer would entail and does so not just by verbalizing it, but by living it. This essay will briefly reflect on the various types of prayer and how the highest form of prayer can be performed according to Evagrius.
The first type of prayer is blessing and adoration or what some call worship. This kind of prayer is about acknowledging one’s dependence on God and exalting God. Another kind of prayer is prayer of petition. This is where people ask God for help and guidance attempting to gain some of the ‘essential knowledge’ God naturally possesses.
The third prayer is intercession, which is similar to petition except one is asking God to help someone else. This form of prayer shows how humans can connect with God through selflessness and thinking of others. The last type to briefly cover is prayers...
‘Essential knowledge’ is what can be read and learned in the Bible. Evagrius had a daily routine that allowed him to absorb and become well versed in essential knowledge. “His work and other exercise was accompanied by the recitation of biblical texts. When copying he would have meditated on the text he was writing: when doing other kinds of manual labor, he could recite from memory” [footnoteRef:3] This kind of routine can be seen as the highest form of prayer because it is putting into practice the idea of becoming one with God. If becoming one with God is absorbing the ‘essential knowledge’ and one performs such a task each day, that is the physical and literal representation of prayer. [3: Columba Stewart, "Imageless Prayer and the Theological Vision of Evagrius Ponticus," Journal of Early Christian Studies 9, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 185, doi:10.1353/earl.2001.0035.]
In conclusion, prayer is a powerful means of connecting with God. There are various ways to pray to God. Some of which can be considered the highest form of prayer because one is gaining the ‘essential knowledge’ to connect with God.
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