The starting point where the need for prayer begins is when we start to realize that without prayer, without a relationship with God, the pain of life is unbearable and that only through prayer can it become bearable.

The final stage of prayer is that of Love; it is the stage where there is no longer any external or internal motivation to pray, as prayer spontaneously flows from within us, constituting in essence a Divine Gift: it is God who prays within us.

So in the beginning we pray out of need, in the end we pray out of Love, and the intermediate course constitutes our struggle, our inner journey from ignorance to Love.

A letter from a reader:

"My dear brother Efstratios, I greet you.

I have read the text that you sent me, and I must confess that I was fascinated by it.

You have managed to gather in one volume all the basic teachings, admonitions and exhortations on the greatest and most profitable work of prayer. I did not feel that any aspect was missing from this volume, nor did I feel that there was any redundancy.

I would ask you to forward it for printing at some priority because I firmly believe that the reading public has a great need to learn to associate with their Creator through the medium of prayer, especially in these difficult times we live in these days".

A Monk from Cyprus