On Prayer by Evagrius Ponticus
Translated and newly formatted for modern readers, On Prayer is a timeless spiritual manual by the fourth-century Desert Father, Evagrius Ponticus. Revered by generations of monastics and contemplatives, these 153 concise sayings offer a path into the heart of Christian prayer—simple yet profound, poetic yet practical.
 
Evagrius was a brilliant theologian and ascetic who turned away from the ambitions of Constantinople to pursue the stillness of the Egyptian desert. There, under the guidance of elders like Macarius of Egypt, he distilled his hard-won insights into these short meditations. In them, we hear not the voice of a philosopher theorizing about God, but a man tested by solitude, temptation, and grace—speaking with clarity about the soul’s movement toward the Divine.
 
Each saying reveals another aspect of the interior life: from distraction and humility, to tears and peace, to the struggle with demonic thoughts and the luminous silence of union with God.
 
For Evagrius, prayer was not simply one part of Christian life—it was its summit. As he famously wrote, “If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly, you are a theologian.”
 
More than a collection of aphorisms, this book is a ladder for the soul—built in the shape of the number 153, a symbolic reference to the miraculous catch of fish in John 21. Evagrius divides the text to reflect active and contemplative life, the square of moral virtue, the triangle of divine knowledge, and the circle of cosmic order. His mystical numerology may seem distant to modern readers, but its intention is clear: prayer orders the heart, illumines the mind, and reshapes the whole person to reflect the light of God.
 
This Knights of Saint George Press edition remains faithful to the ancient text, based on the public domain translation, while lightly modernizing the language for accessibility. Whether you are a seasoned practitioner of prayer or just beginning to explore the spiritual life, On Prayer is a gentle, challenging companion from the early Church—pointing the way to the stillness that burns with divine love.