§126
HE brings prayer to perfection who always offers every first thought as [first-]fruits to God (Rom 7:4).
§127
AVOID falsehood and every oath [if] you yearn to pray as a monk; otherwise you vainly affect an [external] appearance that is not your.
§128
IF you wish to pray in spirit (cf 1Cor 15:15), hate no one, then you will not have an obstructing cloud [hanging] over you at the time of prayer.
§129
ENTRUST to God the needs of the body and then it will be clear that you also entrust to Him the needs of the spirit.
§130
IF you obtain the promises (Heb 11:33), you will reign. So too if you constantly look to them (cf Heb 11:26) you will bear with pleasure the present poverty.
§131
DO not demand exemption from poverty and afflictions, for they are the material of weightless prayer.
§132
VIRTUES of the body should serve you as a pledge of those of the soul, and they in turn of those of the spirit. And they [are a pledge] of immaterial and essential knowledge.
§133
CONSIDER when praying against [tempting-]thoughts whether they abate readily, [and] why this has happened, lest you fall prey to an ambush and are tricked into delivering yourself over.
§134
SOMETIMES the demons suggest [tempting-]thoughts to you while simultaneously seeming to encourage you to pray against them or contradict them. Then they voluntarily withdraw, to deceive you into supposing you have begun to conquer [tempting-]thoughts and frighten the demons.
§135
IF you pray against a passion or demon that annoys you, remember the One who said, ‘I will pursue my enemies and overtake them and I will not turn back until they turn away; I will crush them and they will be unable to stand, they will fall beneath my feet’ and so forth (Ps. 17:38-9). Say these things at the right time equiping yourself with humility against the antagonists.
§136
DO not imagine that you have acquired virtue until you have first been prepared to shed blood for it. For it is necessary to resist sin unto death aggressively (Heb. 12:4) and blamelessly (1Cor 1:8), according to the divine apostle.
§137
IF you help someone you [may] be harmed by another; this [may] cause you, as if having been treated unjustly, to say or do something improper to another. And you will scatter in evil what you have gathered in good (cf. Mt 12:30, Lk 11:23). This is the goal of the evil demons. That is why we must be attentive and have good sense. (nounechos).
§138
ALWAYS anticipate persuasive demonic assaults, and reflect on how to avoid becoming enslaved by them.
§139
BY night the evil demons themselves lay claim (cf Lk 22:31) to the spiritual teacher to disturb him, and by day they employ others who encompass him with difficulties and slanders and dangers.
§140
DO not refuse the wool-cleaners. If they do beat and trample you, stretch and comb you, this is how your garment becomes radiant.
§141
TO the degree that you have not renounced the passions, and your nous is averse to virtue and truth, you cannot find the fragrance of incense in your breast (cf. Song 1:12).
§142
THE one yearning to pray has moved from what is here to always have citizenship in heaven (Phil. 3:20), not merely through simple word[s] but through angelic practice and divine knowledge,
§143
IF you remember the Judge only when things go badly and that He is fearful and impartial you have not yet learned how to serve the Lord in fear and to rejoice in him with trembling (Ps. 2:11). See, rather, that it is in times of spiritual rest and feasting that it is all the more necessary to worship him with reverence and awe (Heb 12:28).
§144
THE well-informed man is one who, until he has attained perfect repentance, endures the painful memory of his own sins and the just renalty exacted for them in the everlasting fire.
§145
ONE who is [still] subject to sins and angry outbursts, and even so shamelessly dares to aspire to the knowledge of more divine things, or to embark on immaterial prayer, should receive himself the apostolic rebuke, that it is not without danger to pray with his head bare and uncovered (1Cor 11:5). Such a soul, it says, ought to have authority over its head because of the angels who stand by (1Cor 11:10), clothing itself in appropriate shame and humility.
§146
JUST as staring intently and directly at the sun at noon when it shines most brightly does no good to one with a eye-disease, and in So also one suffering from an impassioned and impure nous would gain nothing by imitating the awesome supernatural prayer that operates in Spirit and in Truth (Jn 4:23-24). Rather the reverse: it provokes the divine to be indignant with it.
§147
IF God who lacks nothing and is impartial refused to accept one who came with a gift to the altar until he reconciled with the neighbor who was upset with him (Mt 5:24), consider what watchfulness and discernment is needful to offer a favorable incense to God at the noetic altar.
§148
DO not take pleasure in material [things] or glory, otherwise it is no longer on your back, but on your face, that sinners will wreak their carpentry (Ps 128:3) And at the time of prayer you will be a source of laughter for them (Ecclus 6:4, 18:3) , as they drag you off and entice you (Jas 1:14) with bizarre [tempting-]thoughts.
149 prosoche and prayer
§149
ATTENTIVENESS seeking prayer finds prayer; for prayer follows attentiveness, if [it follows] anything, and it should always be zealously sought.
§150
JUST as sight excels all the other senses, so prayer is higher than all the other virtues
§151
IT is not simply quantity, but rather quality that makes prayer admirable. And this is shown by those who went up to the Temple (Lk 18:10-14), and again, ‘When you pray, do not babble on’ (Mt. 6:7) and other similar [texts].
§152
AS long as you are observing the proportion of your body, and your nous is busy looking at the attractiveness of the tent, you have not yet observed the place of prayer: the blessed path is still far from you.
§153
WHEN standing to pray becomes a greater joy than any other, then you have truly found prayer