6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all every created mind, will guard through Jesus Christ your hearts and their thoughts.

Show gentleness to all people. Our Lord is close by

Take delight in the Lord always; I will say it again: take delight!

Do not go on praying that your own desires come to pass, since they do not cohere perfectly with the desire of God. Instead, pray persistently as you have learned, “thy will be done in me.” In every endeavor, pray this way, so that his will would be done. After all, he desires what is good and beneficial for your soul. But quite often you do not pursue this.

When an angel is present, all those that besiege us depart at once and the mind finds itself much relaxed and praying in a healthy way. But other times the normal battle takes place, and the mind fights and refuses to relax, because it is stirred up by various compulsions. And yet, when it searches further, it will find what it seeks, for to the “one who knocks vigorously, the door will be opened.”

Sometimes when you stand for prayer you will immediately pray well. Other times, you won't obtain your aim even after striving hard. This is so that you will seek still further. Then, once you obtain it, you will hold this virtue inviolately.

Do not go about your prayer only by external postures. Instead, continually direct your mind with great reverence to an awareness of spiritual prayer.

As you are defending yourself against anger, you should never give into lust. For lust provides fuel to anger, which in turn disturbs the eye of the mind and ruins the state of prayer.

By being sparing with anger you will find yourself spared. You will show yourself to be prudent and will be counted among those who truly pray.

See to it that while you think you are curing another you do not become incurable yourself and cut off the growth of your prayer.

While you are praying as you ought, situations will come to mind where you will think that you are entirely justified in using anger. Yet quite simply, there is no justified anger against your neighbor. For if you examine the situation, you'll find that it is possible for it to be resolved well even without anger. So use every means at your disposal not to break out in anger.

If you are patient, you will always pray with joy.

Those who sweep up grudges and grief for themselves while thinking that they are praying are like those who draw water into a jar with holes.

He says, “Leave your gift before the altar, go, and first be reconciled to your brother.” Then when you come back you will pray without disturbance. For during prayer a grudge will mar the ruling faculty of the mind and cast a shadow over your prayers.

If you wish to pray as you ought, do not cause grief to any soul. Otherwise you are running in vain.

Whenever you withstand hardship philosophically, you will find the fruit of this at the time of prayer.

If you want to carry out your prayer in a laudable way, deny yourself hour by hour, and bear philosophically all manner of terrible things for the sake of prayer.

Go, sell your possessions, and give them to the poor. Then take up your cross and deny yourself so that you can carry out your prayer without distraction.

Prayer is a guard against grief and despondency.

Prayer is the the leafy growth of joy and thanksgiving.

Prayer is rooted in gentleness and the lack of anger.

Whatever you do to avenge yourself against a brother who has treated you wrongly will become a hurdle to you in the time of prayer.

Whenever a temptation comes your way or a dispute incites you to release your anger in revenge or shout some unfitting word, recall your prayer and the clarity of discernment you have during it. At once, the uncontrolled emotion within you will cease.

Strive to have your mind stand deaf and speechless at the time of prayer, and you will be able to pray.

When demons see you desiring truly to carry out your prayer, they suggest thoughts of various tasks that seem necessary and soon stir up your memory about them, thereby moving the mind to seek after them. When it doesn’t find them, it gets upset and loses heart. When it then stands for prayer, they remind it of memories and these objects of seeking, so that the mind goes slack for this knowledge and loses the prayer that is truly fruitful.

Stand with diligence, persist in prayer with resolution, and continually turn away the attacks of cares and worrying thoughts. These vex and throng about you to sap away your resolution.

While weeping for their sins many people forget the point of tears and get all turned around in their madness.

Even if you pour out streams of tears in your prayer, you should *never* become conceited, as though you were superior to others. After all, your prayer has simply received additional support so that through tears you can more freely confess your sins and find reconciliation with God. Therefore, do not turn into a compulsion what should be a fortress against compulsion. Otherwise you’ll anger further the One who has bestowed on you this gift.

Use tears to correct every request, as the Lord takes great delight in receiving a prayer born of tears.

Persist first in prayer to receive tears, so that through this grief you can tame the wildness that resides in your soul and so that by “testifying against yourself of your lawlessness to the Lord” you obtain from him release.

If in trying to approach an earthly burning bush Moses is prevented from coming close until he “removes his sandals from his feet,” how could you, who wish to see and converse with the One who is beyond all perception and concept, not remove every compulsive thought?

Prayer is the mind’s conversation with God. If the mind is going to be able to direct itself without distraction towards its Lord and converse with him directly, what state it must receive!

A soul purified through the fullness of the virtues makes the rule of the mind in the body and soul secure, thereby making it receptive to the state that it seeks.

If you wish to prepare a “fragrant offering,” you should combine in equal measure diaphanous frankincense, cassia, the aroma onyx, and myrrh, just as the law requires— these are the four virtues. For when these are perfected and present in equal measure, your mind will not be betrayed to the enemy.