Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1–8)

If the greatest of perfections is forgiveness—according to the Prophet Jeremiah, who sums up all the Law in the words: For I commanded not your fathers these things in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, but this I commanded them, that each should forgive his neighbor in his heart,—then, putting remembrance of evil behind us, when we come to pray we observe the command of the Savior who says: When you shall stand to pray, forgive if you have aught against any man. Clearly, if we dispose ourselves to pray in this way, we have already gained most excellent benefits.

All this has been said on the supposition, that even though we should gain nothing else by our prayer, we gain the most excellent benefits in understanding how to pray and disposing ourselves accordingly. It is evident that the man who prays thus, even while he is still speaking and contemplating the power of Him who is listening to him, will hear the words, Behold, I am here. He will have cast off any dissatisfaction about Providence before he prays. ...

The man who prays in this way and who has already received such benefits, becomes more fitted to be united with the Spirit of the Lord who fills the whole world and with Him who fills the whole earth and heavens and who speaks thus by the mouth of the prophet: Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. Moreover, because of the purification already mentioned, he shares in the prayer of the Word of God, who stands in the midst even of those who are not aware of it, who is not wanting to the prayer of anyone and prays to the Father with him whose mediator He is. For the Son of God is the High Priest of our offerings and our advocate with the Father, praying for those who pray and pleading with those who plead. He will not pray for us as His friends if we do not pray constantly through His intercession. Nor will He be an advocate with God for His followers if we do not obey His teaching that we ought always to pray and not to faint.

Origen, On Prayer 9.3–10.2