Origen: On Prayer

One element of my Lenten observance is reading teaching about prayer. I plan to combine this to a large degree with my interest in patristics, and to read from some of the many writings of the church fathers on prayer.

I came across Origen's treatise "On Prayer" as I looked up some materials online. (Many sites have the public domain translation of William Curtis available free of charge.) Origen is a truly interesting figure in the early church, whose reputation throughout the years (even going back to his own times) has swung back and forth depending on the controversies of the era, but he is generally regarded as the greatest scholar of his time and one of the greatest in church history, even by those who find problems with his exegetical methods or theological views. We have quite a bit of his work still available, yet it is just a small sample of his massive output.

This treatise is a short one, addressed to two Christians, Ambrosius and Tatiana, and is exactly what its title suggests: a discussion of prayer. One aspect of Origen's work I appreciate is his attempt to ground all of his teaching in Scripture. I found myself pausing to meditate over the beginning passages of this work, where Origen speaks of the "impossibility" of praying in the right way, which is only made possible through the Holy Spirit.

His comments on the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray are powerful: "I think it must have been the awakened consciousness of human weakness falling short of prayer in the right way, above all realized as he listened to great words of intimate knowledge falling from the Savior's lips in prayer to the Father, that moved one of the disciples of Jesus to say to the Lord when He ceased praying, 'Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.'" The example of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels (not to mention the unwritten example He set for His disciples) showed them and us that our prayers are not a matter of a particular set of words or a set pattern, but of understanding that we need help to pray.


This is a truth I wrestle with. There is a tendency to think that "learning to pray" means finding the right prayer outline (ACTS, the Model Prayer, etc.) and using that for every prayer. We try to find appropriate language; should it be formal or informal, written or spontaneous? In the end, Origen reminds us that in a sense none of those elements matters. We can't pray right.


Of course, he continues with the wonderful Biblical truth that the Holy Spirit prays with us and for us. We are empowered to pray by God the Spirit, and He guides us and teaches us as we pray. This to me is a critical lesson that I am still trying to grasp. It is in knowing our powerlessness that we become powerful; it is in understanding that we don't know how to pray that we are able to pray.


I hope to finish this treatise this weekend, and I hope to learn lessons that I can use to strengthen my own prayer time.