Merry Christmas everybody. It's wonderful to see you, so many familiar faces or masks and some new masks also. I thought I'd do something a little different this time instead of reading from the Sermon on the Mount. This book is called The Chapters on Prayer, The Practicals and Chapters on Prayer by Evagreus Ponticus. If that sounds like a character from Asterix and Obelix, you wouldn't be wrong. He was an ancient Roman, more about him later. Oh, leaders from the Unreal to the Real, leaders from darkness and to light, leaders from death to immortality.
"Do not pray for the fulfillment of your wishes, for they may not accord with the will of God. But pray as you have been taught, saying: Thy will be done in me (cf. Luke 22:42). Always entreat Him in this way - that His will be done. For He desires what is good and profitable for you, whereas you do not always ask for this." - Evagrius Ponticus.
Swami Sarvapriyananda speaks on Evagrius's teachings on prayer.