What is the ultimate goal of prayer?

First: The ultimate goal of prayer is perfect communion with the Heavenly Bridegroom. St. Macarius the Great says, “As a wealthy maiden, betrothed to a husband, may receive ever so many presents before the marriage, ornaments, or dresses, or costly vessels, but is not satisfied until the time of the wedding comes and she is made one with him, so the soul, when it is engaged as a bride to the heavenly Bridegroom, receives as an earnest from the Spirit gifts of healings, it may be, or of knowledge, or of revelation, but it is not satisfied with these, until it attains the complete union, namely, charity, which can never change nor fail, which sets those who have longed for it free from passion and from agitation. Or as a babe that is decked with pearls and costly clothes, when it is hungry, thinks nothing of the things that it wears, but despises them, and cares only for its nurse’s breast, how it may get the milk; so reckon it to be, I pray you, even with the spiritual gifts of God. To whom be glory forever. Amen.”¹¹⁰

109 Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job 1.12.18–19 (LFHCC 21:56–58).

110 St. Macarius the Great, Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian , trans., A. J. Mason (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921) 45.7: p. 285.

“One thing is required, that a man should have treasure in his soul, and the life which is the Lord in his mind that whether he is working, or praying, or reading, he should have that possession which passes not away, which is the Holy Spirit.”¹¹¹

Second: To experience the divine Presence. St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “Wherever you may be, God will come to you if there are rooms of your soul that are suitable for His dwelling.”

St. Dionysius the Areopagite says, “The Trinity is present to all things, though all things are not present to it.”¹¹²

St. Melito of Sardis says, “Let Him, the ever-living God, be constantly present to your mind. For your mind itself is His likeness: for it too is invisible and impalpable, and not to be represented by any form, yet by its will is the whole bodily frame moved.”¹¹³

111 St. Macarius the Great, Fifty Spiritual Homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian , trans., A. J. Mason (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1921) 3.3: p. 17 amended.

112 St. Dionysius the Areopagite (Pseudo-Dionysius), “The Divine Names” in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works , trans., C. Luibheid (Paulist Press, 1987) 3.1: p. 68.

113 St. Melito of Sardis, A Discourse Which Was in the Presence of Antoninus Cæsar (ANF 5:753) amended.