What is the hidden (or secret) prayer to which the Lord Christ invites us?

St. Clement of Alexandria says, “Prayer is, then, to speak more boldly, converse with God. Though whispering, consequently, and not opening the lips, we speak in silence, yet we cry inwardly. For God hears continually all the inward converse.”²⁶²

St. Aphrahat says , “Again our Savior taught the prayer and said, ‘You should pray secretly to the Hidden One; He sees everything’ (Matt. 6:6). For he said, ‘Enter the inner chamber and pray secretly to your Father, and the Father who sees in secret will reward you’ (Matt. 6:6). But why, my beloved, did our Savior teach and say, ‘Pray to your Father in secret with the door closed?’ I will explain this to you as much as I have understood. For he said, ‘Pray to your Father in secret with the door closed.’ What is the door that he said to close? If not your mouth, which is (the door to) the temple in which Christ dwells as the Apostle said, ‘You are the temple of the Lord’ (1 Cor. 3:16), for him to enter into your inner man, to this house, cleanse it from everything that is unclean, while the door, that is your mouth, is to be closed. If that was not so, how would you understand this matter? For if it happens to you that you were in a land, and there is no house and door, would you not pray in secret? Or if it happens to you again that you were on the top of a mountain, would you not pray?

“And our Savior showed this that God knows the will of the heart and of the thought, just as our Lord said, ‘Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him’ (Matt. 6:8). It is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘Before they who were chosen by me call, I will hear them, and before they make the cry I will answer them’ (Isa. 65:24). Isaiah said again about the wicked, ‘Even though you multiply prayer I will not listen’ (Isa. 1:15). He said again, ‘They may cry in my ears with a loud voice, but I shall not hear them’ (Ezek. 8:18). But he said this about deceitful prayer, which is not accepted. For you must hear with excellence all the words, then you will understand their power.”[263 ]

Also, Anthimus of Jerusalem says, “Prayer is the hidden conversation of the heart with God, or a form of connection with Him. Even if it were silent, many times God hears the cries of our hearts which we cannot express in words. There is no weapon that is more powerful than prayer. If it is offered from a pure heart, the Lord will hear it. And if it is accompanied with good deeds, He will respond and listen to it.”

261 St. Aphraphat, Aphrahat: Demonstrations I , trans., Kuriakose Valavanolickal (Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2005) 4.8: p. 82.

262 St. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 7.7 (ANF 2:534).

263 St. Aphraphat, Aphrahat: Demonstrations I , trans., Kuriakose Valavanolickal (Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 2005) 4.10: pp. 85–86.