What is the connection between unceasing prayer and the virtuous life?

St. John Cassian says, “And there is between these two a sort of reciprocal and inseparable union. For just as the crown of the building of all virtues is the perfection of prayer, so unless everything has been united and compacted by this as its crown, it cannot possibly continue strong and stable. For lasting and continual calmness in prayer, of which we are speaking, cannot be secured or consummated without them, so neither can those virtues which lay its foundations be fully gained without persistence in it.”²⁸⁵

Abba Isaac says, “For otherwise we shall not be able to carry out that charge [to pray unceasingly] unless our mind, purified from all stains of sin, and given over to virtue as to its natural good, feed on the continual contemplation of Almighty God.”²⁸⁶

Abba Hesychius of Jerusalem rebukes Bildad, Job’s friend, because he said to Job, “earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty” (Job 8:5). Hesychius says, “Was Job not always praying throughout his life? … He did not just pray unceasingly but he used to offer his prayers early in the morning (Job 1:5), during the day and at every moment. He praised God seven times every day (Ps. 119:37, 164), morning and evening as for him, this was not foolishness. The end of his trials and struggles showed that he was a man of prayer.”