Paul’s contribution to the revolutionary success of prayer is well known. He was a Clinician of Jewish origin, and was born at Tarsus, a crossroads town situated not far from Antalya. Although proud of his Roman citizenship (he is known in Turkish by his Latin name of Paulus), he had nevertheless received a classical Greek education. It was this background, combined with his outstanding abilities and talents, which undoubtedly helped Paul break the shell of the new religion.

Although he also preached Christianity outside Anatolia, it was in this region that Paul was most active. He succeeded in spreading Christianity through pagan Anatolia, which at that time was still a country of classical Greek culture.

Paul teaches us that no one can say the name of “Jesus” except by the Spirit of God. To say the name of “Jesus” is to express a prayer, a soaring, a lifting-up of the soul towards the Father, for the true utterance of this Name is an act, a “yes.” This “yes” can echo far within the unexplored regions of our spiritual being. It may be partial, or almost complete, without ever being able to reach true completeness. The more we Implore God to strip us of ourselves the more we enter into the divine surrender (“He who loses his life shall save it”), the more able we become to hear Christ praying in us by his Spirit.

An ineffable change takes place by which our prayer is stripped to be re-clothed in his prayer. In the silence of our listening soul, our attachment to him is affirmed with our whole will, not only in our words, feeling and desires. The more we find ourselves in him, in whom we truly live, or he in us, in whom he truly lives, the more effectual does our prayer become, since it is he who prays in us, free from our burden of self. Such a state of mind is the work of God, gift of the divine generosity: it is a pearl of great price, bought at the royal price of renunciation. It sets us at the antipodes of inert passivity of the spirit. Vocal prayer, either private or public, will be permeated by this attitude, provided that it can be surrounded by deep silence, and have a certain deliberation of utterance.