And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.
Read Chapter 5
Cyprian of Carthage
AD 258
Not by words alone, but also by deeds has God taught us to pray. He himself prayed frequently and demonstrated what we ought to do by the testimony of his own example. As it is written: “But he himself was in retirement in the desert, and in prayer,” and again, “He went out into the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God.” But if he who was without sin prayed, how much more ought sinners to pray, and if he prayed continually, watching through the whole night with uninterrupted petitions, how much more ought we to lie awake at night in continuing prayer! The Lord’s Prayer
Nor was it only in words, but in deeds also, that the Lord taught us to pray, Himself praying frequently and beseeching, and thus showing us, by the testimony of His example, what it behoved us to do, as it is written, "But Himself departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."
Christ did not stand in need of this retirement, since, being God, he was free from every stain, and likewise present in every place. But, by this his conduct, he wished to teach us the time most proper, both for our active employments, and for the more sublime duties of prayer and contemplation. (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. xxviii.)
en upochoron, he withdrew after his great prodigies, to avoid the praise of the multitude, and to pray assiduously, and with fresh instance, for the salvation of man.
