On Prayer 12.2

And he prays “without ceasing”—since the works of virtue, or the commandments fulfilled, are taken up as part of prayer—who joins prayer to the works he ought to do and fitting actions to prayer. For only in this way can we accept “Pray without ceasing” as a command that is possible, if we should say that the whole life of the saint is one great connected prayer; of which prayer what is customarily called prayer is also a part, which ought to be performed no less than three times each day. This is clear from the case of Daniel, who, though so great a danger hung over him, prayed three times a day. And Peter, going up to “the housetop” “about” “the sixth” hour “to pray,” when he also saw the “vessel” “let down” from heaven, “let down by four corners,” shows the middle one of the three prayers; the one before it is spoken of by David: “In the morning you will hear my prayer; in the morning I will stand before you and will watch”; and the last is shown by the words, “The lifting up of my hands, an evening sacrifice.” But not even the time of night shall we pass rightly without this prayer, since David says, “At midnight I rose to give thanks to you for your righteous judgments,” and Paul, as is said in the Acts of the Apostles, “about midnight” at Philippi was praying with Silas and singing hymns to God, so that even the prisoners were listening to “them.”