Sayings of The Holy Fathers:

Brethren, let us also occupy yourselves with noetic prayer…, and seeking God's mercy, cry out with a humble heart from morning till night and if possible all night long, saying constantly: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us."

Saint John Chrysostom

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"If a man disregards the commandment about prayer, he then commits worse acts of disobedience, each one handing him over to the next like a prisoner."

Saint Kosmas Aitolos +1779

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"Better than (all the particular gifts God gives) ... is the patient endurance of afflictions; and he who has been found worthy of this great gift should give thanks to God in that he has been all the more blessed. For he has become an imitator of Christ, of His holy apostles, and of the martyrs and saints: he has received from God great strength and spiritual knowledge, so that he may voluntarily abstain from pleasure and may readily embrace hardship through the eradication of his own will and his rejection of unholy thoughts, and may thus always do and think what is in accordance with God's will."

St. Peter of Damaskos

["God's Universal And Particular Gifts", from G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Bishop Kallistos Ware, "The Philokalia: Vol. III," (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), pp. 172 - 173]