On Prayer 9.1

What has been said must be established from the divine Scriptures in this way. The one who prays must lift up “holy hands” by forgiving each of those who have wronged him, having removed the passion of anger from his soul and being angry with no one. And again, so that the mind may not be clouded by other thoughts, he must forget everything outside the prayer during the time in which he prays (and how is it not most blessed to be such a person?), as Paul teaches in the First Letter to Timothy, saying: “I wish, then, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputes.” And besides these, a woman, especially when she prays, must have modesty and decorum in soul and body, above all revering God when she prays, having banished from her ruling faculty every licentious and womanly memory, and adorned not “with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing,” but with what befits a woman who professes godliness (and I wonder whether anyone would hesitate to declare blessed, on the ground of such a disposition alone, the woman who has presented herself for prayer in this way); as Paul taught in the same letter, saying: “Likewise that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with reverence and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, as befits women who profess godliness, with good works.”