On Prayer 16

Likewise, I do not see the reason for the custom some have of sitting down when the prayer has been offered, unless it is the one children want. What then? If that Hermas, whose writing is generally entitled “The Shepherd,” had not sat on the bed after finishing his prayer but had done something else, would we claim that too as an observance? Certainly not. For it is simply set down, even here, “When I had prayed and sat on the bed,” for the order of the narrative, not as a model of discipline. Otherwise one would have to pray nowhere except where there was a bed! Indeed, anyone who sat on a chair or a bench would be acting against Scripture. Further, since the heathen do the same, sitting down after worshiping their little images, it deserves to be censured in us for this very reason, that it is practised before idols. To this is added the charge of irreverence, which even the heathen themselves would understand if they had any sense. For if it is irreverent to sit down in the sight of, and face to face with, one whom you most revere and venerate, how much more is that act most irreligious in the sight of the living God, while the angel of prayer is still standing by? Unless we are reproaching God that prayer has tired us out!