The Gnostic, then, from his exceeding holiness, is better prepared to fail when he asks, than to get when he does not ask. His whole life is prayer and converse with God.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter XII
Category: Ante-Nicene Fathers
Quotes from Church Fathers prior to the Council of Nicea in 325
Man is perfected by faith
For by it faith is perfected, inasmuch as it is solely by it that the believer becomes perfect.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter X
God inspires those who choose him
For, evidently in honor of their excellent nature and their holy choice, he inspires those who have made choice of a good life with strength for the rest of their salvation; exhorting some, and helping others, who of themselves have become worthy.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter VII
Prayer facing East at sunrise
In correspondence with the manner of the sun’s rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter VII
Each place we think of God is sacred
Each place, then, and time, in which we entertain the idea of God, is in reality sacred.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter VII
Salvation is not against a man’s free will
Nor shall he who is saved be saved against his will, for he is not inanimate; but he will above all voluntarily and of free choice speed to salvation.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter VII
The hours of prayer
Now, if some assign definite hours for prayer— as, for example, the third, and sixth, and ninth— yet the Gnostic prays throughout his whole life, endeavoring by prayer to have fellowship with God. And, briefly, having reached to this, he leaves behind him all that is of no service, as having now received the perfection of the man that acts by love. But the distribution of the hours into a threefold division, honored with as many prayers, those are acquainted with, who know the blessed triad of the holy abodes.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter VII
We and the angels pray
Whence, as is right, there being only one good God, that some good things be given from Him alone, and that some remain, we and the angels pray.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter VII
The thoughts of the saints cover the world
And should any one say that the voice does not reach God, but is rolled downwards in the air, yet the thoughts of the saints cleave not the air only, but the whole world. And the divine power, with the speed of light, sees through the whole soul.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter VII
Elders (Presbyters) and deacons in the Alexandrian Church
Similarly, also, in the Church, the elders attend to the department which has improvement for its object; and the deacons to the ministerial.
Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata, Book VII
Chapter I