The Sacrifice of Prayer

"Prayer is the spiritual offering that has done away with the sacrifices of old.

We are true worshipers and true priests. We pray in spirit, and so offer in spirit the sacrifice of prayer. Prayer is an offering that belongs to God and is acceptable to him; it is the offering he has asked for, the offering he planned as his own.

We must dedicate this offering with our whole heart, we must fatten it on faith, tend it by truth, keep it unblemished through innocence and clean through chastity, and crown it with love. We must escort it to the altar of God in a procession of good works to the sound of psalms and hymns.Then it will gain for us all that we ask of God..."

                -Tertullian (2nd-3rd Century AD)

Awakening Faith, page 87