Introducing Abbot Isaac’s Conference on Prayer

What was promised in the second book of the Institutes about continual and unceasing perseverance in prayer will, with the Lord’s help, be fulfilled by the conferences of this elder whom we will now bring forward, Abbot Isaac. When these have been set out, I think I will have satisfied the commands of Pope Castor of blessed memory, and your wishes, blessed Pope Leontius and holy brother Helladius. And the length of the book in its earlier part may be excused, even though, in spite of our efforts not only to compress what had to be told into a brief account but also to pass over very many points in silence, it has run to a greater length than we intended. Abbot Isaac began with a full discussion of various rules, which we have thought it best to cut short for the sake of brevity, and at its close the blessed Isaac spoke these words. [a]