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Extended practice of prayer
nurtures our intellect,
enlarges very greatly our soul’s receptivity to the Gods,
reveals to men the life of the Gods,
accustoms their eyes to the brightness of divine light, and
gradually brings to perfection the capacity of our faculties
for contact with the Gods,
until it leads us up to the highest level of consciousness (of
which we are capable);
also, it elevates gently the dispositions of our minds, and
communicates to us those of the Gods,
stimulates persuasion and communion and indissoluble friendship,
augments divine love,
kindles the divine element in the soul,
scours away all contrary tendencies within it,
casts out from the aetherial and luminous vehicle surrounding the soul
everything that tends to generation,
brings to perfection good hope and faith concerning the light;
and, in a word, it renders those who employ prayers,
if we may so express it, the familiar consorts of the Gods.

Iamblichus, De Mysteriis 2003 5.26, p. 277, emphasis and formatting added, gendering per original