The Art of Spiritual Life episodes:

• October 29, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 197-200

  1. It is said that gold rules everything; but spiritual things are ruled by the grace of God.

  A good conscience is found through prayer, and pure prayer through the conscience. Each by nature needs the other.

  Jacob made for Joseph a coat of many colors (cf Gen. 37:3), and the Lord gives knowledge of truth to the gentle; as it is written, 'He will teach the gentle His ways' (Ps. 25:9. LXX).

  Always do as much good as you can, and at a time of greater good do not turn to a lesser. For it is said that no man who turns back 'is fit for the kingdom of heaven' (cf. Luke 9:62).

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• October 22, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 192-196

  1. Peace is deliverance from the passions, and is not found except through the action of the Holy Spirit.

  Fulfilling a commandment is one thing, and virtue is another, although each promotes the other.

  Fulfilling a commandment means doing what we are enjoined to do; but virtue is to do it in a manner that conforms to the trath.

  All material wealth is the same, but is acquired in many different ways; similarly, virtue is one, but is many- sided in its operations.

  If someone makes a display of wisdom and instead of applying it talks at length, he has a spurious wealth and his labors 'come into the houses of strangers' (Prov. 5:10. LXX).

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• October 15, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 187-191

  1. He who does not choose to suffer for the sake of truth will be chastened more painfully by suffering he has not chosen.

  He who knows God's will, and performs it according to his power, escapes more severe suffering by suffering a little.

  If a man tries to overcome temptations without prayer and patient endurance, he will become more entangled in them instead of driving them away.

  The Lord is hidden in His own commandments, and He is to be found there in the measure that He is sought.

  Do not say: 'I have fulfilled the commandments, but have not found the Lord'. For you have often found 'spiritual knowledge with righteousness', as Scripture says, 'and those who rightly seek Him shall find peace' (Prov. 16:8. LXX).

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• October 08, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 180-186

  1. No cloud is formed without a breath of wind: and no passion is born without a thought.

  If we no longer fulfill the desires of the flesh, then with the Lord's help the evils within us will easily be eliminated.

  Images already established in our intellect are more pernicious and stubborn than those which arise while we are thinking. The latter precede the former and are their cause.

  One kind of evil dwells in the heart through long-contmued prepossession; another kind attacks our thoughts through the medium of everyday things.

  God assesses our action according to our intention; for it is said that the Lord will 'reward you according to your heart' (Ps. 20:4).

  He who does not persevere in examining his conscience will not endure bodily suffering for God's sake.

  The conscience is nature's book. He who applies what he reads there experiences God's help.

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• September 24, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 175-179

  1. At a time of affliction, expect a provocation to sensual pleasure, for because it relieves the affliction it is readily welcomed.

  Some call men intelligent because they have the power of discernment on the sensible plane. But the really intelligent people are those who control their own desires.

  Until you have eradicated evil, do not obey your heart; for it will seek more of what it already contains within itself .

  Just as some snakes live in glens and others in houses, so there are some passions which take shape in our thoughts while others express themselves in action. It is possible, however, for them to change from one type to the other.

  When you find that some thought is disturbing you deeply in yourself and is breaking the stillness of your intellect with passion, you may be sure that it was your intellect which, taking the initiative, first activated this thought and placed it in your heart.

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• September 17, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 172-174

  1. Wickedness is an intricate net; and if someone is careless when partially entangled, he gets completely enmeshed.

  Do not desire to hear about the misfortunes of your enemies. For those who like listening to such things will themselves suffer what they wish for others.

  Do not think that every affliction is a consequence of sin. For there are some who do God's will and yet are tested. Thus it is written that the ungodly and wicked shall be persecuted (cf. Ps. 37: 28), but also that those who 'seek to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution' (2 Tim. 3:12).

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• September 10, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 167-171

  1. The more the intellect withdraws from bodily cares, the more clearly it sees the craftiness of the enemy.

  A man who is carried away by his thoughts is blinded by them; and while he can see the actual working of sin, he cannot see its causes.

  It can happen that someone may in appearance be fulfilling a commandment but is in reality serving a passion, and through evil thoughts he destroys the goodness of the action.

  When you first become involved in something evil, don't say: 'It will not overpower me.' For to the extent that you are involved you have already been overpowered by it.

  Everything that happens has a small beginning, and grows the more it is nourished.

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• August 20, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 162-166

  1. From a pleasure-loving heart arise unhealthy thoughts and words; and from the smoke of a fire we recognize the fuel.

  Guard your mind, and you will not be harassed by temptations. But if you fail to guard it, accept patiently whatever trial comes.

  Pray that temptation may not come to you; but when it comes, accept it as your due and not undeserved.

  Reject all thoughts of greed, and you will be able to see the devil's tricks.

  He who says he knows all the devil's tricks falls unknowingly into his trap.

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• August 13, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 158-161

  1. All good things come from God providentially, and those who bring them are the servants of what is good.

  Accept with equanimity the intermingling of good and evil, and then God will resolve all inequity.

  It is the uneven quality of our thoughts that produces changes in our condition. For God assigns to our voluntary thoughts consequences which are appropriate but not necessarily of our choice.

  The sensible derives from the intelligible, by God's decree providing what is needed.

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• July 23, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 153-157

  1. When you delight in hearing evil talk, be angry with yourself and not with the speaker. For listening in a sinful way makes the messenger seem sinful.

  If you come across people gossiping idly, consider yourself responsible for their talk - if not on account of some recent fault of your own, then because of an old debt.

  If someone praises you hypocritically, be sure that in due course he will vilify you.

  Accept present afflictions for the sake of future blessings; then you will never weaken in your struggle.

  When someone supplies your bodily needs and you praise him as good in his own right apart from God, he will later seem to you to be evil.

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