The Art of Spiritual Life

The Art of Spiritual Life episodes:

• 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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• July 16, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 147-152

  1. Without remembrance of God, there can be no true knowledge but only that which is false.

  Deeper spiritual knowledge helps the hard-hearted man: for unless he has fear, he refuses to accept the labor of repentance.

  Unquestioning acceptance of tradition is helpful for a gentle person, for then he will not try God's patience or often fall into sin.

  Do not rebuke a forceful man for arrogance, but point out to him the danger of dishonor; if he has any sense he will accept this kind of rebuke.

  If you hate rebuke, it shows that the passion in which you are involved is due to your own free choice. But if you welcome rebuke, the passion is due to prepossession.

  Do not listen to talk about other people's sins. For through such listening the form of these sins is imprinted on you.

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• July 09, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 141-146

  1. Once our thoughts are accompanied by images we have already given them our assent; for a provocation does not involve us in guilt so long as it is not accompanied by images. Some people flee away from these thoughts like 'a brand plucked out of the fire' (Zech. 3:2); but others dally with them, and so get burnt.

  Do not say: 'I don't want it, but it happens.' For even though you may not want the thing itself, yet you welcome what causes it.

  He who seeks praise is involved in passion; he who laments afflictions is attached to sensual pleasure.

  The thoughts of a self-indulgent man vacillate, as though on scales; sometimes he laments and weeps for his sins, and sometimes he fights and contradicts his neighbor, justifying his own sensual pleasures.

  He who tests all things and 'holds fast that which is good' (1 Thess. 5:21) will in consequence refrain from all evil.

  'A patient man abounds in understanding' (Prov. 14: 29); and so does he who listens to words of wisdom.

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• June 18, 2024Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 137-140

  1. When elated by praise, be sure disgrace will follow; for it is said: 'Whoever exalts himself will be abased' (Luke 14:11).

  When we have freed ourselves from every voluntary sin of the mind, we should then fight against the passions which result from prepossession.

  Prepossession is the involuntary presence of former sins in the memory. At the stage of active warfare we try to prevent it from developing into a passion; after victory it is repulsed while still but a provocation.

  A provocation is an image -free stimulation in the heart. Like a mountain-pass, the experienced take control of it ahead of the enemy.

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