Over the years I have found that reading the works of St. Mark the Ascetic during the Great Fast has helped me out. His words and his understanding of living the Gospel are very clear. I now have a notebook with many of his short quotes throughout to remind me ‘to live in simplicity of devotion to Christ.’
I am posting two works of his here that I cleaned up and formatted as PDF. I read somewhere that monastics where advised to sell everything and buy Mark.
There is much wisdom to be found in these words, I pray you will enjoy. Here are some of my favorite quotes from an old post.
Below is a pdf of two separate works.
St. Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law - Two Hundred Texts
St. Mark:
On the Thoughts:
- Never belittle the significance of your thoughts, for now one escapes God’s notice
- When you observe some thought suggesting that you seek human fame, you can be sure it will bring you disgrace
On Mercy:
- Just as thought is made manifest through actions and words, so is our future reward through the impulses of the heart. Thus a merciful heart will receive mercy. While a merciless heart will receive the opposite.
On Prayer:
- Pray persistently about everything and then you will never do anything without God’s help.
- Prayer comprises the complete fulfillment of the commandments: for there is nothing higher than love for God.
- Once we have entrusted our hope about something to God, we no longer quarrel with our neighbor over it.
- When the intellect prays without distraction it afflicts the heart, and a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Ps 50: 17)
On Humility:
- Humility consists, not in condemning our conscience, but in recognizing God’s grace and compassion.