Evagrius Ponticus Quotes

#1. Prayer is the laying aside of thoughts.

Evagrius Ponticus

#2. The further the soul advances, the greater are the adversaries against which it must contend.

Evagrius Ponticus

#3. A monk is a man who considers himself one with all men because he seems constantly to see himself in every man.

Evagrius Ponticus

#4. If your spirit still looks around at the time of prayer, then it does not yet pray as a monk. You are no better than a man of affairs engaged in a kind of landscape gardening.

Evagrius Ponticus

#5. Happy is the spirit that attains to the perfect formlessness at the time of prayer.

Evagrius Ponticus

#6. Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask Him; for He desires to do something even greater for you, while you cling to Him in prayer.

Evagrius Ponticus

#7. God cannot be grasped by the mind. If he could be grasped, he would not be God.

Evagrius Ponticus

#8. A man who worships in Spirit and Truth no longer honors the Creator because of His works, but praises Him because of Himself.

Evagrius Ponticus

#9. Blessed is the one who has arrived at infinite ignorance.

Evagrius Ponticus

#10. Prayer is the fruit of joy and thankfulness.

Evagrius Ponticus

#11. Remember how the Lord rebukes Martha when He says: 'You are anxious and troubled about many things: one thing alone is needful' (Lk. 10:41-42) ? to hear the divine word; after that, one should be content with anything that comes to hand.

Evagrius Ponticus

#12. The Holy Spirit, out of compassion for our weakness, comes to us even when we are impure. And if He finds our intellect truly praying to Him, He enters it and puts to flight the whole array of thoughts and ideas circling within it, and He arouses it to a longing for spiritual prayer.

Evagrius Ponticus

#13. If you patiently accept what comes, you will always pray with joy.

Evagrius Ponticus