Evagrius Ponticus

In his own words on Psalms

• Psalms 2:11

  If you remember the Judge only when you are in difficulties as one who inspires fear and who is incorruptibly honest, then you have not as yet learned to "serve the Lord in fear and to rejoice in him with trembling." For understand this point well: one is to worship him even in spiritual relaxations and in times of good cheer with even more piety and reverence.

  CHAPTERS ON PRAYER 143

• Psalms 3:7

  The teeth of sinners are thoughts foreign to reason coming to us on account of our nature by which our enemies approach us, just like using their teeth time after time again to devour our flesh. That is, those [are] things that spring forth from the flesh: "Manifest are the works of the flesh," as the apostle says.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 3:8

• Psalms 4:1

  Whenever we realize the reasons why we suffer and are tested, then our minds are greatly opened.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 4.2

• Psalms 5:7

  The holy temple of God is Christ, concerning which "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." In the fear of God each one turns away from evil; in fear he worships in the temple of the Lord that is Christ.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 5:8

• Psalms 7:12-13

  The ones who are burning are those who have received the flaming arrows of the devil.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 7:14

• Psalms 10:7-8

  [By contrast] the righteous person praises God at all times.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 9[10].28-29

• Psalms 10:15

  The sinner is the one who sins out of lust and weakness; the wicked one is he who follows after evil with a deliberated plan.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 9[10].36

• Psalms 11:4

  If the eyes of God look on the poor, let us be numbered among the poor, so that the eyes of the Lord may look down on us. If the rich do not become poor, very little will the eyes of the Lord look on them.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 10[11].4

• Psalms 11:5

  If the one who values iniquity hates his own life, then the one who hates iniquity esteems his own life.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 10[11].5

• Psalms 12:2

  First the righteous fail, then the truth is diminished. Not only is there no truth among the righteous, there is no holiness among honest people. Now, since the righteous have failed, truth is diminished. Perhaps the poverty of righteous people is the reason why so many heresies have shot up.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 11[12].2

• Psalms 16:5

  The inheritance is the contemplation of the present and future ages; the inheritance of Christ is the understanding of God.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS

• Psalms 16:6

  If the line is measured, how is it written the Gospel of John: "For God gives the Spirit without measure" and "I will pour out my spirit on you." Perhaps by chance it is called "measure" not in terms of knowledge itself but on account of him who receives it, because its receptivity cannot be greater. The rain itself also may exceed the measure, yet it is measured in that vessel in which it is received.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 15[16].6

• Psalms 17:5

  Even if now [the way] is full of pain and without joy, later it will bear the fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained in it.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 16[17].3, 4

• Psalms 17:12

  Through impure thoughts our adversary like a lion overcomes our mind.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 16[17].12

• Psalms 18:14

  When we compare spiritual things with spiritual things, we flash forth lightnings, indicating the knowledge advancing from them.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 17[18].15, 16

• Psalms 18:35

  He who sits on the right of the Father corrects us with discipline, and accordingly he teaches us. For he directs the spirit with a right foundation; true understanding leads one into fullness.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 17[18].36

• Psalms 18:37

  If you pray against your passions or the demons that assail you recall to mind [this verse].… You are to say this at the appropriate moment, thus arming yourself against your adversary with humility.

  CHAPTERS ON PRAYER 135

• Psalms 18:39

  If fighters find themselves being assailed and assailing in return, and if the demons fight against us, then they too when they assail us will be assailed by us in return. Scripture says, "I will assail them, and they will not be able to stand"; and again, "Those who assail me and are my enemies, they have weakened and fallen."

  PRAKTIKOS 72

• Psalms 20:5

  People rejoice in riches, or in glory or in nobility of birth, but the righteous in the salvation of God.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS

• Psalms 21:3

  Christ is the crown of the rational nature.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS

• Psalms 23:4

  One who cultivates pure prayer will hear noises, crashings, voices and tormenting screams that come from the demons; yet he will not suffer collapse or surrender his thoughts if he says to God, "I shall fear no evil, for you are with me."

  CHAPTERS ON PRAYER 97

• Psalms 24:4

  Truly Judas ascended onto the mountain of the Lord, but he did not stand in his holy place. He was not innocent in hands or pure in heart, but a thief who was taking the money.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 23[24].4

• Psalms 25:6

  When people remember, they stir up within themselves the thoughts of things they had known before. But God, when he is mindful of the rational nature, is in that very nature. It is said that he is mindful of him into whom he comes.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS

• Psalms 25:8

  If someone has mastered irascibility, he has mastered the demons, but if someone is a slave to this passion, he is a complete … stranger to the ways of our Savior, since the Lord is said to teach the gentle his ways.

  ON THOUGHTS 13

• Psalms 25:15

  One who says and does everything so that he may know God always has the eyes of his soul toward the Lord. If one does not receive the spirit of the adoption of the children, he is not made a brother of Christ, nor is the power of the holy made effectual in him; let him say that he is an only child and poor in riches having been deprived of knowledge.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 24[25].16

• Psalms 25:20

  Hope does not shame. She is the daughter of uprightness, and uprightness is the offspring of patience, and patience is birthed really in trials that the virtues receive from the enemy and by which the understanding of God is cut off.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 24[25].20

• Psalms 26:3

  If Christ our God is truth, as indeed he said, "I am the Truth" and if David in truth was pleasing to God, surely David was pleasing to God in God.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 25[26].3

• Psalms 26:6

  Our mind is the rational altar on which we burn all irrational thoughts with the fire sent from the Father.… When the soul reflects on itself, it encompasses the altar of God, nor does it seek a corner of corruption.… Contemplation is the altar of corporeal and incorporeal things by which my mind is cleansed. One who embraces it, that is, learning, declares all the marvels of God.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 25[26].6

• Psalms 27:3

  One who follows the active life wages war by his own virtues with alien virtues. One who follows the contemplative life using true dogmas destroys every thought opposed to the knowledge of God.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 26[27].3

• Psalms 27:14

  The strong heart is that which is not filled with false doctrines or impure thoughts.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 26[27].14

• Psalms 29:7

  The voice of the Lord extinguishes the burning arrows of evil. That voice is the spiritual teaching that calls the ones believing in Christ grounded in wisdom.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 28[29].7

• Psalms 30:4

  All who are mindful of the mercy of God confess him.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 29[30].5

• Psalms 30:5

  In the same way that wrath arises from the indignation of God, so even life is generated from his will. If "life" indicates knowledge, … then wrath denotes lack of knowledge. Death is a turning from life. Wrath, then, indicates death, a deprivation of contemplation.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 29[30].6

• Psalms 30:11

  Mourning turns to joy and the understanding of God to action.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 29[30].12

• Psalms 31:1

  Not only does God free us into righteousness but also into temperance, fortitude and love. He uses "righteousness" to embrace all virtues. Perhaps he understands "Christ" for "righteousness." "He is made wisdom to us by God and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption."

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].2

• Psalms 31:3

  He leads through right faith and works and nourishes through his own understanding.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].4

• Psalms 31:5

  Here spirit indicates mind. The mind that clings to God is one spirit.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].6

• Psalms 31:8

  The reasons of temptation, when they are realized, provide a broad plane for the soul.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].9

• Psalms 31:9

  Nothing darkens the mind like unbridled wrath.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].10

• Psalms 31:18

  One who speaks falsely receives mercy when he becomes silent. He gives up deceit.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].19

• Psalms 32:3

  Strong spirits do not wax old from continual shouting to God, but they are renewed from day to day. From silence they wax old, entangling people who are corrupted through false desires.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 31[32].3

• Psalms 32:5

  Pray first to receive tears, so that through compunction you may be able to mollify the wildness that is in your soul, and, having confessed against yourself your transgression to the Lord, you may obtain forgiveness from him.

  CHAPTERS ON PRAYER 5

• Psalms 32:5

  A righteous person accuses himself at the beginning of his speech.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 31[32]: 5, 6

• Psalms 32:9

  He calls the irrational movement of spirit "horse" and "mule." Intellect is rational thinking and judgment.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 31[32].9

• Psalms 33:1

  The Lord is wise, so by rejoicing in the Lord, the righteous rejoice in wisdom.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 32[33].1

• Psalms 33:7

  Praise is the movement of the spirit translated from ignorance to virtue and knowledge.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 32[33].8

• Psalms 33:10

  The plans of the nations and the councils of the leaders and the understanding of the peoples are tested by the Lord as contrary to his will—who desires all people to come to salvation and truth.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 32[33].10

• Psalms 33:15

  The demons do not know our hearts, as some people think, for the Lord alone is "knower of hearts," "who knows the mind of human beings" and "who alone fashioned their hearts." Rather, [demons] recognize the many mental representations that are in the heart on the basis of a word that is expressed and movements of the body.

  ON THOUGHTS 37

• Psalms 33:21

  The heart of the righteous does not delight in food and drink but in justice, knowledge and wisdom.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 32[33].20

• Psalms 34:8

  If we taste the Lord, we taste through faith. If he is good, it is through the knowledge of his goodness that we taste.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 33[34].9

• Psalms 35:1

  He who conquers in war reduces the enemies to slavery: Christ has overcome the world. Hence, … all become his servants.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 34[35].2

• Psalms 35:8

  I think this speaks about the cross on which the devil falls unknowingly. For if he had known never would he have affixed the Lord of glory to the cross.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 34[35].8

• Psalms 35:12

  Fruitless is the soul that births nothing good and does good for no one.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 34[35].12

• Psalms 35:26

  Those who are baptized into Christ put on Christ; this is justice and wisdom. Those who are baptized into Satan are clothed in confusion and shame.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 34[35].26

• Psalms 36:9

  Since the fount is life and life is Christ, the fount is Christ.… By meditating on what is made we will see Christ, and in understanding Christ, we will see God.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 35[36].10

• Psalms 36:11

  Pride is an unsound vehicle, and one who gets into it is quickly thrown. The humble person always stands firm, and the foot of pride will never trip him.

  ON THE EIGHT THOUGHTS 8:13

• Psalms 37:9

  Nothing else is destroyed but that which is cut off from God.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 36[37].9

• Psalms 37:15

  When one of the enemies approaches to wound you and you want to "turn his own sword back against his heart," according to the Scripture text, then do as we tell you. Distinguish within yourself the thought he has launched against you, as to what it is, how many elements it consists of and among these what sort of thing it is that most afflicts the mind.… As you engage in this careful examination, the thought will be destroyed and dissipate in its own consideration, and the demon will flee from you when your intellect has been raised to the heights by this knowledge.

  ON THOUGHTS 19

• Psalms 39:2

  In temptation, good words flee from us and the spirit is silent. The soul speaks about those temptations that it recognizes and is silent about those it does not. In this place "good" indicates the virtues and knowledge that flee in the time of temptation.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 38[39].3

• Psalms 39:4

  The end of the rational nature is the understanding of the holy Trinity.

  NOTES ON THE PSALMS 38[39].5