Evagrius Ponticus

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500

114 passages across 8 books of the Bible · Who was this?

On Psalms

20 of 80
  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Psalms 30:4
    All who are mindful of the mercy of God confess him.

    NOTES ON THE PSALMS 29[30].5

  13. 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

  14. Psalms 30:11
    Mourning turns to joy and the understanding of God to action.

    NOTES ON THE PSALMS 29[30].12

  15. 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

  16. Psalms 31:3
    He leads through right faith and works and nourishes through his own understanding.

    NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].4

  17. Psalms 31:5
    Here spirit indicates mind. The mind that clings to God is one spirit.

    NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].6

  18. 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

  19. Psalms 31:9
    Nothing darkens the mind like unbridled wrath.

    NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].10

  20. Psalms 31:18
    One who speaks falsely receives mercy when he becomes silent. He gives up deceit.

    NOTES ON THE PSALMS 30[31].19

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