On How We Should Exercise Our Mind So That It Does Not Suffer From Ignorance

If non-trust in oneself and hope in God—so necessary in our spiritual warfare—remain in us alone, we shall not only fail to gain victory, but on the contrary shall plunge into still greater evil. Therefore, alongside and together with them, we must also carry on certain special activities, or formative spiritual exercises.

Among these exercises, the exercises of the mind and will must occupy the first place.

The mind must be freed and guarded from ignorance, which is so hostile to it, since ignorance, by darkening it, prevents it from knowing the truth—its own proper object and the goal of its striving. To this end the mind must be exercised, so that it may be bright and pure and capable of discerning clearly what is required for us to cleanse the soul from passions and adorn it with virtues.

We can attain such brightness of mind by two means: the first, and more necessary, is prayer, by which we must beseech the Holy Spirit to be pleased to pour his divine light into our hearts—which he will certainly do, if we are truly seeking God alone, if we sincerely strive to act according to his will in everything, and if in each matter we willingly submit ourselves to the counsel of our experienced spiritual fathers and do nothing without consulting them.

The second means of exercising the mind is the constant examination of things and the deepening of knowledge of them, so as to see clearly which of them are good and which are bad—not as the senses and the world judge them, but as right reason and the Holy Spirit judge them, or as the true word of the God-inspired Scriptures and the spirit-bearing Fathers and teachers of the Church judges them. For when such examination and deepening is right and proper, it will certainly give us a clear understanding that we ought to count as nothing from the heart, and to regard as vain and false, all that the blind and corrupt world loves and pursues by every means.

Specifically: that the honors, pleasures, and riches of the world are nothing other than vanity and death of the soul; that the contempt and evil-speaking with which the world pursues us bring us true glory, and its sorrows bring us joy; that the forgiveness of our enemies and the doing of good to them is true magnanimity—one of the greatest marks of likeness to God; that he who despises the world shows more strength and authority than he who rules over the entire world; that willing obedience is an act that reveals more courage and firmness of spirit than the subjugation and command of great kings; that humble self-knowledge ought to be preferred above all other even the highest forms of knowledge; and that to conquer and mortify one’s evil inclinations and desires, however insignificant they may be, is more worthy of praise than the capture of many fortresses, than the defeat of powerful and well-armed armies, than even the working of miracles and the raising of the dead.