As we are about to enter a time of spiritual preparation and spring cleaning, it is often helpful to have a spiritual director; or a soul friend. Wise and experienced company. Too often we engage on the fight on our own. It’s much easier to get picked off on your own which is why confession is so helpful. But we need more. We need experience. One of the best spiritual teachers in the early Church was a monk from near the Black Sea called Evagrius Ponticus (345-399).

Evagrius Ponticus was a prominent early Christian monk, ascetic writer, and theologian born around 345 AD in Ibora (a small town in Pontus, modern-day northern Turkey). He came from a Christian clerical family—his father was a chorepiscopus (a regional bishop).

He received an excellent education and rose quickly in the church hierarchy. He was ordained as a reader (lector) by St. Basil the Great and as a deacon by Gregory of Nazianzus. He was rubbing shoulders and learngint ot pray adn think with some of the all time ‘Greats’.

He was based in Constantinople during the late 370s–early 380s, and took part in the Second Ecumenical Council (381). He was known as a skilled preacher, debater against heresies, and theological advisor.

But he crashed and very nearly burned. He fell hopelessly in love with a married woman. He then had a dream/vision. It it, he was confronted by a divine or angelic figure who warned him that he was in seriously deep trouble, and urged him to flee the city.

• He was shown or told that he would be seized by soldiers or authorities (symbolizing public exposure or arrest for scandal) unless he left immediately.
• Deeply shaken, Evagrius awoke, knew he had to take the dream seriously and act on it, and fled Constantinople that very night (or soon after) without telling most people. He headed toward Jerusalem, and there he was influenced by Melania the Elder and Rufinus and became a monk. Soon after, he moved to the Egyptian desert. There he lived as an ascetic until his death on 399 AD (reportedly on Epiphany).

Evagrius became one of the most influential Desert Fathers and a cherished expert in spiritual theology.

He can be of real help to us this Lent as we examine ourselves and decide how we are going to manage the forty days.

It is too easy to concentrate on the relationship between Lent and fasting, or to make it about food. But in fact, the spiritual task we face is not so much about the particularity of diet as it is about clarity. Clarity about ourselves. Clarity about the nature of the spiritual struggle we are in. And clarity about what it is God wants to do with us.

One of the great advantages of Evagrius is that he moves us from a kind of stoic if reluctant resistance to the corruption we carry within ourselves and face from the demonic temptations, to equipping us to fight back. It is this “fight back” that he was famous for. Try and see if his advice and analysis works for you.

The Battle of the Thoughts

The first thing he helps us do is to identify what it is we are dealing with. Whether we have a clear sense of demonic attack or of our own internal weaknesses corrupting us, he introduces us to the idea of the logismoi.

There is no single English word that translates logismoi fully. It has to do with corrupting, toxic, seductive, intrusive thoughts — patterns of thinking through which temptation takes hold. Words that just sneak into our mind. And, most importantly demoralise us because we make the mistake of thinking they are OUR thoughts. But they are not. They have been planted there by the enemy (like the tares in the field) and our first task is to recognise them as such.

Whatever our worldview, Evagrius was clear from his own experience that we are dealing with real demons. He writes in the Praktikos:

“The demons fight us by means of thoughts.” (Praktikos, 6)

One of the reasons Evagrius can help us is that he names eight recurring thought-patterns by which temptation operates. If we are going to use Lent properly, we ought to allow ourselves to receive some training in recognising them early — and answering them quickly.

You already know from experience that, just as with physical illness, the quicker you deal with symptoms the easier it is to resist the infection.

So what is his tactic?

It is called antirrhesis — contradiction, answering back.

You will see very quickly that what he is doing is following the example of Jesus in Matthew 4, where Christ engages directly with the devil in the desert.

Ash Wednesday is independence day in the spiritual life. It is when we take the war back against the enemy. Lent is our campaign.

If we allow Evagrius to be our companion, he suggests eight areas of conflict.

1. Gluttony — “Command the stones”

The first temptation in Matthew 4 comes when Satan tries to undermine Jesus by saying:

“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.”

He works on the urgency of appetite and longing.

Evagrius identifies gluttony not simply as eating too much, but as an obsession with satisfaction. He writes:

“The demon of gluttony suggests to the monk that he will soon be ill… and urges him to abandon his abstinence.” (Praktikos, 7)

Somewhere in the back of the mind there is an anxiety — a whisper — that says: You are hungry; you are in danger; you will not survive this.

When you look at it head-on it is ridiculous. But the thought slips sideways into the corner of the mind. It creates fear and panic.

Evagrius suggests looking at it directly and answering it.

That is exactly what Jesus does:

“Man shall not live by bread alone.”

And the whole verse (Deuteronomy 8:3) reminds us:

“He humbled you, allowing you to hunger… that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

If answering back is good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for us.

Evagrius suggests adding 1 Corinthians 6:12 to our armoury:

“I will not be mastered by anything.”

The purpose is to restore hierarchy. The body is not at the top.

2. Lust — The Tyranny of the Image

Evagrius is brutally realistic about the power of imagination.

“The demon of fornication makes long and vivid representations in the mind.” (Praktikos, 10)

Notice that in Matthew 4 the devil “shows” Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Temptation is theatrical. It is staged in the imagination.

What do we do when the pictures come? Whether they involve power, domination, or bodily weakness?

Evagrius says, (and you can see now where the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy got it from) ‘DON’T PANIC’. Replace the image early.

Answer with Scripture:

• Job 31:1 — “I have made a covenant with my eyes.”
• Matthew 5:8 — “Blessed are the pure in heart.”

Cut the image off at the root. Replace it with another thought, another promise, another vision.

3. Avarice — The Illusion of Security

The kingdoms of the world offered to Christ reveal the template of temptation. Our being is rooted in God, who is love. The corruption of that root comes through power and control.

Evagrius writes:

“The demon of avarice predicts a long old age and threatens the weakness of hands at work.” (Praktikos)

It plays on fear: You will grow old. You will be weak. You will not have enough.

Anxiety about provision quickly rearranges the value system. Worship should sit at the top. Self-preservation tries to displace it.

The corrupting thought says:

“You will need more — more resources, more protection, more backup.”

Christ answers:

“You shall worship the Lord your God.”

And:

“Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Real security lies in being children of God, not financially solvent citizens of the state.

Evagrius would have us add:

• Matthew 6:21 — “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
• Hebrews 13:5 — “Be content with what you have.”

Lent exposes the empty promise of false security and tunes our hearts to deeper values.

4. Sadness — The Collapse of Hope

Evagrius next identifies sadness — not holy sorrow, but the heaviness that follows frustrated desire. When appetite, lust, or greed are denied, the soul can fall into a kind of despair. Sometimes it is intensified by self-pity.

We hear a voice telling us that everything is deeply unfair; that there is no point.

What can we answer with to pierce the fog of misery and hopelessness with the light of Christ?

We answer with:

• Psalm 42:5 — “Why are you cast down, O my soul? Hope in God.” Anything from this wonderful psalm restores sense and sanity.
• Romans 8:18 — “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed.”
• Romans 8:1 — “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Lent is a lesson in perspective. A confrontation of the threat, and what is in fact the illusion of meaninglessness.

5. Anger — Rehearsed Injury

Evagrius notes that anger feeds on mental replay:

“Anger is the most fierce passion.” (Praktikos, 14)

It rehearses insult. It nourishes grievance. It demands revenge. A small film plays in our imagination, pictures as well as voice, as we rehearse our rage. “How dare they?!”

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Image: James Tissot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This post was first published on Gavin Ashenden – ‘New English Catholic’ and is reprinted here with permission.