Mark the Ascetic - On the Spiritual Law 5-9

<ol start="5"><li>May He who inaugurates every good thing inaugurate all that you undertake, so that it may be done with His blessing.</li> <li>When reading the Holy Scriptures, he who is humble and engaged in spiritual work will apply everything to himself and not to someone else.</li> <li>Call upon God to open the eyes of your heart, so that you may see the value of prayer and of spiritual reading when understood and applied.</li> <li>If a man has some spiritual gift and feels compassion for those who do not have it, he preserves the gift because of his compassion. But a boastful man will lose it through succumbing to the temptations of boastfulness.</li> <li>The mouth of a humble man speaks the truth; but he who speaks against the truth is like the servant who struck the Lord on the face (cf Mark 14:65).</li> </ol>