Monday of Lent Week 2

"Purity of mind is something other than purity of heart, just as there is a difference between one of the members of the whole body and the whole body. The mind is one of the senses of the soul. The heart is the central organ of the inward senses; this means the sense of the senses, because it is the root. And if the root is holy, so also are all the branches. But this is not so if it is holy in one of the branches only. Now with but little acquaintance with the scriptures and a little exercise in fasting and solitude, the mind forgets its former occupation and is cleansed, while it refrains from foreign habits. But is also easily defiled" (from The Mystical Treatises of St. Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 3, 29).