Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
All Commentaries on Mark 14:38 Go To Mark 14
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The Lord has commanded us to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation. Obviously, if we could endow ourselves with this gift merely by willing it, we would not be asking it in prayer. If the will itself sufficed to protect us from temptation, we would not have to pray for it. But if we were not given a will at all, we would be unable to pray. Grant, then, that we may will it freely, praying that we may be made able by grace to do what we have willed, when by mercy we have attained to wise discernment. Letter , To Palatinus.
