Conceptul de liturghie interioară la Sfântul Marcu Ascetul

Abstract

The concept of „inner liturgy” in the work of Saint Mark the Monk represents an essential dimension of spiritual life, grounded in personal mystical experience and the inner transformation of the believer. This inner liturgy manifests as an extension and internalization of communal liturgical worship, requiring a permanent state of prayer, contemplation, and communion with God. Saint Mark the Monk emphasizes that interior liturgy involves the purification of the mind, cultivation of virtues, and struggle against passions, thus achieving a synthesis between the sacramental aspect of church life and individual ascetic dimension. Through this spiritual practice, the believer becomes a „living altar” where perpetual spiritual sacrifice takes place, leading to the deification of the human person and the achievement of complete communion with God. Thus, the inner liturgy becomes a mystical framework for the transfiguration of daily life, an invisible extension of the Eucharistic Liturgy within the human conscience, through which the soul is united with God and embraces the calling to deification. In an age marked by fragmentation, individualism, and secularization, this teaching of Saint Mark the Monk unveils a profoundly personal and contemporary path for the restoration of the human person in communion with Christ, offering a theological and existential response to the spiritual crisis of modernity.