If you were not full of self-pity you would soon observe that we ourselves are to blame for all this evil, because we refuse to understand that it is in reality a good thing.

Instinct seeks satisfaction. Love is free of all demands.

Thus you are led from moment to moment in your halter of preoccupation with self, and kindled instantly to displeasure, impatience or anger if an obstacle intervenes.

Cast off the burden of sin and you will find within you the upward path that will make your ascent possible.

There are three kinds of nature in man, as Nicetas Stethatos further explains: the carnal man, who wants to live for his own pleasure, even if it harms others; the natural man, who wants to please both himself and others; and the spiritual man, who wants to please only God, even if it harms himself. The first is lower than human nature, the second is normal, the third is above nature; it is life in Christ.

However weighed down and entangled in earthly fetters you may be, it can never be too late.

It begins here, and has no end, and no earthly power can coerce it; and it is to be found in the human heart.