Selected quotes from St. John Climacus

"The beginning of prayer is the expulsion of distractions from the very start by a single thought, the middle stage is the concentration on what is being said or thought; its conclusion is rapture in the Lord."

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"Patience is a labor that does not crush the soul. It never wavers under interruptions, good or bad...Patience sets a boundary to the daily onslaught of suffering...Patience comes from hope and mourning, and indeed to lack those is to be a slave of despondency."

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"Love is the banishment of every sort of contrariness, for love thinks no evil."