Patience is necessary, like salt in food.
For there is no other road for us to gain, get rich and reign.
This is the road that our Christ traced out.
And all we who love Him ought to follow Him for the sake of His love.
Even though the wormwood is bitter to us, it nevertheless cleanses the blood and makes our body healthy.
Without temptations, pure souls are not known, virtue does not show, patience is not discernible.
Without temptations, it is impossible for the soul to become healthy.
They are the cleansing fire which makes the soul pure and bright.
Elder Joseph the Hesychast, “Letter Thirty-Eight,” Monastic Wisdom