What do I need?
I need true and active Christian love;
I need a loving heart which takes compassion on its neighbors;
I need joy over their prosperity and well-being, and sorrow over their sorrows and illnesses, their sins, failings, disorders, woes, poverty;
I need warm and sincere compassion for all the circumstances of their lives, joy for those who are joyous and tears for those who are in tears.
Enough of selfishness, egoism, living only for oneself and acquiring everything only for oneself: riches, pleasures, the glory of this world; enough of spiritual dying instead of living, grieving instead of rejoicing, and carrying within oneself the poison of selfishness, for selfishness is a poison that is continuously poured into our hearts by Satan.
From the spiritual diary of St. John of Kronstadt, “My Life in Christ”