“Asceticism is the mother of holiness.”
The silent practice of bodily virtue cleanses the body of the matter that is in it.
However, “strenuous bodily effort without purity of intellect is like a barren womb and witheredbreasts. It cannot come near to the knowledge of God. It wearies the body but has no concern to uproot the passions from the intellect. Thus it profits nothing.”
St. Justin Popovich
