St Peter of Damascus - By means of the virtues of soul and body...

By means of the virtues of soul and body, and after many struggles, a person is enabled to rise noetically, by Christ’s grace, and to engage in spiritual labor - the labor of the intellect - so that he begins to grieve inwardly for his own soul.

When this happens, he should guard as the apple of his eye the thought that induces pain-laden tears, to use the words of St John Klimakos. He should continue to do this until God in His providence, to prevent him growing proud, withdraws the fire and the water.

The fire is the heart’s pain and its burning faith; the water is tears.

And they are not given to all, says St Athanasios the Great, but only to those enabled by grace to see the terrible things that occur before and after death, and who in stillness bear them constantly in mind.

As Isaiah says: ‘The ear of the hesychast hears strange wonders’ (cf. Job 4:12); and again: ‘Devote yourself to stillness and know’ (Ps. 46:10).

St Peter of Damascus