“The monastic life, indeed, even in our times of feeble faith, is still above all the love of Christ, the Christian life par excellence, experienced with many patient sufferings and much pain. Even today there are those who penetrate the secret of this paradise on earth — more often through humble sufferings than through outward ‘correctness’ — a paradise which worldly people can scarcely imagine.”

-Fr. Seraphim Rose, “Orthodox Monasticism Today in the Light of Orthodox Monastic Gaul”, The Orthodox Word #74