These are filled by the longing after gaining virtues. They are those who are thirsty and hungry after all love, meaning after all the moral and fleshly and spiritual virtues.
If someone did not taste from something he doesn`t know what he misses as Saint Basil the Great says, only who tasted that, longs after it.
It is the same with that one who tasted from the sweetness of the commandments; he knows the commandments lead him gradually to following Christ. This one desires to gain all the others so much that sometimes he even despises death
Seizing a little from the mysteries of God hidden in the divine Scriptures are thirsty to embrace them. The more knowledge they gain, the more thirsty and longing they are like someone who drinks a flame. If divinity can`t be contained by anyone, he remains thirsty forever.
Excerpt from Spiritual teachings – Philocalia, vol. 5 – Saint Peter the Damascene, The Publishing House of the Biblical Institute of Orthodox Mission
