A ”starets” was asked by a young man:
”How can I find God? By fasting, by ascetical struggles, vigils or alms?”
”There were many who, as you say, exhausted their body but without discernment and therefore they remained hollow, fruitless. It may be possible to have a mouth full of sourness because of severe fasting, to learn the Scripture by heart, to read the entire Psalter but to lack all the other things God requires from us, namely the fear of God, love and humility.”
