Saint Silouan the Athonite

Nowadays people have begun to live according to their own will and understanding, imagining that they can find joy on earth without the Lord. They do not realize that the Lord alone is joy. He alone can make glad the soul of man. He warms the soul as the sun warms the flowers of the field, and like the wind which blows down on them He brings life to the soul. The Lord has given us all things that we may glorify Him. But the world does not understand this. And indeed how can a man understand what he has neither beheld or tasted.

I too, when I lived in the world, thought that I knew happiness on this earth because I was strong, handsome, not poor, and people liked me. And I gloried in this. But when I came to know the Lord by the Holy Spirit, I began to look upon the delights of this world as so much smoke, which is borne away by the wind. The grace of the Holy Spirit now rejoices and gladdens the soul, and in profound peace she contemplates the Lord, unmindful of the earth.