Work and Prayer in the Cells

And so they add labor to their prayer, so that sleep may not creep up on them as they sit idle. For just as they hardly have any time of leisure, so there is no limit set to their spiritual meditations. Practicing the virtues of the body and of the soul alike, they balance what is owed to the outer man with what profits the inner man. They steady the slippery motions of the heart and the shifting tides of the thoughts with the weight of labor, as with a strong and immovable anchor. By it the changeableness and wanderings of the heart, fastened within the barriers of the cell, may be shut up as in a perfectly safe harbor. Then, intent only on spiritual meditation and on watching over its thoughts, the heart may not only keep the watchful mind from giving hasty consent to any evil suggestion, but also keep it safe from every needless and idle thought. So it is not easy to say which depends on which. I mean, whether they practice their unceasing manual labor for the sake of spiritual meditation, or whether it is through their continual labors that they gain such remarkable spiritual progress and light of knowledge.