I'm Still Working on the One Thing

"It is one thing neither to be stung nor angered by affronts and insults, nor by temptations and trials, and another to be pleased by them. It is one thing to pray for the people who do such things, and another to love them with all one's soul as benefactors, and still another to impress on one's spirit the face of each one of them, and then, with tears of sincere love, to embrace them dispassionately as true friends without the least trace of dislike making its nest in the soul."

-St. Symeon the New Theologian, On the Mystical Life: The Ethical Discourses, Volume 2: On Virtue and Christian Life, translated by Fr. Alexander Golitzin, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press


Okay, so I'm starting to get in the bad habit of merely quoting without comment. But what can I say about this quote that I haven't already said in the title of this post?