Prayer is the laying aside of thoughts.

The further the soul advances, the greater are the adversaries against which it must contend.

The Holy Spirit, out of compassion for our weakness, comes to us even when we are impure. And if He finds our intellect truly praying to Him, He enters it and puts to flight the whole array of thoughts and ideas circling within it, and He arouses it to a longing for spiritual prayer.

Happy is the spirit that attains to the perfect formlessness at the time of prayer.

A monk is a man who considers himself one with all men because he seems constantly to see himself in every man.