Let us think often that our only business in this life is to please God, and that all besides is but folly and vanity. You and I have lived in monastic life more than forty years. Have we employed those years in loving and serving God, who by his mercy has called us to this state, and for that very end? . . . Since by his mercy he gives us still a little time, let us begin in earnest; let us repair the lost time; let us return with a wholehearted trust to that Father of mercies, who is always ready to receive us into his loving arms. Let us renounce and renounce generously, with single heart, for the love of him, all that is not he; he deserves infinitely more. Let us think of him perpetually. Let us put all our trust in him.
– Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection
