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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: love in this, according to him that said, `Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself,' in departing thyself to rest and life, and
leaving me to tribulation and distress? And, before I have been
well exercised in the conflicts of the religious life, before I
have learned the wily attacks of the enemy, why expose me to
fight singlehanded against their marshalled host? And for what
purpose but to see me overthrown by their mischievous
machinations, and to see me die, alas! the true spiritual and
eternal death? That is the fate which must befall inexperienced
and cowardly monks. But, I beseech thee, pray the Lord to take
me also together with thee from life. Yea, by the very hope that
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