' Perfect Longing for Source '...

"A monk once said to Abba Philemon:

"I am very conscious of now my mind constantly wanders all over the place,

drifting after things that are not good for it.

What can I do, father, to be delivered?"

And he hesitated a little while and then replied:

"This is a remnant of the obsessions your external life inflicts on you.

It still troubles you because you have not yet reached the heights of perfect longing for God.

The longing for the experience of God has not fallen on you like fire."



-Abba Philemon
in John Anthony McGuckin, Tr.
The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul's Ascent
Boston: Shambhala, 2002, pp. 16-17