It is necessary to do everything with discernment, and to take your own measure, so that you will not become confused. To perform alms, fasting, or anything else at the highest degree (beyond one’s limits or personal measure) lacks discernment, and later it will lead the one who performs them into confusion, despondency, and grumbling. God requires that which is according to the strength of a man.
– St. Barsanouphios the Great, Instructions, 627
Featured image: Monk at Mt. Athos, c. 1990s. Photographer Kostas Argyris
