Strength..............................

"After Abba John the Dwarf had prayed to the Lord and the Lord had taken away all his passions, he went to one of the experienced old men and said, 'You see before you a man who is completely at rest and has no more temptations.'  The elder replied, 'Go and pray to the Lord to stir up your passions once again, for the soul is made strong only in battle.  And when this happens, do not pray that the struggle be taken away from you, but only say, 'Lord, give me strength to get through the fight.'"

-As extracted from The Monks Of New Skete's In the Spirit of Happiness