“‘The sun is the greatest, the most resplendent, and the most wonderful of heavenly luminaries, but you cannot contemplate and examine it simply with unprotected eyes. You have to use a piece of artificial glass that is many millions of times smaller and darker than the sun. But through this little piece of glass you can examine the magnificent monarch of stars, delight in it, and endure its fiery rays. Holy Scripture also is a dazzling sun, and this book, The Philokalia, is the piece of glass which we use to enable us to contemplate the sun in its imperial splendor.’”

—Anonymous, The Way of a Pilgrim, first published in 1884, translated by R.M. French, 1965. ‘The Love of Spiritual Beauty’, or The Philokalia, is a collection of mystical writings by the Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church.