“The crown of every good endeavor and the highest of achievements is diligence in prayer. Through it God guiding us and lending a helping hand, we come to acquire the other virtues. It is in prayer that the saints experience communion in the hidden energy of God’s holiness and inner union with it, and their intellect itself is brought through unutterable love into the presence of the Lord. “
(St Makarios of Egypt, homily in the Philokalia)