“The vain desires of this world separate us from our homeland; love of them and habit clothe our soul as if in a hideous garment… We, traveling on the journey of this life and calling on God to help us, ought to be divesting ourselves of this hideous garment and clothing ourselves in new desires, in a new love of the age to come, and thereby to receive knowledge of how near or how far we are from our heavenly homeland. But it is not possible to do this quickly…”

(St Herman of Alaska, 1820 letter)