“You are often forced to do what is good. But it mustn’t be done under duress; it’s not beneficial, it’s not spiritually edifying. Take, for example, the Jesus Prayer. If you force yourself to say it, after a time you will weary of it and you will throw it away; and then what happens? If you do it as a chore, the pressure builds up inside you until it bursts out in some evil. Pressure of this kind can even make you not want to go to church at all. Go to church in a different spirit, not with pushing and shoving, but with pleasure and joy. For this to happen, you must pay attention and take pleasure and joy in the services, in the hymns, the readings and the prayers. Listen to each word and follow the meanings. Do you see? This is where the joy comes from There is, however, another great danger. If we don’t pay attention, we may listen to and sing everything mechanically… When a person hears it without participating, he wearies of it, he dozes off, he doesn’t enter more deeply into the words, he becomes bored and then reaction sets in. Thereafter he finds no benefit and no joy.”
– ‘Wounded by Love’

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