When I suffer I can see that I lose my patience. Not only that I need patience, I need longsuffering. A brother asked me once: “is it possible that when we suffer to overcome our sorrow through prayer?” This is the gift of God, I said. Spiritual love overcomes sorrow, as Christ taught us about women who are in the throes of birth, they forget after that about the pains of giving birth. Great deal is, father, to be near the people who struggle, to be part of their pain so that we may pass through the waves of this life safely.

(Translation from Părintele Paisie duhovnicul, Editura Mitropoliei Moldovei şi Bucovinei, Iaşi, 1993, p. 71)