Oh smallest of human creatures, do you want to find life? Preserve in yourself faith and humility and…in them you will find the one who protects you and dwells secretly with you. When you come before God in prayer, be in your thought like an ant, like something crawling on the ground, like a child lisping. And in his presence make no pretense of knowledge. Approach God rather with the heart of a child. Go into his presence to receive the loving care with which fathers look after their little children. It has been said, ‘The Lord protects little children.’ When God sees that in all purity of heart you are trusting in him more than in yourself…then a strength unknown to you will come to make its dwelling in you. And you will feel in all your senses the power of him who is with you.
ISAAC OF NINEVEH Ascetic Treatises, 19
