“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” (Matthew 22:37-38). But do we?

The wandering seeker in that classic book on the Jesus prayer, The Way of a Pilgrim, asked incredulously “How is it possible not to love God our Creator and preserver?” But the wise old monk to whom he had gone for confession responded, “Turning my eyes carefully upon myself and watching the course of my inward state, I have verified by experience that I do not love God.... For if I loved God I should be continually thinking about Him with heartfelt joy. Every thought of God would give me gladness and delight. On the contrary, I much more eagerly think about earthly things, and thinking about God is labor and dryness. If I loved God, then talking with Him in prayer would be my nourishment and delight and would draw me to unbroken communion with Him. But, on the contrary, I not only find no delight in prayer, but even find it an effort.... If one person loves another, he thinks of him throughout the day without ceasing, he pictures him to himself, he cares for him, and in all circumstances his beloved friend is never out of his thoughts. But I, throughout the day, scarcely set aside even a single hour in which to sink deep down into meditation upon God, to inflame my heart with love of Him...”