If we were to sit for only more than a few moments, hours perhaps, and give accurate thought as to the greatness of the kingdom of God, we would cease eating and imitate the most extreme ascetics. Bring a picture to your mind, to your eyes that is of heaven, a true portrayal, and tell me: would you not do anything and everything to have what you see.
We must live lives of extreme asceticism, not devoid of faith and relying upon works to appear more righteous than all others, of self hatred and bodily hardship for its own sake, but in love for God and for his kingdom, in secret and simply, and privately to enter heaven.
Let us take up a rule and keep it, caring for the body to remain healthy, yet abandoning all else but work, the curse we must bear to sustain the body and our family in clothing and in food, and love, the blessing that undoes all curses.