When our soul is troubled (St. Diadochus of Photice)

When the soul is agitated by anger, or troubled by dissipation or oppressed by heavy discouragement, no matter what violence it does itself, the mind cannot achieve recollection of the Lord Jesus…But when the soul frees itself from passions, then it possesses the very grace that meditates with it and cries to the Lord Jesus, just as a mother teaches her little child the world “father,” repeating it with him until, instead of the usual baby’s babble, he learns to call his father distinctly by name, even in his sleep. That is why the Apostle says: “The Spirit likewise comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us by unutterable groanings” (Rom 8:26)

(Chapters on Spiritual Perfection, 78, from the ‘Philocalia’)