The world may take everything from me, but I will always have a refuge that protects me from it – prayer. In it, I can understand the past and the present, even the future, through hope… Besides prayer, I have nothing to offer God, so I can consider it my only gift. I cannot fast, I have nothing to give as alms, I lack the strength to work; the only things left to me are suffering and prayer. But I have never had greater treasures. And I never want anything else.
(St. Raphael of St. Joseph /1835–1907/, notes from exile in Siberia)
