277. If you want to serve God, prepare your heart not for food and drink, nor for rest and ease, but for patience, that you may endure all manner of temptations, troubles and sorrows. Prepare yourself for hardships, fasts, spiritual struggles and many tribulations, for "we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God" (Acts.14:22); and "the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." (Mat.11:12)

(St. Sergius of Radonezh, Life, 10)