from the Hexaëmeron*
Saint Basil the Great
As thou takest thy seat at table, pray. As thou liftest the loaf, offer thanks to the Giver. When thou sustainest thy bodily weakness with wine, remember Him Who supplies thee with this gift, to make thy heart glad and to comfort thy infirmity. Has thy need for taking food passed away? Let not the thought of thy Benefactor pass away too.
As thou art putting on thy clothing, thank the Giver of it. As thou wrappest thy coat about thee, feel yet greater love to God, Who alike in summer and in winter has given us coverings convenient for us, at once to preserve our life, and to cover what is unseemly.
Is the day done? Give thanks to Him Who has given us the sun for our daily work, and has provided for us a fire to light up the night, and to serve the rest of the needs of life. Let night give the other occasion of prayer.
When thou lookest up to heaven and gazest at the beauty of the stars, pray to the Lord of the visible world; pray to God the Arch-artificer of the universe, Who in wisdom hath made them all.
When thou seest all nature sunk in sleep, then again worship Him Who gives us even against our wills release from the continuous strain of toil, and by a short refreshment restores us once again to the vigor of our strength. Let not night herself be all, as it were, the special and peculiar property of sleep. Let not half thy life be useless through the senselessness of slumber. Divide the time of night between sleep and prayer. Nay, let thy slumbers be themselves experiences in piety; for it is only natural that our sleeping dreams should be for the most part echoes of the anxieties of the day. As have been our conduct and pursuits, so will inevitably be our dreams. Thus wilt thou pray without ceasing; if thou prayest not only in words, but unitest thyself to God through all the course of life and so thy life be made one ceaseless and uninterrupted prayer.
And from Saint Peter of Damascus
If anyone through the virtues of body and soul has received knowledge of things, and of the mysteries hidden in the words of the holy fathers, of the divine Scriptures, and especially of the Holy Gospels, he will never lose his longing or cease from shedding the tears that come to him unbidden.
And we, too, who do no more than listen to the Scriptures, should devote ourselves to them and meditate on them so constantly that through our persistence a longing for God is impressed upon our hearts, as St. Maximos says. For this is what the holy fathers did before they acquired direct spiritual knowledge. All the longing of the martyrs was directed solely toward God. They were united to Him through love and sang His praises, as St. John of Damaskos says of the three holy children: 'These most blessed children, risking their lives in Babylon for their ancestral laws, disdained the foolish commandment of their king; cast into the flames yet not consumed, they sang a hymn worthy of the One who kept them safe.' This is quite natural; for when a person truly perceives God's marvels he is wholly beside himself and is oblivious of this transient life because he has understood the divine Scriptures, as St. Isaac puts it.
*In the Hexaëmeron (“Six Days”), nine Lenten sermons on the days of the Creation, Saint Basil speaks of the varied beauty of the world as reflecting the splendor of God.
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