LOVE OF ATTACHMENTS by Saint Maximos the Confessor

LOVE OF ATTACHMENTS
by Saint Maximos the Confessor

Whenever a man loves something, he is absolutely attached to it and despises all impediments to his enjoyment thereof, lest he be deprived of it. 

He who loves God is diligent to cultivate pure prayer and casts out from his soul every passion that impedes him in the attainment thereof.

He who truly loves God unfailingly prays to Him without distraction; and he who prays without distraction truly loves God.  No one who has his mind fixed on any earthly thing can pray without distraction.

When a man allows his mind to dally for a long time with something perceptible, he certainly has a passionate attachment to it: either he desires it, or it causes him distress, or stirs him to anger, or becomes an occasion for rancor. In such a case, unless he scorns that very thing, he cannot be freed from the corresponding passion.