To serve God – this is the task of our life, – the most important task, in the face of which everything is nothing, so that if we had tasted all the pleasures of the world, if we had gathered all the treasures of the earth, if we had possessed the crowns of all the kings, the fame of all the heroes, the wisdom of all the sages, if we had made both family and nation and all mankind happy: if we do not serve God, we are nothing and do not live at all, because our life is not life, but an illusion and a dream, followed by a terrible awakening.

Unfortunately, such is the life of many. For some live only to please the senses and satisfy the lower animal needs, and condemn the spirit to darkness and slavery. The motto of their life is these words: “ Let us use the goods of the present, and let us partake of things created quickly. Let us fill ourselves with expensive wine and oils, and let us not pass the flower of time. Let us walk in wreaths of roses until they wither. . . let us leave signs of delight everywhere: for this is our part and this is the lot.” These hardly deserve the honorable name of men, and to them the word of Scripture applies : “Man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he is compared to mindless cattle, and became like them”.