A Bucket Full of Light

A brother said to an old man, “See, Abba, I frequently ask the Fathers to give me an earnest reminder for the salvation of my soul, and I do not remember a thing of what they tell me.”

Now the old man had two empty vessels, and he said to the brother, “Go, bring one of the vessels and pour water in it; rinse it, pour it out, and put it back in its place, all shiny.”

The brother did this several times, and the old man said to him, “Bring both vessels at once.”

And when he had brought them, he said, “Of the two, which one is cleaner?”

The brother answered, “The one I put water in and cleaned.”

Then the old man said to him, “Son, thus it is with the soul that frequently hears the word of God; though the soul remembers nothing of what she asked, she is nonetheless cleansed more than the soul that did not inquire.”

— Vitae Patrum
(taken from Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East, Irénée Hausherr, SJ – p.248)

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