The Presence of Monasticism in the Contemporary World

As men in the trade go down naked into the deep of the sea, into the watery death, to find there pearls that will do for a royal crown, and purple dye, so those who embrace the single life go naked out of the world, and go down into the deep of the sea of evil and into the gulf of darkness, and from those depths they take and bring up precious stones suitable for the crown of Christ, for the heavenly church, for the new age, and the city of light, and a people of angels. (Macarius, Spiritual Homilies, 15.51)