“Will many of us be saved? I shall be the first to perish. I see others, too, who are slaves to their passions. And when I meet people of the world, I see that they live in profound ignorance, listless and unrepentant. And thus, little by little, without even noticing, I was drawn to pray for the world. The thought distressed me that if we, monks who have renounced the world, do not find salvation, what must it be like in the world? My sorrow gradually increased and I started weeping tears of despair. And now, last year when I was in such despair, tired of weeping, lying face down on the floor, the Lord appeared to me and asked, ‘Why weepest thou?’ I was silent. ‘Dost thou not know that it is I Who will judge the world?’ I still keep silent. The Lord says, ‘I will have mercy on every man who, if only once in his life, has called upon God’… The thought crossed my mind, ‘So what is the use of us tormenting ourselves day after day?’ To which the Lord replied, ‘Those who suffer because of My commandment will be My friends in the Kingdom of Heaven: the others I will merely have mercy upon.’ With this the Lord retired.” - An unnamed Hermit, Saint Silouan the Athonite, p. 199