If a man desires something, he makes every effort to attain it. But of all things which are good and desirable the divine is incomparably the best and the most desirable. How assiduous, then, we should be in order to attain what is of its very nature good and desirable. (Maximos the Confessor)

Most of us do not make every effort to attain our desires.

Our desires are often rather ill-formed, uncertain, and even in conflict.

But even if our target - secular or sacred - is known, we may not know how to attain it.

I have known a few to be assiduously compulsive in pursuing their desires. Some succeed. Most do not. The cost of assiduous compulsiveness seems high in either case.

Maximos is urging us to climb the Greek philosophers' ladder of eros, as a lover might ascend to the balcony of his beloved.

Have we not, instead, experienced a desire so deep we did not know it, offering itself to us beyond our expectations, and requiring nothing more of us than acceptance?

Is this not our more typical experience of incarnation, sacrament, and grace?