This will be painful; for vain thoughts will press into thy heart very thick, to draw thy mind down to them. And in doing thus thou shalt find somewhat, but not Jesus whom thou seekest, but only a naked remembrance of His name. But what then shalt thou find. Surely this: a dark and ill-favoured image of thy own soul, which hath neither light of knowledge nor feeling of love of God. This image, if thou behold it heedfully, is all inwrapped and clothed with black stinking rags of sin, as pride, envy, anger, covetousness, gluttony, sloth and luxury. This is not the image of Jesus, but the image of sin, which St Paul calleth a body of sin and of death. (John Climacus)

A distinguished elderly woman explained that on her 75th birthday she had removed all of her clothes and stood naked before the mirror.

She carefully examined every inch of her body. She was horrified by how little resemblance it held to her self-image.

Climacus urges us to an even more courageous self-examination of our soul. He promises this is the way to Jesus.