SO GOOD QUOTES

From this it follows that leaving the world is nothing other than cleaning up your entire external life, removing from it everything passionate and replacing it with something pure, which will not disrupt the spiritual life, but rather aid it.  Be it in family, personal or social life—completely re-order your outward behavior in and outside the home, with friends and associates, as the spirit of your new life requires it.  Establish rules and order in every part of the home, at work, with acquaintances, and when, how and with whom you spend your time.

How can this be done?  However you can, only do it with counsel and discernment, according to the guidance of your spiritual father, or someone you trust.  Some people do this suddenly, and it seems better, while others do it by degrees.  Only, from the first minute you should come to hate with all your heart everything worldly and sinful, and estrange yourself from it, not wanting it or delighting in it.  Do not be conformed to this world (Romans 12.2).  After inwardly abandoning the world, visible departure may follow either suddenly or gradually.  A man who is weak in spirit will not bear a long drawn-out abandonment—he will not stand firm, will weaken and fall.  Such ones are especially overcome by passions of the flesh, which are like second nature to him.  Therefore such people should always leave it all suddenly, going far away from that place where they wallowed in sin.  A man strong in the spirit of zeal will bear it even by degrees.  But for the former as well as the latter, it is absolutely necessary from the first moment of conversion to cease all association with the sinful world and everything worldly until the form of new life has been established.  This is the same as fencing around a transplanted tree; for though the wind be soft, it could blow the tree over because its roots are still weak.

St. Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation