“I shall tell you this as well: the burden of obedience is considered to be an epitome of the rest of the virtues, just as the Cross is of the Lord’s Passion. And just as the thief entered paradise through the cross, we, too, enter the kingdom through obedience as through a cross. Thus, it is obvious that the disobedient are outside the kingdom.”

Monastic Wisdom: The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast