Corruption, vanity, idleness, amusement, and worry tear us away from God. They make us slaves to our earthly life.
"Night comes with its shadows, the pallid sheen of the night lights of the sky. It collects people from the surface of the earth into their tents, their refuges. In theses refuges is found only boredom and emptiness of soul. And so they try to drown out their torture with mindless diversions; idleness and perversion of temperament give way to loud amusements, and the vessels of the temple of God - the mind, heart, the body - are used by Belshazzar* for vile ends. The slave of the earth, the slave of temporal earthly cares has barely managed to tear himself away from the worries that inundated him during the course of the day, but in the silence of night he prepares for himself new worries for the coming day. His days and nights - his entire life are a sacrifice to vanity and corruption."
- St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. "Blessed is the Man." The Refuge: Anchoring the Soul in God, Nicholas Kotar, trans., Volume 2 of The Collected Works of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Holy Trinity Publications, 2019, p. 6.
* Belshazzar is the King of Babylon featured in the Old Testament Book of Daniel. He represents someone who focuses on earthly things, forgets to honor God, and refuses to repent.
