Wealth And Salvation

Ὅσα καὶ κτάται σπανίως, ὡς πολύτιμα, καὶ τηρεῖται δυσκόλως, ὡς ἐπίβουλα, καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχει χρῆσιν τοῖς εὐτελέσι καὶ εὐώνοις, ταῦτα Χριστιανῶν οὐ κτήσεως μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὕψεως ἠλλοτριῶσθαι προσήκει· οἶα ταῖς μὲν εἰς τοὺς πένητας λυμαινόμενα εὐποιίαις· τοῖς δὲ κεκτημένοις βασκαίνοντα τῆς σωτηρίας.  Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΥΝΕ', Συμμαχῳ Source: Migne PG 78.433a

How like a rare sickness is one's great evaluation, and its retention is a pain, like a snare, and the same things such a man judges cheap and poor, these things are not only the possession of the Christian, but to a different height he advances; one, then, is cleansed by good deeds to the poor and the other by things owned spurns salvation Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 455, To Symmachos