Careful Progress

Καλῶς μεν ἤρξω ἀνδρίζεσθαι, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ νῦν, ὡς μανθάνομεν. Ἀλλ' ὅμοιος εἴ τοϊς σπαρεϊσιν ἐπὶ τῆς πέτρας, εὐσθὺς μὲν ἐξανατείλασιν, ἐν δὲ καιρῷ καρπῶν ἀντονήσασι. Χρὴ δὲ τὸν τοῦ ἀγῶνος τῶν μοναχῶν ἐφιέμενον, ὡς πύργου οἰκοδομῇ τῇ τούτου προσελθεϊν ὑποταγῇ, μήποτε φιλοτίμως ἀρξάμενος, καὶ πρὸς ὁμοίαν εὐοδίαν μὴ ἐκτεινόμενος, δαίμοσε μὲν καταγέλαστος, ἀγγέλοις δὲ λύπης αἴτιος, ἀνθρώποις δὲ δακρύων πρόφασις γένηται. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΤΟΒ', Ἰωσηφ Source: Migne PG 78.393b

Certainly you are beginning to become strong, but you are not yet strong, so we have learnt. No, you are like the seed sown amid stones, which immediately springs up but in a moment the fruits wither. 1 It is necessary for one who has entered into monastic struggles to discipline himself like one taking to the long building of a tower, lest in the beginning, seeming to be great, he does not hold to the right way at all, and he makes demons laugh, and is a cause of angels' laments, and report of him turns men to tears. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 372, To Joseph 1 Mt 13.5-7