On Depression and Doubts

St. John Moschos ca. 550-619

A brother who was in the grips of depression asked an elder: ‘What am I to do; for I am assailed by doubts which say to me: “You became a monk in vain; you cannot be saved”?’ The elder replied: ‘You know, brother, even if we cannot enter the promised land, it is better for our bones to fall in the wilderness than for us to turn back to Egypt’. (The Spiritual Meadow 208)