An old man was asked, “What can keep a diligent brother from stumbling when he sees others returning to the world?” And he replied, “One ought to observe the way dogs chase after rabbits. When one of them sees a rabbit, he pursues it until he catches it, not letting anything hinder his pursuit. The other dogs see only the dog in pursuit and they run with him for a time, but then after a while they reconsider and turn back. Only the one who has seen the rabbit pursues it until he catches it, and he is not hindered from his goal by those who turned back. He does not think about cliffs, undergrowth, or thorns. So it is with the one who seeks Christ the Master: always focusing his attention always on the cross, he jumps over every occasion for stumbling until he reaches the Crucified One.
