I am that prodigal son who took to himself his share of the inheritance, for I did not wish to preserve my strength for you and set out for a distant land, the region of unlikeness, behaving as one of the dumb beasts and made like them. There I squandered all I owned in riotous living and so I began to feel want. Unhappy want, not only lacking bread but unable even to profit by the food of pigs. Following the most unclean of animals I wandered in the desert, in a waterless country, searching in vain for the way to a cityI could dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, my soul wasted away in suffering.
Aelred of Rievaulx
Sermon 6.2-7; CF 11:48-49.
