Our motivations for doing things are not always as clear as we might think, or as pure and unselfish as they need to be. Ideally, we should, like Paul, be impelled by love in all that we do—echoing Saint Augustine’s adage, love and do what you will. Unfortunately, pure love and unselfish love cannot be presumed, even when we think our reasons for acting are motivated by charity. Accordingly, before we can let love safely impel us, our love needs to be purified and reflect its divine source—the Spirit—whose very being is synonymous with love. The long spiritual struggle (that is our monastic life) is the simple yet extremely difficult process of opening our hearts to the Spirit and to that love that the Spirit pours into our hearts, enabling us—in every circumstance—to be safely impelled by love.