The one who has left the world in order to shake off the weight of his own sins, should be as those who dwell outside the city in the grave-yard. He should not cease his stream of hot and fiery tears and the unvoiced grieving of his heart until he also sees that Jesus has come to him and taken away the hard stone covering his heart and unbound Lazarus, which is to say, our mind, from the bonds of sin, and commanded his serving angels to release him from his lusts that he may go to blessed dispassion. If not, he will have attained nothing.

Climacus, John. The Ladder of Divine Ascent