For Meditation: "and when my all of strength shall fail"

"What though my shrinking flesh complain
  And murmur to contend so long?
I rise superior to my pain;
  When I am weak, then I am strong;
And when my all of strength shall fail
I shall with the God-man prevail.

Yield to me now--for I am weak
 But confident in self-despair!
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
  Be conquered by my instant prayer;
Speak, or thou never hence shall move,
  And tell me if thy name is LOVE.

'Tis Love!  'Tis Love!  Thou diedst for me;
  I hear thy whisper in my heart,
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
  Pure Universal Love thou art;
To me, to all, thy bowels move--
  Thy nature, and thy name, is LOVE."

Charles Wesley, "Wrestling Jacob"

For Meditation: "poisons the spiritual energy"

"The basic disease is sloth.  It is that strange laziness and passivity of our entire being which always pushes us 'down' rather than 'up'--which constantly convinces us that no change is possible, and therefore desirable.  It is in fact a deeply rooted cynicism which to every challenge responds 'what for?' and makes our life one tremendous spiritual waste.  It is the root of all sin because it poisons the spiritual energy at its vital source.

The result of sloth is faint-heartedness.  It is the state of despondency which all spiritual fathers considered the greatest danger for the soul.  Despondency is the impossibility for man to see anything good or positive; it is the reduction of everything to negativism and pessimism.  It is truly a demonic power in us because the Devil is fundamentally a liar.  He lies to man about God and about the world; he fills life with darkness and negation.  Despondency is the suicide of the soul because when man is possessed by it he is absolutely unable to see the light and to desire it."

Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent (2003), 34-35.