Our self-love interferes and opposes every good deed of ours, spoils it and corrupts it, and it especially hinders the offering of pure prayer to God.
From egoism and self-love come all misfortunes. They do not like when others touch us and they get so stirred up that you can’t protect yourself from their thoughts. They produce disgusting thoughts, like locusts, that devour not only spiritual fruit, but the leaves and the root itself.
