This week, I decided to write about the passage from Medieval Philosophy about Saint Symeon. In reading this passage, I first learned about his spiritual journey, how he had once taken everything in life for granted and once he was under the guidance of another spiritual being, he was exiled to another land in which he made his own religious community following God. Once he began to do this, he spent more and more time praying alone in a portion of his room. He said that when he prayed, he has a sense of wholeness among the isolation he actually was in. He said that when he prayed to God, he forgot about the struggles he endured or the experiences that broke him down before finding solace in religion. He took a passion in leading a monastic lifestyle because of the way he was saved by God’s grace. As described in the passage, he mentioned that at times he would barely be able to eat for he felt that he was underserving of food and drink, even after the hottest days of being outside and working with his religious mentor. His mentor however forced him to eat and drink, sometimes almost too much , so that he would be able to focus on his purpose and his prayer. Symeon goes on to describe how it felt to pray and his experiences of after prayer, how empty and lonely he once again felt. He says, “But when that infinite Light which had appeared to me- for I can call it by no other fitting or appropriate name- in some way had gently and gradually faded and, as it were, withdrawn itself, I regained possession of myself and realized what its power has suddenly done to me. I reflected on its departure and considered how it had left me again to be alone in this life. So severe was the grief and pain that overcame me that I am at a loss properly to describe how great it was. A varied and most vehement pain was kindled like a fire in my heart”(Symeon 210). I found these profound words to be striking. Saint Symeon’s intense feelings about ending prayer and realizing his position in the world shows the true God in nature, most specifically for him in his mental and spiritual state. When he is not praying he is alone in nature, in his room, in a land where nobody is around with him. When he is in touch with God, he feels whole, heard, lit, alive, and content.