CCC 2015

The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.⁶⁸ Cf. 2 Tim 4. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:

He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.⁶⁹ St. Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. in Cant. 8: PG 44, 941PG — Patrologia Graeca (Migne)C.