Such attention to God can only make the fruit of a general pacification of our whole being. ‘The uncontrolled passions that cut across the sensibility, the anxieties, the excessive joys; all that should progressively find the path of order, with the help of God, but also through all sorts of wise practices.

By working with his hands, the monk practices humility; he also brings his whole body under control so as better to attain stability of mind…It sometimes happens also that the very weight of our work acts as a sort of anchor to the ebb and flow of our thought, thus enabling our heart to remain fixed upon God without mental fatigue. (1.5.3) –A. Carthusian