Ascent in Ashes

I found this excerpt at Amy Welborn's blog, and it rings true, after my climb up the Croagh Patrick during my pilgrimage to Ireland as a widower:

"In a very real way, as anybody who climbs at all, will realise, the ascent of a hill closely resembles the route that must be followed in the life of prayer. If we are to reach God, we need to do all the things in the spiritual life that a mountaineer must do to reach an ordinary peak. Climbing a hill means leaving behind all the comforts of the valley, leaving the fireside and the sheltered places, for the bare ridges and the sting of hail and snow; it means too cutting down on equipment to that necessary, and no more, for the ascent. On the spiritual level, the ascent to God means cutting out all the things that are good in themselves but not necessary to us; to reach the heights of prayer is necessary to do much more than merely avoid sin. It is penitential, just as a hard climb is penitential."