Our venerable Father Paisios of Mount Athos, striving zealously for the salvation of his soul and emulating the "wise bee," had the good habit — especially as a novice monk — of copying various passages from the Holy Scripture and from the patristic and ascetic books he studied, which he considered useful for his spiritual struggle.

At first, he jotted them down roughly, and then, as many accumulated, he copied them into a notebook, organizing them by topics. When one notebook was filled, he transcribed them into a larger one. In this way, by writing and rewriting the same passages, they imprinted on his memory and he could perform, as he said, “study without a book.”

This collection is also such a notebook, which the Venerable Father himself named: “The Little Flower Garden with Fragrant Spiritual Flowers and Healing Herbs for the Soul.” This collection — perhaps the last that the Venerable Father compiled — he had sent to the Desert Dwelling Hermitage in the early years of our monastic life, offering us another provision for our spiritual struggle.

[...] The abbess of the Holy Desert Hermitage, Sister Philoithee Monk, and her Sister in Christ (From the preface of the edition)