Sayings of The Holy Fathers:

The fact that we do not take pity on ourselves is due to our insensibility in the face of evils. It may be compared to the experience of the insane, whom the violence of the disease prevents also from being sensible to what they suffer. If, therefore, a man knew himself, both what he had once been and what he now is -- for Solomon says somewhere that the wise men know themselves -- he would never cease to have pity; and this habit of soul would surely be followed by the Divine pity. Therefore He says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

St. Gregory of Nyssa
The Beatitudes.

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The temptations are profitable to the person that calmly endures them. Even if we are bothered by a passion, we must not be disturbed. If a person is disturbed when he is bothered by a passion that is a sign of ignorance, pride, not knowing his own condition and of idleness.

Abba Dorotheos
Practical Teaching on the Christian Life.

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"...anyone who receives the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and drinks His precious blood, as He Himself says, comes to be one with Him, mixed and mingled with Him, as it were, through partaking of Him, so that He comes to be in Christ, as Christ in turn is in him... the smallest portion of the sacrament mingles our whole body with itself and fills it with its own energy."

St. Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria: The Early Church Fathers by Norman Russell, Commentary on John 6:56; Routledge pg. 118