Sayings of The Holy Fathers:

+ + +

"...we are not without hope of salvation, nor is it at all the right time for us to despair. All our life is a season of repentance, for God 'desires not the death of the sinner', as it is written, 'but that the wicked turn from his way and live' (cf. Ez. 33:11 LXX). For, if there were no hope of turning back, why would death not have followed immediately on disobedience, and why would we not be deprived of life as soon as we sin? For where there is hope of turning back, there is no room for despair."

From St. Gregory Palamas

The Homilies Vol. 2, Homily Twenty-Two para. 6; St. Tikhon's Seminary Press pg. 3

+ + +

It happens, I do not how, that most of those who are proud never really discover their true selves. They think they have conquered their passions, and they find out how poor they really are only after they die.

St. John Climacus

The Spiritual Meadow, 23

+ + +

" Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you do not have eternal life in you' (Jn. 6:53). For those who do not receive Jesus through the sacrament will continue to remain utterly bereft of any share in the life of holiness and blessedness and without any taste of it whatsoever. For He is Life by nature, seeing that He was born of a living Father. And His holy body is no less life-giving, for it has been constituted in some way and ineffably united with the Word that gives life to all things."

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria: The Early Church Fathers by Norman Russell, Commentary on John 6:53; Routledge pg. 115