Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"Reflect, human being that you are, on the great dignity you enjoy, and the degree of purity it would be right for you to exhibit, at least on those occasions when you become a temple in your own right. Now, how would you exhibit this purity? If you were to expel every evil thought, if you were to deny entry of the devil's workings to the precincts of your mind, if you continue to embellish your mind as though in the holy sanctuary. After all, if in the Jewish Temple not every place was open to everyone, but there were many and varied divisions - one place for proselytes, one for those who were Jews from the beginning, one for the priests, one for the high priest alone, and then not at all times but once a year - consider the degree of holiness required of the one receiving far greater symbols than the holy of holies received at that time. It is not the Cherubim that you have, but the very Lord of the Cherubim dwelling within, not jar of manna, or tablets of stone, or Aaron's rod, but the Lord's Body and Blood, and Spirit instead of letter, and grace surpassing human reason, an indescribable gift."
St. John Chrysostom
"The pursuit of the virtues through one's own efforts does not confer complete strength on the soul unless grace transforms them into an essential inner disposition. Each virtue is endowed with its own specific gift of grace, its own particular energy, and thus possesses the capacity to produce such a disposition and blessed state in those who attain it even when they have not consciously sought for any such state."
St. Gregory of Sinai
"In addition to its own efforts to nourish itself spiritually, the mind also attempts as much as possible to bring back the senses toward the mind so that they too may enjoy with its spiritual pleasures and thus become accustomed gradually to prefer them. This is how it happened before with the mind when it becomes accustomed through the senses to prefer physical pleasures. At first, generally speaking, the body attempted through the senses and the physical pleasures to make the mind and the spirit of man into flesh. On the contrary now, the mind seeks purposely through the enjoyment of the immaterial and spiritual realities to uplift the body also from its physical heaviness, and in a sense to make it into spirit, as St. Maximos has witnessed in many of his writings."
St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
St. John Chrysostom
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"The pursuit of the virtues through one's own efforts does not confer complete strength on the soul unless grace transforms them into an essential inner disposition. Each virtue is endowed with its own specific gift of grace, its own particular energy, and thus possesses the capacity to produce such a disposition and blessed state in those who attain it even when they have not consciously sought for any such state."
St. Gregory of Sinai
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"In addition to its own efforts to nourish itself spiritually, the mind also attempts as much as possible to bring back the senses toward the mind so that they too may enjoy with its spiritual pleasures and thus become accustomed gradually to prefer them. This is how it happened before with the mind when it becomes accustomed through the senses to prefer physical pleasures. At first, generally speaking, the body attempted through the senses and the physical pleasures to make the mind and the spirit of man into flesh. On the contrary now, the mind seeks purposely through the enjoyment of the immaterial and spiritual realities to uplift the body also from its physical heaviness, and in a sense to make it into spirit, as St. Maximos has witnessed in many of his writings."
St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
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