Sayings of the Holy Fathers:
"Although the divine vision of created things is very sweet, still it is a shadow of knowledge, and its sweetness is not distinct from the dreams of fantasy. But the divine vision of the new world in the Spirit of revelation, wherein the intellect delights spiritually, is the operation of grace, not a shadow of knowledge. The sweetness of this divine vision is not distinct from that of which the Apostle wrote: 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto the saints by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.' This divine vision is food for the intellect until it becomes able to receive a divine vision higher than the first."
St. Isaac the Syrian
"The Incarnation of the Word, and His assumption of human nature took place for the overthrow of death and destruction, and of that envy nourished against us by the wicked serpent, who was the first cause of evil. This is plainly proved to us by facts themselves. And so He set free the daughter of Abraham from her protracted sickness, calling out and saying, 'Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.' A speech most worthy of God, and full of supernatural power; for with the kingly inclination of His will He drives away the disease. And He also lays His hands upon her; and immediately, it says, she was made straight. And hence, too, it is possible to see that His holy flesh bore in it the power and activity of God. For it was His own flesh, and not that of some other Son beside Him, distinct and separate from Him, as some most impiously imagine [Nestorians]."
St. Cyril of Alexandria
"The man who has purified all the powers of his soul from every form of sin will be able to see that essential Beauty which is the source of everything else that is beautiful and good. The eye that has been cleansed of rheum is able to see heavenly phenomena that may be far distant. So too, the soul, by her incorruptibility, receives the power of seeing that Light; and true virginity and her longing for incorruptibility come to rest in her final goal; for by this she is enabled to see God. For no one could be so blind as not to realize that the God of all things is the first, supreme and unique Goodness, Beauty and Purity."
St. Gregory of Nyssa
St. Isaac the Syrian
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"The Incarnation of the Word, and His assumption of human nature took place for the overthrow of death and destruction, and of that envy nourished against us by the wicked serpent, who was the first cause of evil. This is plainly proved to us by facts themselves. And so He set free the daughter of Abraham from her protracted sickness, calling out and saying, 'Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.' A speech most worthy of God, and full of supernatural power; for with the kingly inclination of His will He drives away the disease. And He also lays His hands upon her; and immediately, it says, she was made straight. And hence, too, it is possible to see that His holy flesh bore in it the power and activity of God. For it was His own flesh, and not that of some other Son beside Him, distinct and separate from Him, as some most impiously imagine [Nestorians]."
St. Cyril of Alexandria
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"The man who has purified all the powers of his soul from every form of sin will be able to see that essential Beauty which is the source of everything else that is beautiful and good. The eye that has been cleansed of rheum is able to see heavenly phenomena that may be far distant. So too, the soul, by her incorruptibility, receives the power of seeing that Light; and true virginity and her longing for incorruptibility come to rest in her final goal; for by this she is enabled to see God. For no one could be so blind as not to realize that the God of all things is the first, supreme and unique Goodness, Beauty and Purity."
St. Gregory of Nyssa
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