Selected quotes from St. Symeon the New Theologian

"If, then, you thus persist with all your strength and soul, knocking, begging, and asking Him, He will not abandon you but, whether through Himself or through one of His servants, He will teach you as many things as you need to do and, through His  grace and the prayers of His servant, will grant you the strength to accomplish them. For without Him you will be able to do nothing. He, though, as I have just said, will be all things to you unceasingly. And if He does not become all things, at least you will be found to be seeking Christ at the hour of your death, at least you will be found subject to His friends and authorities and serving Him through them - for the will of God is the will of His servants - at least you will be found working and not idle, in humility and not in conceit."

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"Therefore, casting out of our souls all faithlessness, sloth, and hesitation, let us draw near with all our heart, with unhesitating faith and burning desire, like slaves who have been newly purchased with precious blood. In deed, with reverence for the price paid on our behalf, and with love for our Master Who paid it, and as having accepted His love for us, let us recognize that, if He had not wished to save by means of Himself us who have been purchased, He would not have come down to earth, nor would He have been slain for our sake. But, as it is written, He has done this because He wills that all should be saved. Listen to Him say it Himself: 'I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world' (Jn.  12:17)."

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"As, for a man who loves life and his body, and is attached to lusts and the world, parting from these objects of his love is death; so for the lover of purity, of the incorporeal God and of virtue even a short separation of his heart from them is true death."