Selected quotes from St. Symeon the New Theologian

"Why am I thus compelled to tell your charity all that God, out of His thirst for our salvation, speaks to us? Simply, in order that through them all you may learn and be persuaded that those who sit in darkness must see the great Light shine, if only they look toward it, and also that none of you may think that though it shone in the past, it is impossible for men of the present day to see it while they are still in the body."

+ + + 

"When it happens that men who are advancing towards spiritual perfection are partly illuminated (that is, only their mind is enlightened), then they see the glory of the Lord intelligibly as if in a mirror. This grace from above teaches them knowledge in a mystical way and confers a revelation of mysteries which lead them from the contemplation of beings to the knowledge of Him Who is beyond all beings."

+ + +

"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."