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Saint Symeon the New Theologian Ancestral Sin

| Because Adam believed the devil who had told him his lies, and tasted of the tree of knowledge, therefore, as one who had believed a liar, he fell away from the truth. After this, human nature labored a great deal seeking the truth but could not find it.

Saint John Chyrsostom Concerning Almsgiving and the Ten Virgins

| You abandon everything and present yourselves in Church. This is a great laudation for our city: it possesses an earnest and attentive population, and not noise, suburbs, and spacious houses covered with streams of gold. For we recognize the nobility of a tree not from its leaves, but from its fruits.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian Human Nature and the Incarnation

| Inasmuch as human nature lost its blessed state through the transgression of Adam, it is essential for us to know what Adam was before the loss of the blessed state, and in what consisted this blessed state, or that good and divine condition which man had before the transgression. The Holy Fathers tell us that God became man in order that through His becoming man He might again raise up human nature into the blessed state.

Priest George Florovsky Immortality, Resurrection and Redemption

| The Word became flesh: in this is the ultimate joy of the Christian faith. In this is the fullness of Revelation. The Same Incarnate Lord is both perfect God and perfect man. The full significance and the ultimate purpose of human existence is revealed and realized in and through the Incarnation. He came down from Heaven to redeem the earth, to unite man with God for ever. “And became man.

Saint John Chyrsostom On Repentance and Prayer

| Wherever shepherds see dense grass, they lead the sheep there; they do not lead them away prematurely, before the flocks have sheared close all of the grass. We,too, imitate the sheep. Presently this is the fourth day that we have put this flock to graze in the way of repentance. Yet, not even today are we prepared to take it away from here. For we realize that there is still abundant grazing coupled with much delight and benefit.