For when one has pity on the poor, he lends to God; and he who gives to the least gives to God--sacrifices spiritually to God an odour of a sweet smell.
-St. Cyprian of Carthage, The Lord`s Prayer, 33. B#41, p.102, 3rd century


"Christian love is the `possible impossibility` to see Christ in another man, whoever he is..."
-Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent, 20th Century


So great was the honour and providential care which God bestowed upon man that He brought the entire sensible world into being before him and for his sake. The kingdom of heaven was prepared for him from the foundation of the world (cf. Matt. 25:34); God first took counsel concerning him, and then he was fashioned by God`s hand and according to the image of God (cf. Gen. 1:26-27). God did not form the whole man from matter and from the elements of this sensible world, as He did the other animals. He formed only man`s body from these materials; but man`s soul He took from things supercelestial or, rather, it came from God Himself when mysteriously He breathed life into man (cf. Gen. 2:7).
-St. Gregory Palamas, Topics of Natural and Theological Science no. 24, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 356, 14th century