And in order to manifest this deed as clearly as possible, it is explained by the quality of our spirit, in the essence (nature) of which God Himself has invested the sense of Divinity; the consciousness that there is a God – the Creator of all things, an involuntary feeling of His being, depending on Him, a premonition of Him, a kind of divinatory foreknowledge of Him, an idea – an idea.

And this is something akin to the Divinity, as His inhalation – the organ for receiving His revelations and His very effects on our spirit; is the place of our union with God, where God appears to our consciousness, to the extent of our capacity, according to the power of faith, purity and humility. Were it not for this Divine feeling in our spirit, the very presence of the Infinite Being, as theologians teach, would not be cognizable to us. And the revelation of Him could not be accepted and assimilated by man. In a word, there would be no possibility of discovering a mental, immaterial object – God.

Now it is clear that when we enter with our consciousness, thought, and attention into this sacred tabernacle of our spirit, where God dwells, then of necessity we are illumined by the light of His face; we are permeated by His Divine power, we enter into the closest unity with Him, and, being one in spirit, we partake of the firstfruits of eternal life for the sake of the fact that we abide in God and God dwells in us.

About this living communion of ours with God, or the union of our spirit with Him, all the Holy Fathers in their writings teach and testify as with a loud trumpet, because it is the goal of our existence on earth.

We cite an excerpt from the works of Bishop Theophan about this.

"Man's ultimate goal is in God, in communion or living union with God. Created in the image and likeness of God [however, man was created in the image (Gen. 1:27) of God, although he was intended to be created in the image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). As for Gen. 5:1, in translation 72 it is translated differently from the civil synodal, namely: in the image of God create him – here translated according to the text of the Ostrog Bible. Therefore, we are created (although it would be more correct to speak of birth – and breathed into his face the breath of life (Gen. 2, 7). This is said only about man) in the image, and to the likeness (according to the interpretation of some Holy Fathers, beginning with St. Gregory of Nyssa) we must strive, receiving it in Christ – Ed.], man by his very nature is a certain image of the Divine race. Being the race of God, he cannot but seek communion with God, not only as his principle and prototype, but also as the supreme good. That is why our heart is sufficient only when it possesses God and is possessed by God. Nothing but God calms him down.

Solomon knew much, possessed much, and enjoyed much, but at last he had to recognize all this as vanity and corruption (Ecclesiastes 1:8; 1718; 3,1011; 8:17). There is only one rest for man in God: what I have in heaven, and from Thee what we desire on earth: my heart and my flesh shall perish, O God of my heart, and my portion, God for ever (Psalm 72:2526). "In God, life," teaches St. Basil the Great, "alienation and separation from God is an evil more intolerable than even the future torments of Gehenna, an evil that is the most grievous for man, as the deprivation of light for the eye and the taking of life for an animal." And again: "What was the primary good for the soul? Being with God and being united with Him through love. Having fallen away from Him, she began to suffer" (The Works of the Holy Father Basil the Great, Volume 4, p.154).