those who love your name. For you, Lord, bless the just; you surround them with favor like a shield."
Psalm 5:12-13
"Because the Deity is goodness itself, true mercy and an abyss of loving bounty - or, rather, He is that which
embraces and contains this abyss, since He transcends 'every name that is named' (Ephesians 1:21) and
everything we can conceive - we can receive mercy only by union with Him. We unite ourselves to Him, in so far
as this is possible, by participating in the godlike virtues and by entering into communion with Him through prayer
and praise. Because the virtues are similtudes of God, to participate in them puts us in a fit state to receive the
Deity, yet it does not actually unite us to Him. But prayer through its sacral and hieratic power actualizes our ascent
to and union with the Deity..."
Saint Gregory Palamas
Three Texts on Prayer and Purity of Heart - I
The Philokalia Volume 4, page 343