St. Maximus the Confessor ca. 580-662
A soul can never attain the knowledge of God unless God Himself in His condescension takes hold of it and raises it up to Himself. For the human intellect lacks the power to ascend and to participate in divine illumination, unless God Himself draws it up – in so far as this is possible for the human intellect – and illumines it with rays of divine light. (Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God 31)
