Nativity Message of St. John Maximovitch, 1962

The Word became flesh; that is, the Son of God, co-eternal with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit, became human - having become incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. O, wondrous, awesome and salvific mystery! The One Who had no beginning took on a beginning according to humanity; the One without flesh assumed flesh. God became man - without ceasing to be God. The Unapproachable One became approachable to all, in the aspect of a humble servant. Why, and for what reason, was there such condescension [shown] on the part of the Creator toward His transgressing creatures - toward humanity which, through an act of its own will, had fallen away from God, its Creator? 

…Behold. Great Lent has come. However, it is not the fasting of the body as much as the fasting of the tongue, of the mind, of the heart, and of the senses that should preoccupy us especially now during Great Lent. Let us purify ourselves with this kind of fasting internally, where spiritual snakes are lurking that poison the life of our soul and deaden our spiritual strength, leaving it unable to correct and transfigure our soul.

…God alone can give man the vision of his own sins. Only through God, can man see his sin and the fall that is the germ, the seed, the summation of all human transgressions.

by St. Gregory Palamas - Homily 58

from  Orthodoxy and the West: Hellenic Self-identity in the Modern Age