Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous are rewarded with blessedness in the Kingdom of God; rather, it is such a height of righteousness that people are so filled with the grace of God that it flows from them even upon those who associate with them.  Great is their blessedness, which proceeds from their direct contemplation of the glory of God.  Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from love of God, they are responsive to men’s needs, and at their entreaties they act as mediators and intercessors for them before God.

- from a sermon by St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco