After we have undergone purification and illumination, “God no longer comes to us as before without appearance and without image . . . He comes under a certain image, and yet it is the image of God . . . [He] makes Himself seen in His simplicity, formed out of  formless, incomprehensible, ineffable light . . . He makes Himself seen clearly, He is perfectly recognizable, He speaks and hears in a way that cannot be expressed. He who is God by nature converses with those whom He has made gods by grace, as a friend converses with His friends, face to face. He loves His sons as a Father; He is loved by them beyond all measure. He becomes in them a wondrous knowledge, a dreadful hearing. They cannot speak of Him as they ought, nor can they any longer keep silence” (Symeon the New Theologian, Sermon 90).