God's grace or favor toward us always is known or experienced as
personal encounter. Bishop Kallistos Ware insists that "grace is not
just a 'gift' of God, not just an object which God bestows on men, but a
direct manifestation of the living God Himself, a personal confrontation
between creature and Creator....When we say that the Saints have been
transformed or deified by the grace of God, what we mean is that they
have a direct experience of God Himself. They know God...." Blessed is
the penitent whose face is lifted up by the hand of God!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodoxdynamis/message/2503