“…before his conversion on the Damascus Road, Paul was suffering from paranoia, was out of his right mind. And afterwards he was in a state of metanoia—and metanoia means being turned around, repentant, being in a healthy state of mind.” (Madeleine L'Engle)
“When we think about maintaining our health you might not always consider your mind as a part of that process. However, maintaining a healthy mind is extremely important. Furthermore, you may not consider that your relationship with God and your knowledge of His truth and His plan for your life is a part of maintaining a healthy mind. Scripture tells us in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Janice LaVore-Fletcher, PCC, CMC)
“A healthy mind is necessary for discernment, but so is Grace. Grace, the light from God, does not always shine with the same intensity in our lives. That is, sometimes God withholds a certain amount of Grace. (Of course, God never completely withdraws His Grace, for then all creation would cease to exist.) God may withdraw Grace for many possible reasons–or for no reason that reason can comprehend. God is God.” (Fr. Michael Gillis)
“…the natural degree of knowledge, is a knowing that is according to a human being’s created nature, or knowing according to a healthy human mind. This degree of knowledge discerns good from evil and leads to the fear of God. It is a knowing that deduces the existence of God and the reality of judgement from the observation of the creation…and by the initial stages of attention to one’s own inner life (i.e. one might reason, ‘if I judge others for being unkind to me, probably the Creator will judge me for being unkind to others’). Through turning from bestial appetites and merely calculating, worldly ways of knowing, one returns to a healthy state of mind, a mind ruled by a kind of moral (not merely calculating) reason. As one returns to a healthy state of mind, God can grant the gift of faith which “produces fear in us, and fear compels us to repent and to set ourselves to work.” (Fr. Michael Gillis)
“Communion with God is the natural state of the soul. It is what man was created for. Man has alienated himself from this kind of life by sin, and that is why he must strive to attain it once more. All we are trying to do is to return to our former, healthy state.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)