​​“We cannot have trust in someone whom we know only superficially. We must know this someone, we must have created a relationship with him.  In the end it is necessary to love this someone in order to have confidence in him.  Our knowledge of God does not come from books, nor is it the result of reflection. To arrive at knowledge of God, it is necessary to cultivate a relationship with Him. We do not know God as an idea, as the result of a process of thought. It is something else entirely: God is known through an immediate relationship, and it is this which we must seek.”

Alexander Schmemann