The Christ Form

"....We are in a sense our own parents, and we give birth to our selves by our own free choice of what is good. Such a choice becomes possible for us when we have received God into ourselves and have become children of God, children of the Most High. On the other hand, if what the Apostle calls the form of Christ has not been produced in  us, we abort ourselves."

Homily on Ecclesiastes, by St. Gregory of Nyssa