Brethren, you should have much piety towards Virgin Mary, for joyful is the family and the house that has inside it an icon of Our Lady and every morning reads her Akatist and Paraklesis, and all know by heart prayers to her.

She is the fourth spiritual face in heaven. First is the Father, then the Son, and the Holy Spirit, i.e. the Holy Trinity, then the fourth is the Mother of God. You heard how the Church sings: Thou the more honorable than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim…Have you heard this? Why?

She carried in her womb the One that created from nothing the cherubims and the seraphims. She didn’t carry a saint in her womb, but the Son of God, the One that created the cherubims and the seraphims with the mind alone she carried in her womb. Thus, she doesn’t communicate God by participation, as the cherubims, the seraphims, or the most blessed thrones do.

(Translated from Ne vorbeşte părintele Cleopa vol. 7, Editura Mănăstirea Sihăstria, p. 22)