Even little children are able to sense the Grace of the Holy Spirit. This is why we notice in some saints that when they were children they didn’t much care for games, as their contemporaries did. Rather, they stood out through their introversion and seriousness, something of the outlook of an Elder. This was the case in the life of Saint Athanasios the Athonite, and also in that of Elder Sophrony, who fell asleep in the Lord in 1993. When he was still in his infancy he was visited by the divine light, uncreated and immaterial. » Abbot Ephraim of Vatopedi
