'Union with God, in Christian thinking, is not a dissolving of the self. Union is not the absorption and dissolution of the human being into the substance of God. On the contrary, the human person is never more herself as when she is closest to God. The presence of God is a personal presence. It is an intimacy of relationship between two ontologically distinct persons. It is an intimacy that is closer than relationships between two human beings. God knows each human being perfectly. God also knows without measure. To be known and yet to be loved is the foundation of intimacy.'
Gregory E Granssle, Our Deepest Desires, p.130.
