Does the human being grow continually, both here and in the age to come?

St. Augustine says, “May I remember You, understand You, love You. Increase these things in me, until You renew me wholly.”⁵⁰⁸

St. Basil also says, “Examine the actions of each day, compare them with those of the previous day and press on toward improvement. Advance in virtue, that you may become a companion of the angels. Spend your time in retirement, not for days nor months, but throughout many years, praising your Lord in song, night and day, in imitation of the Cherubim. If thus you begin and thus make an end, traveling the straight road for the short time of your probation, you will, by the grace of God, enter into paradise with the lamp of your soul brilliantly alight, to rejoice with Christ for ever and ever. Amen.”⁵⁰⁹

And St. Jacob of Sarug says, “Whoever strives to pursue perfection and hopes to ascend to heaven and aspires to walk the path of elevation, cannot stop at a certain level, thinking that he has completed his work and has no need of climbing further to another level. He must hasten daily to rise to the heights, until death opens before him the door that conveys him to the harbor of the saints.”⁵¹⁰