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When you love someone, you like to think about what you’re going to do when you see him;  how you are going to approach him,  and give him the gift that you have brought and wrapped especially for him.

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The same thing is happening here both on the part of the pilgrim and on the part of God.  The heart of the pilgrim is not occupied by a single ascent or a single highway, but by the entire country, the whole of the Temple, all of Mount Sion.

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God prepares things for the heart, the heart prepares itself for God.

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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra