Full, Active, and Conscious Participation --- a Desert story

There once was an Christian emperor who on one Sunday came to the church for the Divine Liturgy. He was apparently praying, but his mind was really occupied with the plans for a new palace. He was considering the site he had chosen for his palace and how the palace would sit on that site and how it all would look. Later, that evening as he slept, he dreamed that he met our Lord Jesus Christ who asked him where he had been for Christ had not seen him at Liturgy. The emperor replied, "Lord, just this morning I was at the Divine Liturgy, did you not see me there." To which our Lord answered, "No, this morning you were on the hill overlooking the site for your new palace --- you were not in the liturgy."

For it is not only our bodies that must be present in the Church when we come for Eucharist, but our whole being, body, mind, heart, and will participating together in prayer that is required of us.
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