Once a priest had a vision while celebrating the Holy Liturgy. The church was full of people. He saw a crowd of men without heads and in another place some heads without bodies. Not understanding this vision, an angel from God explained him its meaning.
The angel told him that those headless people he had seen were the believers who had come to the church with their bodies but their mind did not pay attention to the Holy Liturgy, wandering far away with their thoughts, reaching the other side of the earth with them and getting back. And those heads without bodies were the Christians who couldn’t come to the church for good reasons, being sick or taking care of sick…however their mind is focused on prayer and they take part at the Holy Liturgy with their spirit. Those were indeed present in the church.
In the same way a Christian had been praying to God for years but he used to read them as if they had been some poems, he did everything formally, without living at all the prayers he said. Once when he was facing a hard trial cried aloud to God saying from the bottom of his heart:
God, don’t leave me! And God did not delay to answer to his call and said gently: `Here I am, my child.`
`God, but I have been praying to you for so long and You’ve heard me only now?` `Oh, my son, you’ve been praying for 7 years but I’ve heard you just now because only now you’ve called me indeed. How could I have heard you before when you didn’t hear yourself?
And that’s the way it is, brothers, because God wants us to pray to Him fervently from all our heart, with mind and soul, not just saying some prayers with our mouth without living them at all. A thousand of prayers doesn’t value as much as a deep sigh from the bottom of our hearts, a pure thought turned to God, even if it is one of repentance.
Thus let us call God like a baby who had lost his mother and cries and weeps with all the strength of his heart: `Mother, where are you? Help me!`
Source: luminapentrucandeladinsuflet.wordpress.com
