When you pray, do not end your prayer without having aroused in your heart some feeling towards God, whether it be reverence, or devotion, or thanksgiving, or glorification, or humility and contrition, or hope and trust. Also when after prayer you begin to read, do not finish reading without having felt in your heart the truth of what you read.
– Saint Theophan the Recluse
When we spend time with a loved one do we not end the time together with a hug or a kiss? If a friend shares an important piece of his or her heart with us, do we not hold that close to our souls?
Such it is with all of our prayers with God and with the reading of His Word.
