“Abstinence, fasting, keeping vigil, renouncing worldly things, etc., are the means, my child, by which we attain purity of heart. The primary property that characterizes purity of heart is love. So our goal is purity of heart. Without purity, God is not beheld, He is not revealed.  So how can we tell whether we have achieved our goal, whether we have drawn near to it, if   we do not have a pure heart?”
(Elder Ephraim of Arizona in ‘Counsels from the Holy Mountain’)

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