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ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY – MULTILINGUAL ORTHODOXY – EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH – ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΙΑ – SIMBAHANG ORTODOKSO NG SILANGAN – 东正教在中国 – ORTODOXIA – 日本正教会 – ORTODOSSIA – อีสเทิร์นออร์ทอดอกซ์ – ORTHODOXIE – 동방 정교회 – PRAWOSŁAWIE – ORTHODOXE KERK - නැගෙනහිර ඕර්තඩොක්ස් සභාව – СРЦЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНО – BISERICA ORTODOXĂ – GEREJA ORTODOKS – ORTODOKSI – ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ – ORTODOKSE KIRKE – CHÍNH THỐNG GIÁO ĐÔNG PHƯƠNG – EAGLAIS CHEARTCHREIDMHEACH – ՈՒՂՂԱՓԱՌ ԵԿԵՂԵՑԻՆ / Abel-Tasos Gkiouzelis - https://orthodoxsmile.blogspot.com - Email: gkiouz.abel@gmail.com - Feel free to email me...!
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No one can say, “I am poor and have nothing to give”. For even if you cannot
give, as those rich men who put their gifts forward, give two cents, as that
poor widow did, and God accepts your offering better than the gifts of the rich.
Don’t you have that either? But you have physical strength, and you can by
your ministry have mercy on the sick. You can’t even do that? You can by your
good word comfort your brother. Have mercy on him then with your good word
and listen to the one who says: “A good word is better than material gifts.”
Suppose that even with the word you can’t have mercy. But you can, if your
brother is angry with you, have mercy on him and bear with him in his hour of
trouble, since you see him harassed by the common enemy, the devil. So
instead of saying a word to him and agitating him further, keep silent and have
mercy on his soul, taking it out of the hands of the enemy.
— Saint Dorotheos of Gaza
https://www.orthodoxpath.org/saints-and-elders-counsels/there-is-always-something-to-give-2/
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On Angels, their Creation, Essence and Nature (St. John the Damascene)
The basis of life is love: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. (Mk. 12:30-31). Because of our sinfulness, none of us is capable of loving God and our neighbors in such a complete and perfect manner. Only Jesus Christ truly loved everyone, even His enemies.
God is Himself the Maker and Creator of the angels; He brought them out of nothing into being and created them after His own image, an incorporeal race (having no material body or form, Ed.), a sort of spirit or immaterial fire. In the words of the divine David, He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. And He has described their lightness and the ardour, and heat, and keenness and sharpness with which they hunger for God and serve Him, and how they are borne to the regions above and are quite delivered from all material thought.
An angel, then, is an intelligent essence, in perpetual motion, with free-will, incorporeal, ministering to God, having obtained by grace an immortal nature; and the Creator alone knows the form and limitation of its essence. But all that we can understand is, that it is incorporeal and immaterial. For all that is compared with God Who alone is incomparable, we find to be dense and material. For in reality only the Deity is immaterial and incorporeal.
The angel’s nature then is rational, and intelligent, and endowed with free-will, change, able in will, or fickle. For all that is created is changeable, and only that which is uncreated is unchangeable. Also, all that is rational is endowed with free-will. As it is, then, rational and intelligent, it is endowed with free-will; and as it is created, it is changeable, having power either to abide or progress in goodness, or to turn towards evil.
It is not susceptible of repentance because it is incorporeal or uncarnate, i.e., without the nature of a body or substance. For it is owing to the weakness of his body that man comes to have repentance.
It is immortal, not by natures but by grace. For all that has had beginning comes also to its natural end. But God alone is eternal, or rather, He is above the Eternal; for He, the Creator of times, is not under the dominion of time, but above time.
They are secondary intelligent lights derived from that first light which is without beginning, for they have the power of illumination; they have no need of tongue or hearing, but without uttering words they communicate to each other their own thoughts and counsels.
Through the Word, therefore, all the angels were created, and through the sanctification by the Holy Spirit were they brought to perfection, sharing each in proportion to his worth and rank in brightness and grace.
They are circumscribed; for when they are in the Heaven they are not on the earth; and when they are sent by God down to the earth they do not remain in the Heaven. They are not hemmed in by walls and doors, and bars and seals, for they are quite unlimited. Unlimited, I repeat, for it is not as they really are that they reveal themselves to the worthy men to whom God wishes them to appear, but in a changed form which the beholders are capable of seeing. For that alone is naturally and strictly unlimited which is un-created. For every created thing is limited by God Who created it.
Further, apart from their essence they receive the sanctification from the Spirit; through the divine grace they prophesy; they have no need of marriage for they are immortal.
Seeing that they are minds, they are in mental places, and are not circumscribed after the fashion of a body. For they have not a bodily form by nature, nor are they tended in three dimensions. But to whatever post they may be assigned, there they are present after the manner of a mind and energize accordingly; however, they cannot be present and energize in various places at the same time.
Whether they are equals in essence or differ from one another we know not. God, their Creator, Who knoweth all things, alone knoweth. But they differ from each other in brightness and position, whether it is that their position is dependent on their brightness or their brightness on their position; and they impart brightness to one another, because they excel one another in rank and nature. And clearly the higher share their brightness and knowledge with the lower.
They are mighty and prompt to fulfill the will of the Deity, and their nature is endowed with such celerity that wherever the Divine glance bids them there they are straightway found. They are the guardians of the divisions of the earth; they are set over nations and regions, allotted to them by their Creator; they govern all our affairs and bring us succour (help or assistance, especially in time of difficulty). And the reason surely is because they are set over us by the divine will and command and are ever in the vicinity of God.
With difficulty they are moved to evil, yet they are not absolutely immoveable; but now they are altogether immoveable, not by nature but by grace and by their nearness to the Only Good.
They behold God according to their capacity, and this is their food.
They are above us for they are incorporeal, and are free of all bodily passion, yet are not passionless; for the Deity alone is passionless.
They take different forms at the bidding of their Master, God, and thus reveal themselves to men and unveil the divine mysteries to them.
They have Heaven for their dwelling-place, and have one duty, to sing God’s praise and carry out His divine will.
Moreover, as that most holy, and sacred, and gifted theologian, Dionysios the Areopagite, says, all theology, that is to say, the holy Scripture, has nine different names for the heavenly essences. These essences are divided into three groups, each containing three. And the first group, he says, consists of those who are in God’s presence and are said to be directly and immediately one with Him, viz., the Seraphim with their six wings, the many-eyed Cherubim and those that sit in the holiest Thrones. The second group is that of the Dominions, and the Powers, and the Authorities; and the third, and last, is that of the Rulers and Archangels and Angels
Some, indeed, like Gregory the Theologian, say that these were before the creation of other things. He thinks that the angelic and heavenly powers were first and that thought was their function. Others, again, hold that they were created after the first heaven was made. But all are agreed that it was before the foundation of man. For myself, I am in harmony with the theologian. For it was fitting that the mental essence should be the first created, and then that which can be perceived, and finally man himself, in whose being both parts are united.
But those who say that the angels are creators of any kind, they are the mouth of their father, the devil. For since they are created things they are not creators. But He Who creates and provides for and maintains all things is God; He is the only One Who alone is uncreated and is praised and glorified in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Fallen Angels, the Devil and Demons
He who from among these angelic powers was set over the earthly realm, and into whose hands God committed the guardianship of the earth, was not made wicked in nature but was good, and made for good ends, and received from his Creator no trace whatever of evil in himself. But he did not sustain the brightness and the honour which the Creator had bestowed on him; his free choice was changed from what was in harmony to what was at variance with his nature, and became roused against God Who created him, and determined to rise in rebellion against Him; and he was the first to depart from good and become evil.
Evil is nothing else than absence of goodness, just as darkness also is absence of light. Goodness is the light of the mind, and, similarly, evil is the darkness of the mind. Light, therefore, being the work of the Creator and being made good (for God saw all that He made, and behold they were exceeding good) produced darkness through free-will. But along with him (the devil) an innumerable host of angels subject to him were torn away and followed him and shared in his fall. Wherefore, being of the same nature as the angels, they became wicked, turning away at their own free choice from good to evil.
Hence they have no power or strength against any one except what God in His dispensation hath conceded to them, as for instance, against Job and those swine that are mentioned in the Gospels. But when God has made the concession they do prevail, and are changed and transformed into any form whatever in which they wish to appear.
Of the future both the angels of God and the demons are alike ignorant; yet they make predictions. God reveals the future to the angels and commands them to prophesy, and so what they say comes to pass. But the demons also make predictions, sometimes because they see what is happening at a distance, and sometimes merely making guesses; hence much that they say is false and they should not be believed, even although they do often, in the way we have said, tell what is true. Besides they know the Scriptures.
All wickedness, then, and all impure passions are the work of their mind. But while the liberty to attack man has been granted to them, they have not the strength to over master any one. We all have it in our power to receive or not to receive the attack. Wherefore there has been prepared for the devil and his demons, and those who follow him, fire unquenchable and everlasting punishment. Note, further, that what in the case of man is death is a fall in the case of angels. For after the fall there is no possibility of repentance for them, just as after death there is for men no repentance.
St. John the Damascene
By St. John the Damascene, from “An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.”
https://agapienxristou.blogspot.com/2015/09/on-angels-their-creation-essence-and.html
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100 sayings of Saint Gabriela the Ascetic of Love (+1992)
1. Any place may become a place of Resurrection, if the Humility of Christ becomes the way of our life.
2. You may sleep, as long as you are in a state of watchfulness.
3. There are some who stay awake for a few, and some who stay awake for all.
4. Orthodox spirituality is knowledge acquired through suffering rather than through learning.
5. Do not wish for many things, whether they are within or out of reach. Instead, take care to sanctify the little you have.
6. To learn how to love God: this is the one and only Education.
7. There is nothing cheaper than money.
8. Better Hell in this world than in the other.
9. It is not what we say, but what we live. It is not what we do, but what we are.
10. I put on the Rasson (Monastic habit) and do not speak unless I am asked. The Rasson speaks.
11. If you have love for all the world, the whole world is beautiful.
12. Someone said that a Christian is he who purifies love and sanctifies work.
15. Our purpose should be to have the Paraclete* in our heart, even when we have the… Parasite in our head.
16. We become a reflection of Heaven by saying: ‘Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven’.
17. He who loves is not aware of it, as he is not aware of his own breathing.
18. When doors are open in Heaven, they are also open on Earth.
19. When the mind is not distracted by worldly matters and remains united to God, then even the ‘Good day’ that we say becomes a blessing.
20. By saying ‘no’ and by refusing, we forfeit our purpose.
21. We must not ‘exist’ in the presence of the other person, who is God’s ‘image and likeness’.
22. In the early steps of our life we need the presence of someone we love. As we advance, the One, God, fills us with His Love and Joy so much that we no longer need anyone. The soul does this at the beginning because she does not know yet Whom she loves, and thinks it is this or that person.
23. Many times what God expects from us is the intention rather than the act itself. Our readiness to follow His Commandment is enough for Him.
24. Jesus Christ gave us the golden mean: both alone and with others.
25. When God created us, He gave us Life and breathed His Spirit into us. This Spirit is Love. When love deserts us, we become as dead as corpses. We are not alive any more.
26. A Christian must have reverence for the Mystery of Existence in everyone and everything.
27. To reach the state of non-existence, love and love and love until you identify yourself completely with the Other One, whoever this may be at the time. Then, at the end of the day you may ask yourself: Is there anything I want? No. Is there anything I wish ‘No. Is there anything I lack’ No… So, that’s it!
28. The spiritually advanced person is the one who has reached a state of “non-existence” and has deeply understood that whatever happens to him is either because God Wills it or because God Permits it.
29. True inner progress begins only when a person stops reading anything but the Gospel. It is only then that, united with God through the Jesus Prayer, he can hear God’s Will.
30. Never wish for anything but the Will of God and accept with love any trials that may come your way.
31. Never identify a person with the wrong way in which he is treating you, but see Christ in his heart.
32. Never ask: “Why has this happened to me” ‘When you see somebody suffering from gangrene or cancer or blindness, never say: “Why has this happened to him”‘ Instead, pray God to grant you the vision of the other shore… Then, like the Angels, you will be able to see things as they really are: Everything in God’s plan. EVERYTHING.
33. A wise man said: If you are to live only for yourself, it would have been better if you had not been born.
36. A person’s most vulnerable spot is found in much talking and discussing.
37. To be meek is to wish never to have a guilty conscience.
38. When thoughts of passing judgement on another person cross your mind, pray God to take them away at once, so that you may love this person as He does. Then God will help you see your own faults. If Christ were visible, could you have such thoughts?
39. If you do not like somebody, think that you see Christ in that person. Then, you would not even dare utter a word of criticism.
40. We must love people and accept them in our hearts as God presents them to us. It has been thus ordained by the Lord Himself and by the Orthodox Tradition.
41. No one should become the servant of another man. We are only servants of God. ‘For ye are bought with a price’, says the Apostle (1Cor.6:20). Therefore, there should be no servility in human relations.
42. What we say remains in Eternity.
43. Only when you are perfected in Love can you reach the state of Dispassion (Apatheia).
44. Only those who act without true love face adversities.
45.The faculty of judgement (Krisis) comes naturally to man. Criticism (Katakrisis) and reproval spring from malice. Discernment (Diakrisis) is a gift from God and we should pray for it. It is essential to our protection and progress.
46. The life of the Church extends beyond moral discipline and religious duty. It is the transcendence of Morality to Spirituality.
47. An irresolute person does not participate in life.
48. When we must be helped, God will send someone to us. We are all fellow-travellers.
49. The voice of God is silence.
50. Whoever lives in the Past is like a dead man.Whoever lives in the Future in his imagination is naive, because the Future belongs to God. The Joy of Christ is found only in the Present, in the Eternal Present of God.
51. Our destination is to worship God and love our fellow-men.
52. We find happiness and peace only by living according to God’s Commandments.
53. The most essential act of Philanthropy is to speak well of our fellow-men.
54. I could not get worried, even if I tried. When we worry it is as if we say to God: “I do not agree. You don’t do things right”. Besides, this is sheer ingratitude.
55. To speak in the presence of Beauty is superfluous. It disturbs its harmony.
56. Through the invocation of the name of Christ, we batter our Ego.
57. It is the oil-lamp of our soul that must be always lighted, burning forever.
58. We are the first to feel the joy we give to others.
59. Better a prayer of the lips than no prayer at all.
60. Let God intervene between you and your purpose, instead of letting your purpose intervene between you and God.
61. The agony of dying is the effort made by the soul to free herself and run towards the Lord.
62. Correspondence is the only way that combines solitude and company.
63. Miracle is the normal course of events according to God’s Will. What we call a Miracle is only what is natural to God.
65. If we meet with an adversity, let us not ask who is to blame. Because the blame is only ours. We shall find the reason if we ask for it in our Prayer: perhaps we have not loved enough, or we have disobeyed another Commandment, or we have mishandled the situation, or we have moved faster than we should, or we have relied on the wrong person.
66. When we lose something, let us say: ‘In this manner, Lord, deliver me also from any evil thought I may have for my neighbour’.
67. Anxiety is for those who have no Faith.
68. Love is only on the Cross.
69. Human relationships become difficult when the “I” stands above the “You”.
70. God loves your enemies as much as He loves you.
71. Do you want to Pray? Prepare yourself to meet the Lord in secret.
72. By God’s Permission some people become instruments of the Power of Darkness for our own testing and progress.
73. You must not get upset, because a restless heart drives away all Help.
74. If one can live in the world and yet not mix with it – just as the oil and water do not mix in the oil-lamp – then he can live in God. He is in this world but not of this world.
75. We are all vessels, sometimes of Light and sometimes of Darkness.
76. Keep your mouth shut in the hour of crisis, when a problem is acute. Do not say anything, because you may regret it a thousand times. Instead, tell it to the Angels so that they may place it at the Lord’s Feet, and pray the Lord for an Angel of Peace to calm your soul.
77. Sometimes people ask for your advice or instruction, so that they may put the “blame” on you afterwards if things go wrong. Quite probably though, whatever you say will be ignored, in which case it will all be a waste of trouble.
78. When the ‘I’ breaks and becomes ‘You’ and the ‘You’ also breaks so that they may both become ‘He’, then we all become ‘His’.
79. If you ever feel fear in your heart, close your eyes and say the Jesus Prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me’…
80. Only when we are still, do we give the Angels an opportunity to do something.
81. Do what you must do, and God will do what He must do.
82. When you feel a fluttering in your heart, a deep yearning for something, this will come true after a lapse of time determined by God.
83. We ourselves cannot get rid of any of our faults. He takes them away from us, one by one.
84. We should ask God everyday to break our will and make it His, so that we may become as He wants us to be.
85. We must not ‘surrender’ to His Will. This is what soldiers do. We, who are His Children, must offer Him our own will along with all our being – in whatever pitiful state we may be – and tell him: “Lord, take all my faults and imperfections and set them right.”
86. The Grace of God comes when we raise our hand. It is Faith that draws God’s Grace to us. God is ‘pouring down’ His Grace, but where is the hand reaching out to receive it? Instead, we are wearing hats or carrying umbrellas…
87. If a foreigner speaks evil of Greece and the Orthodox Faith, do not identify the man with his words. Still, never speak to him about such significant events like the discovery of Holy Relics and other miraculous things that happen here.
88. You must not talk about persons who are absent.
89. We live in Vanity, and believe that this is life. How pitiable we are!
90. O Lord! Forgive us if we sometimes walk in pride, like little cockerels that think they are great.
91. Poor human beings! We consider the perishable as Immortal and the Immortal as non-existant.
92. Poor onion! It also offers what it can.
93. How beautiful is the ‘Mystery’, the ‘Sacrament’ of Tomorrow!
94. A person takes his lesson only once. If he does not learn the first time, it means that there is something wrong in his subconscious which prevents him from doing so.
95. The Lord said: Whoever wants something, believing, he will receive – As long as the request is in accordance with God’s Commandments, that is to say, with Love.
96. Do not deny others the crumbs falling off your table from the Bread of Life which is given to you whole by the Lord. So many hunger and thirst for Love, like Lazarus who fed on the crumbs falling off the table of the rich man.
97. We have no right not to reflect the Light of the Lord. Nothing should be left in the shade, ‘under the meal-tub’.
98. Everything has two sides, like a two-edged knife. What creates today, destroys tomorrow. ‘Let him understand, he who may understand’.
99. Some of the sailors on a ship may quarrel and fight each other, but the ship sails on and reaches its destination. The same is true of the Church, because Christ Himself is at the helm.
100. If you knew that you are not Here, you would be There.
https://agapienxristou.blogspot.com/2013/08/100-sayings-of-gerontissa-gabriela.html
F.IN.
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Years ago, a young priest told me this amazing story: “My mother did not want her son to become a priest; and three years after I was ordained, she died. I did not pay particular attention at her death as a priest; I only did what was necessary and nothing else.
One evening, at dusk, I was walking by the cemetery and I thought: ‘Why don’t I stop and light her oil lamp?’ I lit her oil lamp and sat down on a rock. I didn’t have my stole with me, so I didn’t read a trisagion for her.
In a little while, I felt faint, and I looked up. It seemed like the graves were open, and the bodies of the dead were getting up and screaming! ‘HELP! HELP! Priests of the most high God, help us! Orthodox Christians, help us! Do liturgies, prayers, memorial services, trisagia…HELP us, Christian people!!!’
In a little while, in a fright, I saw my mother: ‘HELP, my son’, she told me. ‘Now that you’re a priest, help all of us!’
She fell on me, screaming hopelessly, asking me to help her soul.
That’s when I got up in terror…it was dark by this time…I ran off and tore my vestments. In fear, I did not sleep the entire night.
The next day, in the morning I told my wife: ‘For three years I’m going to have liturgy every day, even during lent, for my mother and for all who have fallen asleep, everyone whose name is written at that cemetery, and for all the names of the dead that will be given to me from this time forth.
I had 1100 straight liturgies without missing a single day! Also, I had 1100 memorial services with kolyva, trisagia, every day!
Many times, at night I would see the souls of the people telling me, ‘thank you’, some because they got water to drink, others because they ate, and yet some other souls that were cold but got warm! They’d say to me, ‘Thank you, now I’m warm, father, I was cold, thank you!’ Other souls thanked me because they got to see a little light and other souls had a loaf of bread in their hands…”
From the book Experiences During the Divine Liturgy by Archpriest Stephanos K. Anagnostopoulos
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351 Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled In Jesus Christ
Prophecy / Description / Fulfillment
1. Gen 3:15 Seed of a woman (virgin birth) Gal 4:4-5; Matt 1:18
2. Gen 3:15 He will bruise Satan’s head Heb 2:14; 1 John 3:8
3. Gen 5:24 The bodily ascension to heaven illustrated Mark 16:19
4. Gen 9:26-27 The God of Shem will be the Son of Shem Luke 3:36
5. Gen 12:3 Seed of Abraham will bless all nations Gal 3:8; Acts 3:25-26
6. Gen 12:7 The Promise made to Abraham’s Seed Gal 3:16
7. Gen 14:18 A priest after the order of Melchizedek Heb 6:20
8. Gen 14:18 King of Peace and Righteousness Heb 7:2
9. Gen 14:18 The Last Supper foreshadowed Matt 26:26-29
10. Gen 17:19 Seed of Isaac (Gen 21:12) Rom 9:7
11. Gen 22:8 The Lamb of God promised John 1:29
12. Gen 22:18 As Isaac’s seed, will bless all nations Gal 3:16
13. Gen 26:2-5 The Seed of Isaac promised as the Redeemer Heb 11:18
14. Gen 28:12 The Bridge to heaven John 1:51
15. Gen 28:14 The Seed of Jacob Luke 3:34
16. Gen 49:10 The time of His coming Luke 2:1-7; Gal 4:4
17. Gen 49:10 The Seed of Judah Luke 3:33
18. Gen 49:10 Called Shiloh or One Sent John 17:3
19. Gen 49:10 Messiah to come before Judah lost identity John 11:47-52
20. Gen 49:10 Unto Him shall the obedience of the people be John 10:16
21. Ex 3:13-15 The Great “I AM” John 4:26; 8:58
22. Ex 12:5 A Lamb without blemish Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 1:19
23. Ex 12:13 The blood of the Lamb saves from wrath Rom 5:8
24. Ex 12:21-27 Christ is our Passover 1 Cor 5:7
25. Ex 12:46 Not a bone of the Lamb to be broken John 19:31-36
26. Ex 15:2 His exaltation predicted as Yeshua Acts 7:55-56
27. Ex 15:11 His Character-Holiness Luke 1:35; Acts 4:27
28. Ex 17:6 The Spiritual Rock of Israel 1 Cor 10:4
29. Ex 33:19 His Character-Merciful Luke 1:72
30. Lev 1:2-9 His sacrifice a sweet smelling savor unto God Eph 5:2
31. Lev 14:11 The leper cleansed-Sign to priesthood Luke 5:12-14; Acts 6:7
32. Lev 16:15-17 Prefigures Christ’s once-for-all death Heb 9:7-14
33. Lev 16:27 Suffering outside the Camp Matt 27:33; Heb. 13:11-12
34. Lev 17:11 The Blood-the life of the flesh Matt 26:28; Mark 10:45
35. Lev 17:11 It is the blood that makes atonement Rom. 3:23-24; 1 John 1:7
36. Lev 23:36-37 The Drink-offering: “If any man thirst” John 7:37
37. Num 9:12 Not a bone of Him broken John 19:31-36
38. Num 21:9 The serpent on a pole-Christ lifted up John 3:14-18; 12:32
39. Num 24:17 Time: “I shall see him, but not now.” John 1:14; Gal 4:4
40. Deut 18:15 “This is of a truth that prophet” John 6:14
41. Deut 18:15-16 “Had you believed Moses, you would believe me.” John 5:45-47
42. Deut 18:18 Sent by the Father to speak His word John 8:28-29
43. Deut 18:19 Whoever will not hear must bear his sin Acts 3:22-23
44. Deut 21:23 Cursed is he that hangs on a tree Gal 3:10-13
45. Joshua 5:14-15 The Captain of our salvation Heb 2:10
46. Ruth 4:4-10 Christ, our kinsman, has redeemed us Eph 1:3-7
47. 1 Sam 2:35 A Faithful Priest Heb. 2:17; 3:1-3, 6; 7:24-25
48. 1 Sam 2:10 Shall be an anointed King to the Lord Matt 28:18; John 12:15
49. 2 Sam 7:12 David’s Seed Matt 1:1
50. 2 Sam 7:13 His Kingdom is everlasting 2 Pet 1:11
51. 2 Sam 7:14a The Son of God Luke 1:32; Rom 1:3-4
52. 2 Sam 7:16 David’s house established forever Luke 3:31; Rev 22:16
53. 2 Ki 2:11 The bodily ascension to heaven illustrated Luke 24:51
54. 1 Chr 17:11 David’s Seed Matt 1:1; 9:27
55. 1 Chr 17:12-13 To reign on David’s throne forever Luke 1:32-33
56. 1 Chr 17:13 “I will be His Father, He…my Son.” Heb 1:5
57. Job 9:32-33 Mediator between man and God 1 Tim 2:5
58. Job 19:23-27 The Resurrection predicted John 5:24-29
59. Psa 2:1-3 The enmity of kings foreordained Acts 4:25-28
60. Psa 2:2 To own the title, Anointed (Christ) John 1:41; Acts 2:36
61. Psa 2:6 His Character-Holiness John 8:46; Rev 3:7
62. Psa 2:6 To own the title King Matt 2:2
63. Psa 2:7 Declared the Beloved Son Matt 3:17; Rom 1:4
64. Psa 2:7-8 The Crucifixion and Resurrection intimated Acts 13:29-33
65. Psa 2:8-9 Rule the nations with a rod of iron Rev 2:27; 12:5; 19:15
66. Psa 2:12 Life comes through faith in Him John 20:31
67. Psa 8:2 The mouths of babes perfect His praise Matt 21:16
68. Psa 8:5-6 His humiliation and exaltation Heb 2:5-9
69. Psa 9:7-10 Judge the world in righteousness Acts 17:31
70. Psa 16:10 Was not to see corruption Acts 2:31; 13:35
71. Psa 16:9-11 Was to arise from the dead John 20:9
72. Psa 17:15 The resurrection predicted Luke 24:6
73. Psa 18:2-3 The horn of salvation Luke 1:69-71
74. Psa 22:1 Forsaken because of sins of others 2 Cor 5:21
75. Psa 22:1 “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Matt 27:46
76. Psa 22:2 Darkness upon Calvary for three hours Matt 27:45
77. Psa 22:7 They shoot out the lip and shake the head Matt 27:39-44
78. Psa 22:8 “He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him” Matt 27:43
79. Psa 22:9-10 Born the Savior Luke 2:7
80. Psa 22:12-13 They seek His death John 19:6
81. Psa 22:14 His blood poured out when they pierced His side John 19:34
82. Psa 22:14-15 Suffered agony on Calvary Mark 15:34-37
83. Psa 22:15 He thirsted John 19:28
84. Psa 22:16 They pierced His hands and His feet John 19:34-37; 20:27
85. Psa 22:17-18 Stripped Him before the stares of men Luke 23:34-35
86. Psa 22:18 They parted His garments John 19:23-24
87. Psa 22:20-21 He committed Himself to God Luke 23:46
88. Psa 22:20-21 Satanic power bruising the Redeemer’s heel Heb 2:14
89. Psa 22:22 His Resurrection declared John 20:17
90. Psa 22:27-28 He shall be the governor of the nations Col 1:16
91. Psa 22:31 “It is finished” John 19:30; Heb 10:10-12, 14, 18
92. Psa 23:1 “I am the Good Shepherd” John 10:11; 1 Pet 2:25
93. Psa 24:3 His exaltation predicted Acts 1:11; Phil 2:9
94. Psa 30:3 His resurrection predicted Acts 2:32
95. Psa 31:5 “Into Your hands I commit my spirit” Luke 23:46
96. Psa 31:11 His acquaintances fled from Him Mark 14:50
97. Psa 31:13 They took counsel to put Him to death Matt 27:1; John 11:53
98. Psa 31:14-15 “He trusted in God, let Him deliver him” Matt 27:43
99. Psa 34:20 Not a bone of Him broken John 19:31-36
100. Psa 35:11 False witnesses rose up against Him Matt 26:59
101. Psa 35:19 He was hated without a cause John 15:25
102. Psa 38:11 His friends stood afar off Luke 23:49
103. Psa 38:12 Enemies try to entangle Him by craft Mark 14:1; Matt 22:15
104. Psa 38:12-13 Silent before His accusers Matt 27:12-14
105. Psa 38:20 He went about doing good Acts 10:38
106. Psa 40:2-5 The joy of His resurrection predicted John 20:20
107. Psa 40:6-8 His delight-the will of the Father John 4:34; Heb 10:5-10
108. Psa 40:9 He was to preach the Righteousness in Israel Matt 4:17
109. Psa 40:14 Confronted by adversaries in the Garden John 18:4-6
110. Psa 41:9 Betrayed by a familiar friend John 13:18
111. Psa 45:2 Words of Grace come from His lips John 1:17; Luke 4:22
112. Psa 45:6 To own the title, God or Elohim Heb 1:8
113. Psa 45:7 A special anointing by the Holy Spirit Matt 3:16; Heb. 1:9
114. Psa 45:7-8 Called the Christ (Messiah or Anointed) Luke 2:11
115. Psa 45:17 His name remembered forever Eph 1:20-21; Heb. 1:8
116. Psa 55:12-14 Betrayed by a friend, not an enemy John 13:18
117. Psa 55:15 Unrepentant death of the Betrayer Matt 27:3-5; Acts 1:16-19
118. Psa 68:18 To give gifts to men Eph 4:7-16
119. Psa 68:18 Ascended into Heaven Luke 24:51
120. Psa 69:4 Hated without a cause John 15:25
121. Psa 69:8 A stranger to own brethren John 1:11; 7:5
122. Psa 69:9 Zealous for the Lord’s House John 2:17
123. Psa 69:14-20 Messiah’s anguish of soul before crucifixion Matt 26:36-45
124. Psa 69:20 “My soul is exceeding sorrowful” Matt 26:38
125. Psa 69:21 Given vinegar in thirst Matt 27:34
126. Psa 69:26 The Savior given and smitten by God John 17:4; 18:11
127. Psa 72:10-11 Great persons were to visit Him Matt 2:1-11
128. Psa 72:16 The corn of wheat to fall into the Ground John 12:24-25
129. Psa 72:17 Belief on His name will produce offspring John 1:12-13
130. Psa 72:17 All nations shall be blessed by Him Gal 3:8
131. Psa 72:17 All nations shall call Him blessed John 12:13; Rev 5:8-12
132. Psa 78:1-2 He would teach in parables Matt 13:34-35
133. Psa 78:2b To speak the Wisdom of God with authority Matt 7:29
134. Psa 80:17 The Man of God’s right hand Mark 14:61-62
135. Psa 88 The Suffering and Reproach of Calvary Matt 27:26-50
136. Psa 88:8 They stood afar off and watched Luke 23:49
137. Psa 89:27 Firstborn Col 1:15-18
138. Psa 89:27 Emmanuel to be higher than earthly kings Luke 1:32-33
139. Psa 89:35-37 David’s Seed, throne, kingdom endure forever Luke 1:32-33
140. Psa 89:36-37 His character-Faithfulness Rev 1:5; 19:11
141. Psa 90:2 He is from everlasting (Micah 5:2) John 1:1
142. Psa 91:11-12 Identified as Messianic, used to tempt Christ Luke 4:10-11
143. Psa 97:9 His exaltation predicted Acts 1:11; Eph 1:20
144. Psa 100:5 His character-Goodness Matt 19:16-17
145. Psa 102:1-11 The Suffering and Reproach of Calvary John 19:16-30
146. Psa 102:25-27 Messiah is the Preexistent Son Heb 1:10-12
147. Psa 109:25 Ridiculed Matt 27:39
148. Psa 110:1 Son of David Matt 22:42-43
149. Psa 110:1 To ascend to the right-hand of the Father Mark 16:19
150. Psa 110:1 David’s son called Lord Matt 22:44-45
151. Psa 110:4 A priest after Melchizedek’s order Heb 6:20
152. Psa 112:4 His character-Compassionate, Gracious, et al Matt 9:36
153. Psa 118:17-18 Messiah’s Resurrection assured Luke 24:5-7; 1 Cor 15:20
154. Psa 118:22-23 The rejected stone is Head of the corner Matt 21:42-43
155. Psa 118:26a The Blessed One presented to Israel Matt 21:9
156. Psa 118:26b To come while Temple standing Matt 21:12-15
157. Psa 132:11 The Seed of David (the fruit of His Body) Luke 1:32; Act 2:30
158. Psa 129:3 He was scourged Matt 27:26
159. Psa 138:1-6 The supremacy of David’s Seed amazes kings Matt 2:2-6
160. Psa 147:3-6 The earthly ministry of Christ described Luke 4:18
161. Prov 1:23 He will send the Spirit of God John 16:7
162. Prov 8:23 Foreordained from everlasting Rev 13:8; 1 Pet 1:19-20
163. Song 5:16 The altogether lovely One John 1:17
164. Isa 2:3 He shall teach all nations John 4:25
165. Isa 2:4 He shall judge among the nations John 5:22
166. Isa 6:1 When Isaiah saw His glory John 12:40-41
167. Isa 6:8 The One Sent by God John 12:38-45
168. Isa 6:9-10 Parables fall on deaf ears Matt 13:13-15
169. Isa 6:9-12 Blinded to Christ and deaf to His words Acts 28:23-29
170. Isa 7:14 To be born of a virgin Luke 1:35
171. Isa 7:14 To be Emmanuel-God with us Matt 1:18-23; 1 Tim 3:16
172. Isa 8:8 Called Emmanuel Matt 28:20
173. Isa 8:14 A stone of stumbling, a Rock of offense 1 Pet 2:8
174. Isa 9:1-2 His ministry to begin in Galilee Matt 4:12-17
175. Isa 9:6 A child born-Humanity Luke 1:31
176. Isa 9:6 A Son given-Deity Luke 1:32; John 1:14; 1 Tim 3:16
177. Isa 9:6 Declared to be the Son of God with power Rom 1:3-4
178. Isa 9:6 The Wonderful One, Peleh Luke 4:22
179. Isa 9:6 The Counselor, Yaatz Matt 13:54
180. Isa 9:6 The Mighty God, El Gibor 1 Cor 1:24; Titus 2:3
181. Isa 9:6 The Everlasting Father, Avi Adth John 8:58; 10:30
182. Isa 9:6 The Prince of Peace, Sar Shalom John 16:33
183. Isa 9:7 To establish an everlasting kingdom Luke 1:32-33
184. Isa 9:7 His Character-Just John 5:30
185. Isa 9:7 No end to his Government, Throne, and Peace Luke 1:32-33
186. Isa 11:1 Called a Nazarene-the Branch, Netzer Matt 2:23
187. Isa 11:1 A rod out of Jesse-Son of Jesse Luke 3:23-32
188. Isa 11:2 Anointed One by the Spirit Matt 3:16-17; Acts 10:38
189. Isa 11:2 His Character-Wisdom, Knowledge, et al Col 2:3
190. Isa 11:3 He would know their thoughts Luke 6:8; John 2:25
191. Isa 11:4 Judge in righteousness Acts 17:31
192. Isa 11:4 Judges with the sword of His mouth Rev 2:16; 19:11, 15
193. Isa 11:5 Character: Righteous & Faithful Rev 19:11
194. Isa 11:10 The Gentiles seek Him John 12:18-21
195. Isa 12:2 Called Jesus-Yeshua Matt 1:21
196. Isa 22:22 The One given all authority to govern Rev 3:7
197. Isa 25:8 The Resurrection predicted 1 Cor 15:54
198. Isa 26:19 His power of Resurrection predicted Matt 27:50-54
199. Isa 28:16 The Messiah is the precious corner stone Acts 4:11-12
200. Isa 28:16 The Sure Foundation 1 Cor 3:11; Matt 16:18
201. Isa 29:13 He indicated hypocritical obedience to His Word Matt 15:7-9
202. Isa 29:14 The wise are confounded by the Word 1 Cor 1:18-31
203. Isa 32:2 A Refuge-A man shall be a hiding place Matt 23:37
204. Isa 35:4 He will come and save you Matt 1:21
205. Isa 35:5-6 To have a ministry of miracles Matt 11:2-6
206. Isa 40:3-4 Preceded by forerunner John 1:23
207. Isa 40:9 “Behold your God” John 1:36; 19:14
208. Isa 40:10 He will come to reward Rev 22:12
209. Isa 40:11 A shepherd-compassionate life-giver John 10:10-18
210. Isa 42:1-4 The Servant-as a faithful, patient redeemer Matt 12:18-21
211. Isa 42:2 Meek and lowly Matt 11:28-30
212. Isa 42:3 He brings hope for the hopeless John 4
213. Isa 42:4 The nations shall wait on His teachings John 12:20-26
214. Isa 42:6 The Light (salvation) of the Gentiles Luke 2:32
215. Isa 42:1-6 His is a worldwide compassion Matt 28:19-20
216. Isa 42:7 Blind eyes opened John 9:25-38
217. Isa 43:11 He is the only Savior Acts 4:12
218. Isa 44:3 He will send the Spirit of God John 16:7-13
219. Isa 45:21-25 He is Lord and Savior Phil 3:20; Titus 2:13
220. Isa 45:23 He will be the Judge John 5:22; Rom 14:11
221. Isa 46:9-10 Declares things not yet done John 13:19
222. Isa 48:12 The First and the Last John 1:30; Rev 1:8, 17
223. Isa 48:16-17 He came as a Teacher John 3:2
224. Isa 49:1 Called from the womb-His humanity Matt 1:18
225. Isa 49:5 A Servant from the womb Luke 1:31; Phil 2:7
226. Isa 49:6 He will restore Israel Acts 3:19-21; 15:16-17
227. Isa 49:6 He is Salvation for Israel Luke 2:29-32
228. Isa 49:6 He is the Light of the Gentiles John 8:12; Acts 13:47
229. Isa 49:6 He is Salvation unto the ends of the earth Acts 15:7-18
230. Isa 49:7 He is despised of the Nation John 1:11; 8:48-49; 19:14-15
231. Isa 50:3 Heaven is clothed in black at His humiliation Luke 23:44-45
232. Isa 50:4 He is a learned counselor for the weary Matt 7:29; 11:28-29
233. Isa 50:5 The Servant bound willingly to obedience Matt 26:39
234. Isa 50:6a “I gave my back to those who struck Me” Matt 27:26
235. Isa 50:6b He was smitten on the cheeks Matt 26:67
236. Isa 50:6c He was spat upon Matt 27:30
237. Isa 52:7 Published good tidings upon mountains Matt 5:12; 15:29; 28:16
238. Isa 52:13 The Servant exalted Acts 1:8-11; Eph 1:19-22; Phil 2:5-9
239. Isa 52:14 The Servant shockingly abused Luke 18:31-34; Matt 26:67-68
240. Isa 52:15 Nations startled by message of the Servant Luke 18:31-34; Matt 26:67-68
241. Isa 52:15 His blood shed sprinkles nations Heb 9:13-14; Rev 1:5
242. Isa 53:1 His people would not believe Him John 12:37-38
243. Isa 53:2 Appearance of an ordinary man Phil 2:6-8
244. Isa 53:3a Despised Luke 4:28-29
245. Isa 53:3b Rejected Matt 27:21-23
246. Isa 53:3c Great sorrow and grief Matt 26:37-38; Luke 19:41; Heb 4:15
247. Isa 53:3d Men hide from being associated with Him Mark 14:50-52
248. Isa 53:4a He would have a healing ministry Matt 8:16-17
249. Isa 53:4b Thought to be cursed by God Matt 26:66; 27:41-43
250. Isa 53:5a Bears penalty for mankind’s iniquities 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 2:9
251. Isa 53:5b His sacrifice provides peace between man and God Col 1:20
252. Isa 53:5c His sacrifice would heal man of sin 1 Pet 2:24
253. Isa 53:6a He would be the sin-bearer for all mankind 1 John 2:2; 4:10
254. Isa 53:6b God’s will that He bear sin for all mankind Gal 1:4
255. Isa 53:7a Oppressed and afflicted Matt 27:27-31
256. Isa 53:7b Silent before his accusers Matt 27:12-14
257. Isa 53:7c Sacrificial lamb John 1:29; 1 Pet 1:18-19
258. Isa 53:8a Confined and persecuted Matt 26:47-27:31
259. Isa 53:8b He would be judged John 18:13-22
260. Isa 53:8c Killed Matt 27:35
261. Isa 53:8d Dies for the sins of the world 1 John 2:2
262. Isa 53:9a Buried in a rich man’s grave Matt 27:57
263. Isa 53:9b Innocent and had done no violence Luke 23:41; John 18:38
264. Isa 53:9c No deceit in his mouth 1 Pet 2:22
265. Isa 53:10a God’s will that He die for mankind John 18:11
266. Isa 53:10b An offering for sin Matt 20:28; Gal 3:13
267. Isa 53:10c Resurrected and live forever Rom 6:9
268. Isa 53:10d He would prosper John 17:1-5
269. Isa 53:11a God fully satisfied with His suffering John 12:27
270. Isa 53:11b God’s servant would justify man Rom 5:8-9, 18-19
271. Isa 53:11c The sin-bearer for all mankind Heb 9:28
272. Isa 53:12a Exalted by God because of his sacrifice Matt 28:18
273. Isa 53:12b He would give up his life to save mankind Luke 23:46
274. Isa 53:12c Numbered with the transgressors Mark 15:27-28
275. Isa 53:12d Sin-bearer for all mankind 1 Pet 2:24
276. Isa 53:12e Intercede to God in behalf of mankind Luke 23:34; Rom 8:34
277. Isa 55:3 Resurrected by God Acts 13:34
278. Isa 55:4a A witness John 18:37
279. Isa 55:4b He is a leader and commander Heb 2:10
280. Isa 55:5 God would glorify Him Acts 3:13
281. Isa 59:16a Intercessor between man and God Matt 10:32
282. Isa 59:16b He would come to provide salvation John 6:40
283. Isa 59:20 He would come to Zion as their Redeemer Luke 2:38
284. Isa 60:1-3 He would show light to the Gentiles Acts 26:23
285. Isa 61:1a The Spirit of God upon him Matt 3:16-17
286. Isa 61:1b The Messiah would preach the good news Luke 4:16-21
287. Isa 61:1c Provide freedom from the bondage of sin John 8:31-36
288. Isa 61:1-2a Proclaim a period of grace Gal 4:4-5
289. Jer 23:5-6 Descendant of David Luke 3:23-31
290. Jer 23:5-6 The Messiah would be both God and Man John 13:13; 1 Tim 3:16
291. Jer 31:22 Born of a virgin Matt 1:18-20
292. Jer 31:31 The Messiah would be the new covenant Matt 26:28
293. Jer 33:14-15 Descendant of David Luke 3:23-31
294. Ezek 34:23-24 Descendant of David Matt 1:1
295. Ezek 37:24-25 Descendant of David Luke 1:31-33
296. Dan 2:44-45 The Stone that shall break the kingdoms Matt 21:44
297. Dan 7:13-14a He would ascend into heaven Acts 1:9-11
298. Dan 7:13-14b Highly exalted Eph 1:20-22
299. Dan 7:13-14c His dominion would be everlasting Luke 1:31-33
300. Dan 9:24a To make an end to sins Gal 1:3-5
301. Dan 9:24a To make reconciliation for iniquity Rom 5:10; 2 Cor 5:18-21
302. Dan 9:24b He would be holy Luke 1:35
303. Dan 9:25 His announcement John 12:12-13
304. Dan 9:26a Cut off Matt 16:21; 21:38-39
305. Dan 9:26b Die for the sins of the world Heb 2:9
306. Dan 9:26c Killed before the destruction of the temple Matt 27:50-51
307. Dan 10:5-6 Messiah in a glorified state Rev 1:13-16
308. Hos 11:1 He would be called out of Egypt Matt 2:15
309. Hos 13:14 He would defeat death 1 Cor 15:55-57
310. Joel 2:32 Offer salvation to all mankind Rom 10:9-13
311. Jonah 1:17 Death and resurrection of Christ Matt 12:40; 16:4
312. Mic 5:2a Born in Bethlehem Matt 2:1-6
313. Mic 5:2b Ruler in Israel Luke 1:33
314. Mic 5:2c From everlasting John 8:58
315. Hag 2:6-9 He would visit the second Temple Luke 2:27-32
316. Hag 2:23 Descendant of Zerubbabel Luke 2:27-32
317. Zech 3:8 God’s servant John 17:4
318. Zech 6:12-13 Priest and King Heb 8:1
319. Zech 9:9a Greeted with rejoicing in Jerusalem Matt 21:8-10
320. Zech 9:9b Beheld as King John 12:12-13
321. Zech 9:9c The Messiah would be just John 5:30
322. Zech 9:9d The Messiah would bring salvation Luke 19:10
323. Zech 9:9e The Messiah would be humble Matt 11:29
324. Zech 9:9f Presented to Jerusalem riding on a donkey Matt 21:6-9
325. Zech 10:4 The cornerstone Eph 2:20
326. Zech 11:4-6a At His coming, Israel to have unfit leaders Matt 23:1-4
327. Zech 11:4-6b Rejection causes God to remove His protection Luke 19:41-44
328. Zech 11:4-6c Rejected in favor of another king John 19:13-15
329. Zech 11:7 Ministry to “poor,” the believing remnant Matt 9:35-36
330. Zech 11:8a Unbelief forces Messiah to reject them Matt 23:33
331. Zech 11:8b Despised Matt 27:20
332. Zech 11:9 Stops ministering to those who rejected Him Matt 13:10-11
333. Zech 11:10-11a Rejection causes God to remove protection Luke 19:41-44
334. Zech 11:10-11b The Messiah would be God John 14:7
335. Zech 11:12-13a Betrayed for thirty pieces of silver Matt 26:14-15
336. Zech 11:12-13b Rejected Matt 26:14-15
337. Zech 11:12-13c Thirty pieces of silver cast in the house of the Lord Matt 27:3-5
338. Zech 11:12-13d The Messiah would be God John 12:45
339. Zech 12:10a The Messiah’s body would be pierced John 19:34-37
340. Zech 12:10b The Messiah would be both God and man John 10:30
341. Zech 12:10c The Messiah would be rejected John 1:11
342. Zech 13:7a God’s will He die for mankind John 18:11
343. Zech 13:7b A violent death Mark 14:27
344. Zech 13:7c Both God and man John 14:9
345. Zech 13:7d Israel scattered as a result of rejecting Him Matt 26:31-56
346. Zech 14:4 He would return to the Mt. of Olives Acts 1:11-12
347. Mal 3:1a Messenger to prepare the way for Messiah Mark 1:1-8
348. Mal 3:1b Sudden appearance at the temple Mark 11:15-16
349. Mal 3:1c Messenger of the new covenant Luke 4:43
350. Mal 4:5 Forerunner in spirit of Elijah Matt 3:1-3; 11:10-14; 17:11-13
351. Mal 4:6 Forerunner would turn many to righteousness Luke 1:16-17
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In the Church, I mean in Saint Gerasimos, I was very moved!
I was listening to the Gospel and I was moved!
I was experiencing this, because (mentally) I saw as an image, Christ Himself!!!
One Good Friday, we were having the Service. The Church was full of people. What happened to me there?! I was reading the Gospel and when I reached the phrase “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani; tut’ est’i my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I could not finish it. I did not say, “why have you forsaken me?”.
Then I was overwhelmed with emotion!
My voice broke!
I had the entire Tragic scene in front of me!
I saw That Face (of the Lord)!!!
I heard That Voice (of the Lord)!!!
I saw Christ, very vividly!!!
The world below was waiting. I was nothing, unable to move forward. I left the Gospel on the altar and returned to the sanctuary. I made the sign of the Cross, embraced the Holy Altar. I placed another image, more beautiful, inside me. No more beautiful. There was nothing more beautiful than that, but the Resurrection came to my mind!!
Immediately I got up and went out to the Beautiful Gate and said:
"Forgive me, my children, I have drifted away"!!!
Then I took the Gospel and said it all over again. But at that moment the whole congregation was in tears!!! That was bad. Everyone can think whatever they want. But it's not good to run wild. You must be restrained.
<>.
A lady recounted the following shocking incident that marked her life when she was young:
"I was seven years old and it was Christmas Eve, we lived then, in a provincial town of Macedonia, in the black and terrible Occupation of '41, when the executions and massacres of innocent people were merciless and massive, the imprisonments, beatings and tortures terrifying, and hunger irritated everyone...
My family was very pious and even more pious were grandpa and grandma! People of prayer and almsgiving!
On Christmas Eve, my five-year-old sister woke up and asked me to accompany her out into the yard to use the toilet (at that time, toilets were outside, in the yards). There were six of us children and we all slept on the floor, on mattresses. There were no beds and feathers and quilts, like today...
Slowly, therefore, we went out of the room, into the small corridor towards the courtyard. Opposite was the room of grandfather and grandmother, but we were surprised, because we saw a bright light coming out of the cracks and the many openings of the shabby door.
We got closer and then, through the cracks, we saw our grandmother engulfed in flames! We immediately shouted: “Fire, fire, grandma is burning…”.
Of course, everyone woke up, as expected. Our parents ran first, who opened the door to grandma and grandpa’s room, looked inside, and then closed it gently and quietly. They then returned to our room, and our father said to us in a low voice:
“Don’t be afraid, my children, what you saw is not fire. It is the flames of the Holy Spirit that look like fire!! It is slowly disappearing!! This is how it always happens when grandma and grandpa pray, almost all night long!
If my children grandfather and grandmother, as well as who knows how many other unknown Christians, had not prayed so much, we would have been cut to pieces by the Bulgarian occupation troops... From such prayers and vigils, the Lord will never allow our Homeland and our Faith to be lost!
<>.
In a village, a church was being built and everyone helped as they could. Anyone who had an animal used it to carry stones, and those who were old worked. There was also a very poor grandmother in the village who had nothing to give for the church.
Her soul ached for this, and as the animals carrying the stones passed by, she would gather grass and throw it to them to eat to gain strength.
When the temple was finished, they held the inauguration and wrote the name of the Bishop on an inscription.
But this is what happened: as soon as the name of the Despot was written and the inscription was placed, the next day they would find his name erased and the grandmother's name written.
This happened three times. Everyone was wondering and called the grandmother. When she went to the temple, they asked her:
– Grandma, what on earth did you do that your name is written on the plaque, while we have engraved the name of the Despot?
– Good? But what good can I do, my child, the poor thing?
But they insisted. Then the grandmother thought and answered them:
– I didn't do anything, my children. Only when I saw the animals carrying the stones for the temple, my soul burned because I couldn't offer anything, so I gathered grass and threw it to the animals.
And yet, these few herbs from grandma caught on as much as no one else's offering did, because it was genuine, humble, and secret.
St George Karsllidis
<>.
It was the days of Great Lent, when the Elder saw a thief from afar, breaking into his cell door. It was the same one who had robbed him last year.
The Elder split up and hid in the barn until the thief finished his work.
When he told his subordinate about it, he angrily asked his elder:
-Why didn't you call me, elder, so we could catch him? He stole from us last year and he remains unrepentant!
-"How do you know, my child? " the Elder replied. "Maybe this year he will repent..."
-"What if he does it again?" The subordinate burst out.
-"Well, then, my child, I have to run... to open it for him and give it to him, so that he doesn't steal again... and damn his soul for the third time..."
The submissive man bowed, kissed his hand, and left, drowning in tears...
<>.
There’s little love, average love and perfect love
Saint Ephraim of Katounakia, Holy Mount Athos, Greece (+1998)
Like Christ’s love, His sufferings were so great that we can’t understand them, since we love the Lord so little. But those who love more can understand the Lord’s sufferings more deeply. There’s little love, average love and perfect love. The more perfect the love, the more perfect the knowledge.
Source:
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com
FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH
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Marriage and Virginity in Christ
Blessed Fr. Epiphanios Theodoropoulos of Athens, Greece (+1989)
How crafty the devil is! To young people who managed to unite in Christian marriage he whispers, “How much better you would be if you went to the monastery and lived the heavenly spiritual pleasures, far from the cares of family life which sever you and keep you down!” While to those who went to the monastery, as they desired the life of virginity in Christ, he whispers, “How much better you would be, if you got married and made your home a temple of God, living the joys of marital life, far from ascetic mortification and the loneliness which depresses you!” And if the married one became a monk and the monk married, he would tell them the opposite. All this to throw the person into despair and to pull him from the path of salvation. For the path of salvation is both blessed marriage and virginity in Christ.
Blessed Fr. Epiphanios Theodoropoulos of Athens, Greece (+1989)
(Taken from Elder Epiphanios in “Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit”, Protecting Veil Press)
Source:
https://orthodoxword.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/precious-vessels-of-the-holy-spirit-blessed-epiphanios-theodoropoulos/
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Quotes of Saint Sophia of Klisura, Greece (+1974) on Love
*Don't say many words, may they be few and blessed. Love God, and your heart will shine like the sun.
*Let us have Love, humility and patience in temptations. Pride is a bad thing... it sends the soul to hell...
*Have fear of God... Have Love... Have compassion.
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Homily of Bishop Augustine Kantiotis of Florina, Greece (+2010) on the Holy Unmercenaries: Young scientists performing acts of love
The sinful man, my beloved, (in other words, he who does not sense his sins and does not repent, because we are all sinners), who does not repent according the Holy Scriptures resembles an old an unworked field, which is full of wild weeds, thorns and serpents. He is a land "in danger of being cursed", as the Apostle Paul says (Hebrews 6:8). As opposed to this, the saint is like a worked field, like the "good earth" from the Parable of the Sower, where the Sower reaps a harvest from some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some 100-fold (Matthew 13:8, Mark 4:8). The saint is a chosen garden of God. And just as it is pleasant to walk in a garden, so pleasant it is to read the lives of the saints, they are spiritual gardens.
A spiritual garden are the saints which we celebrate today, the Holy Unmercenaries Kosmas and Damian. And just as we gather flowers when we go to a garden in order to make a beautiful bouquet, thus today, reading through the life of these saints, we will cut a few spiritual flowers in order to weave a crown.
The first flower--the first lesson which we take from the life of Sts. Kosmas and Damian, is love, as the Apostle Paul relates in today's Epistle reading (I Corinthians 12:27-13:8). They had love between them. They were brothers, from one mother and one father. But is this enough?
Love of blood relatives is not steadfast. We have many examples: brothers, who were born from the same mother and nursed on the same milk and raised in the same house, who later each go their separate ways. The Holy Scriptures tell us that Cain and Abel were brothers, but Cain murdered Abel and killed him. Since then, there is enmity between brethren. Yesterday in Florina, one brother threw out of their father's house his brother with five children. The day before yesterday, again, there came to the Metropolis someone else who was saying beautiful words, and I started to believe that he was a good man. But later someone else told me: "Didn't you ask him, how long has it been since you spoke to your brother? They lived in the same village, their homes were close by, but Christmas would come, Holy Friday would come, Pascha would come, great days, and he wouldn't even say a 'Good morning' to him." I said, "Is that true? Do you appear to be a Christian but don't speak with your brother?" He replied, "I talk to everyone, but to my brother, no." "But why?" "I won't speak with him, no matter what anyone says." I tried to reconcile them, but it remained impossible.
The Holy Unmercenaries were brothers, but that which united them was not blood, nor money, nor anything else physical. It was Christ Who united them. Satan divides, Christ unites. And Christ took these two brothers and made them one soul and one heart. They were beloved in life, and beloved in death, in martyrdom, and beyond the grave into eternity. They had love, not so much love from between family members and blood, but more so love from spiritual family and a common faith.
The one flower in this beautiful garden of the saints is love. What is the other? What age were these saints? Where they gray-haired elders 80 or 90 years old? No, they were young, in the flowering of their age. There is the idea that religion is for old men and women and for those who are preparing for death. This is wrong. Religion is for everyone. It is for children, for women, and men, and for elders. But it is first and foremost for the youth. If you excuse the phrase, Christ is useful for everyone. Just like the sun is useful for everyone, both for the little child and the old man, thus it is with Christ. There is no one who can tell the sun that he doesn't need it. The sun is needed by king and poor man, woman and man, black and white, by everyone. Thus it is the with religion, it is useful for everyone, but especially for the youth. The old man resembles a boat which, hour by hour is getting ready to lower its anchor into the harbor, into eternity, while the young man is leaving the harbor and faces great waves, storms and winds, and the boat must be armed with hope, faith and the love of God. The Holy Unmercenaries are an example of this. These two brothers believed in Christ from a young age, and lived in purity. Their example shows us that even young people need faith in Christ.
Love and faith, and the third flower from the beautiful garden of the saints? What were the Holy Unmercenaries, learned or unlearned? They were not unlearned, though there are many unlearned saints. But these two were scientists. They were physicians. And they were the best physicians of their era. Sick people, who could not be healed by any other physicians, hastened to Kosmas and Damian and they made them well. How? With medicines? Yes, with medicines that they made from healing herbs that they gathered from the mountains and vales. But above all of the other medicines, however, was their wonderworking prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, they healed every illness. What does this show? That religion is not just for unlearned people, like many think. This is wrong. They make fun of science and say that scientists don't believe in God. This is a lie. Why? Who are the scientists that they are thinking of? Those who get a diploma and later close their books and go play games and go out and say that there is no God, they are not scientists. They are scientists who sit day and night and read. They are the true scientists, therefore, who believe in God, And we have such scientists, astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and others, who believe in God just like a villager or a shepherd.
Do you want an example? In our days there is great achievement that man went to the moon. How did he go? With a rocket that propelled a spaceship. The rocket, who made it? A scientist. Let's not say his name, let us not say the names of foreign people in church, but those of the apostles and the saints. Let's just say that he is a German man. But he believes! Last year he came to Greece. He went to Mykonos where thousands of tourists were gathered for the summer. On Sunday, when the church bell ran, no one went to church, they went to the beach. He went like a little child and listened to the Divine Liturgy. Later they asked him, "Do you believe?" "Of course, after discoveries like that I believe in God even more..." And it is not just him, but many other scientists believe. And in our homeland there are many scientists and students who believe in Christ (mathematicians, physicians, philologists, etc.). They work and study in great cities, which are a great abyss, Sodom and Gomorrah, but they believe deeply in God.
Three things therefore, my beloved, the Holy Unmercenaries teach us today. The first, to have love, because we are all brethren. The second, to have, first and foremost the young people, purity and cleanliness. And the third, that all learning cannot separate man from God, but can bring him closer to Him.
Faith and holiness were not only "at that time". And today and tomorrow and until the close of the world they will not abandon us. They stars may fall, and the rivers may dry up, and the mountains melt, and everything may flee away, but there will not come a day that there are no Christians. There will always be men who believe in Christ, and who will be ready to trade their life for a crown, like Sts. Kosmas and Damian, whose intercessions may ever be with you, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
+Bishop Augustine Kantiotis (Recorded homily which occurred in the church of the Holy Unmercenaries, Perasmatos, Florina, 7/1/74)
Source:
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2017/07/homily-of-metropolitan-avgoustinos.html
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One thing missing from our national conversation about marriage
by
Joel J. Miller
Cristians have traditionally understood marriage as more than contract, partnership, or mutual agreement. Though it’s been buried under a million words about rights and equality, the church understands marriage to be a sacrament, a gift of God’s grace for the transformation of the recipients.
Look for a moment at two examples: baptism and eucharist. The first moves us into relationship with Christ and his church, while the second gives us the life of Christ so we can become more like him. Marriage is the same way. The endgame is union with God as we grow in Christ.
The apostle Paul actually speaks of marriage as a “mystery,” using the Greek term for sacraments. Our marriages have the power to transform us into the likeness of Christ. But “sacrament” is not a category many of us think about anymore, and the deleterious effect on our understanding of marriage is profound.
The rise of therapeutic marriage
Over the last several decades we’ve come to a different take on marriage, as part of a much larger cultural shift I discussed before. Marriage is now primarily a relationship for the betterment and self-fulfillment of two individuals. Two are stronger than one, after all. Together two individuals can better gratify each other’s desires and fulfill each others needs—right up until the moment they no longer seem able or willing, of course.
None of that is false, so far as it goes. But when you take this understanding of marriage and place it within the context of a self-indulgent culture like ours, you create marriages between two people looking to get the most out of the relationship for themselves. University of Virginia sociologist Sarah Corse and Harvard sociologist Jennifer Silva, for instance, describe the rise of “therapeutic” marriage, which centers on the “happiness, equality, mutuality, and self-actualization of individuals.”
When the individuals involved think they can get more for themselves outside the marriage, they cheat or just “consciously uncouple,” to use Gwyneth Paltrow’s morally beatific euphemism for divorce. “[W]e don’t divorce—or have affairs—because we are unhappy but because we could be happier,” explains therapist Esther Perel.
The union exists, in other words, for the individual to maximize his or her bliss—and to hell with the rest. That’s not true in every marriage, but it sure seemed true in my first marriage, and let me underscore the word first. How could it last with all my self-seeking?
This is the exactly the cultural context in which the Supreme Court wrestled with the question of same-sex marriage. Hence Justice Kennedy’s ruling:
The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality. This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation. There is dignity in the bond between two men or two women who seek to marry and in their autonomy to make such profound choices.
That opinion makes sense in the context of therapeutic marriage. Who doesn’t like room for expression, intimacy, and spirituality? But the judgment doesn’t apply to sacramental marriage because those things—wonderful as they are—are not the governing purpose of marriage as traditionally understood by the church. We’re working toward something bigger.
The significance and safeguard of sacrament
Christians are affected by the “therapeutic” culture as much as anyone. Not only do many of us no longer regard marriage as a sacramental union, in which individual gratification and self-fulfillment are not the ultimate goal. But in the vacuum we have perpetuated the values of the wider culture (as in most everything else we do).
Compounding the problem, Christians approach marriage with expectations that seem appropriate on the surface but which are really just self-indulgence baptized and proof-texted. True love should wait, yes, but the point of marriage isn’t to have—as we often sell it to young people—the most amazing sex ever.
Others have written about the problems with this approach, but the obvious one is that it distorts the purpose of marriage before the pair even steps up to the altar. Everybody loves a good orgasm, but marriage is more about enabling another to grow in union with God. Not only does marriage help display the relationship between God and his church, it helps us actualize that relationship by the Holy Spirit.
Beyond these considerations, the category of sacrament could prove an important safeguard. When a couple comes to marry, the pastor must guard the sacrament as he would with baptism and the eucharist. Sacraments are exclusive by nature. The earliest Christians didn’t even let outsiders see the eucharist.
A minister would refuse baptism to someone not eligible, just as he would refuse the cup. The same is true for marriage. If it’s only a contract, that’s one thing. But if it is a sacrament, then what place do courts and legislatures have dictating practice? Will the government also determine who should get dunked, fed, absolved, and so on? It’s a small but perhaps significant distinction as we look to define the bounds of religious liberty.
Bottom line: If marriage is to survive as any meaningful sort of institution, I am convinced it will only survive to the extent that we recapture the vision for what a sacramental marriage can be. And that of course means those of us who are married must live up to that calling.
Lord, have mercy.
Source:
http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/joeljmiller/sacrament-of-marriage/
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How can we have the Holy Spirit?
Blessed Elder Emilianos of Simonopetra Monastery, Holy Mount Athos, Greece (+2019)
The answer is, for each of us to love his wife: you who are married your wife, and I who am a monk, my monastic life.
I must love my solitude, and not get depressed, not get tired, I must stand vigil, and not think that God sent me here in order to save the whole world, not to think that it is my duty to joke with this or that person, but to look after my job: I must have my eye on Christ.
When you leave your house and get married, you leave behind your father, mother, brothers, relatives, and, instead of your parents, your brothers and relatives, you find a new family. And having left, don't look behind you, as the Psalm of the Theotokos* says, do not think of anything from your former family**. For now you have a whole new world before you, which you must rejoice in, to partake of, to taste, to give life to. Therefore, all of us must give life to our family, to our love, to the divinity that we have wedded, as St. Hesychios says. Then our flesh we will be filled with divinity and we become Christ.
Source:
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2019/06/elder-aimilianos-of-simonopetra-how-can.html
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About Love
Saint Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia, Holy Mount Athos (+1991)
* God has everything. When you are despairing, He sends you something that you did not expect...I t is enough for you to believe in Him and love Him.
* You can't force the other person. Their hour will come, the time will come, it is enough to pray for them. With silence, tolerance, and most especially with prayer, we benefit the other mystically. The grace of God cleanses the horizons of their nous, and confirms him in His love.
Source:
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com
FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH
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Teach your children love
by
Orthodox Monastery of All Celtic Saints
on Isle of Mull, Hebrides Islands, Scotland
What exactly is there to teach a child (or a teenager, for that matter)? In what ways is it beneficial for a child to sit down and learn about the Holy Trinity or Christ’s two natures? Is that where we should start? Are dogmas the central focus?
To me, church school is an interesting, but completely alien concept. The idea that I may go to church for anything else except worship feels strange. The notion that I can be taught about worship – by any other means except worship itself – is also strange. I instinctively dislike the thought that someone would try to ‘school’ me about God.
As a monastic, I haven’t had the experience of raising my own children. But I was a child once, and my memories of those years are all built around emotions, not knowledge: I remember playing, I remember my best friends, I remember some of the naughty jokes we played on the old people (that is, anyone over 20). I also remember nice old ladies (and their pockets filled with sweets) and grumpy old men (who always had some seriously boring advice to share). I remember colours, singing, the smell of incense. The only services I remember are the commemorations of the departed (because we always got a lot of koliva and candy) and singing Christmas carols (for the same reason: candy, candy, candy).
As a teenager, things changed. The nice old ladies and the grumpy old men became my enemies – it wasn’t their fault, but hormones do strange things to people. The only thought I had concerning church was: never again. It was boring, attended by old people (this time, anyone over 30) and completely irrelevant to my own life. The worst thing would have been having to confess or attend some sort of church school. I tried once to confess as a teenager and I couldn’t deal with it; it felt as an intrusion, almost like an abuse. I also refused to study religion in school – we had to choose between religion and applied science. I preferred to dissect frogs and look at their insides. THAT was cool.
I do have some good church memories from that time, though. I remember visiting an asylum for old people. I remember an old lady (really old, in her 90s), who used to be a French teacher in her youth. She asked me if I spoke any French. We then spoke for a few minutes and she was crying all the time. We talked about the weather and my age and things like that, and she silently cried through the whole conversation. I remember realising for the first time that the world is filled with suffering and that I can actually do something to take some of that suffering away.
That was the first time I felt a real connection between me and Christ. When I went back to church, the Cross suddenly had a different look. Out of everything in the church, that Christ on the Cross seemed to be looking straight at me and calling me; we had a secret, I had been revealed something – this time, it was about me. It was relevant; and personal.
Perhaps it may help to look at these things from the child’s perspective. When they are young, make sure they create beautiful memories in church. Build a small playground for them, be nice to them – help them feel loved. If you help them associate Love and Christ, Love and Church, you’ve introduced them to the deepest theology. As they grow older and become teenagers, get them involved in the real things: visits to orphanages, asylums, hospitals, prisons etc. Make their time count.
All they need to know about dogmas and doctrine they’ll get from attending the services, from the random things they pick up from sermons, from the bits and pieces of an accidental discussion. Build Christian values in them, not Christian knowledge. Work with their hearts, rather than their minds, because the theology of the heart cannot be erased. If you teach them love and compassion, you’ve taught them enough. If you help them love God and the world around them, you’ve introduced them into a living experience of Christ’s commandments. Rather than knowing what His commandments are, your children will be living them. Trust Christ to do the rest.
Source:
http://www.mullmonastery.com/monastery-blog/teach-your-children-love/
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Marriage: The Great Sacrament
by
Blessed Elder Emilianos of Simonopetra Monastery, Holy Mount Athos, Greece (+2019)
On (June 25 / July 8), the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Saints Peter and Febronius, and the nation celebrates an official “Day of “Family, Love, and Faithfulness.” To honor the day, we have posted a classic homily on this theme by Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra, Mount Athos from the website, Orthodox Christian Information Center. Fr. Aimilianos gives excellent advice not only to young people thinking about marriage, but also to married couples, who are carrying their saving cross in life, travelling together as one body to the Kingdom of Heaven.
* * *
Nobody would dispute that the most important day in a person’s life, after his birth and baptism, is that of his marriage. It is no surprise, then, that the aim of contemporary worldly and institutional upheavals is precisely to crush the most honorable and sacred mystery of marriage. For many people, marriage is an opportunity for pleasures and amusements. Life, however, is a serious affair. It is a spiritual struggle, a progression toward a goal—heaven. The most crucial juncture, and the most important means, of this progression is marriage. It is not permissible for anyone to avoid the bonds of marriage, whether he concludes a mystical marriage by devoting himself to God, or whether he concludes a sacramental one with a spouse.
Today we will concern ourselves primarily with sacramental marriage. We will consider how marriage can contribute to our spiritual life, in order to continue the theme of our previous talk.[1] We know that marriage is an institution established by God. It is “honorable” (Heb 13.4). It is a “great mystery” (Eph 5.32). An unmarried person passes through life and leaves it; but a married person lives and experiences life to the full.
One wonders what people today think about the sacred institution of marriage, this “great mystery”, blessed by our Church. They marry, and it’s as if two checking accounts or two business interests were being merged. Two people are united without ideals, two zeros, you could say. Because people without ideals, without quests, are nothing more than zeros. “I married in order to live my life”, you hear people say, “and not to be shut inside four walls”. “I married to enjoy my life”, they say, and then they hand over their children—if they have children—to some strange woman so they can run off to the theater, the movies, or to some other worldly gathering. And so their houses become hotels to which they return in the evening, or, rather, after midnight, after they’ve had their fun and need to rest. Such people are empty inside, and so in their homes they feel a real void. They find no gratification there, and thus they rush and slide from here to there, in order to find their happiness.
They marry without knowledge, without a sense of responsibility, or simply because they wish to get married, or because they think they must in order to be good members of society. But what is the result? We see it every day. The shipwrecks of marriage are familiar to all of us. A worldly marriage, as it is understood today, can only have one characteristic—the murder of a person’s spiritual life. Thus we must feel that, if we fail in our marriage, we have more or less failed in our spiritual life. If we succeed in our marriage, we have also succeeded in our spiritual life. Success or failure, progress or ruin, in our spiritual life, begins with our marriage. Because this is such a serious matter, let us consider some of the conditions necessary for a happy, truly Christian marriage.
In order to have a successful marriage, one must have the appropriate upbringing from an early age. Just as a child must study, just as he learns to think, and take an interest in his parents or his health, so too must he be prepared in order to be able to have a successful marriage. But in the age in which we live, no one is interested in preparing their children for this great mystery, a mystery which will play the foremost role in their lives. Parents are not interested, except in the dowry, or in other such financial matters, in which they are deeply interested.
The child, from an early age, must learn to love, to give, to suffer deprivation, to obey. He must learn to feel that the purity of his soul and body is a valuable treasure to be cherished as the apple of his eye. The character of the child must be shaped properly, so that he becomes an honest, brave, decisive, sincere, cheerful person, and not a half, self-pitying creature, who constantly bemoans his fate, a weak-willed thing without any power of thought or strength. From an early age, the child should learn to take an interest in a particular subject or occupation, so that tomorrow he will be in a position to support his family, or, in the case of a girl, also to help, if this is necessary. A woman must learn to be a housewife, even if she has an education. She should learn to cook, to sew, to embroider. But, my good Father, you may say, this is all self- evident. Ask married couples, however, and you’ll see how many women who are about to marry know nothing about running a household.
Once we reach a certain age, moreover, the choice of one’s life partner is a matter which should not be put off. Neither should one be in a hurry, because, as the saying goes, “quick to marry, quick to despair”. But one should not delay, because delay is a mortal danger to the soul. As a rule, the normal rhythm of the spiritual life begins with marriage. An unmarried person is like someone trying to live permanently in a hallway: he doesn’t seem to know what the rooms are for. Parents should take an interest in the child’s social life, but also in his prayer life, so that the blessed hour will come as a gift sent by God.
Naturally, when he comes to choose a partner, he will take to account his parents’ opinion. How often have parents felt knives piercing their hearts when their children don’t ask them about the person who will be their companion in life? A mother’s heart is sensitive, and can’t endure such a blow. The child should discuss matters with his parents, because they have a special intuition enabling them to be aware of the things which concern them. But this doesn’t mean that the father and mother should pressure the child. Ultimately he should be free to make his own decision. If you pressure your child to marry, he will consider you responsible if things don’t go well. Nothing good comes from pressure. You must help him, but you must also allow him to choose the person he prefers or loves—but not someone he pities or feels sorry for. If your child, after getting to know someone, tells you, “I feel sorry for the poor soul, I’ll marry him”, then you know that you’re on the threshold of a failed marriage. Only a person whom he or she prefers or loves can stand by the side of your child. Both the man and the woman should be attracted to each other, and they should truly want to live together, in an inward way, unhurriedly. On this matter, however, it is not possible to pressure our children. Sometimes, out of our love, we feel that they are our possessions, that they are our property, and that we can do what we want with them. And thus our child becomes a creature incapable of living life either married or unmarried.
Of course, the process of getting acquainted, which is such a delicate issue—but of which we are often heedless—should take place before marriage. We should never be complacent about getting to know each other, especially if we’re not sure of our feelings. Love shouldn’t blind us. It should open our eyes, to see the other person as he is, with his faults. “Better to take a shoe from your own house, even if it’s cobbled”, says the folk proverb. That is, it’s better to take someone you’ve gotten to know. And acquaintanceship must always be linked with engagement, which is an equally difficult matter.
When I suggested to a young woman that she should think seriously about whether she should continue her engagement she replied: “If I break it off, my mother will kill me”. But what sort of engagement is it, if there’s no possibility of breaking it off? To get engaged doesn’t mean that I’ll necessarily get married. It means that I’m testing to see whether I should marry the person I’m engaged to. If a woman isn’t in a position to break off her engagement, she shouldn’t get engaged, or, rather, she shouldn’t go ahead with the marriage. During the engagement, we must be especially careful. If we are, we will have fewer problems and fewer disappointments after the wedding. Someone once said that, during the period of getting to know me another, you should hold on to your heart firmly with both hands, as if it were a wild animal. You know how dangerous the heart is: instead of leading you to marriage, it can lead you into sin. There is the possibility that the person you’ve chosen sees you as a mere toy, or a toothbrush to be tried out. Afterwards you’ll be depressed and shed many tears. But then it will be too late, because your angel will have turned out to be made of clay.
Don’t choose a person who wastes his time at clubs, having good time, and throwing away his money on traveling and luxuries. Neither should you choose someone who, as you’ll find out, conceals his self-centeredness beneath words of love. Don’t choose a woman as your wife who is like gun powder, so that as soon as you say something to her, she bursts to flames. She’s no good as a wife.
Moreover, if you want to have a truly successful marriage, don’t approach that young woman or man who is unable to leave his or her parents. The commandment of Christ is clear: man leaves his father and mother, and is united to his wife” (Mk 10.7). But when you see the other person tied to his mother or father, when you see that he obeys them with his mouth hanging open, and is prepared to do whatever they tell him, keep well away. He is emotionally sick, a psychologically immature person, and you won’t be able to create a family with him. The man you will make your husband should be spirited. But how can he be spirited when he hasn’t realized, hasn’t understood, hasn’t digested the fact that his parents’ house is simply a flower-pot in which he was put, to be taken out later, and transplanted somewhere else?
Also, when you’re going to choose a husband, make sure that he’s not an uncommunicative type—in which case he’ll have no friends. And if today he has no friends, tomorrow he’ll find it difficult to have you as a friend and partner. Be on your guard against grumblers, moaners, and gloomy people who are like dejected birds. Be on your guard against those who complain all the time: “You don’t love me, you don’t understand me”, and all that sort of thing. Something about these creatures of God isn’t right. Also be on your guard against religious fanatics and the overly pious. Those, that is, who get upset over trivial things, who are critical of everything and hypersensitive. How are you going to live with such a person? It will be like sitting on thorns. Also look out for those who regard marriage as something bad, as a form of imprisonment. Those who say: But I’ve never in my whole life thought about getting married.
Watch out for certain pseudo-Christians, who see marriage as something sordid, as a sin, who immediately cast their eyes down when they hear anything said about it.[2] If you marry someone like this, he will be a thorn in your flesh, and a burden for his monastery if he becomes a monk. Watch out for those who think that they’re perfect, and find no defect in themselves, while constantly finding faults in others. Watch out for those who think they’ve been chosen by God to correct everyone else.
There is another serious matter to which you should also pay attention: heredity. Get to know well the father, the mother, the grandfather, the grandmother, the uncle. Also, the basic material prerequisites should be there. Above all, pay attention to the person’s faith. Does he or she have faith? Has the person whom you’re thinking of making the companion of your life have ideals? If Christ means nothing to him, how are you going to be able to enter his heart? If he has not been able to value Christ, do you think he will value you? Holy Scripture says to the husband that the wife should be “of your testament” (Mal 2.14), that is, of your faith, your religion, so that she can join you to God. It is only then that you can have, as the Church Fathers say, a marriage “with the consent of the bishop,”[3] that is, with the approval of the Church, and not simply a formal license.
Discuss things in advance with your spiritual father. Examine every detail with him, and he will stand by your side as a true friend, and, when you reach the desired goal, then your marriage will be a gift from God (cf. 1 Cor 7.7).God gives his own gift to each one of us. He leads one person to marriage and another to virginity. Not that God makes the choice by saying “you go here”, and “you go there”, but he gives us the nerve to choose what our heart desires, and the courage and the strength to carry it out.
If you choose your spouse in this way, then thank God. Bring him into touch with your spiritual father. If you don’t have one, the two of you should choose a spiritual father together, who will be your Elder, your father, the one who will remind you of, and show you God.
You will have many difficulties in life. There will be a storm of issues. Worries will surround you, and maintaining your Christian life will not be easy. But don’t worry. God will help you. Do what is within your power. Can you read a spiritual book for five minutes a day? Then read. Can you pray for five minutes a day? Pray. And if you can’t manage five minutes, pray for two. The rest is God’s affair.
When you see difficulties in your marriage, when you see that you’re making no progress in your spiritual life, don’t despair. But neither should you be content with whatever progress you may have already made. Lift up your heart to God. Imitate those who have given everything to God, and do what you can to be like them, even if all you can do is to desire in your heart to be like them. Leave the action to Christ. And when you advance in this way, you will truly sense what is the purpose of marriage. Otherwise, as a blind person wanders about, so too will you wander in life.
What then is the purpose of marriage? I will tell you three of its main aims. First of all, marriage is a path of pain. The companionship of man and wife is called a “yoking together” (syzygia), that is, the two of them labor under a shared burden. Marriage is a journeying together, a shared portion of pain, and, of course, a joy. But usually it’s six chords of our life which sound a sorrowful note, and only one which is joyous. Man and wife will drink from the same cup of upheaval, sadness, and failure. During the marriage ceremony, the priest gives the newly-weds to drink from the same cup, called the “common cup,”[4] because together they will bear the burdens of marriage. The cup is also called “union,”[5] because they are joined together to share life’s joys and sorrows.
When two people get married, it’s as if they’re saying: Together we will go forward, hand in hand, through good times and bad. We will have dark hours, hours of sorrow filled with burdens, monotonous hours. But in the depths of the night, we continue to believe in the sun and the light. Oh, my dear friends, who can say that his life has not been marked by difficult moments? But it is no small thing to know that, in your difficult moments, in your worries, in your temptations, you will be holding in your hand the hand of your beloved. The New Testament says that every man will have pain, especially those who enter into marriage.
“Are you free from a wife?”—which means, are you unmarried?—asks the Apostle Paul. “Then do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you are not doing anything wrong, it is no sin. And if a girl marries, she does not sin, but those who marry will have hardships to endure, and my aim is to spare you” (1 Cor 7.27-28). Remember: from the moment you marry, he says, you will have much pain, you will suffer, and your life will be a cross, but a cross blossoming with flowers. Your marriage will have its joys, its smiles, and its beautiful things. But during the days of sunshine, remember that all the lovely flowers conceal a cross, which can emerge into your sunshine at any moment.
Life is not a party, as some people think, and after they get married take a fall from heaven to earth. Marriage is a vast ocean, and you don’t know where it will wash you up. You take the person whom you’ve chosen with fear and trembling, and with great care, and after a year, two years, five years, you discover that he’s fooled you.
It is an adulteration of marriage for us to think that it is a road to happiness, as if it were a denial of the cross. The joy of marriage is for husband and wife to put their shoulders to the wheel and together go forward on the uphill road of life. “You haven’t suffered? Then you haven’t loved”, says a certain poet. Only those who suffer can really love. And that’s why sadness is a necessary feature of marriage. “Marriage”, in the words of an ancient philosopher, “is a world made beautiful by hope, and strengthened by misfortune”. Just as steel is fashioned in a furnace, just so is a person proved in marriage, in the fire of difficulties. When you see your marriage from a distance, everything seems wonderful. But when you get closer, you’ll see just how many difficult moments it has.
God says that “it is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen 2.18), and so he placed a companion at his side, someone to help him throughout his life, especially in his struggles of faith, because in order to keep your faith, you must suffer and endure much pain. God sends his grace to all of us. He sends it, however, when he sees that we are willing to suffer. Some people, as soon as they see obstacles, run away. They forget God and the Church. But faith, God, and the Church, are not a shirt that you take off as soon as you start to sweat.
Marriage, then, is a journey through sorrows and joys. When the sorrows seem overwhelming, then you should remember that God is with you. He will take up your cross. It was he who placed the crown of marriage on your head. But when we ask God about something, he doesn’t always supply the solution right away. He leads us forward very slowly. Sometime[s] he takes years. We have to experience pain, otherwise life would have no meaning. But be of good cheer, for Christ is suffering with you, and the Holy Spirit, “through your groanings is pleading on your behalf” (cf. Rom 8.26).
Second, marriage is a journey of love. It is the creation of a new human being, a new person, for, as the Gospel says, “the two will be as one flesh” (Mt 19.5; Mk 10.7). God unites two people, and makes them one. From this union of two people, who agree to synchronize their footsteps and harmonize the beating of their hearts, a new human being emerges. Through such profound and spontaneous love, the one becomes a presence, a living reality, in the heart of the other. “I am married” means that I cannot live a single day, even a few moments, without the companion of my life. My husband, my wife, is a part of my being, of my flesh, of my soul. He or she complements me. He or she is the thought of my mind. He or she is the reason for which my heart beats.
The couple exchanges rings to show that, in life’s changes, they will remain united. Each wears a ring with the name of the other written on it, which is placed on the finger from which a vein runs directly to the heart. That is, the name of the other is written on his own heart. The one, we could say, gives the blood of his heart to the other. He or she encloses the other within the core of his being.
“What do you do?” a novelist was once asked. He was taken aback. “What do I do? What a strange question! I love Olga, my wife”. The husband lives to love his wife, and the wife lives to love her husband.
The most fundamental thing in marriage is love, and love is about uniting two into one. God abhors separation and divorce. He wants unbroken unity (cf. Mt 19.3-9; Mk 10.2-12). The priest takes the rings off the left finger, puts them on the right, and then again on the left, and finally he puts them back on the right hand. He begins and ends with the right hand, because this is the hand with which we chiefly act. It also means that the other now has my hand. I don’t do anything that my spouse doesn’t want. I am bound up with the other. I live for the other, and for that reason I tolerate his faults. A person who can’t put up with another can’t marry.
What does my partner want? What interests him? What gives him pleasure? That should also interest and please me as well. I also look for opportunities to give him little delights. How will I please my husband today? How will I please my wife today? This is the question which a married person must ask every day. She is concerned about his worries, his interests, his job, his friends, so that they can have everything in common. He gladly gives way to her. Because he loves her, he goes to bedlastand gets up first in the morning. He regards her parents as his own, and loves them and is devoted to them, because he knows that marriage is difficult for parents. It always makes them cry, because it separates them from their child.
The wife expresses love for her husband through obedience. She is obedient to him exactly as the Church is to Christ (Eph 5.22-24). It is her happiness to do the will of her husband. Attitude, obstinacy, and complaining are the axes which chop down the tree of conjugal happiness. The woman is the heart. The man is the head. The woman is the heart that loves. In her husband’s moments of difficulty, she stands at his side, as the empress Theodora stood by the emperor Justinian. In his moments of joy, she tries to raise him up to even higher heights and ideals. In times of sorrow, she stands by him like a sublime and peaceful world offering him tranquility.
The husband should remember that his wife has been entrusted to him by God. His wife is a soul which God has given to him, and one day he must return it. He loves his wife as Christ loves the Church (Eph 5.25). He protects her, takes care of her, gives her security, particularly when she is distressed, or when she is ill. We know how sensitive a woman’s soul can be, which is why the Apostle Peter urges husbands to honor their wives (cf. 1 Pet 3.7). A woman’s soul gets wounded, is often petty, changeable, and can suddenly fall into despair. Thus the husband should be full of love and tenderness, and make himself her greatest treasure. Marriage, my dear friends, is a little boat which sails through waves and among rocks. If you lose your attention even for a moment, it will be wrecked.
As we have seen, marriage is first of all a journey of pain; second a journey of love; and, third, a journey to heaven, a call from God. It is, as Holy Scripture says, a “great mystery” (Eph 5.32). We often speak of seven “mysteries”, or sacraments. In this regard, a “mystery” is the sign of the mystical presence of some true person or event. An icon, for instance, is a mystery. When we venerate it, we are not venerating wood or paint, but Christ, or the Theotokos, or the saint who is mystically depicted. The Holy Cross is a symbol of Christ, containing his mystical presence. Marriage, too, is a mystery, a mystical presence, not unlike these. Christ says, “wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them” (Mt 18.20). And whenever two people are married in the name of Christ, they become the sign which contains and expresses Christ himself. When you see a couple who are conscious of this, it is as if you are seeing Christ. Together they are a theophany.
This is also why crowns are placed on their heads during the wedding ceremony, because the bride and groom are an image of Christ and the Church. And not just this, but everything in marriage is symbolic. The lit candles symbolize the wise virgins. When the priest places these candles into the hands of the newly-weds, it is as if he is saying to them: Wait for Christ like the wise virgins (Mt 25.1-11). Or they symbolize the tongues of fire which descended at Pentecost, and which were in essence the presence of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.1-4). The wedding rings are kept on the altar, until they are taken from there by the priest, which shows that marriage has its beginning in Christ, and will end in Christ. The priest also joins their hands, in order to show that it is Christ himself who unites them. It is Christ who is at the heart of the mystery and at the center of their lives.[6]
All the elements of the marriage ceremony are shadows and symbols which indicate the presence of Christ. When you’re sitting somewhere and suddenly you see a shadow, you know that someone’s coming. You don’t see him, but you know he’s there. You get up early in the morning, and you see the red horizon in the east. You know that, in a little while, the sun will come up. And indeed, there behind the mountain, the sun starts to appear.
When you see your marriage, your husband, your wife, your partner’s body, when you see your troubles, everything in your home, know that they are all signs of Christ’s presence. It is as if you’re hearing Christ’s footsteps, as if he was coming, as if you are now about to hear his voice. All these things are the shadows of Christ, revealing that he is together with us. It is true, though, that, because of our cares and worries, we feel that he is absent. But we can see him in the shadows, and we are sure that he is with us. This is why there was no separate marriage service in the early Church. The man and woman simply went to church and received Communion together. What does this mean? That henceforth their life is one life in Christ.
The wreaths, or wedding crowns, are also symbols of Christ’s presence. More specifically, they are symbols of martyrdom. Husband and wife wear crowns to show that they are ready to become martyrs for Christ. To say that “I am married” means that I live and die for Christ. “I am married” means that I desire and thirst for Christ. Crowns are also signs of royalty, and thus husband and wife are king and queen, and their home is a kingdom, a kingdom of the Church, an extension of the Church.
When did marriage begin? When man sinned. Before that, there was no marriage, not in the present-day sense. It was only after the Fall, after Adam and Eve had been expelled from paradise, that Adam “knew” Eve (Gen 4.1) and thus marriage began. Why then? So that they might remember their fall and expulsion from paradise, and seek to return there. Marriage is thus a return to the spiritual paradise, the Church of Christ. “I am married” means, then, that I am a king, a true and faithful member of the Church.
The wreaths also symbolize the final victory which will be attained in the kingdom of heaven. When the priest takes the wreaths, he says to Christ: “take their crowns to your kingdom”, take them to your kingdom, and keep them there, until the final victory. And so marriage is a road: its starts out from the earth and ends in heaven. It is a joining together, a bond with Christ, who assures us that he will lead us to heaven, to be with him always. Marriage is a bridge leading us from earth to heaven. It is as if the sacrament is saying: Above and beyond love, above and beyond your husband, your wife, above the everyday events, remember that you are destined for heaven, that you have set out on a road which will take you there without fail. The bride and the bridegroom give their hands to one another, and the priest takes hold of them both, and leads them round the table dancing and singing. Marriage is a movement, a progression, a journey which will end in heaven, in eternity.
In marriage, it seems that two people come together. However it’s not two but three. The man marries the woman, and the woman marries the man, but the two together also marry Christ. So three take part in the mystery, and three remain together in life.
In the dance around the table, the couple are led by the priest, who is a type of Christ. This means that Christ has seized us, rescued us, redeemed us, and made us his. And this is the “great mystery” of marriage (cf. Gal 3.13).
In Latin, the word “mystery” was rendered by the word sacramentum, which means an oath. And marriage is an oath, a pact, a joining together, a bond, as we have said. It is a permanent bond with Christ.
“I am married”, then, means that I enslave my heart to Christ. If you wish, you can get married. If you wish, don’t get married. But if you marry, this is the meaning that marriage has in the Orthodox Church, which brought you into being. “I am married” means I am the slave of Christ.
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[1] I.e., “Spiritual Life”, which appears below, on pp. 147-163.
[2] 2. See, for example, John Chrysostom, Homily on Colossians 12.6 “What shame is there in that which is honorable? Why do you blush over what is undefiled? In so doing, you slander the root of our birth, which is a gift from God” (PG 62.388).
[3] Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to Polycarp (PG 5.724B).
[4] Symeon of Thessaloniki, Dialogos 277 (PG 155.508B).
[5] C. Kallinikos, The Christian Temple and its Ceremonies (Athens, 1968), 514.
[6] St. Gregory the Theologian, Letter 193: “I place the hand of the one the other, and place both in the hand of God” (PG 37.316C).
Source:
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/47495.htm
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Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit:
Blessed Fr. Epiphanios Theodoropoulos of Athens, Greece (+1989)
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From the Counsels
of Blessed Fr. Epiphanios Theodoropoulos
True love is like the flame of a candle. However many candles you light from the flame, the initial flame remains unaffected. It doesn’t lessen at all. And every freshly lit candle has as much flame as the others do.
I want whoever is near me to feel that he has room to breathe, not that he is suffocated. I don’t call anyone to me. I don’t hold onto anyone. I don’t chase anyone away. Whoever wants comes, whoever wants stays, whoever wants leaves. I don’t consider anyone a supporter or a follower.
I am not afraid of death. Not, of course, because of my works, but because I believe in God’s mercy.
Speak more to God about your children than to your children about God…. The soul of the teenager is in a state of an explosion of freedom. For this reason he has a hard time accepting various counsels. So, rather than counseling him continuously and reproaching him now and again, leave the situation to Christ, to the Panaghia (Greek word meaning “All-Holy”. It is perhaps the most beloved term of endearment for the Mother of God in the Greek language) and to the Saints, asking them to bring him to reason.
Don’t be neglectful of prayer! At table, in the morning, afternoon and evening. In particular don’t miss Small Compline for any reason, tired though you may be. It’s a question of self-sacrifice and, in particular, of love. When a beloved person calls you very late at night, how are you able to speak sometimes for a few hours, despite your fatigue, without being put out, but being, rather, pleased?
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Deal with your children as with colts, sometimes tightening and other times loosening the bit. When the colt kicks, without abandoning the bit, we loosen it, otherwise it will break. When, however, it is peaceful, then we tighten the bit and take the colt where we like.
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Parents should love their children as their children and not as their idols. That is to say, they should love their children as they are and not how they would like them to be-to be like them.
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Whoever fears God doesn’t fear anything else.
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I am in pain and agonize over the path of the Greek people who are constantly being de-Hellenized, de-Christianized, de-colorized and cut off from their roots, and are losing their identity.
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In marriage, abstention solely out of love for God is perfect, “the greatest.”(Elder Epiphanios uses terminology from the grading system at school to make his point. “The greatest” is an “A,” “very good,” is a “B,” etc). When the couple comes together, not obstructing the procreation of children, it is at the level of “very good.” And when they abstain solely to avoid the procreation of children, they are on the level of “good.” In any case all of these categories are above average and are only legitimate with the presupposition that they have been agreed upon by both spouses and not just one. Otherwise it is a sin.
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God appointed the salvation of the world to His Son and not to us…. We must first look at our soul and if we can, let’s help five or six people around us.
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When someone is free, he has rights and responsibilities. When he marries, he has few rights and very many responsibilities. When, however, he has children, he doesn’t have any rights at all, but only responsibilities.
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Why do they put rubber tires with inner tubes on cars? So that they give in, to collapse a little with every little stone or pothole on the road, and in this way they pass obstacles. If the wheels were firm and unyielding, the car wouldn’t be able to move forward. It would fall apart after a short distance because of the vibration from the small inconsistencies of terrain. The same thing happens with yielding to others in the family. In this way many problems are surpassed and continuous spiritual progress is assured.
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When people treat us unjustly, God justifies us.
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[God allows virtuous people to suffer] so that they might be purified from even the slightest traces of their passions and so that they might receive an even greater crown in Heaven. Furthermore, as He allowed His beloved Son to suffer and to die on the Cross, what can we say for those people who, as holy as they may be, have filth and stains from sin?
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Sadness purifies us. Man is truly man in sadness. In joy he is changed, he becomes someone else. In sadness he becomes that which he truly is. And this is the way, par excellence, that he approaches God. He senses his weakness. Many times, when he is in glory and joy, he feels that he is the “eye of the earth” or, if you prefer, the center of the universe: “I am, and nobody else!”
In pain and sadness he feels like an insignificant ant in the universe, that he is completely dependent, and he seeks the help and companionship of God. Those of us who have passed through pains, either psychical or physical, know that we never prayed as hard and with such quality and length, as we did when we were in the bed of pain or when some heavy psychical sadness tested us. While, when we have everything, we forget prayer and fasting, and many things. It is for this reason that God allows pain.
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Don’t sit, glued to the television…. Guard yourselves from the means of mass blinding.
We didn’t come here [to the monastery] mainly for handiwork, or for the gardens or for the buildings. For even without these things we can save our soul. We came here primarily for the soul. And in order to save the soul, we must pass the day without sin, with meekness, canon (In this case, the daily rule of prayer, reading, prostrations, and so on, that a monk keeps in his room) and prayer.
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I sacrificed everything even before I had anything. I sacrificed a place at the university as a professor. I sacrificed the position of first secretary of the Holy Synod. I sacrificed the position of director of a missionary brotherhood. I sacrificed the position of first priest of a large church. I sacrificed Episcopal (That is, the position of bishop) thrones…. All I have is a little epilrahili (In Greek, literally, “upon the neck.” It is the stole that the priest or bishop wears around his neck when hearing confession (hereafter, “stole”) so as to confess ten souls. Nothing else!
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There is no greater satisfaction for me than to remain for hours in the seat of the confessional and to reconcile man to God.
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Married and unmarried priests, let us not forget that we are representatives of the gentle and humble-hearted Jesus. We were called to progress in humility and not to quarrel in the holy altar for priority of honor.
Clerics and, in particular, celibate clerics must be chosen from those of a mature age, with excellent education, extreme piety, shining ethos, sterling character and complete spiritual formation: all those things that are acquired with labors and struggles, prayer and study, fasting and vigils, with voluntary poverty and hardships, and through various deprivations. For asceticism is not the privilege or responsibility of monastics alone, but of all the faithful and particularly of clerics, and especially of unmarried clerics. The Orthodox Church is deeply ascetic and those who don’t love asceticism and who are friends of luxury and comfort don’t have a place within Her.
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The priest is the incarnation of the absolute, the expression of the constant, stable and unshakeable, the trumpet of Heaven, the image of incorruption, the mile-marker of eternity. May he remain forever unchanged, even in his external appearance, as a reminder and symbol of the ages and of the unchanging truths that he represents.
The priesthood is a very great gift of God toward mankind. It is the conduit of the grace of God.
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It seems a blasphemy to me [an archimandrite’s sadness at not having been elected bishop]. If you consider that your shell of a body can take bread and wine and, with the Holy Spirit’s consecration, transform it into the Body and Blood of Christ; that you have been given the power to make the children of Adam partakers of the Cross and resurrection of Christ through baptism, and how you have been given the power to place your hands and your stole over the head of the greatest sinner and to bring him out of confession with a pure and whitened soul, how can you then consider yourself unsuccessful? Because you haven’t put on a mitre? ( ). May God have mercy on us!
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I have made an agreement with God: I will empty my pockets in almsgiving and He will fill them. He has never violated our agreement. Will I violate it? May it never happen!
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Ah! My fathers, know how much I have ground down my will! I have loved two things in my life: reading and writing, both of which I have been deprived of, and the deprivation of which is as great for me as for him who loses the greatest joy in this world. When I study the Holy Scripture and patristic books, I leave the earth and go to Heaven. As for my own writing, forgive me for what I’m about to say … I get drunk. I see how others desire to write some text, and they erase, write, erase again, write again….
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I don’t manage to write my thoughts in time, for I am flooded as with flakes of snow. I feel as though my pen has wings. However, in spite of my writing ability and my desire for study, I deprive myself and sit and pick up the telephone, which rings cons tandy, so as to find a solution to some problem or other. Or else I see people for confession for hours without end, and not only scholars, but also simple and unlettered people. In saying this I don’t undervalue the Mystery of confession as opposed to the work of writing. But the will of God was that I confess people and not that I study and write, though they much enchant me.
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How crafty the devil is! To young people who managed to unite in Christian marriage he whispers, “How much better you would be if you went to the monastery and lived the heavenly spiritual pleasures, far from the cares of family life which sever you and keep you down!” While to those who went to the monastery, as they desired the life of virginity in Christ, he whispers, “How much better you would be, if you got married and made your home a temple of God, living the joys of marital life, far from ascetic mortification and the loneliness which depresses you!” And if the married one became a monk and the monk married, he would tell them the opposite. All this to throw the person into despair and to pull him from the path of salvation. For the path of salvation is both blessed marriage and virginity in Christ
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The mathematics of God is completely different from the mathematics of humans. For us two and two equal four. For God two and two can make five or fifteen or anyd1ing else.
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My heart only has entrances. It doesn’t have exits. Whoever enters remains there. Whatever he may do, I love him the same as I loved him when he first entered into my heart. I pray for him and seek his salvation.
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My worst hell is to realize that I have saddened a beloved person.
(Taken from Elder Epiphanios in “Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit”, Protecting Veil Press)
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On two types of love
Saint Maria Skobtsova of Paris (+1945)
In this world there are two kinds of love: one that takes and one that gives. This is common to all types of love — not only love for man. One can love a friend, one’s family, children, scholarship, art, the motherland, one’s own ideas, oneself — and even God — from either of these two points of view. Even those forms of love which by common consent are the highest can exhibit this dual character.
Take, for example, maternal love. A mother can often forget herself, sacrifice herself for her children. Yet this does not as yet warrant recognition as Christian love for her children. One needs to ask the question: what is it that she loves in them? She may love her own reflection, her second youth, an expansion of her own “I” into other “I”s which become separated from the rest of the world as “we.” She may love in them her own flesh that she sees in them, the traits of her own character, the reflections of her own tastes, the continuation of her family. Then it becomes unclear where is the fundamental difference between an egotistical love of self and a seemingly sacrificial love of one’s children, between “I” and “we.” All this amounts to a passionate love of one’s own which blinds one’s vision, forcing one to ignore the rest of the world — what is not one’s own.
Such a mother will imagine that the merit of her own child is not comparable with the merit of other children, that his mishaps and illnesses are more severe than those of others, and, finally, that at times the well-being and success of other children can be sacrificed for the sake of the well-being and success of her own. She will think that the whole world (herself included) is called to serve her child, to feed him, quench his thirst, train him, make smooth all paths before him, deflect all obstacles and all rivals. This is a kind of passion-filled maternal love. Only that maternal love is truly Christian which sees in the child a true image of God, which is inherent not only in him but in all people, but given to her in trust, as her responsibility, as something she must develop and strengthen in him in preparation for the unavoidable life of sacrifice along the Christian path, for that cross-bearing challenge which faces every Christian. Only such a mother loves her child with truly Christian love. With this kind of love she will be more aware of other children’s misfortunes, she will be more attentive toward them when they are neglected. As the result of the presence of Christian love in her heart her relationship with the rest of humanity will be a relationship in Christ. This is, of course, a very poignant example.
There can be no doubt but that love for anything that exists is divided into these two types. One may passionately love one’s motherland, working to make sure that it develops gloriously and victoriously, overcoming and destroying all its enemies. Or one can love it in a Christian manner, working to see that the face of Christ’s truth is revealed more and more clearly within it. One can passionately love knowledge and art, seeking to express oneself, to flaunt oneself in them. Or one can love them while remaining conscious of one’s service through them, of one’s responsibility for the exercise of God’s gifts in these spheres.
One can also love the idea of one’s own life simply because it is one’s own — and enviously and jealously set it over against all other ideas. Or one can see in it too a gift granted to one by God for the service of his eternal truth during the time of one’s path on earth. One can love life itself both passionately and sacrificially. One can even relate to death in two different ways. And one can direct two kinds of love toward God. One of these will look on him as the heavenly protector of “my” or “our” earthly passions and desires. Another kind of love, however, will humbly and sacrificially offer one’s tiny human soul into his hands. And apart from their name — love — and apart from their outward appearance, these two forms of love will have nothing in common.
In the light of such Christian love, what should man’s ascetic effort be? What is that true asceticism whose existence is inescapably presupposed by the very presence of spiritual life? Its criterion is self-denying love for God and for one’s fellow man. But an asceticism which puts one’s own soul at the center of everything, which looks for its salvation, fencing it off from the world, and within its own narrow limits comes close to spiritual self-centeredness and a fear of dissipating, of wasting one’s energies, even though it be through love — this is not Christian asceticism.
What is the criterion that can be used to define and measure the various pathways of human life? What are their prototypes, their primary symbols, their boundaries? It is the path of Godmanhood, Christ’s path upon earth. The Word became flesh, God became incarnate, born in a stable in Bethlehem. This alone should be fully sufficient for us to speak of the limitless, sacrificial, self-abnegating and self-humbling love of Christ. Everything else is present in this. The Son of Man lowered the whole of himself — the whole of his divinity, his whole divine nature and his whole divine hypostasis — beneath the vaults of that cave in Bethlehem. There are not two Gods, nor are there two Christs: one who abides in blessedness within the bosom of the Holy Trinity and another who took on the form of a servant. The Only-begotten Son of God, the Logos, has become Man, lowering himself to the level of mankind. The path of his later life — the preaching, the miracles, the prophesies, the healings, the enduring of hunger and thirst, right through his trial before Pilate, the way of the cross and on to Golgotha and death — all this is the path of his humiliated humanity, and together with him the path of God’s condescension to humanity.
What was Christ’s love like? Did it withhold anything? Did it observe or measure its own spiritual gifts? What did it regret? Where was it ever stingy? Christ’s humanity was spit upon, struck, crucified. Christ’s divinity was incarnate fully and to the end in his spit-upon, battered, humiliated and crucified humanity. The Cross — an instrument of shameful death — has become for the world a symbol of self-denying love. And at no time nor place — neither from Bethlehem to Golgotha, neither in sermons nor parables, nor in the miracles he performed — did Christ ever give any occasion to think that he did not sacrifice himself wholly and entirely for the salvation of the world, that there was in him something held back, some “holy of holies” which he did not want to offer or should not have offered.
He offered his own “holy of holies,” his own divinity, for the sins of the world, and this is precisely wherein lies his divine and perfect love in all its fullness.
This is the only conclusion we can come to from the whole of Christ’s earthly ministry. But can it be that the power of divine love is such because God, though offering himself, still remains God, that is, does not empty himself, does not perish in this dreadful sacrificial self-emptying?
Human love cannot be completely defined in terms of the laws of divine love, because along this path a man can lay himself waste and lose sight of what is essential: the salvation of his soul.
But here one need only pay attention to what Christ taught us. He said: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross.” Self-denial is of the essence, and without it no one can follow him, without it there is no Christianity. Keep nothing for yourself. Lay aside not only material wealth but spiritual wealth as well, changing everything into Christ’s love, taking it up as your cross. He also spoke — not about himself and not about his perfect love, but about the love which human imperfection can assume — “Greater love has no man than he who lays down his soul (AV, RSV: life) for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). How miserly and greedy it is to understand the word “soul” here as “life.” Christ is speaking here precisely about the soul, about surrendering one’s inner world, about utter and unconditional self-sacrifice as the supreme example of the love that is obligatory for Christians. Here again there is no room for looking after one’s own spiritual treasures. Here everything is given up.
Christ’s disciples followed in his path. This is made quite clear in an almost paradoxical expression of the Apostle Paul: “I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren” (Rom. 9:3). And he said this, having stated: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). For him such an estrangement from Christ is an estrangement from life not only in the transient, worldly sense of the word, but from the eternal and incorruptible life of the age to come.
These examples suffice to let us know where Christianity leads us. Here love truly does not seek its own, even if this be the salvation of one’s own soul. Such love takes everything from us, deprives us of everything, almost as if it were devastating us. And where does it lead? To spiritual poverty. In the Beatitudes we are promised blessedness in return for being poor in spirit. This precept is so far removed from human understanding that some people attempt to read the word “spirit” as a later interpolation and explain these words as a call for material poverty and a rejection of earthly riches, while others almost slip into fanaticism, taking this as a call for intellectual poverty, the rejection of thought and of any kind of intellectual content. Yet how simply and clearly these words can be interpreted in the context of other evangelical texts. The person who is poor in spirit is the one who lays down his soul for his friends, offering this spirit out of love, not withholding his spiritual treasures.
Here the spiritual significance of the monastic vow of renunciation becomes evident. Of course it does not refer just to material renunciation or a basic absence of avarice. Here it is a question of spiritual renunciation.
What is the opposite of this? What vices correspond to the virtue of renunciation? There are two of them, and in real life they are frequently confused: stinginess and greed. One can be greedy but at the same time not be stingy, and even extravagant. One can also be stingy but not have a greedy desire to possess what is not one’s own. Both are equally unacceptable. And if it is unacceptable in the material world, it is even less acceptable in the spiritual realm.
Renunciation teaches us not only that we should not greedily seek advantage for our soul, but that we must not be stingy with our soul, that we should squander our soul in love, that we should achieve spiritual nakedness, that spiritually we should be stripped bare. There should be nothing so sacred or valuable that we would not be ready to give it up in the name of Christ’s love to those who have need of it.
Spiritual renunciation is the way of the holy fool. It is folly, foolishness in Christ. It is the opposite of the wisdom of this age. It is the blessedness of those who are poor in spirit. It is the outer limit of love, the sacrifice of one’s own soul. It is separation from Christ in the name of one’s brothers. It is the denial of oneself. And this is the true Christian path which is taught us by every word and every phrase of the Gospels.
Why is it that the wisdom of this world not only opposes this commandment of Christ but simply fails to understand it? Because the world has at all times lived by accommodating itself to the laws of material nature and is inclined to carry these laws over into the realm of spiritual nature. According to the laws of matter, I must accept that if I give away a piece of bread, then I became poorer by one piece of bread. If I give away a certain sum of money, then I have reduced my funds by that amount. Extending this law, the world thinks that if I give my love, I am impoverished by that amount of love, and if I give up my soul, then I am utterly ruined, for there is nothing left of me to save.
In this area, however, the laws of spiritual life are the exact opposite of the laws of the material world. According to spiritual law, every spiritual treasure given away not only returns to the giver like a whole and unbroken ruble given to a beggar, but it grows and becomes more valuable. He who gives, acquires, and he who becomes poor, becomes rich. We give away our human riches and in return we receive much greater gifts from God, while he who gives away his human soul, receives in return eternal bliss, the divine gift of possessing the Kingdom of heaven. How does he receive that gift? By absenting himself from Christ in an act of the uttermost self-renunciation and love, he offers himself to others. If this is indeed an act of Christian love, if this self-renunciation is genuine, then he meets Christ himself face to face in the one to whom he offers himself. And in communion with him he communes with Christ himself. That from which he absented himself he obtains anew, in love, and in a true communion with God. Thus the mystery of union with man becomes the mystery of union with God. What was given away returns, for the love which is poured out never diminishes the source of that love, for the source of love in our hearts is Love itself. It is Christ.
We are not speaking here about good deeds, nor about that love which measures and parcels out its various possibilities, which gives away the interest but keeps hold of the capital. Here we are speaking about a genuine draining of self, in partial imitation of Christ’s self-emptying of himself when he became incarnate in mankind. In the same way we must empty ourselves completely, becoming incarnate, so to speak, in another human soul, offering to it the full strength of the divine image which is contained within ourselves.
This it is — and only this — which was rejected by the wisdom of this world, as being a kind of violation of its laws. It is this that made the Cross a symbol of divine love: foolishness for the Greeks and a stumbling block for the Jews, though for us it is the only path to salvation. There is not, nor can there be, any doubt but that in giving ourselves to another in love — to the poor, the sick, the prisoner — we will encounter in him Christ himself, face to face. He told us about this himself when he spoke of the Last Judgement: how he will call some to eternal life because they showed him love in the person of each unfortunate and miserable individual, while others he will send away from himself because their hearts were without love, because they did not help him in the person of his suffering human brethren in whom he revealed himself to them. If we harbor doubts about this on the basis of our unsuccessful everyday experience, then we ourselves are the only reason for these doubts: our loveless hearts, our stingy souls, our ineffective will, our lack of faith in Christ’s help. One must really be a fool for Christ in order to travel this path to its end — and at its end, again and again, encounter Christ. This alone is our all-consuming Christian calling.
And this, I believe, is the evangelical way of piety. It would be incorrect, however, to think that this has been revealed to us once and for all in the four Gospels and clarified in the Epistles. It is continually being revealed and is a constant presence in the world. It is also continually being accomplished in the world, and the form of its accomplishment is the Eucharist, the Church’s most valuable treasure, its primary activity in the world. The Eucharist is the mystery of sacrificial love. Therein lies its whole meaning, all its symbolism, all its power. In it Christ again and again is voluntarily slain for the sins of the world. Again and again the sins of the world are raised by him upon the Cross. And he gives himself — his Body and Blood — for the salvation of the world. By offering himself as food for the world, by giving to the world communion in his Body and Blood, Christ not only saves the world by his sacrifice, but makes each person himself a “christ,” and unites him to his own self-sacrificing love for the world. He takes flesh from the world, he deifies this human flesh, he gives it up for the salvation of the world and then unites the world again to this sacrificed flesh — both for its salvation and for its participation in this sacrificial offering. Along with himself — in himself — Christ offers the world as well as a sacrifice for the expiation of our sins, as if demanding from the world this sacrifice of love as the only path toward union with him, that is, for salvation. He raises the world as well upon the Cross, making it a participant in his death and in his glory.
How profound is the resonance of these words of the Eucharist: “Thine own of thine own we offer unto thee, on behalf of all and for all.” The Eucharist here is the Gospel in action. It is the eternally existing and eternally accomplished sacrifice of Christ and of Christ-like human beings for the sins of the world. Through it earthly flesh is deified and having been deified enters into communion again with earthly flesh. In this sense the Eucharist is true communion with the divine. And is it not strange that in it the path to communion with the divine is so closely bound up with our communion with each other. It assumes consent to the exclamation: “Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess Father, Son and Holy Spirit: the Trinity, one in essence and undivided.”
The Eucharist needs the flesh of this world as the “matter” of the mystery. It reveals to us Christ’s sacrifice as a sacrifice on behalf of mankind, that is, as his union with mankind. It makes us into “christs,” repeating again and again the great mystery of God meeting man, again and again making God incarnate in human flesh. And all this is accomplished in the name of sacrificial love for mankind.
But if at the center of the Church’s life there is this sacrificial, self-giving eucharistic love, then where are the Church’s boundaries, where is the periphery of this center? Here it is possible to speak of the whole of Christianity as an eternal offering of the Divine Liturgy beyond church walls. What does this mean? It means that we must offer the bloodless sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-surrendering love not only in a specific place, upon the altar of a particular temple; the whole world becomes the single altar of a single temple, and for this universal Liturgy we must offer our hearts, like bread and wine, in order that they may be transubstantiated into Christ’s love, that he may be born in them, that they may become “Godmanhood” hearts, and that he may give these hearts of ours as food for the world, that he may bring the whole world into communion with these hearts of ours that have been offered up, so that in this way we may be one with him, not so that we should live anew but so that Christ should live in us, becoming incarnate in our flesh, offering our flesh upon the Cross of Golgotha, resurrecting our flesh, offering it as a sacrifice of love for the sins of the world, receiving it from us as a sacrifice of love to himself. Then truly in all ways Christ will be in all.
Here we see the measurelessness of Christian love. Here is the only path toward becoming Christ, the only path which the Gospel reveals to us. What does all this mean in a worldly, concrete sense? How can this be manifested in each human encounter, so that each encounter may be a real and genuine communion with God through communion with man? It implies that each time one must give up one’s soul to Christ in order that he may offer it as a sacrifice for the salvation of that particular individual. It means uniting oneself with that person in the sacrifice of Christ, in flesh of Christ. This is the only injunction we have received through Christ’s preaching of the Gospel, corroborated each day in the celebration of the Eucharist. Such is the only true path a Christian can follow. In the light of this path all others grow dim and hazy. One must not, however, judge those who follow other conventional, non-sacrificial paths, paths which do not require that one offer up oneself, paths which do not reveal the whole mystery of love. Nor, on the other hand, is it permitted to be silent about them. Perhaps in the past it was possible, but not today.
Such terrible times are coming. The world is so exhausted from its scabs and its sores. It so cries out to Christianity in the secret depths of its soul. But at the same time it is so far removed from Christianity that Christianity cannot, should not even dare to show a distorted, diminished, darkened image of itself. Christianity should singe the world with the fire of Christian love. Christianity should ascend the Cross on behalf of the world. It should incarnate Christ himself in the world. Even if this Cross, eternally raised again and again on high, be foolishness for our new Greeks and a stumbling block for our new Jews, for us it will still be “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24).
We who are called to be poor in spirit, to be fools for Christ, who are called to persecution and abuse — we know that this is the only calling given to us by the persecuted, abused, disdained and humiliated Christ. And we not only believe in the Promised Land and the blessedness to come: now, at this very moment, in the midst of this cheerless and despairing world, we already taste this blessedness whenever, with God’s help and at God’s command, we deny ourselves, whenever we have the strength to offer our soul for our neighbors, whenever in love we do not seek our own.
From the Book: Mother Maria Skobtsova, “Types of Religious Lives”
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God's blessing comes when we give a blessing.
Elder Savvas the Philotheusite had told me that during the great famine of 1917, the Iberians, seeing the monastery's storehouses empty, had reduced their hospitality. In fact, a stingy superior insisted and cut it off completely. Next, Christ would stop all His blessings. Then the Fathers began to starve and complain to Christ and the Virgin Mary that they were not taking care of their monastery. Unfortunately, they had not realized their mistake. One day, therefore, Christ appeared to the Monastery's Gatekeeper, as a poor man, and asked him for a little bread. The Gatekeeper sadly said to him: - We have nothing, my brother, and that is why we have cut off our hospitality. But wait a moment while I bring you this little piece that I have in my cell for myself.
He ran, went to his cell and brought him the bread he had for himself and gave it to him. But he saw the poor man's face shining. After the Poor Man took the bread, he said to the Doorman:
- Do you know why this misfortune came to the Monastery? Because you expelled two from the Monastery: the "give" and the "it will be given".
After that, he disappeared, scattering a light that dazzled the Doorman. The Doorman then lost his mind and, frightened, ran to the Superiors of the Monastery and told them the incident. At first, the Fathers racked their brains to remember which people they expelled. But then they understood that the poor man was Christ and they understood His Gospel words: "Give and it will be given to you".
They immediately repented of their mistake and as soon as they began to give from their surplus to the poor, God's rich blessings arrived.
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One of the instructive stories that characterize the depth of Father Gabriel's selflessness for the salvation of his neighbor was told by Abbot Elisha (Belkania). He witnessed the murder of an innocent man committed by a mentally ill person, whom he could not help in any way and for this reason almost left the monastery: “The murder happened so suddenly and for no reason that I was numb. I froze in place, moreover, I will not hide, I felt something like fear, because the action of the devil was very clearly looming here. The fact that I could not do anything to save the unfortunate man tormented me very much as a person, and because of shame I wanted to get away from everyone; I was tormented by the conscience that I was to blame for my inaction. I withdrew into myself, decided to take off my monastic robe and leave the monastery. Vladyka Daniel and my closest spiritual brothers tried very hard to get me out of this terrible state, but nothing helped. The news of my story even reached the Patriarch. On Saturday evening Vladyka Daniel served Vespers in Samtavro. He knew that I was supposed to see him during prayer, and then take off my monastic clothes and leave the monastery. Arriving in Samtavro, I met Father Gabriel entering the temple, giving a blessing and entered the altar to the Lord. Vladyka again sympathetically and lovingly inspired me not to take a deliberately false step, but my closed soul did not heed this.
Soon after this conversation, a terribly angry Father Gabriel entered the altar. He made me kneel and started yelling at me. He scolded me so much that I, one might say, would not have forgiven anyone in a different situation! But it was surprising that this terrible scolding flowed sweetly in my soul, and after I overcame this test, I felt in myself a long-forgotten spiritual freedom and lightness. He abused me so much that it seemed that it would never end, but he suddenly became silent and left the altar.
Bishop Daniel said: “Father Gabriel hasn’t entered the altar for a long time (because of humility), can’t you guess that he did it only because of you.” I, already freed from this temptation and having come to my senses, nodded to Vladyka Daniel and said that I was not going to go anywhere. After the end of the prayer, Father Gabriel met me at the entrance to the temple and, as if there were no ill words, in his own way, kindly began to talk with me. From this conversation, I saw the great danger that I faced because of my inexperience. Having finished the conversation, he blessed me, I remember, even hugged me and went to his cell. I don't know how it happened, but after walking a few steps, he fell and broke his leg. I was amazed and could not find an explanation for this: how? a great monk and an ordinary everyday accident?! When I entered Father Gabriel's cell, knelt at his bedside and sympathetically laid my head on the chest of the great old man suffering from pain, he blessed me and said in a voice tense from pain: “I was in the temple. When I went up to my cell, I was inspired from above - not to return to the temple, but there one monk was in very serious danger, and I went down. I knew that I would incur punishment, and so it happened."
When the doctors took an x-ray of Fr. Gabriel's injured leg in his cell, he was diagnosed with a fracture of the hip joint. The doctors insisted on the need for an urgent operation, but the elder resolutely refused to leave his cell and monastery. From that day until his death, Father Gabriel did not get out of bed and humbly endured the pain. Only occasionally, after the first five or six months, did he ask to be lifted and seated in front of the cell - the elder was happy to look at the monastery and look at the visitors, because he said: “Your life is my life. If you don’t sacrifice yourself for your neighbor, nothing will come of it.”
From the book "The Holy Fool. Saint Gabriel (Urgebadze)"
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"GOD STILL EXISTS!"
Fyodor Mikhailovich Makhov was returning home one winter along the Pekhorka River. It was getting dark. The road was not visible. Approximately in the middle of the river, the man fell into the hole. The river in this place is deep, even in summer they tried not to swim here.
Finding himself under water, Fedor began to sink. It was very dark underwater. Trying to swim out, the man hit his head on the ice.
And then he immediately went to the bottom. Sinking deeper, he cried out to God with all his heart: “God, if You exist, save me!”
At that moment, the water above his head lit up with light. Some force pulled Fyodor up, something pushed him out of the hole. He crawled across the ice, then got up and walked. The coat was wet and heavy. But Fedor reached the house and did not even get sick.
Since then, he, recalling this incident, said: “God still exists! Otherwise, I wouldn't exist."
INS.
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“Abba John said, ‘Who sold Joseph?’ A brother replied saying, ‘It was his brethren.’ The old man said to him, ‘No, it was his humility which sold him, because he could have said, “I am their brother” and have objected, but, because he kept silence, he sold himself by his humility. It is also his humility which set him up as chief in Egypt.'”
+ St. John the Dwarf
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It was revealed to Abba Anthony in his desert that there was one in the city who was his equal. He was a doctor by profession, and whatever he had beyond his needs he gave to the poor and every day he sang the Sanctus with the angels.
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Abba Poemen said that Abba John said that the saints are like a group of trees, each bearing different fruit, but watered from the same source. The practices of one saint differ from those of another, but it is the same Spirit that works in all of them.
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“But concerning baptism, thus baptize ye: having first recited all these precepts, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in running water; but if thou hast not running water, baptize in some other water, and if thou canst not baptize in cold, in warm water; but if thou hast neither, pour water three times on the head, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
But before the baptism, let him who baptizeth and him who is baptized fast previously, and any others who may be able. And thou shalt command him who is baptized to fast one or two days before.”
— The Didache (Teaching of the Twelve), Chapter 7
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It coincided precisely on September 17: On the day of the feast of Saint Sophia, Matthew, a famous Greek economist who had been living there for 10 years, would arrive from Melbourne at the "Eleftherios Venizelos" airport in Athens.
He had planned, before going down to his village, Chrysos tis Parnassidos, which is heaven on earth, to stay a few hours in Athens.
He had an obligation to pass by his aunt Sofia who was celebrating, an old woman now, to bless her. But also to sympathize with her, because 2 months ago she had lost her husband, Kyriakos.
To this childless family, despite all the poverty he had, Matthew owed a great deal of gratitude, because they had helped him with the first expenses of his sojourn.
He remembered the address of their house well. It will surprise the aunt. Well, it was 12 noon. On 9A Street, in Ano Kypseli.
In the old five-story apartment building. It was exactly the same as he knew her. And his aunt's apartment in the basement. He rang the bell in the name "Eulabiadis". The front door of the apartment building opened. He entered carefully.
He was holding in his hands a drink and a box of wrapped sweets from Australia; and a roast chicken and some anemones that he had bought a while ago.
He slowly descended the steep steps that led to the basement. Smell of terrible moisture. Darkness. Turn on the stairwell light. He knew. The aunt lived in the 2nd apartment on the right. The bell rang.
A prolonged baritone sound resounded loudly. And after a while, a voice from inside:
– Who is it, please?
- Mattheos, my aunt, your nephew.
– Matthew? That is, Manthos?
– Yes, your Manthos, aunt.
The old woman slowly unlocked the heavily secured and armored door and opened it. Dressed in black, with a scarf tight on her head and holding the keys in the hand. She was alone.
And what great joy and emotion then! They fell into each other's arms.
- My Manthos, my child, my joy!
He went inside... Manthos saw the house. What a house!
A room all and everything with things not all in order. And cockroaches running nervously on the wall, as if they wanted to hide somewhere out of shame.
"What poverty and what loneliness and pain", Manthos said to himself. But no. No pain here, because the aunt's face was shining with happiness!
-Sit here, my Manthos, in the armchair. Here once sat your beloved uncle, Kyriakos, who you never forget! He was also your father's close friend. This is where he was sitting before he fell.
Because, you know, he spent the last seven years stuck next to it, on that bed you see, with horrible pains in his spine. Cancer finally ate him.
–My aunt! I hurt with you. May God rest the soul of the good-natured uncle. And to you, my aunt, many happy and peaceful years.
- I keep it "peacefully". That's what I want. I live this now. And that's enough for me, my Manthos. I will explain it to you in confidence. Look. Do you see there on the right, on the bedside table, the icon of Panagia Glykophiloussa, and next to it the photo of your uncle with the lit candle? Get up close. Looked at it.
Manthos got up, approached. And he saw there on the embroidery, left next to the lit candle, the wedding crowns: all white, spotless.
– Did you see well? Did you understand something?
The old woman immediately hid her face with her hands and began to cry.
– Did you understand, Manthos? All-white crowns, but also new, spotlessly clean. Because 3 months ago our wedding took place. Yes, 3 months ago today. We have been uncrowned for 60 years!
No one knew. We had no children.
Few relatives. Now they are all dead. Who knew? Where should we say it? However, God knew our pity. And he took care and performed His miracle in this poor place of ours and brought peace and salvation. Do you want me to continue?
–My aunt! I am not worthy to hear the secrets of your soul, but I want to hear.
-One year ago, a family from Rhodes with four children came here on the 5th floor. The father is a soldier, the mother is a philologist. All of them remarkable people. They found out about us - that we were alone - and they showed interest, the only ones here in the apartment building.
Sometimes they brought us some food, sometimes medicine, sometimes even a gift from the church. Every now and then they left us outside, on the doorknob, a bag with some icon, with the "Voice of the Lord", small booklets with stories of God and Saints, and others.
What can I tell you, Manthos! You could only expect such kindness from God. And as you say, how the conversation led one day, it escaped me and with shame I told that literate woman our hidden secret.
- Lady Lena, I tell her, we have been uncrowned for 60 years.
Her face lit up, and she tells me.
- We will marry you. We, my Sophia!
-Where?
-Here!
-At the basement;
- Yes, in the basement here!
-And my helpless husband?
-Here! Down here...
I told it to Kyriakos. He had no objection. And everything became brighter than ever. Father Alexios came here from the parish and performed the wedding. He had received special permission from the Archdiocese. The parents were best men and their four grown children were bridesmaids.
And Isaiah's dance around the bed with my Kyriakos, of course, fixed on it. Ὤ! What can I tell you, my Manthos! We were all crying! We also shared a cup of coffee. There were no words.
No matter what I tell you, they cannot describe the joy of our souls. We experienced true Paradise then! And our Paradise was not only the Mystery of Marriage, but also the other greater one, the Mystery of our repentance.
We confessed and wept for our great pity to Fr. Alexios, who was also a good Confessor. Of course, we gave him all the other things that weighed on our souls for so many years .
Three days before he died, your uncle took communion, here in this bed for the first time since he was a child. And he had a face like an angel, so bright that day. What rich divine love was revealed to us here! And when once, my Manthos, I asked Lady Lena:
-Why do you love us so much? She answered me smiling:
- When we left Rhodes, our elder, our Spiritual there, said one last word to us: "Wherever you go, take care not only of your own, but even more so of those around you."
Source
Orthodox Christian magazine
Year 60 – September 1 and 15, 2019 – Issue 2205
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Mr. Theodore's Christmas
Christmas Eve forty years ago. Everything in the village was pure white, because since the feast of Agios Spyridon it had been very cold and snowing.
Only middle-aged parishioners could roam the streets without danger. There were only a few who were able to attend the Service of the Great Hours and Christmas Eve with the Divine Liturgy in the Holy Church.
After the dismissal, on our way back home, we were rewarded with nothing but snowflakes and a strong North.
Not a parishioner on the street. No one dared to go out of his house to sing carols. Not even a fire in the neighborhoods according to local custom.
I saw my grandfather, Papa-Dimitris, not in a good mood and attributed his melancholy emotional state to the image of frozen nature. I dared not speak to him, for fear of adding sorrow to his melancholy.
Even before we entered the house, papa-Dimitris called together his older children and the other Levento children of the neighborhood. We sat by the fireplace and Papa-Dimitris broke his silence by saying:
"You may know that Mr. Theodoris has been stranded at the top of the mountain, in his stable, for two weeks. But you cannot imagine the pain of his soul, if he spends Christmas without Christ. That is why we must not abandon him.”
No one found the courage to tell papa-Dimitris about the difficulties of the project.
Mr. Thodoris had his livestock pen at the top of the mountain, about ten uphill kilometers from the village. Even though he was young, Mr. Thodoris could have gone down to the village by himself. But he had with him his wife, his three children and his elderly mother.
However, the whole effort was becoming more difficult as Vorias carried the snow and had covered the small holes that one had to cross to reach the stable.
Papa-Dimitris knew all this. But he deeply believed that God would bless this effort and said: "You go to the task and we will help from here."
I wondered about the help promised by papa-Dimitris and I only understood it when I saw him praying, after the young men had left for Mr. Theodoris' stable.
After six hours and shortly before sunset, the young men and the family of Mr. Theodoris arrived. Entering the village they all sang carols together.
They were the best carols ever heard in our parish! All the parishioners came out of their houses. Others offered fasting treats and some clapped.
In the evening Mr. Thodoris was hosted with his family in the parishioners' homes. From dawn, as soon as the first joyful bells were heard, everyone went to church and listened to the wonderful Christmas carols.
They celebrated Christmas with Christ! At noon, on Christmas day, Mr. Thodoris and his family had lunch at our house.
Visibly moved, he kept talking about the joy he felt when he saw the smiling young people enter his stable and explain to him the reason for their visit. His wife, Mrs. Margarita, told how it was the first time that the dogs, although they saw their masters leaving the corral, barked happily and did not follow them.
But also the mother of Mr. Thodoris, the elderly lady Zoitsa, feeling deeply obliged and wanting to reciprocate her joy, asked that they skewer the lamb on Easter together on the mountain, in the barn.
At some point, Mr. Theodore's eldest son, overwhelmed with joy, sang the Kontakion.
I believe that Christmas was unforgettable. Everyone had prepared with fear and joy to meet the Creator.
ΑΝΤ.
<>.
He did not learn many letters, with difficulties he finished the school of that era, walking more than two hours every day - to the nearest town, Euthymios.
"From a young age, he loved the Church, helping his reverend grandfather in chanting as a priest. This is how he learned the order of the Church and at the same time to sing.
And when the grandfather left for the other life, Euthymios was the only cantor of the Church. This is how the Bishop of the area met him on one of his tours.
Efthimios is now the eldest, a good family man with three children, and because the village priest left due to old age and illness, the villagers ask the Bishop for a priest.
"And who do you recommend for priest," the bishop asks and everyone almost with one mouth says: "our chanter".
Thus with the pressures of the villagers and the Bishop's insistence and despite the protests of Euthymius, that he considers himself unworthy and unfit for such a great ministry, he was ordained a priest of the village to the joy of the whole village.
Now, he was now performing his priestly duties. Every morning and evening, with the fear of God, he rang the bell, making Orthros and Vespers.
Meek, good-natured, beloved by all, he was generous in his small salary and in the little income he earned when cultivating his fields.
Even for daily wages, he went to feed his large family, six children now. The Bishop, appreciating his prudence and his good reputation, also made him a confessor.
A crowd of people from the village and the surrounding villages went to confess to father Euthymios. And he did not miss the sermon every Sunday by reading a short sermon from some orthodox magazine.
Others and the children, in order to gather them in the catechism, he had his own way, with songs and chants, with candies and sweets and icons.
Here is an event where the greatness of his soul was shown. He had a neighbor in his field, Mr. Giannis, who did not hesitate to move the rough fence separating the borders and take a strip of his field, he did the same the second year.
What to do now, thought Father Euthymios. If he says something to him, he will start cursing and fighting. He did not take it for granted, as he did with other neighbors. I leave it in God's hands, he said to his elder sister and his older son who were protesting.
And lo, one morning he says to his eldest son: "Let's go to our field to fix the border fence." After they reach the field, he says to his son:
"Take the wire fence and move it another meter or so, leaving the neighbor a strip of his barren field."
Surprised, his son began to protest:
"Father, you will be giving a portion of the field to the neighbor."
"Do as I told you, my child. I have my say, don't be sad."
And they returned to their home again. The next day in the morning Mr. Giannis went to the father's house.
"Good morning Papadia. Worried and agitated, he asks the elder: "Where is fatherThymios? I want to talk to him."
"Sit down, Mr. Giannis, let me make you coffee. Until Papa-Thymios comes, wait in the house for him, he will not be long in returning."
Meanwhile Papadia prepared and offered him the coffee. He took a puff, as if sitting on coals. Soon a happy father Thymios arrives and says:
"Thank God. Mrs. Eleni, who suffered in childbirth, was freed, with the wishes of the Church, and even had a baby boy."
"Welcome Mr. Giannis, good morning. The family is fine? The living too?
Mr. Giannis only answered: "What is it that you did to me papa-Thymius? Mr. Giannis asks bitterly.
"What is it my dear Giannis? Let's fix it."
"I, Giannis, have been stealing your field for two years now, and you neither protest nor shout, but you leave me a lane. Let's go now quickly to correct this injustice, I can't stand it."
"Good, Mr. Giannis. Do what you think is right for yourself. "After all, it's God's soil and everything stays here. Only, my dear, I ask you for one favor, to see you and your family more regularly in the Church."
Fr. Euthymios did not let him embrace his hand. He said to him: "Have the blessing of God."
And the good priest comforted him. And everything has changed since then. Mr. Giannis put up the fence on his old border by himself, but he is also a regular at the church with his family.
He proclaims everywhere, to acquaintances and strangers: "In our village we have a man of God, a "Saint, Fr. Euthymios!
ΑΝΤ.
<>.
The Chickpeas and the Devil
Mrs. X., a married woman in Athens, had problems with her husband, who cheated on her. Some people suggested to her that she visit a “nice lady,” who supposedly could solve her family problems.
The lady in question turned out to be a medium. She read incantations over X. and gave her nine chickpeas to place in her home... so that her husband would “pull himself together”! From that time on, however, X. had constant nightmares. She would see a ghastly fiend that threatened to kill her. And so time passed....
Once, passing by the Church of Kapnikarea in Athens, she saw someone selling Icons of the Panagia Eikosiphoinissas (a copy of the wonderworking Icon treasured at the Monastery of the same name in Drama, Greece). She bought one, and prayed to the Panagia that her usual nightmare would not reoccur.
That night however, the fiend again appeared in her dream. She began to scream: “Panagia, help me and save me!” A woman then appeared in her doorway, holding a child in her arms. Terrified, X. screamed: “Go away! You are also a bad person!” In the meantime, however, when the fiend caught sight of the woman bearing the baby—none other than the Panagia—he immediately vanished. The Panagia entered X᾿s room and said to her:
“I am not a bad person. I am the Panagia. That other one comes here and frightens you because you have the nine chickpeas. Throw them out and he will not come again. When you wake up, you will see my Icon in your Icon corner."
And indeed, when she awoke, she saw the Icon of the Panagia that she had bought in her Icon corner. She threw out the chickpeas, and the nightmares came to an end.
Question: What was the matter with the chickpeas? Did they differ in some way from other chickpeas? Were they to blame for the problem?
Answer: No, of course it was not the fault of the chickpeas, but rather that X. had put them in her room in obedience to, and with full trust in, the medium, an instrument of the Devil. Her acting in compliance with Satan᾿s will gave him certain rights over her. That is what freed him to terrorize her.
All those who have recourse to the occult and its resources (mediums, fortune-tellers, astrologers, and the like), fall into the same frightful sin
Thus, they create similar, and even worse, problems for themselves and their families. They give the Devil certain rights over them, allowing him to act not only freely, but even... by invitation!
ΑΝΤ.
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Blessed Theodore the Fool-for-Christ from Georgia
In a certain village in Iberia (present-day Eastern Georgia), there lived a simple man by the name of Theodore, whom everyone considered to be a fool, if not insane. He never went to Church, though he did not appear to have any other failings. Once, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross, during which multitudes of believers assemble in Churches to venerate the All-Venerable Wood, Theodore thought to himself: “Today I will go to Church to see, at least once in my life, what they do there.” So he went. He venerated the Cross with the other faithful, attended the Divine Liturgy, and was especially moved by the words of the Gospel: “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”
After the dismissal, he visited an acquaintance of his and asked him the meaning of these words. In jest, the other answered: “That means that you should go to the forest, cut down a tree, make a Cross, bear it, and walk towards the Kingdom of God.” Theodore indeed went to the forest and made a large Cross, which was so heavy that only with great difficulty could he carry it. He thus started to walk, asking every passer-by: “Is this the road that leads to the Kingdom of God?”
Such a question led everyone to believe that they were dealing with a crazy person, and they would answer: “Walk faster! This road goes straight to the Kingdom of God.” So Theodore made greater haste....
He wandered for many days, forgetting to eat and drink. Finally, he reached the border between Iberia and Turkey. At this point, he caught sight of a monastery in the distance and joyfully said to himself: “Thank God! That must be the Kingdom of God!” When he arrived at the monastery and asked his usual question, they realized his simplicity and answered: “The Kingdom of God is not yet here; but it is close, very close. Rest yourself for a while and perhaps some other travelers will come to accompany you; for the final stretch of the road to the Kingdom of God is very dangerous.”
The simple-minded Theodore accepted their offer and settled in the Narthex of the monastery Church, where he deposited his Cross, so as never to be separated from it. The Abbot, who had perceived his love and simplicity, charged him with the care of the garden. Theodore accomplished his duty with great zeal and reverence.
One day, while looking at our Crucified Lord, he asked the Abbot with great contrition of heart: “Father, who is that bearing his Cross as I do? Why is he nailed to his Cross?” The Abbot answered: “That is our Lord Jesus Christ”; and he recounted the life of our Lord to him. Henceforth, Theodore felt fraternal love for Christ on account of the similarity of their lives, and he spoke to Him with familiarity.
One day, when they had brought him food, the blessed one thought: “Did my Brother Christ eat, just as I do, while walking on earth? I will ask Him to share my meager dinner, if He wishes.” As he was thinking these things, the door suddenly opened and a radiant light filled the Church. The Icon of the Crucified Lord came to life and our Lord Jesus Christ appeared, full of glory and beauty! Christ addressed Theodore with the following words: “I drank and ate while on earth, and now have no need of food. Soon, the same will come to pass with you. I am the Son of a rich Father. I will quickly go to Him and will take you with Me. I will show you His Glory and you will be with Me there eternally!”
In the meantime, at the sudden illumination of the Church, the Abbot and the Brotherhood ran in its direction. They thought that the fool, Theodore, had set it on fire. When they reached the Church, they saw the wondrous light and heard the quiet and sweet conversation between the unknown man and Theodore. The blessed one avoided answering their questions as to what had taken place by feigning ignorance. At last, Theodore told the Abbot of the revelation. The Abbot, in great astonishment, fell at the feet of the blessed one, beseeching him: “Truly you are a brother of Christ. O man of God, intercede that He might take me with you to the House of His Father!”
That night, with his customary simplicity and boldness, Theodore prayed for the Abbot. Christ then appeared to him again and said: “The Abbot must continue to labor there.” When the Abbot learned what our Lord had said, he begged Theodore with tears: “Pray to Christ, Who was crucified for us, to have mercy on me for the sake of His Most Holy Mother, though I am unworthy of the House of His Father.” The blessed one prayed again to our Lord Jesus Christ, Who answered: “For My Mother’s sake, in forty days I will take your Abbot with you to the House of My Father.” Following this, the Abbot and Theodore spent their days in prayer. When the forty days were up, they both reposed in peace while in a position of prayer!
ANT.
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Someone had gone to St. Paisios and said to him:
"Elder, I want to go to Africa, to do a Mission and I'm getting ready...".
"And how are you getting ready?" asks the Elder.
“Well, elder,” he says: “I am learning their language well, because I have to tell them things they do not know, I am learning well their manners and customs, their lore and history, I am also learning some rudimentary knowledge of medicine. I'm also learning to swim..."
"What; Are you learning to swim? Why are you learning to swim?" St. Paisios asked in surprise.
And he answers him:
“For there in the village where I am going, in Africa, they have a sorcerer, who may stir them up against me, and I shall be forced me to run away. And just in case, if there is a river there, I need to swim...".
"No!", Saint Paisios tells him, "this is not how the Mission is done...
Listen, how it happens: You will become a Saint! You will go to Africa, you will meet that magician and you will say to him: "You see that dead man, resurrect him!". Of course, the magician will not be able to resurrect him. Then you will resurrect him! And the magician, seeing the miracle, will become a Christian! Thus, the magician who knows their language, their manners and customs, will then make all others Christians!"!!
<>.
A pious Christian once recounted to me the following wondrous event,” writes Hieromonk Peter, the biographer of St. Niphon:
One Saturday evening, when he was praying in the narthex of the Church of St. Anastasios for the customary Resurrectional Vigil, the servant of God Niphon also arrived, as he was wont to keep vigil at the Churches of the Saints.
“I saw, then,” my interlocutor continued, “a multitude of individuals dressed in white walking together with him, some in front and others behind, and they were rejoicing that they were encircling him. Most awesome of all, however, was that a Cross was elevated before him at a height equal with his own, shining as if it were of pure gold. Similarly brilliant Crosses were to the right, left, behind, and above the Saint’s head. They were surrounding him, intermeshed. When a temptation would approach, the Lord, wishing to test him at that moment of struggle, allowed for the Crosses to separate from each other. They thus left a small opening through which the enemies could throw their darts. Throngs of Angels and demons followed the battle. The Saint raised his hands to God in the highest and ascended towards Him with his pure mind. He remained there, aloft, praying. And Satan, seeing him and fearing the wrath of God, said in a tremble to his troops:
“‘Let us go, you lot, and depart from that Niphon, because he has risen to Heaven and is praying against us to the Great One. Let us flee, then, before His wrath descends and torments
us.’
“And they vanished straightaway. After his prayer, that blessed one descended to earth, came to himself, and, faced with no battle, thanked the All-Good God for having protected him.
“Then the Angels departed in gladness, while the venerable Crosses joined together again, closing the entry and guarding the righteous one.
“Many times,” that good Christian continued to tell me, “the Devil would come with a swarm of demons in order to throw him into a passion, but they were unable to do so because, being surrounded by the power of the Cross, he would mock them and spit at them.
“Thus put to shame, the dark demons would disappear, while he would glorify God all the more for having granted him such power against the unseen enemies.”
Hieromonk Peter, An Ascetic Bishop: St. Niphon, Bishop of Constantiana
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HEALING FROM ANGER
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk had an angry nature. He often got angry with people and repented, and then got angry again. And he himself felt this weakness more than anyone else.
He prayed a lot to God that the Lord would correct him, deliver him from such an angry disposition. And indeed, according to God's Providence, something happened that forever tamed his anger and led to contrition, humility. So, after a prayer, when he asked God for an illness that would heal him from anger, the saint fell asleep, and he dreamed that he was in the temple, and the priest came out of the altar and carried out in his arms a small child covered with a transparent cloak.
He approaches the child, looks at him and asks the priest for the name of the baby. The priest answers him: "Basil", which in Greek means "king." Then Tikhon takes off the cloak from the child and kisses him on the right cheek. At this moment, the child with his right hand hits him on the left cheek so hard that he cries out in pain and wakes up. Tikhon felt that the entire left side of his body hurt. He thanked God and from then on he was no longer angry with anyone or anything.
"Miracles of God"
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A woman named Eleni Davaria from the Parikia of Paros often went to the Monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ during the days of Saint Arsenios the New ascetic on the island of Paros, and performed various tasks for the sisters of the Monastery. Because they had no money, they gave her food.
One day the Saint said to her: 'Child, where you come and work, what do the sisters give you for your labor?
Do they pay you?
No, the woman replied, they don't give me money because they don't have any, but they give me bread, coffee, sugar and other items.
The Saint says to her: Listen, my child, if you want Christ to bless you and the little food they give you, when you meet someone poor and hungry and he asks you, give it to him.
Also when you know someone who is poor and in need, or any widow or orphan who is hungry, don't expect them to ask you.
Give gladly and do not be afraid, but believe that Christ will invisibly bless your little possessions and you will not be hungry or deprived until the end of your life.
Thank you, Elder, in everything you told me, I will obey you.
After she did penance and left the Monastery, she had eight small loaves of bread with her, which the nuns gave her for the services she did.
As soon as she was about 500 meters away from the Monastery, she met the elder Dimitrios Maunis, who said to her: "My child, do you have some bread to give me?
I am hungry.
I have been fasting since yesterday."
Helen immediately took a loaf of bread from her basket and with great eagerness and pleasure gave it to him, and went on her way.
When he went another 500 meters, he saw a young lady, a fisherman's wife, near the road, gathering grass.
Eleni greeted her and then says to her: What are you doing with him?
The young woman answered: "I am gathering some herbs to cook for my husband and I and our children to eat, for we have no bread.
Owing to the bad weather, my husband has four days to work, to go fishing to bring us bread or other provisions."
Hearing this, Eleni took pity on the poor woman and, faithful to the advice of Father Arsenios, took out of her bag and gave her two loaves of bread.
When she arrived in Parikia, she saw a small child around 4 years old crying outside a poor house.
She asked it: What is the matter my child and why you are crying?
I'm hungry, aunty.
Mother doesn't give me bread, answered the child.
And why doesn't she give it to you? Eleni asks him. The child answered: Because she doesn't have any.
She also sees the child's mother standing through the door of her house with folded hands and praying with tears.She then takes a loaf of bread and gives it to the child, who stopped crying and began to rejoice.
He runs happily and shows it to his mother and says: "Mom, mom, now we have bread, aunt gave me.
Eat of this bread and do not weep."
The woman, taking the bread, raised her hands to heaven and thanked God for hearing her prayer.
Eleni, when she arrived at her home, took out of her bag the things they gave her from the Monastery and surprisingly she sees that the bread was not short.
It was exactly what they gave her from the Monastery.
It was eight, when it should have been four. She marveled at this event and immediately returned to the Monastery, moved and tearful, she fell at the feet of Saint Arsenios and narrated the Miracle, thanking God and the Saint, who praised her for her obedience, encouraged her and said to her: If, my child you continue to give alms and give to the poor what little you have, not only will you not be deprived of them, but the Lord will bless them, increase them, and for those little that you will give here in the temporary life, you will hear from His mouth saying to you: "Helen, I was hungry and you gave me and I ate."
And when you say to him, "Lord, I never saw you or gave you to eat."
Yes, he will say to you: 'You have not seen me, but you have seen my poor brothers, the hungry.
The bread you gave to them is the same as if you gave it to me.
Now I also grant you my Eternal and Heavenly Kingdom, and whatever goods I have, you will have too, and all those who fed the poor and hungry and have mercy on them!"
Saint Philotheus Zervakos (♰)
INS.
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A brother, when he became a monk, distributed all his possessions, keeping only one good estate. A prominent layman desired this estate and asked him several times to sell it or exchange it, but he would not accept anything.
So it happened that the layman was appointed governor of that province and began to press the monk to leave the estate, harassing him constantly and driving his animals through the estate.
The brother, seeing things very difficult and because he did not succeed in persuading the governor with entreaties, finally took refuge with a virtuous and famous elder. He went many times, but the elder drove him away, telling him to return to his cell.
When the brother saw the governor ready to take his estate, he again went to the elder and said to him: "For God's sake, help me, and write to him or send someone to speak to him." And because he persisted annoyingly, the elder wrote a letter to the governor saying the following: "A monk is a monk, so that he has nothing with which they can wrong him. But if he has, let him be wronged, because he is not a monk." And writing the sender and the addressee by heart, he gave the letter to the brother to take to the governor, but the brother did not know its contents.
So he went and gave the letter to the govenor. He accepted it with great honor and after kissing it opened it and read it. And he asked the brother: "Do you know what he wrote?" He tells him: "Leave the estate." And the governor, admiring the virtue of the elder, left the estate.
In this incident we admire the goodness of God and the attribute of virtue, that is, what the elder wrote, without anything insulting or threatening, and how such a letter convinced the ruler to have mercy on the one who begged him.
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Shocking "document".
Summer of the year 1974.
Turkish troops are invading our Cyprus, spreading terror and death. In Morfou, on the part of Cypriot Christians, something happened that shocked even the Turks!
Turkish soldiers captured fifteen Greek Cypriots, including a teacher. They were brought to the teacher's house, which had a vine-covered yard (which had just been sprayed with poison medicine) and shaded the yard.
They were set up against the wall, outside in the courtyard, under the vine, waiting anxiously for the Turkish officer to come and order "fire".
Indescribable moments! Wail! Weep! Wail!
The Turkish officer entered the courtyard, ready to order "fire". He lifted his head and looked upwards, towards the vine (which we recall had just been sprinkled with poison medicine) and he envied the grapes. He stretched out his hand, cut a grape, thus prolonging the agony of those on death row.
As he was about to eat the grape, (full of poison!) the teacher, the owner of the house, jumped up and let out a voice-cry, (to his executioner!)
- My brother! Don't eat it! The day before yesterday I sprayed it with medicines, which were poison! You will die!! Don't, don't eat it!
The Turkish officer was stunned! He threw away the grape, and all wonder asked him:
"Well, don't you see that in a moment I will give the order to kill you?" And you, instead of taking revenge on me, are you going to save my life? What came to you and you beg me not to eat it?
And the good-hearted teacher explained to him with a peace admirable for the moments:
- Christ, who we believe, tells us to love our enemies and to benefit them. If I did not do this, I would be defying His command. And I do not want, now that I am leaving this world and will appear before Him, to carry such a heavy sin in my soul.
The officer is shocked again! He turns to the soldiers, who were waiting for the "fire" and says to them in shock:
- If I found such a Turk, I would even give my life! Gather your weapons and set them free! Everyone!
And they were all saved from certain death!
The helpless Lord, seeing the helplessness of this Cypriot teacher, performed his miracle!
Arch. Vassiliou Bakoyannis
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This story was told by the rector of one of the village churches of the Samara diocese. He asked only to change his surname and the name of the village where he serves.
One morning Father Sergius found a letter on the porch of his house. The short letter consisted of threats. Unknown persons accused Fr. Sergius of calling people to church, denouncing drunkards and drug addicts, and preaching a healthy lifestyle. Father Sergius was not intimidated by the threats. He continued to serve as before. But soon a second letter was planted on him, then a third... And then the bathhouse burned to the ground.
"Long bearded, did you think we were kidding?" - they asked him in another letter.
The priest reported the incident to Archbishop Sergius of Samara and Syzran. Vladyka cheered him up and said: "If you are not afraid, serve as you served before. The Lord will not forsake you.
A month later, his garage burned down.
And the letter again: "Watch it, long bearded, you'll get it. The last warning..."
Some more time passed, and one evening an expensive American jeep pulled up to the priest's house. Two stout men knocked on the door.
"Father Sergius," one of them addressed the priest who came out. - A grandmother is dying in the village of Kozlovka, asking for communion. We'll drop you off at her place." A few minutes later, Father Sergius was already settling in the back seat. The two men sat down beside him. In all there were four sturdy men in the car. From their appearance and the short remarks of the priest guessed: the city.
Kozlovka, meanwhile, had been left behind, and the car turned onto a field road and rushed toward the woods. At that time, one of the men sitting with the priest pulled out a gun, and the other pulled out a knife.
"Now you've played your game, longshanks," the one with the gun turned to him sharply. - How many times have we warned you about that? You didn't listen. It's your own fault. We'll finish you off."
"If it is God's will to kill me, you will, and if it is not God's will, you will not!" - Father Sergius replied firmly.
Such a statement from the "condemned man" literally cheered the bandits up. They turned and stared at him with interest. Then the head man, raising his pistol, asked again with a laugh:
"So what are you saying there about God's will?"
Let me pray," Father Sergius suddenly asked.
- Well, pray one last time," the ringleader allowed after thinking, and put the gun down.
"I read the requiem to myself for almost half an hour," Father Sergius later told me. - I read slowly, loudly. All that time the bandits sat in silence, looking bored. They were waiting for me to finish.
After my closing words: "Lord, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing," the chief sat still for some time, then turned to one of the accomplices and said:
"Let's get out." Ten minutes later they were back in the car.
- Take the priest home," the ringleader briefly ordered.
- Six months passed since then," Father Sergius continued his story.
- One morning I found an envelope on the porch. There was a short letter and 50,000 rubles in it. The note read: "Father, it seems we were wrong..."
The money came in handy: I paid for the repair of the church, bought building materials ... Another eight months passed. And then one day one of the four, the youngest by age, literally ran into the church. He was pale, kind of frightened.
"Father, I want to tell you everything, I want to repent."
Here's what he said. After the failed massacre of the priest (as it turned out, the bandits were hired), their brigade continued to engage in their usual craft - robbery, and violence against people. But for some reason, all of them recalled that decisive statement of Father Sergius: “If it is the will of God, you will kill; if it is not the will of God, you will not kill.”
But in the end, everything turned out that way - not by their will ... “This is an accident. We must forget,” demanded the leader. But it didn't work out.
Once the car in which the leader was traveling suddenly stalled at a railway crossing. No matter how hard the driver tried to start the car, it would not start. Yuri got nervous, tried to get out of the car - the door did not open. He reached for the right front door, and it didn't open.
Frightened even more, he jumped into the back seat, pulled both rear doors in turn - neither opened. Feeling himself in a mousetrap, he screamed wildly. This terrible, inhuman cry was heard by the drivers, but they did not have time to help - the flowing train smashed the expensive foreign car and the driver to shreds. He was buried. At the wake, they drank a lot, were silent. They thought about the same words of the priest.
A month has passed. On that fateful day for himself, the new senior of the brigade was on the balcony of his Samara apartment. Leaning against the railing, he smoked one cigarette after another. At the same time, a balcony was being glazed on the eighth floor. Suddenly, a sheet of glass escaped from the hands of the master and flew down.
A blow to the neck of the elder, as if with a sword, cut off his head. And he was buried. We drank again at the wake. But I didn't take vodka. Those two who remembered Father Sergius were scared. They decided to stop their criminal business. There were even thoughts about a righteous life, about repentance. But they did not dare to cross the threshold of the church.
A little more time passed, and now death knocked on the third of them. When he felt a slight malaise, he began self-treatment - he rushed to the pharmacy, bought various expensive medicines. But they didn't help. The district doctor after examination sent him to an oncologist. Then, already in the oncology center, it was established that his entire body was riddled with metastases.
But here's what surprised the doctors. No matter how much they searched for the cancerous tumor itself, they could not find the focus of the malignant disease. Meanwhile, the disease progressed rapidly. When he declared that he foresaw the near end, he was offered to confess to an Orthodox priest. He immediately remembered Father Sergius, thought for a long time and ... refused. A few days later he was gone.
Then the youngest of the former brigade already firmly knew what to do. After the funeral, he rushed to Father Sergius. “You did the right thing,” the priest told him. There is no such sin that the Lord would not forgive. Try not to sin anymore. And remember: God will not leave you without His help and support.
He broke with the underworld, and is now a parishioner of one of the temples in Samara. Works in production, started a family. Helps young people who are confused in life's problems.
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The priest and the demon!
The following happened to a newly ordained priest:
After his ordination was over, he went to his home. There he lay down on his bed to rest. In the afternoon when his relatives went to wake him up, they found that the priest did not want to get up. He even wrapped his head in the bedclothes and did not uncover himself with anything, despite the entreaties of his relatives.
This lasted that day and the next and the day after. No one could understand what was happening to their father.
The weekend was approaching and the priest did not leave his bed. His family kept everything that happened to the priest a secret from the village. However, the priest had to officiate on Sunday, and then what would they say to the world? Not even in the metropolis did they want the problem to be known.
They then thought of notifying Fr. Vissarion, who arrived the fastest and went directly to the priest's room.
"Get up my child, I am Fr. Vissarion. You have to get up, eat something, get stronger and talk," he told him.
The priest uncovered his head a little, greeted the elder and covered himself again.
It was Saturday. In the afternoon, the Elder begged him to get up, but to no avail. Then, he ordered the men of the house to pick him up by force, put him in the car and take him to the church. It was evening time.
There in front of the holy altar, the elder forced him to wear a petrachili and said to him in his hoarse voice: "Father say: "Blessed is our God...". He refused and the elder insisted more urgently.
At some point the priest, with a trembling voice, said "Blessed" and immediately a loud shout was heard throughout the church. The priest burst out and the priest was freed, came to his senses and celebrated vespers normally. The Elder stood beside him and advised him.
Everyone with tears in their eyes saw their priest officiating and their joy was very great. Father Vissarion stayed that night at their house. He confessed to the priest and his relatives and the next day, Sunday, they performed the divine service together, they shared the holy mysteries and everything went well and blessed.
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A lady, Joanna, about 50 years old, came to our Church.She was accompanied by several family members. Through tears she confessed to me that she has cancer and 6 metastases in her liver, lungs, chest and stomach.
It tore me. I swallowed my tears. I wanted to scream there in the Church, in pain.
I read the prayers for health with such despair and hatred of evil that I cannot tell you. And an acute sense of helplessness in the face of the grinning sneer of death that shears souls at will. I called on Saint John the Russian for help. But it was very difficult. Six metastases.
I hid at the altar to hide my tears. The woman left being carried by her relatives. I was not well at all that Sunday.
After a month I saw her again among the faithful. I was afraid to look at her. I was afraid she would blame me for not praying enough.
The woman said: "Father I came from Romania. The six tumors... and burst into tears. There are only three. I have nothing else in my liver and stomach." I wanted to scream with joy. I told her: "We continue the prayer and the surgeon John will remove all the evil."
The woman prayed a lot. Ate only raw green vegetables. Made as many prostrations as she can.
Sunday has come again. She was crying again. She told me: "Father, no more cancer. Not even the marks from the tumors."
I say: "The most inexpensive doctor in the world, Saint John the Russian, prayed and was crucified a lot." The poor thing, on her knees, kept trying to grab my legs.
Today I confessed it and shared it with Christ. I have never seen anyone happier, trembling all over when she received God.Thank you Lord and Saint John, God's surgeon.
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A faithful father writes to me. His child has some very serious disorders. Not eating anything (anorexia), terrible outbursts, self-mutilation, unexplained violence. He threatens his parents with suicide.
The parents are devastated. The child grew up with care and love, with moral values and faith.
Every evening I give them the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos and the Akathist of St. John the Russian. I also mention the little girl to all services. I also urge them to get specialized treatment. Doctors say that the first signs of improvement will appear in 4-5 months from the start of treatment. I encouraged them. I said: Saint John the Russian has power as a doctor of mind and soul. It won't be 4-5 months, but 4-5 days until he recovers.
After about 10 days, the grieving father writes to me. Crying, but from joy. In a week, the seizures, the pains, the manifestations of violence disappeared. The child is normal. Doctors made th sign of the cross.
So yes, I say, that St. John the Russian stands with his hand on her soul and secretly comforts her.
Thank you Saint John for bearing with us and loving us and healing us.
Father Ioannis Istrati
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It is not known how many children St. Spyridon had, but legends have brought us the name of one of his daughters - Irina. An unusual story is also connected with her.
⠀Brought up by her father in faith and piety, the girl decided to devote herself completely to God and people. She did not marry and gave herself completely to the ministry. There was enough work to do - to feed the hungry, to cover the poor, to sit with the sick, and to comfort the sad. And at night, when she had a free moment, Irina prayed or read the Holy Scriptures. But one day the news spread through the village - the girl died. Apparently, her soul was so pure that the Lord decided to grant her Eternity at a young age.
⠀One of Irina's duties was to keep the belongings of those Christians who were traveling. On the day of the girl's death it was discovered that she had not had time to add to the lists a gold object that a townswoman had given her for safekeeping. It was the only value of the woman, and the woman, having learned about Irina's death, decided to take it away. But since the thing was not listed anywhere, it was impossible to find it. The owner fell into despondency. However, SSt. piridon, seeing the sadness of the woman, solved the problem in an unusual way.
After praying, he came to the bedside of the deceased and said:
"Irina, my dear, tell me, where did you put the thing about which this woman is so sad?"
The girl who had just been lying dead opened her eyes, looked at her father with a meaningful look, and said:
"I hid the jewelry in our house. " And after telling him where to look for the missing jewelry, she closed her eyes again and gave up her soul.
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I'll just tell you a little story. I don't know if it's online or if I've told you about it. A grandmother went to the doctor and was told that she has cancer and will die in two months.
She went home sad and meets a neighbor.She tells her that she went to the doctor and he told her that she has cancer.
The neighbor advises her to go to a hermit who lived in the forest, maybe he can help her.
What the Elder says is verified and he can know whether you will get well or not.
Shee goes to the hermit and tells him everything and asks if there is a cure.
"What should I do," she asks the hermit.
"Three days of goodness," he tells her.
"So how does this happen?"
"Three days to have only good thoughts. Do only good. Don't even think about anything bad. But it has to be three days in a row. If you happen to do something wrong in between you will have to start over. With three days of kindness every disease is cured.
Grandma went home thinking that it is something very easy. But after two hours she thought something bad about her neighbo and had to start all over.
The neighbor who knew the grandmother's story took her daughter abroad and returned after a year. She sees grandma fine, walking in the yard with the chickens.
"What happened grandma, did you manage three days of kindness?"
"Not only two days I managed. I'm still fighting it."
"But how is your health?"
"I don't know if I was cured, but my life changed."
Struggling to do good, she forgot about her illness.
Let's see, I fell again. I have to take it from the beginning, complete the three days.
And so much was She turned towards it, that She came to do only good, to live good. She always prayed, her face shone and her life changed completely. She didn't care at all about her illness.
Anyone who wants, with three days of kindness all problems will be solved.
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A nurse tells the following story:
One night, many years ago, I entered a ward of a young man suffering from cancer in order to give him a painkiller.
He would have been around 25.
We listened to the same music.
His mother was across the chair hunched over, almost curled up and sniffed up.
It was summer.
Outside people were having fun and enjoying life.
Inside we were fighting to save the young man.
His oncology was clear.
"It's not just up to us, child. Now it's up to you and your faith. We will fight it together, but I don't know what will happen."
The young man was in pain and suffered every night.
And we tried to calm him down either with painkillers or with a word of comfort.
So that night when it came I was on shift.
I was talking to him about music, about concerts. We spent some time together (we had other patients and there were only two of us on shift) and that seemed to relieve him a bit.
In fact, that night we had our first disagreement.
I insisted that my favorite band was the best, he said his. What do you want?
Childish stuff. But of the things that make you forget the blackness inside you. In the end we both laughed and agreed that we were both right.
Not to mention, I let him stare at the ceiling and reminisce about his own moments and went to the next room.
It must have been 10 minutes when I heard a voice coming from the young man's room. I turn around and see his mother coming towards me with teary eyes.
She pulls me by the hand and puts me in her son's room.
I found him as I left him. Nailing the ceiling with his gaze, but soaked in sweat.
The mother thought her son had died since he was motionless.
"Tomorrow the CT scan will be clear," he tells me, staring intently at the ceiling.
After two days, the young man had a CT scan.
Everything was clear.
No signs of cancer or metastasis anymore.
Rationalists will say that it was an illusion of the young man and his thirst for life. He was saved by healing, not by divine intervention.
Cynics will say that it shook him.
Religious believers will say "Victim."
I will say this:
Each of us carries his own cross. And in that dark hour of his martyrdom he has the right to believe in a miracle.
He has the right to believe in general.
Because it's better to believe somewhere than nowhere.
So the young man's mother, after what happened, went uphill to Tinos on her knees because she believed that she owed this "humiliation" that others say to Panagia.
And can I tell you something? Who am I to judge this act?
Who am I to trivialize this faith?
Who am I to tamper with this energy?
Who am I to say what is right and wrong for everyone?
And can I tell you something? Who am I to judge this act?
Who am I to trivialize this faith?
Who am I to tamper with this energy?
Who am I to say what is right and wrong for everyone?
Who knows why everyone makes such moves?
What black does he carry inside him and what is the meaning of such a move for the one who makes it?
I only have respect for such people because they dare to declare their faith in something.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that the young man lives among us, healthy and I even think I saw him at the Iron Maiden concert recently.
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The Shadow of Fear
Once in a village there lived a man overwhelmed by fear. He was afraid of his own shadow and ran from it. While the sun was shining, this man could not stop, because the faster he ran, the faster the shadow ran behind him. Only at night, when the shadow disappeared and he thought that no one else was chasing him, did he allow himself to stop. But with the first glimpses of the day, he began to run again. The time has come when this man fell to the ground and died.
The villagers decided to bury him in the shade of a tree and asked Elder Nestorius to come to the funeral to pray. The eler came and before the burial said to the living: "This man was overcome by the spirit of fear. He spent his entire adult life running from his own shadow and therefore squandered it. Our fears are like shadows. As we keep running from them, we can never stop to find out what's really chasing us. If this man had stopped and looked closely, perhaps he would have laughed and said, "What kind of person am I running from my shadow?" No one can escape it either.
This does not mean, however, that the shadow is stronger and we will never achieve victory. It simply means that there is no shadow, which means that there is no question of winning. You can't beat something that doesn't exist. Why does fear have power over people? Because they forget that fear is just a shadow we cast as we move forward in life." When this person was buried, a headstone was placed on his grave. Then Elder Nestorius added: "Look, the tombstone is in the shade of a tree and does not produce its own shadow. Similarly, when we are in the shadow of the Lord's wings, we can always be free from the shadows of fear.
ANT.
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Be the reason for someone to smile around you". Smile!
It was a message written by someone on a wall. It immediately caught my eye. I was stuck on this message until the road opened and the bus moved on.
I tried to do what this stranger said...to smile, but automatically, in a flash, the sorrows, the trials, the failures, the mourning, the illnesses of this life came to my mind.
No. I can't smile.
Why should I smile and how? Should I do it like the English who ask you "Are you happy with your lessons?" Are you happy with your activities?
To smile because I liked the lessons or the activities of my life? Do they understand what true joy, fulfilled and permanent joy will mean?
The bus moves on and I get off at the church of Saint Theodosius.
I go in... as if a faint smile appeared on my lips. It came out spontaneously in me. I could in there. Why;
I venerated the icons. The faces on the icons were so sweet, so peaceful. They made me smile. It was as if I had found a refuge, a harbor, an almost family comfort.
I needed it at that moment. It relieved my pain, it worked like a painkiller. A few minutes inside the temple and I felt that I can smile, because I have so many reasons. I am not alone in front of my "insurmountable" problems.
Inside the small temple, I found so many faces who heard my pain and my struggles. Their forms, their cheerful look supports me.
I feel that they do not listen to me indifferently... and let them remain unscathed. They raise my problem as their own agony and bring it in prayer to the throne of God.
Yes, I don't walk alone and defenseless in this harsh life... That's why I have reason to smile. That's why I will often remind myself, somewhat modified, of the prompt of the... wall:
"SMILE! THERE IS A REASON!".
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In 1916-17, Elder Gabriel the Dionysian writes that he was in the Orphanage of Pangaios, responsible of a share of his Monastery. An army division was stationed in that area. A group of officers, initiated into spiritualism, used to assemble in the evenings around a table, and through the medium of a soldier-medium they called up the spirits of King George, Trikoupis, and other famous dead. When the little table was shaking (a sign that communication with the "spirit" had begun), they would ask various questions and the soldier-medium would answer on behalf of the "spirit".
It happened one night at such a gathering that Elder Gabriel was also present. He immediately understood that the whole effort was a summoning of demons. When they were all gone, he took the opportunity to stick two candles in the shape of a Cross under the table. When they went back and tried to repeat the invocation of the "spirits", they experienced a painful surprise. While they were calling for a long time, the little table did not move from its place and the "spirit" did not appear. They began to investigate, wondering if someone had nailed the table to the floor. And while investigating they discovered the wax cross under the table.
Then Elder Gabriel said to them:
"I did it so that you would be convinced that demonic energy is hidden in your act."
But they did not admit it. And they began to put forward various spiritualist theories, that the candle as a substance is a "good receiver" and that's why it gathers the current of communication, etc.
"Good," Elder Gabriel told them. "If the candle is to blame, remove it. But allow me to do something else…”.
And after lighting one candle, he formed with the smoke a Cross under the table. Then he told them to make their invocations. They started calling again, but the table again remained motionless and nothing happened...
They were then forced, from the facts, to admit that they were not dealing with the communication of spirits of dead people, but with the devil, who "like a roaring lion prowls about and devours" (1 Peter 5:8 -10), which, however, his power and his traps, literally crumble before the power of the Holy Cross!!
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A certain villager had a cow, which he took great care of. He was taking her to graze, where there was plenty of grass. And for water, he took her to a nearby spring with very cool and clean water. Nevertheless, he noticed that, day by day, the cow was getting thinner and thinner. He ate more, but every day he lost weight...
The man left wondering:
"How does my cow get so thin, with so much care?", he said over and over again.
And the answer did not take long to come. One day, completely coincidentally, he also wanted to drink water from the spring. But when he bent down to drink, he noticed with horror that the trough of the spring was full of leeches. So the cow, every time she drank water, also swallowed leeches, which of course, living in her guts, sucked her blood, resulting , getting weaker and weaker.
Something similar happens with the spiritual searches of contemporary man. He quenches his thirst at the wrong springs, drinking water full of sinful "leeches", which enter him and rob him of all spiritual dignity.
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Twenty Practical Suggestions for Humility
by Fr. Stephanos Anagnostopoulos
Did they forget you? They don’t even pick up the phone? It doesn’t matter.
Were they unjust to you? Forget about it.
Do they despise you? Rejoice.
Do they condemn you? Don’t fight back.
Do they ridicule you? Don’t respond.
Do they curse you? Be silent and pray.
Do they not let you speak? Do they cut you off? Don’t be sad.
Do they speak evil of you? Don’t fight back.
Do your children, your relatives and your own people take away your rights? Don’t complain.
Do they get angry with you? Remain peaceful.
Do they rob you openly? Be blind to it.
Do they mock you? Forbear it.
Do they not listen to your advice, especially your children? Fall to your knees and pray.
Are you upset with your spouse? You are to blame, not the other.
Were you to blame? Ask forgiveness.
You weren’t to blame? Again ask forgiveness.
Do you have health? Glorify God.
Do you have sickness? Do you have cancer, depression? Are you suffering, tortured, in pain? Glorify God.
Complaining, unemployment, poverty in the house? Fasting. Vigil. Prayer.
For everyone and for everything, prayer. Much prayer. Much prayer. Fasting and prayer, for “these kinds of passions and demons do not come out but with fasting and prayer.”
May we all, my brethren, and first of all myself, follow these humble suggestions, that we may be sure that we will be saved.
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Fr. Stephanos Anagnostopoulos:
Once, there lived a neokoros [keeper of the church, i.e. layperson who helps clean the church], who had very much reverence, much piety, and much fear of God. He was from those that we want to be keepers and helpers in Church. The Church was built in honor of the Precious Forerunner. The neokoros would ring the Church bells—there were three or four bells—and he would ring them with his two hands. However, he had suffered some trauma to his left hand and he couldn’t ring the bells with just one hand. Because of these he was very distressed. The great feast day came and he couldn’t ring them sweetly, rhythmically, as normally, but first the one, then the other, [never together or in patterns as on Mount Athos].
Therefore, what else could he do? So he went to the Precious Forerunner and said to him:
-“Listen to me, O Saint! This is your Church, you saw my hand, I can’t with just one hand. Well come here.”
He took him by the hand—and the Precious Forerunner descended from his icon!—and took him outside to the bell tower.
“Well now show me how I should ring the bells!”
The Precious Forerunner therefore made slip knots with the cords and placed one on one foot, one on the other, and one on his hand, and the other one on his elbow. And he showed him how to ring the bells in a fervent manner.
“Thank you very much” the neokoros said to the Saint!
And he rang the bells as he was shown by the Precious Forerunner!
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The Chinese Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion (+1900)
Contributed by Father Geoffrey Korz
Orthodox Christianity has often been described as the faith of the martyrs. Without doubt, the centuries have shown among the Orthodox an unparalleled degree of suffering for the sake of Christ's name. Yet despite the dramatic increase in Orthodox martyrdom in the last century, Orthodox believers living in the comforts of North America remain largely isolated from the suffering of the saints.
Ironically, the Western world has become a more potent—and indeed, more subtle—enemy of Christian Orthodoxy than any regime of the past. Cut off from the struggles of our Christian forebears, we have too readily accepted materialism and hedonism. To be a Christian, especially an Orthodox Christian, has become a fundamentally countercultural calling.
The arrival of the year 2000 marks the centennial of the first martyrs of the last century, and the first known group of Orthodox martyrs from China—a group who knew well the meaning of standing against the social tide of their day. Some of the 222 Orthodox martyrs of June 10/23, 1900, were direct descendants of the Russian mission set up at the end of the seventeenth century, after Russia lost its Albazin outpost to Chinese forces.
Orthodoxy's Beginnings in China
With the Chinese recapture of Albazin, the Chinese Imperial Court looked with curiosity and tolerance upon the Russians in their territories, allowing them a surprising level of religious freedom. A former Buddhist temple near Beijing was converted into a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas, and church vestments and holy objects were sent from the Imperial Court in Russia. The Chinese and Russian governments proceeded to establish diplomatic relations, a move facilitated by the presence and work of the Albazin Chinese Orthodox. Since the Russian soldiers were viewed as a loose equivalent of the warrior class of Chinese society, they moved easily among the Chinese aristocracy, with many marrying Chinese noblewomen. Just as many of the first converts at Rome were noble patrons of the Church, Orthodox Christianity in China was to see a similar beginning.
In the years following, Orthodoxy made significant inroads among the Albazin Chinese population, becoming a kind of ethnic religion of the people. Emperor Kangxi was favorable toward these Christians, and for a time it was hoped the emperor might become a kind of Saint Constantine of the Orient. When the Chinese court later discovered that local Roman Catholic missionaries followed orders from Western masters, however, Emperor Kangxi and his successors began persecutions against Christians. Because of their position at court and their foothold among the Albazin Chinese faithful, the Orthodox were spared much of this persecution for a time.
Orthodox missions in China were cautious from the beginning. Emperor Peter the Great observed: "This is a very important enterprise. But, for God's sake, let us be cautious and circumspect, not to provoke either the Chinese authorities or the Jesuits whose den is there since long ago. To this end, the clergymen are needed not so much as scholarly, but rather reasonable and amicable, lest this holy effort suffers a painful defeat because of a certain kind of arrogance."
While the growth of the Orthodox Chinese mission was modest, its faithful were solid witnesses for their faith in Christ. Just as pagan Rome saw Christian devotion to Christ as a rival to imperial loyalty, so too did the Imperial Chinese of the late nineteenth century see Christians as enemies of the Emperor. While some in China were embracing Western modernist ideas, others including the Dowager Empress, nationalists, and those who practiced martial arts'sought to eliminate any challenges to tradition, including foreign influences. This conservative movement was dubbed by foreigners the "Boxer movement."
A Courageous Witness
By June 1900, placards calling for the death of foreigners and Christians covered the walls around Beijing. Armed bands combed the streets of the city, setting fire to homes and "with imperial blessing" killing Chinese Christians and foreigners. Faced with torture or death, some of the Chinese Christians did deny Christ, while others, emboldened by the faith of the martyrs and the prayers of the saints, declared boldly the Name of the Lord. Among these were Priest Mitrophan Tsi-Chung, his Matushka Tatiana, and their children, Isaiah, Serge, and John.
Baptized by Saint Nicholas of Japan, Saint Mitrophan was a shy and retiring priest, who avoided honors and labored continually for the building of new churches, for the translation of spiritual books, and for the care of his flock. Yet in Christ, who gives more than we can ask or imagine, Saint Mitrophan and his flock became lions in the face of marauding wolves.
It was with this reassurance that Saint Mitrophan met his martyrdom on June 10, 1900. About seventy faithful had gathered in his home for consolation when the Boxers surrounded the house. While some of the faithful managed to escape, most—including Saint Mitrophan—were stabbed or burned to death. Like the priests of old slaughtered in the sight of Elijah, Saint Mitrophan's holy body fell beneath the date tree in the yard of his home, his family witnesses to his suffering.
His youngest son, Saint John, an eight-year-old child, was disfigured by the Boxers the same day. Although the mob cut off his ears, nose, and toes, Saint John did not seem to feel any pain, and walked steadily. Crowds mocked the young confessor, as they mocked his Lord before him, calling him a demon for his unwillingness to bend to make sacrifice to the idols. To the amazement of onlookers, although he was mutilated, mocked, and alone, young Saint John declared that it did not hurt to suffer for Christ.
Saint Isaiah, 23, the elder brother of Saint John, had been martyred several days earlier. Despite repeated urging, his nineteen-year-old bride, Saint Mary, refused to leave and hide, declaring that she had been born near the church of the Mother of God, and would die there as well.
Saint Ia (Wang), a mission school teacher also among the martyrs, was slashed repeatedly by the Boxers and buried, half-dead. In an attempt to save her, a sympathetic non-Christian bystander unearthed her, carrying her to his home in the hope of safety. There, however, the Boxers seized her again, torturing her at length until she died, a bold confession of Christ on her lips. Thereby did Saint Ia the teacher gain the crown of martyrdom not once, but twice.
Among those who died for Christ were Albazinians whose ancestors had first carried the light of Holy Orthodoxy to Beijing in 1685. The faith of these pioneers has now been crowned with the glory of martyrdom conferred upon their descendants. Albazinians Clement Kui Lin, Matthew Chai Tsuang, his brother Witt, Anna Chui, and many more, fearless of those who kill the body but cannot harm the soul (Matthew 10:28), met agony and death with courage, praying to the Savior for their tormentors.
Honoring the Martyrs
When the feast of the Holy Chinese Martyrs was first commemorated in 1903, the bodies of Saint Mitrophan and others were placed under the altar of the Church of the All Holy Orthodox Martyrs (built in 1901—1916). A cross was later erected on the site of their martyrdom, standing as a testimony of the first sufferings of Orthodox faithful in a century of such great suffering. The church, along with others, was destroyed by the communists in 1954; the condition and whereabouts of the relics are not known.
In 1996, the first Greek Metropolitan of Hong Kong was consecrated, just prior to the reunification of the city-state with mainland China. There began the first attempt in decades to reach the remnant Orthodox community on the mainland. Many of the Orthodox faithful had fled the country years before. Knowledge of the only remaining Orthodox church in China—the Protection of the Mother of God, located in Harbin—is sketchy, and attempts by Greek authorities in Hong Kong to contact the parish have seen little success. The Church of the Annunciation was converted into a circus; it was closed only when an acrobat fell to his death there. The Shanghai Cathedral of Saint John Maximovich (+1966)—a great champion and shepherd of Orthodox Christians of non-Orthodox ancestry—was turned into a stock exchange.
In the late 1990s—a century after the martyrdoms at Harbin and elsewhere—a new flowering of zeal for Orthodox Christian missions to the people of China began. A Chinese prayerbook and catechesis was published by Holy Trinity Monastery of Jordanville, New York. Several short histories of the martyrs have been written, and an akathist in their memory was recently composed. In the pattern of Saint Paul, who used the great highways of pagan Rome to spread the gospel, a network of Orthodox Christians dedicated to the spread of the Orthodox faith among the peoples of the Far East has taken to the Internet to make available prayers and church materials in Chinese.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Holy Chinese Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion, let us as Orthodox faithful ask their prayers that we may have the courage of their witness in our own time and place, and like them live out the call of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ to go and make disciples of all nations.
Father Geoffrey Korz is priest of All Saints of North America Orthodox Church in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Information for this article was taken from a web site on the Chinese Orthodox martyrs and from the Synaxarion of the Chinese Orthodox Martyrs, produced by Apostoliki Diakonia of Athens, Greece. An edition of this article was previously printed in the Orthodox Messenger, a publication of the Archdiocese of Canada (OCA).
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St. Porphyrios on the Work of Elder Ephraim of Arizona:
"From an early age, the two nuns met with Elder Ephraim and Saint Porphyrios. "Oftentimes, Elder Ephraim asked us to ask St. Porphyrios for his opinion. She remembers the words of St. Porphyrios: "The charisma of the Great Elder is such that the missionary work for which God called upon him in America will receive the grace of Early Christianity..."
"St. Porphyrios once called a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim and told her: "I'm very envious of Elder Ephraim, because he has surpassed in his humility the entire calendar of the saints of our Church. I'm stuck here in a bed, and they make me out to be a saint. But Elder Ephraim is very smart. He has made an agreement with God, that no one will understand who he is until he dies. And after his repose, then you will be overcome by fear at what you had next to you, and didn't know it."
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St. Porphyrios: "Unquestionably the higher state is love."
"Which is better? To be meek, humble, peaceful and to be filled with love, or to be irritable, depressed, and to quarrel with everyone? Unquestionably the higher state is love."
-St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
http://apantaortodoxias.blogspot.com/2020/11/which-is-better-to-be-meek-humble.html
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A vision of Elder Ephraim, and a picture of his purported to be weeping
"I just communicated with Gerontissa Thekla from Montreal, and she told me that our holy Elder appeared to someone living in Crete. He lives ascetically, and would go to visit the Elder at St. Anthony's [in Arizona].
He has this picture of our holy Elder with a constant vigil lamp before it. The Elder told him that God is greatly saddened by the Greeks***, because they are not praying.
On November 3rd, the picture began to weep, not just tears, but it became soaked.
The Elder is praying for all of us."
-Maria
***Note: By no means are the Greeks the only people that might not be praying as they should, but all people throughout the world, young and old, clergy, laity and monastics, should be repenting and praying as we should, entreating the Lord to save the world.
“Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, who lived as an ascetic in Arizona, appeared to a woman in Northern Greece, a long-time spiritual daughter of the elder. At the time of the appearance she was with her daughter-in-law; she was not asleep but actually in a state of alertness. At one point the woman was unresponsive, as if in ecstasy,* and this lasted for about 10 minutes, according to her daughter-in-law who was watching her. She did not realize or comprehend the time duration — i.e., for how long the vision lasted. It was something new for her (the content of the conversation) because she has seen the Elder before, after his repose, both in her sleep as well while she was awake. Due to all this (her shock), she contacted her spiritual father and asked whether this experience was real or a deception by the evil one.
She saw Elder Ephraim and he was very sad and was imploring Christ that the ongoing [direction of] events be averted (all this, of course, is in agreement with what the elder said to many while he was alive).
And he told her:
‘Repentance repentance repentance. Christ is very angry...
We people today should not be in this spiritual state we are in...
Huge tribulations are coming, you can not imagine how bad these will be...
Alas to all of you for what awaits you; you must repent as long as there is time...
You need to kneel and cry, to shed tears of repentance, that Christ soften...
This has to do with what is happening in America as well.
Many people will depart through all that is to come, many people will depart (they will die).
You have no mercy among you. You show no mercy to each other.
You are tough towards each other, you stand ready to eat (consume-destroy) each other ....
Tell all of this to your spiritual father and to others ....’
The woman who saw this was a spiritual daughter of Elder Ephraim and was in communication with him often up until his repose.
- f. I.
*Translator’s note: The Greek term here is χάθηκε. It was not immediately clear to us if this meant literally or spiritually. We received clarification that it was the latter and have made the change. We have also made other minor changes to improve the English translation and correct typos in the Greek version.
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2020/11/picture-of-elder-ephraim-of-arizona.html
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Saint Porphyrios and the Visit of Divine Grace Before Christmas: A True Testimony Similar to "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
It was the days leading up to the Christmas of 1993. I was in a very difficult situation: physical sicknesses and horrible pains, revolts of the passions, warfare with the devil and through men.
I said: "My Christ, what kind of Christmas am I going to have this year?" Then I called upon the Elder [Porphyrios].
(Just before he reposed he said to me: "Call on me.")
On the night of December 22, as soon as I was able to fall asleep, he came.
At first I thought he was still alive, and he said to me:
"Come and take me for a ride."
I grab him and instead of taking him, he took me. We were together, I think, all night.
We traveled to many places, we also came to the Monastery, we also visited the children.
The next day in the morning everything went away: sorrows, melancholy, worries, intrusive thoughts, everything went away and there came serenity, peace, joy, good thoughts, humble and forgiving thoughts for everyone and for everything, and above all a preparation for my deeper lonely state.
It was a visit of Divine Grace through Elder Porphyrios. That's what my discerning spiritual father told me.
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Homily on the Meaning of the Holy Cross, by Metropolitan Augoustinos Kantiotes
My beloved, what does the Cross teach us? Take a chalk and write, like children do in school, 2+2=4. Thus, the Cross is the "equal sign", but what is it? Do you think that it is simply a piece of wood that we venerate and are saved? You are mistaken, because this is not how it is in reality.
The Cross equals forgiveness.
Because upon the Cross, Christ forgave His murderers. Are there today some here in church who are at odds with each other? Are there women who hate their mothers-in-law? Are there houses where people don't speak with each other? Are there neighbors that don't greet each other? Is there hatred? Well then, the Cross tells us today: "Forgive!" If you don't forgive, then don't approach the Cross, don't venerate it. When, within your heart, you have bitterness, you have this serpent of hatred, you can't approach the Cross. Because the Cross means forgiveness. You must forgive even your greatest enemy.
The Cross equals truth.
Even if they put a knife to your throat, and slaughter you, you should speak the truth. Not in the sense that you go to court and raise your wretched hand upon the Gospel and take a false oath. Not like this. Christ was crucified for the truth. Whoever says lies, whoever goes to court and takes false oaths, he is not worthy to venerate the Cross. The Cross, therefore, equals forgiveness, the Cross equals truth.
The Cross equals humility.
No--even though you might have a very large home, or more money or lands or animals, or if you have children studying in school or if you have a beautiful wife, or whatever else you might do--you should not boast or feel proud. You are not a Christian! Humility! Humble yourself to say: I am nothing, I am a worm, I am nothing in this world. However, when you have pride and you boast and you show off your body and your job and your money, then you are not a Christian.
The Cross equals love.
Is your neighbor hungry? Give him a piece of bread. Is he thirsty? Give him a glass of water. Is he naked? Give him a shirt to wear. Go and console him and wipe away his tears. This is Christianity. Not when you have everything and your neighbor has nothing.
The Cross equals sacrifice.
As Christ sacrificed Himself, thus we must sacrifice ourselves. This is what the Cross means. If you do these things, then you are worthy to be called Christians. But you who dip your hands in blood, you who take false oaths, you who are unjust to the orphan, you cannot approach the Cross. The Cross casts you out.
Read the life of St. Mary of Egypt. On this day, she went to Jerusalem and saw the crowd going into the church and everyone--old, young, women, men--were going to venerate. She herself tried to approach the entrance. But some power pushed her back. She tried and second and a third time, but she was unable. Why? Because she was a sinful woman, and she worked in sin in Alexandria. Only after she repented, then she was able to enter the church and she became a Christian in reality.
The Cross, my beloved, creates presuppositions. We must live corresponding to the teaching of the Cross.
And something else: You should make your Cross properly. Because unfortunately, in our faithless years that we are living through, everything has become fashionable. Fashionable hair, fashionable clothing, fashionable shoes, fashion everywhere. Unfortunately many in Church do it out of fashion. Unfortunately you see scientists, congressmen, ministers, prime ministers, and none are doing their Cross correctly. That which they are doing is not the Cross. It joking and mocking. It is playing with God. Do not play with God. How will they understand that you are a Christian? By your Cross. When you make the sign of the Cross properly, you are doing a whole prayer. Therefore, do your Cross properly.
And when should you do your Cross? When you awake in the morning, do your Cross. Are you going to work? Do your Cross. Are you going to your field? Do your Cross. Are you sowing, returning from your field, entering your home? Do your Cross. Are you sitting at your dinner table? Do your Cross. Are you going to sleep? Do your Cross.
"Though I fall, I make my Cross
And have an Angel by my side."
O woman, are you baking? Make the sign of the Cross in the dough. Wherever you go and whatever you do, make your Cross. The Cross is the "protector of the whole world."
(+) Bishop Augoustinos
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2020/09/homily-on-meaning-of-holy-cross-by.html
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Saint Peter the Aleut was a young native of Kodiak Island in Alaska. Captured by Catholic Spanish forces while on a hunting trip near San Pedro, California, in the early 19th century, Peter was tortured and killed for refusing to renounce his Orthodox Christian faith and convert to Roman Catholicism. His steadfastness in the face of persecution made him the first recognized Orthodox martyr of North America. Remembered for his courage and unwavering faith, Saint Peter the Aleut serves as a powerful symbol of spiritual resilience and the enduring strength of indigenous Christian witness.
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They asked an Abbess:
"What are you doing here, locked up in the Monastery for so many years?"
She replied: "I am praying to God to place you in Paradise."
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2020/09/i-am-praying-to-god-to-place-you-in.html
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"Once, when St. Iakovos of Evia, Greece, was casting out demons from a wretched demoniac, his ears heard: 'Hey Iakovos, you should know! The knees of Mary have withered from praying for all of you.' What are we doing? Are we worthy of these prayers or do we fall and get carried away from our passions and fall into sin? And if we fall, do we go afterwards to kneel under the stole of a spiritual father, that our sins might be washed away? Because, we will have to give an account for our deeds, our desires, our thoughts...so while there is still time, let us repent! Let us change our way of thinking and our way of life, to enter into the space of our Church. She is the ark of our salvation, that we might partake of the Spotless Mysteries, in Confession and Divine Communion, and when we commune, we become even more closely related to our Panagia, because our Panagia hosted within her womb the Son of God and her Son, and when we commune, we host, we give a dwelling-place within us, within our body, to God, like our Panagia."
-Quote from a sermon of Elder Gabriel of St. David's Monastery in Evia on the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-knees-of-mary-have-withered-from.html
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Elder Ephraim of St. Andrew's Skete on the Repose of St. Paisios
"Gerontissa (Eldress) Philothei, from the Monastery of Souroti, told me that, as soon as St. Paisios reposed, his face shown, and his whole body began to pour forth fragrance and lightning!!! And he went from being very pale from his afflictions, to becoming totally white!
"A sign of his great humility and the many signs from God that he had in his life.
"St. Paisios had very many revelations, some of which he revealed to people, but he asked them to not make them known until he had died!
"His life was a martyrical one, and his battle with the devil and with the demons was not insignificant!
"To live one's whole life as a monk, this shows that he had a leonine soul, for otherwise he could not have withstood the attacks of the enemy, being totally alone."
-Elder Ephraim of St. Andrew's Skete, Mount Athos
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2020/07/elder-ephraim-of-st-andrews-skete-on.html
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Homily on the Day of the Theophany Before the Blessing of the Waters (St. John Maximovitch)
By St. John Maximovitch
(Delivered in Shanghai in 1947)
“The heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended physically like a dove” on the Son of God standing in the Jordan. The voice from heaven of God the Father is heard: “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22; Mark 1:11; Matt. 3:17).
The sky is open now, again the Holy Spirit descends on the waters, and God testifies of His Son.
Oh, that our spiritual eyes would be opened! Oh, that our ears could perceive celestial expressions! We would see the heavens open above us. We would have seen the Son of God standing among us and the Holy Spirit hovering over us, and we would have heard the voice of God proclaiming the divinity of the Savior of the world.
We would feel how the Holy Spirit descended on the waters, returned to them the kindness that they had at the creation of the world, and made them a life-giving force that revives fallen nature. We ourselves would be illumined with light, our lips would be filled with the spirit and joyfully sing of Him who established us on the rock of faith.
But only the pure in heart see the divine. Those darkened by sin do not see and do not hear.
People saw the heavens at the baptism of the Lord, but only John the Baptist saw that it was open.
Many looked at the Lord Jesus Christ when He came to the Jordan, but only John felt that He was the incarnate Son of God, while others looked at Him as an ordinary person, a carpenter and a carpenter's son.
Perhaps not only John saw the Holy Spirit descending on Him in the form of a dove, but only he understood that it was the Holy Spirit, while others mistook it for the flight of an ordinary dove.
Perhaps many heard the voice of God the Father at the Jordan, but only John clearly heard the testimony of God about His Son. Others heard it like thunder thundering over the waters, just as later people mistook for thunder the answer of heaven, God the Father, to the prayer offered by the Son (John 12:30).
So now, we see the clouds that have covered the sky, but we do not see that it is open, we breathe in the air, but we do not feel the Holy Spirit descending on us and the water, we hear the words of church hymns and do not understand their Divine power.
But in truth the Lord stands between us “where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20), truly the heavens are now open and their Creator bears witness to the Eternal Word, now the Holy Spirit will descend on the waters and sanctify us. Water by the grace of God will become a source of health of soul and body, sanctification for us and our dwellings and all nature, and will be kept incorruptible for many years, will become like the voice of God, broadcasting that our Savior Jesus Christ is the Son of God, descended to earth and resurrecting us to incorruption and will raise you up to the heavenly temple.
Let us open our hearts by faith and open our mouths to praise, from the depths of our souls we will cry out: “Great art thou, O Lord, and marvelous are Thy works, and not a single word will be sufficient for the singing of Thy wonders!”
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2023/01/homily-on-day-of-theophany-before.html
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Christ Is Born, Glorify Him! (St. John Maximovitch)
By St. John Maximovitch
Christ is born, glorify Him!
“You were secretly born in a cave, but the heavens proclaimed You to all, O Savior, using the star as its mouth.”
Quietly, silently, the Son of God descended to earth and incarnated. Like a drop of dew falls on the ground, so the Power of the Most High overshadowed the Most Pure Virgin, and the Savior of the world was born from Her.
But the world did not notice the great work done by God. People were each busy with their own concerns, their attention was directed to the affairs of life and to high-profile worldly events.
Rome strengthened its power over the peoples and its state power. Greece developed the arts and indulged in the refined service of the flesh. The Eastern peoples tried to find answers to all the inquiries of the spirit in the phenomena of nature.
The Jews ardently longed for liberation from foreign power and waited for a deliverer in the person of the Messiah - the earthly king.
However, the affairs of life did not give satisfaction to people, even when they were successful. The “longing of the spirit” for truth was felt more and more strongly, and it was felt that the world, mired in vanity and vices, was about to perish.
Not only the Jews were waiting for a deliverer; but the best of the Gentiles were waiting for someone who would save mankind from destruction.
But each in his own way imagined His coming, and, being carnal themselves, could not think of the spiritual. “The Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks seek wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:22).
No one was waiting for the Savior, meek and humble in heart, clothed not with earthly, but with heavenly glory.
And this was exactly why He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
It was not by external force or arrogant wisdom that He came to reign over the nations, not as “a frightening ghost” (Prayer for Blessing of W.ater), but in the form of a slave the Savior came to take upon Himself the sin of Adam, to bear the burden of man, being accessible to everyone.
“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45; Matt. 20:28).
Accordingly, He is born in a cave, in a small city, where, at the time of the census, the family of the poor carpenter righteous Joseph, rich only in virtues, arrived.
None of those living on earth imagined that in such squalor the Redeemer would appear and that the Reigning over all creatures would come to people.
And even the prince of this world of that time, the proud opponent of God - the devil, turned out to be deceived and did not recognize in the Newborn the One Whom he envied when he was still an angel. The eternal secret about the salvation of the human race, hidden from his power, could be known only by those who heed the voice from heaven and fix their eyes there.
The shepherds heard the angels singing about the coming in the flesh of Christ, those poor shepherds of Bethlehem, whose only source of wisdom was the open book of the wisdom of God, revealed in the beauty of His creations, untouched by the sinful hand of man.
And to the rest of mankind, who did not hear the angelic singing, the sky, with the bright light of the star that shone in it, as if by mouth announced that He was “the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9-11).
Heaven spoke to all, proclaiming the glory of God. But only the magi kings, who sought in it revelations of God's judgments and were ready to go anyywhere to find the truth, "understood the voice of heaven." Having collected their treasures in order to present them as a gift to the newborn King, they left their thrones, left their native land and went, not knowing where, following only the course of the star, which announced to them the path to the Eternal Kingdom.
The path was hard, but the light of the star of Bethlehem illuminated it. And the "wise men-magi", overcoming all obstacles, traveled along the paths indicated by the sky, "having renounced their will". The star led them to Jerusalem, where they heard the written word of God, and then to Bethlehem, where they saw the Word incarnate, God in the flesh, and worshiped the Sun of Truth.
The world continued to rage with its passions.
Herod, learning about the birth of the eternal King, sought to kill Him; not finding Him, he killed many babies, but he could not kill the one Secretly Born in the Cave.
This mystery for those who live according to the elements of this world remained a mystery. “He lived among the people, but they did not know Him” (John 1:31).
Only gradually did He reveal Himself to a pure heart, seeking the truth, ready to stand for the truth, revealing Himself to those who desired purification of the heart, who were ready to submit their will to the will of Heaven.
And the time has come - the light of Bethlehem lit up all the ends of the universe.
Now the world is raging again! Some would be ready to kill the Baby and try to erase His Name, others seem not to notice Him. But He stands in the midst of us, revealing Himself to those who "keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart." “Tongues stagger in vain and people are taught in vain! With an iron rod, like the vessels of the poor, He will crush those who anger Him."
And the star of Bethlehem again shines invisibly over the world, calling on all peoples and every person to direct their gaze to heaven, to have a heart, to fall down to the Newborn and rejoice with great joy, for God is with us! “God is with us, understand this Gentiles, and submit: for God is with us!”
Christ is born!
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2023/01/christ-is-born-glorify-him-st-john.html
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“If you want to serve God, prepare your heart not for food, not for drink, not for rest, not for ease, but for suffering, so that you may endure all temptations, trouble and sorrow. Prepare for severities, fasts, spiritual struggles and many afflictions, for “by many afflictions is it appointed to us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Acts 14,22); ‘The Heavenly Kingdom is taken by force, and the who use force seize it.’ (Matt 11:12)
+ St. Sergius of Radonezh
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Abbot Tryphon, Vashon Island, WA, USA: "We must recognize infanticide and abortion for the evil that it is..."
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20
Washington, Oregon, New York, and California, allow for the killing of newborn infants. Calling it late term abortion, it is in reality, the murder of newly born children. That the United States has lowered the moral and spiritual level to allow the holocaust of our own children, is beyond belief.
I see absolutely no difference between the Nazi slaughter of innocent men, women, and children, and the taking of a child’s life through abortion. Aborting children in the early stages of development was heinous. The fact that millions were being aborted simply for the convenience of the mother was even worse. And now, we’re being told that it is not only acceptable, but a celebrated choice to end a child’s life at full term. This is pure, unadulterated evil.
As a young man growing up in a German Lutheran Church in Spokane, WA. I prayed God would have granted me the courage to speak up and denounce the slaughter of innocents at the hands of the Nazis had I been alive during World War II. How can anyone who says he loves God, ignore the plight of millions of children who are murdered each year? Are we to remain silent, as did so many Germans under the Nazis, or are we to be bold in our refusal to remain silent concerning this new holocaust?
There is absolutely no difference between allowing a newly born child to die alone on a hospital table, and the holocaust done by the Nazis. Abortion and infanticide have no place in a nation that places so much emphasis on the importance of human rights, gay rights, women’s rights, and the rights of immigrants. We must wake up to the evil that has taken our country, and we must speak out against this evil.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2019/02/abbott-tryphon-we-must-recognize.html
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St. Paisios of Holy Mount Athos: "Abortions are a terrible sin"
-Elder, one forty year-old woman, who has grown children, is three months pregnant. Her husband threatened that, if she does not have an abortion, he would leave her.
If she has an abortion, her other children would pay with sicknesses and accidents. Today, parents kill their children with abortions and do not have the blessing from God. In olden times, if a small child was born sick, they would baptize him, and he would die like an angel, and was more secured.
Parents had other older children, but they also had the blessing of God. Today, they kill their older children through abortions, as they strive to keep them alive while they are sick. Parents run to England, to America to heal them. And they continue to bear children even more sick, because they, if they sought to make a family, they could again give birth to sick children, at which point, what would happen? If they bore a few children, they would not run so much for the one who is sick. He would die and go forth as a little angel.
-Elder, I read once that every year, in total there are 50 million abortions and 200,000 women die from complications.
They kill the children because they say that, if the population would increase, there would not be enough to eat, in order for humanity to be preserved. There are so many uncultivated areas, so many woods, so that, with today's tools, for example, they could plant olive groves to give to the poor. It's not that they would cut the trees and there would be no Oxygen, because there would be trees to replace them.
In America, the wheat burns, and here in Greece, the fruit falls into the rubbish heap, etc. while in Africa, the people are dying from hunger. When people were dying from hunger in Abyssinia, because they had a great drought, I told a well-known ship-owner friend to help in these circumstances, to go to the rubbish dump and to load up a boat to take [the surplus foodstuffs] there for free. They didn't allow him to do this under any circumstance.
-How many thousands of embryos are killed every day!
Abortion is a terrible sin. It is murder, and of course a very great murder, to kill unbaptized children. Parents must understand that life begins from the instant of conception.
One night, God allowed me to see a terrible vision, to inform me regarding this matter! It was the evening of the Tuesday of Bright Week 1984. I had lit two candles in two tin cans, as I always do even while asleep, for all those who suffer spiritually or bodily. To those I include the living and the reposed. At midnight, as I was saying the [Jesus] Prayer, I saw a great field surrounded by a fence, studded by wheat that had just begun to grow. I stood outside the field, and I lit candles for the reposed and placed them on the wall of the fence.
To the left there was a dry place, full of rocks and cliffs, which was shaking continuously from a very strong cry from thousands of voices that break your heart and make you shudder. And even the toughest man, if he would hear it, would be unable to remain unmoved. As I was experiencing these heartbreaking cries, I asked within where these voiced were coming from, and what was happening with all that I saw, and I heard a voice tell me: “The field studded with wheat that has just sprouted, is the Cemetery with the souls of the dead that would be raised. At the place which was shaking from the heartbreaking cries are found the souls of children who were killed through abortions!”
Following this vision, I was unable to rest from the great pain that I experienced for the souls of the children. I could neither lie down to rest, though I had been busy that whole day.
-Elder, can something be done to remove the law regarding abortions?
Yes, but the Nation, the Church, etc. must be moved to inform the people about the consequences of declining birth rates. The Priest should explain to the world that the law regarding abortions is against the commandments of the Gospel. Doctors, from their own positions, should speak of the risks that follow the woman who has an abortion. See, the Europeans had royalty, and left this as an inheritance for their children. We had the fear of God, but we lost it and did not leave an inheritance for the next generation, and for this we legalize abortions, political marriage, [etc.]...When a man disobeys one commandment of the Gospel, he alone is responsible. When, however, something that clashes with the commandments of the Gospel becomes the law of the land, then the wrath of God falls upon the whole nation, that it may be chastened.
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2013/01/elder-paisios-abortions-are-terrible-sin.html
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St. Theophylact:
* “The Lord shows us that we ought not to answer those who ask a question with malicious intent (cf. Mt. 21:23-27). For He Himself did not reply to those Jews who questioned Him with cunning, although He was not at a loss for an answer.”
* “At that time, the High Priest was in ecstasy, filled with the Spirit of God, and understood that the maiden was the dwelling place of divine grace and more worthy then he to stand always before God’s countenance. He remembered that the Law commended the Ark be placed in the Holy of Holies and straightway perceived that this ordinance pertained to the maiden.”
https://orthodoxchurchquotes.wordpress.com
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The Wondrous Appearance of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr on Mount Athos
Saint Stephen, the first martyr and archdeacon, is celebrated on December 27th and is especially honored on Mount Athos at the Sacred Monastery of Konstamonitou, whose katholikon is dedicated to the Saint.
He is also celebrated in Karyes by the representatives of Dionysiou Monastery, where there is a beautifully renovated chapel dedicated to Saint Stephen.
The academic, professor emeritus of the Theological School of Athens, Mr. Antonios Tachiaos, once spoke of the appearance of Saint Stephen to a Russian deacon, when he was called to liturgize in the chapel. This incident took place in the 20th century and was told to the Professor by monks from Mount Athos, during his first visit to the Holy Mountain in the 1950's.
The Professor narrates:
We arrived at the capital of the Holy Mountain, Karyes and, as we had to, we headed to the Holy Community. Here we had recommendations for the representative of the Dionysiou Monastery, Fr. Gregory, who took care of our accommodations and took us into the residence to host us. In the picturesque residence we worshiped in the solemn church of the holy Protomartyr Stephen. Here we heard about some miracle of the Saint. One year, on the feast of Saint Stephen, because they did not have a deacon, Fr. Gregory asked the representative of the Russian Monastery in Karyes, Fr. Nikostratos, who was an elderly, modest deacon, to come for the Liturgy.
Indeed, the good Fr. Nikostratos came on time, but as soon as he entered the church, where the fathers were gathered, he looked towards the sanctuary and said to them: "Why did you call me, since you have a deacon, who has already worn the sticharion?"
They all looked at him with surprise and asked him: "Where do you see the deacon, Fr. Nikostratos?"
Fr. Nikostratos was speechless for a while and then, with tears in his eyes, he told them: "That was him, I saw him fully alive, bright with his vestments and the censer in his hand," and he showed them the icon of the Protomartyr Stephen. The fathers marveled at the miracle, glorified the Lord and with great enthusiasm began the Divine Liturgy.
Source: From Antonios Tachiaos, "Saints, Citizens of Paradise", periodical Panchalkidikos Logos, issue 29, October-December 2016, p. 33).
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The Death-Bed Wager Between Saint Basil the Great and a Jewish Physician
A Jew named Joseph lived in Caesarea. He was such an experienced doctor that he knew for three or five days by the veins that someone was going to die, and told the patient the hour of their death. And our God-bearing father Basil, foreseeing by the Spirit that Joseph would turn to Christ, loved him very much. He often invited him to his place to talk, and advised him to leave the Jewish law and receive holy baptism. But Joseph refused, saying: "In what faith I was born, in that I will also die." And the Saint said to him: "Believe me, neither I nor you will die, until you are born of water and the Spirit. Because without this grace it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God. Were not your fathers also baptized in the cloud and the sea, and it is written drank from the rock that was the prototype of the spiritual rock, Christ (1 Cor. 10:2-4), who was born of the Virgin for our salvation, whom your fathers crucified, and who, being buried, rose again on the third day and, ascending into heaven, sat down at the right hand of the Father, whence shall He come to judge the living and the dead?" And many other useful words were spoken to him by the Saint, but the Jew remained in his unbelief.
And when the time of Basil's departure to God approached, the Saint fell ill and called the Jew, ostensibly to ask him for medical help, and said to him: "What do you think of me, Joseph?" And he, after feeling the Saint's veins, said to the family: "Prepare everything necessary for the burial, because he will die immediately." Basil said to him: "Hey, you don't know what you're talking about." And the Jew answered: "Trust me, Bishop, the sun will not set today before you will die." Basil said to him: "And if I stay alive until tomorrow at noon, what will you do then?" Joseph answered: "I will die." The Saint said: "Yes, you will die to sin, in order to live to God." The Jew answered him: "I know what you are saying, bishop. But here, I swear to you, if you live until tomorrow, then I will fulfill your will."
And the divine father Basil prayed to God to prolong his life until tomorrow for the sake of the Jew's salvation. And the next morning they went to call the Jew. And Joseph did not believe the servant, who called him, that Basil was alive, but went to see the dead man himself. And when he saw him alive, he was astounded. And he fell at the Saint's feet, and said with a sincere heart: "The Christian God is great, and there is no other God but Him. Therefore, I renounce God-hating Judaism, and approach the true Christian faith. Order therefore, holy father, that they immediately give me holy baptism, and my whole household." Saint Basil said to him: "I will baptize you myself with my own hands." And the Jew approached, felt the Saint's right hand, and said: "Your strength has dried up, Bishop, and your nature has completely weakened, so you cannot baptize me." Basil answered: "We have a Creator who strengthens us."
And he got up, went to the church, and baptized the Jew and his whole household in front of everyone. And they named him John. And Saint Basil himself served the divine liturgy on that day, and gave him communion with the Holy Mysteries, and taught him as much as he needed about eternal life, and he also spoke an instructive word to his flock. And he lived until three o'clock in the afternoon. Then he gave everyone a final kiss and farewell; he gave thanks to God for all the unspeakable mercy He had shown him. And while gratitude was still in his lips, he committed his soul into the hands of God. And the archbishop joined the archbishops, and the preachers - the great thunderers of words, on the first day of the month of January in the year 379.
Saint Basil the Great shepherded the Church of God for eight years, six months and sixteen days. He lived on earth for forty-nine years.
When the newly baptized Jew saw the Saint where he stood, he fell on his face and with tears said: "Servant of God Basil, you would not have died even now if you had not wanted to." And many other archbishops gathered and sang funeral psalms. And in the church of the holy martyr Eupsichios, they buried the holy relics of the great comforter of God Basil, praising the One God in Trinity, to whom be glory forever, Amen.
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Quotes of Saint Gabriela of Leros Island, Greece, Missionary in England, Africa, India, Holy Land etc. (+1992)
Two things are very important… “Love one another,” and “Fear not, only believe.”
We become a reflection of Heaven by saying: ‘Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven’.
If you have love for all the world, the whole world is beautiful.
If you do not get rid of “No” and “Tomorrow” from your life, you will never get to where the Lord wants you, Who grants you everything. He will give you the bodily strength when you answer “Yes” and “Now”. The prophets, the angels and the saints all said, “Behold here I am… Let it be according to Your word.”
Truth and light are synonymous.When you follow the truth you are in the light, you are with Christ.
True prayer always reaches heaven. The angels carry it to the right place and the answer comes. Its basis is Truth, and “Not My will, but that of the Father Who sent me.”
Say prayer-ropes also just with “Thank you”.
The angels always come. You should have continual conversation with your guardian angel. About everything. Especially in difficulties and when you cannot get across to someone. He always helps.
When it is in God’s programme for you to go somewhere, you will go. That is why I am generally quiet in life. I have observed that even if a person does not want to, God moves him.
Never expect anybody to understand you. Only God.
When one is alone with God, the time passes unimaginably quickly. More quickly than when you have companionship… And yet even within the world one can remain united with God. How? When whatever he is doing he directs his thoughts to Him… when whatever good comes his way he gives Him glory… and whatever testing he meets, he gives Him thanks.
Love means to respect the freedom of the other.
You must not talk about persons who are absent.
Love is always on the cross. Because Christ is on the cross.
If coal is not “beaten”, can it become diamond?
The Lord allows those who love Him to be tested, first, so that their faith in Him may grow stronger, and second, to set an example for those around.
Some people want to go to the Resurrection without passing by way of Gologatha.
The sermon on the mount and the epistle of Saint James. Every day! What a pity that we do not hear them more often…
My wishes: may the grace of our Christ, the love of the omnipotent Father and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit be with you! May your example be the life of the Mother of God, who will lead you at every step with her archangels and angels as your heavenly mother; that you love your mother who brought you into life and brought you up, and may you give love and joy first to her, and then to all who come near you.
https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2023/10/mother-gabriela-ascetic-of-love-is.html
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Elder Symeon Kragiopoulos on the Nativity of the Theotokos: "The heavier the burdens we’ve got to lift in this world, the greater God’s blessing will be..."
The heavier the burdens we’ve got to lift in this world, the greater God’s blessing will be, as was the case of saint Anna who, though infertile, brought the Virgin Mary into the world.
Something similar will happen to each one of us, if we don’t despair and if we take this difficult and unbearable burden as special grace from God. Indeed, that’s the way things are. So great will the blessing from God be that man will remain in wonder.
To get to this point, man shouldn’t grumble. On the contrary, let us allow this unbearable cross, this unbearable shame we have to carry be the reason we refuse to grumble. Let it be the reason why we learn to feel gratitude to God. Let it be the reason we cry out to God with all our might, the reason we entrust ourselves to God and indeed expect for His blessing, His grace, His love to come.
Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos (†)
From the book: Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos, “SPIRITUAL MESSAGES” Panorama Thessaloniki, 2017
https://www.orthodoxpath.org/saints-and-elders-counsels/the-nativity-of-theotokos/
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“No matter how absurd the idea of the toll-houses may seem to our ‘wise men,’ they will not escape passing through them.”
— St. Theophan the Recluse, The One-Hundred Eighteenth Psalm, Interpreted by Bishop Theophan
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The devil approaches the God-man with temptations.
Who among men is free of them?
He who goes according to the will of the evil one does not experience attacks, but is simply turned more and more toward evil. As soon as one begins to come to himself and intends to begin a new life according to God’s will, immediately the entire satanic realm enters into action: they hasten to scatter good thoughts and the intentions of the repentant one in any way they can.
If they do not manage to turn him aside, they attempt to hinder his good repentance and confession; if they do not manage to do that, they contrive to sow tares amidst the fruits of repentance and disrupt his labors of cleansing the heart.
If they do not succeed in suggesting evil they attempt to distort the truth; if they are repulsed inwardly they attack outwardly, and so on until the end of one’s life. They do not even let one die in peace; even after death they pursue the soul, until it escapes the aerial space where they hover and congregate.
You ask, “What should we do? It is hopeless and terrifying!”
For a believer there is nothing terrifying here, because near a God-fearing man demons only busy themselves, but they do not have any power over him. A sober man of prayer shoots arrows against them, and they stay far away from him, not daring to approach, and fearing the defeat which they have already experienced.
If they succeed in something, it is due to our blundering. We slacken our attention, or allow ourselves to be distracted by their phantoms, and they immediately come and disturb us more boldly.
If you do not come to your senses in time they will whirl you about; but if a soul does come to its senses they again recoil and spy from afar to see whether it is possible to approach again somehow.
So be sober, watch, and pray—and the enemies will do nothing to you.Book Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
+ St. Theophan the Recluse, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year: According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
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The Lord chose the apostles, that they should be with Him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.
Every Christian is chosen—chosen for similar deeds, namely: to be with the Lord, through unceasing remembrance of Him and awareness of His omnipresence, through the preaching and fulfillment of His commandments, and through a readiness to confess one’s faith in Him. In those circles where such a confession is made, it is a loud sermon for all to hear.
Every Christian has the power to heal infirmities—not of others, but his own, and not of the body, but of the soul—that is, sins and sinful habits—and to cast out devils, rejecting evil thoughts sown by them, and extinguishing the excitement of passions enflamed by them.
Do this and you will be an apostle, a fulfiller of what the Lord chose you for, an accomplisher of your calling as messenger. When at first you succeed in all this, then perhaps the Lord will appoint you as a special ambassador—to save others after you have saved yourself; and to help those who are tempted, after you yourself pass through all temptations, and through all experiences in good and evil.
But your job is to work upon yourself: for this you are chosen; the rest is in the hands of God. He who humbles himself shall be exalted.Book Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
+ St. Theophan the Recluse, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year: According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
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“This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” [Matthew 17:14-23]
If this kind goes out by the prayer and fasting of another person, then it is even less able to enter one who fasts and prays.
What protection!
Although there are a slew of demons and all the air is packed with them, they cannot do anything to one who is protected by prayer and fasting.
Fasting is universal temperance, prayer is universal communication with God; the former defends from the outside, whereas the latter from within directs a fiery weapon against the enemies. The demons can sense a faster and man of prayer from a distance, and they run far away from him so as avoid a painful blow.
Is it feasible to think that where there is no fasting and prayer, there already is a demon? Yes, it is.
The demons lodging in a person, do not always reveal their presence, but lurk there, stealthily teaching their host every evil and turning him away from every good thing; so this person is certain that he is doing everything on his own, but meanwhile he is only fulfilling the will of his enemy.
Just commence prayer and fasting and the enemy will immediately depart, then wait on the side for an opportunity to somehow return again. And he truly will return, as soon as prayer and fasting are abandoned.Book Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
+ St. Theophan the Recluse, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year: According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
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“My House shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
Everyone knows that a church calls for reverence, for a collecting of thoughts, for deep thinking about God, and for standing in the presence of God, but who fulfills this? People go to church with a desire to pray, to stand in it for a while with warm fervour; but then thoughts begin to wander, and bargaining begins in one’s head even louder than that which the Lord found in the Jerusalem temple.
Why is this so?
Because the way one stands in church is a reflection of one’s entire life. As people live, so do they behave in church. A church influences and somewhat supports spiritual movements; but then the usual course of one’s spiritual constitution takes over.
Therefore if you want your time in church to consist of worthily standing in the face of the Lord, prepare for this in your ordinary life; walk, as much as you can, in a prayerful frame of mind.
This labour will bring you to the point that in church also you will stand reverently all the time. This reverence will inspire you to be reverent in your ordinary life as well. Thus you will walk ever higher and higher. Say, ‘O Lord, help’ —and begin!Book Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
+ St. Theophan the Recluse, Thoughts for Each Day of the Year: According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
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Why is it, you ask, that one can pray for so many years with a prayer book, and still not have prayer in his heart? I think the reason is that people only spend a little time lifting themselves up to God when they complete their prayer rule, and in other times, they do not remember God. For example, they finish their morning prayers, and think that their relation to God is fulfilled by them; then the whole day passes in work, and such a person does not attend to God. Then in the evening, the thought returns to him that he must quickly stand at prayer and complete his evening rule. In this case, it happens that even if the Lord grants a person spiritual feelings at the time of the morning prayer, the bustle and business of the day drowns them out. As a result, it happens that one does not often feel like praying, and cannot get control of himself even to soften his heart a little bit. In such an atmosphere, prayer develops and ripens poorly. This problem (is it not ubiquitous?) needs to be corrected, that is, one must ensure that the soul does not only make petition to God when standing in prayer, but during the whole day, as much as possible, one must unceasingly ascend to Him and remain with Him.
In order to begin this task, one must first, during the course of the day, cry out to God more often, even if only with a few words, according to need and the work of the day. Beginning anything, for example, say ‘Bless, O Lord!’ When you finish something, say, ‘Glory to Thee, O Lord’, and not only with your lips, but with feeling in your heart. If passions arise, say, ‘Save me, O Lord, I am perishing.’ If the darkness of disturbing thoughts comes up, cry out: ‘Lead my soul out of prison.’ If dishonest deeds present themselves and sin leads you to them, pray, ‘Set me, O Lord, in the way’, or ‘do not give up my feet to stumbling.’ If sin takes hold of you and leads you to despair, cry out with the voice of the publican, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ Do this in every circumstance, or simply say often, ‘Lord, have mercy’, ‘Most Holy Theotokos save us”, ‘Holy Angel, my guardian, protect me’, or other such words. Say such prayers as often as possible, always making the effort for them come from your heart, as if squeezed out of it. When we do this, we will frequently ascend to God in our hearts, making frequent petitions and prayers. Such increased frequency will bring about the habit of mental conversation with God.
— St. Theophan the Recluse, On prayer, Homily 2
Delivered 22 November, 1864
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“Whoever enters on the true path of pleasing God, or who begins with the aid of grace to strive toward God on the path of Christ’s law, will inevitably be threatened by the danger of losing his way at the crossroads, of going astray and perishing, imagining himself saved. These crossroads are unavoidable because of the sinful inclinations and disorder of one’s faculties which are capable of presenting things in a false light — to deceive and destroy a man. To this is joined the flattery of Satan, who is reluctant to be separated from his victims and, when someone from his domain goes to the light of Christ, pursues him and sets every manner of net in order to catch him again — and quite often he indeed catches him.”Book St Theophan The Path to Salvation
— St. Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation
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“Whatever you are doing, with whomever you are speaking, whether you are going somewhere or sitting, let your mind be with the Lord. You will forget yourself, and stray from this path; but again turn to the Lord and rebuke yourself with sorrow. This is the discipline of spiritual attentiveness.”
— St. Theophan the Recluse
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“Love covers a multitude of sins,” (I Pet. 4:8). That is, for love towards one’s neighbor, God forgives the sins of the one who loves.”
— St. Theophan the Recluse, Letters, VI.949
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“The chief end of our life is to live in communion with God. To this end the Son of God became incarnate, in order to return us to this divine communion, which was lost by the fall into sin. Through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we enter into communion with the Father and thus attain our purpose.”
— St. Theophan the Recluse
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Since the enemy watches you constantly, waiting for an opportunity to sow evil in you, be doubly watchful over yourself, lest you fall in the nets spread for you. As soon as he shows you some fault in your neighbor, hasten to repel this thought, lest it take root in you and grow. Cast it out, so that no trace is left in you, and replace it by the thought of the good qualities you know your neighbor to possess, or of those people generally should have. If you still feel the impulse to pass judgment, add to this the truth that you are given no authority for this and that the moment you assume this authority you thereby make yourself worthy of judgment and condemnation, not before powerless men, but before God, the all-powerful Judge of all. This reversal of thoughts is the strongest means, not only for repelling accidental critical thoughts, but also for completely freeing yourself of this vice.
— From Unseen Warfare, St. Theophan the Recluse and St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
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