Synaxis of Panagia of the Unfading Rose in Piraeus

The history of the parish of Panagia of the Unfading Rose (Ρόδον Αμάραντον) in Piraeus, according to the testimonies of former residents, began around the year 1890 AD, when a fisherman pulled an old icon from the rocks of Piraeus, which depicted the Virgin Mary holding Christ, seated as a child, holding in his hand a "Rose". The event immediately became known in the region. A devout family, named Katsaros, having the desire to offer a "home" for the icon of the Virgin Mary on its own initiative, built a private chapel with the name Panagia of the Unfading Rose. Here was housed the old icon and it was venerated by the locals.

The years passed and more and more people were flowing into the area and there was a need to create a parish to accommodate the faithful. Until then, the area of ​​Piraeus was subject under the Archdiocese of Athens. The problem was resolved with the donation of the family Koutsodonti which provided the land for the foundation of the church and create a new parish. In the following years there were struggles, and there was hard work and sacrifice to authorize something from the council.

In 1973, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Piraeus celebrated the dedication of the new church and handed it over to the loyal parishioners. Shortly before the dedication, by letter of the Hierarchy of the Archdiocese of Athens, the parish was officially separated and named the Church of Panagia of the Unfading Rose.

The first church functioned normally until the year 1983 when it was decided by the Church Council to build a new, brighter and larger church from the foundation. The work to complete the church lasted two years.

In 1986, Metropolitan Kallinikos of Piraeus dedicated the new glorious Church of the Panagia of the Unfading Rose, and it celebrates every year on the Friday of the Akathist Hymn.

The first floor chapel of the church was named "Archangel Michael of Simi" and celebrates on November 9. (The name change was because the Archangel Michael of Simi is particularly honored by Symian's, many of whom live in the area of ​​Piraeus).

The old chapel of Panagia of the Unfading Rose



The new parish of Panagia of the Unfading Rose



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Synaxis of Panagia Platsanis in Oia of Santorini

The newer Church of Panagia Platsani

The Church of Panagia Platsani is dedicated to the Akathist Hymn of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Originally the Church of Panagia Platsani was built on the edge of the village inside the castle, where today all visitors of the island gather daily to enjoy the amazing sunsets of Oia. With the devastating earthquake however of 9 July 1956 the church was destroyed, and because the soil there is not stable, the church was rebuilt in the village center.

Tradition says that the icon of the Virgin found in the temple was found in the sea. A fisherman was fishing at the time and saw in the middle of the sea something like a light from a vigil lamp. Going near he saw the icon of the Virgin Mary, but as he approached it would distance itself. Then he called the priests and the villagers who, with prayers and supplications, with incense and candles, went to the shore and with great devotion brought the icon to the church. The next day when he went to light the candles, the priest did not find the newly-revealed icon. After several hours of searching he found the icon on the walls of the castle from where he moved it back to the church. But again the next day the inhabitants found the icon in the same spot of the castle. They brought the icon back to church, yet the same thing happened again and again, so often that the residents decided to all contribute to build the church in the same place where the Virgin Mary had chosen. Here she could watch the sea from where she came and bless the sailboats that embarked on long journey's. The name "Platsani" comes from the words "plats, plats" which in Greek is equivalent to "splash, splash", which was the sound the icon made in the water of the beach upon its discovery.

All the sacred vessels in the church are pious tributes of residents of Oia, mostly sailors, in order to protect them in their travels. Most of them come from Orthodox Russians, who would bring to Russia the famous wine of Santorini. The temple is carved. The inscription has the year 1820 as its founding, but it is likely this is the chronology of the gold-plating, because the construction of the church is placed by experts long before. The painting of the church was done in three different stages.

The older church of Panagia Platsani



Panagia Platsani sunset



Panagia Platsani Oia Santorini by tournewsgr

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Synaxis of Panagia Akathis in Schinousa

Schinousa is part of the Small Eastern Cyclades, and is south of Naxos and north east of Irakleia. The island is hilly and has a population of 206 people. The residents of the island are mostly farmers and are divided between three main villages, Panagia or Chora, Mesaria and the harbour village of Mersini or Mersinia.

In Chora is the Church of the Panagia Akathis that received its rare name because it has a rare icon of the Virgin Mary with Christ standing in front of her. He is thus "akathist" or "standing".

The icon came to the island of Schinousa from the island of Santorini in a miraculous way. A poor woman from Santorini would hear at times from a specific point of her house knocks on the wall. She could not explain it but did not give much care about it either.

One night she had a dream. A woman appeared and told her that she was the Panagia Akathi and celebrates on the day of the Akathist Hymn (16 days before Easter). She told her to dig where she would hear the knocking in her house. The woman dug and found a hollow area within which was the icon with an oil lamp and a jug of oil.

At that time Santorini was a very poor island and its inhabitants were in hard times. Hearing about the icon the villagers went to venerate the icon and left gifts for the woman. One would leave a little oil and others some money. In this way the woman who found the icon was able to live a little better.

At one point the thought came to the woman to bring the icon to the surrounding islands, and when the people venerated the icon they would leave money on the table. So she went on the tour and came to Schinousa, and because there they received her well and became occupied with some work - the island was fertile and there was work for all - she decided to settle.

The icon had always been in the woman's home and somehow she took advantage of it. In a visit there, Metropolitan Gabriel of Thera did not like this taking advantage of the icon. So he took the necessary action required and the icon was transferred to the parish of the island that was dedicated to the Presentation of the Theotokos.

Today the church celebrates its feast on Friday of the Akathist Hymn and it is a great feast. Large feasts are also held on March 25th and August 15th.

Manlati’s Cave

There is a cave called “Maniati’s Cave” in Schinousa. According to an old legend it has taken its name after a pirate from Mani in Southern Greece, who arrived at the island and broke into the Panagia Akathi Church. While he was stealing the money of the church he turned his eyes towards the icon of Virgin Mary and he felt that she was watching him. He was so irritated that he pulled the trigger and shot the icon. Coming out of the church with the stolen money and he slipped down the hill next to the cave and died. He was collected and burnt and since then the rocks of the cave became black and they are black ever since.

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Synaxis of Panagia Theoskepasti in Andros

White and majestic is the Church of Panagia Theoskepasti* as it stands near the picturesque port of Andros. It's feast day is celebrated two weeks before Pascha on the day of the Akathist Hymn.

According to tradition, on a stormy night, the icon came from the sea towards the beach with a strange light coming from it. People on the island followed the light that led them to a small cave. Surprised, in the cave, on seaweed, they saw the icon of the Virgin Mary. They venerated it and brought it to the Chapel of St. Athanasios. The next day however the icon returned to the cave! Thus, the islanders decided to build a temple over the cave. Work on building the temple was rapid and the church was almost ready in no time. But the roof was missing because there was no wood. The Panagia helped in that.

There was a boat loaded with wood openly in danger in the sea off the island of Andros. The Captain along with the sailors prayed to the Panagia to save them from imminent danger. Enlightened, the skipper threw the timber into the sea, and so the ship was saved. The timber slowly came to shore near the cave, shipped to the builders in order to cover the church. Because the wood was unexpected and even on time, it was seen as being providential, thus the Church of the Panagia was named "Theoskepasti". It belongs to the Metropolis of Syros.

*“Theoskepasti” from the Greek words “Theos” and “skepazo” which mean “God” and “to veil” respectively. So, the name is "Veiled by God".

Official Site of Panagia Theoskepasti

The feast day of Panagia Theoskepasti in 2009


Pascha 2010 at Panagia Theoskepasti

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Holy Apostles Herodion, Agabus, Asyncritus, Rufus, Phlegon and Hermes of the 70

Sts. Herodion, Agabus, Asyncritus, Rufus, Phlegon and Hermes of the 70 Apostles (Feast Day - April 8)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

They were all numbered among the Seventy Apostles. All were mentioned by the Apostle Paul in his epistles.

Herodian was a kinsman of Paul. "Greet," writes St. Paul to the Romans, "my relative Herodian" (Romans 16:11). As the Bishop of Neo-Parthia, Herodian suffered much at the hands of the Jews. They beat him over the head with rods, they struck him on the mouth with stones and stabbed him with knives. After they left him for dead, St. Herodian arose and continued to serve the apostles. He assisted the Apostle Peter in Rome and was beheaded along with many other Christians the same day that St. Peter was crucified.

St. Agabus possessed a prophetic spirit. Two of his prophecies are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. First, he prophesied a great famine throughout the world which came true during the reign of Caesar Claudius: "And one of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine all over the world and it happened under Claudius" (Acts of the Apostles 11:28). Second, when he met with the Apostle Paul in Caesarea, who was enroute to Jerusalem, Agabus took Paul's belt and bound his own hands and feet saying: "Thus says the Holy Spirit: This is the way the Jews will bind the owner of this belt in Jerusalem, and they will hand him over to the Gentiles" (Acts of the Apostles 21:11).

St. Rufus was a Bishop of Thebes in Greece. St. Paul also mentions him. "Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord" (Romans 16:13).

St. Asyncritus was Bishop of Hyrcania in Asia and is mentioned along with the others in Romans 16:14.

St. Phlegon is also mentioned in the same epistle. "Greet ASYNCRITUS, PHLEGON, HERMES, PATROBAS and HERMAS and the brothers who are with them" (Romans 16:14). He was a bishop in the Thracian city of Marathon.

St. Hermas, mentioned with the others, was a bishop in Dalmatia.

All of them, like bees for Christ, spread the honey of the Gospel into the various regions, suffering much for the love of Christ. All were translated into the eternal kingdom of Christ the beloved.

HYMN OF PRAISE: THE HOLY APOSTLES

Holy apostles, chosen ones of God,

You ran the race and reached the goal.

The vanity of the world, they despised; to God, they reached out,

The worldly they sacrificed, the eternal, they acquired.

Their love for Christ, stronger than all other powers,

To them, it shone through the darkness of paganism.

The race is over, the battle obtained,

The army of heroes brought to Christ.

In Christ there are many victorious wreaths,

Even if you want, you could be wedded.

Apostles holy, pray to God,

That He deprive us not of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Apolytkion in the First Tone

Let us praise in hymns the six–fold choir of Apostles: Herodion and Agabus,  Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon and holy Hermes. They ever entreat the Trinity for our souls!

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone

With the light of the Holy Spirit, you illumine the way of the faithful like stars, O Holy Apostles. As you gaze on God the Word you repel the darkness of error.

Kontakion in the Second Tone

You became the disciples of Christ and all-holy Apostles, O glorious Herodion, Agabus and Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon and Hermes. Ever entreat the Lord to grant forgiveness of transgressions to us who sing your praises.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone
Holy Apostles entreat the merciful God to grant our souls forgiveness of transgressions.

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To Forgive Is More Admirable Than To Fast

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

There is heroism above heroism and asceticism above asceticism. St. Epiphanius of Cyprus invited Hilarion the Great to dinner and in order to show the greatest hospitality to his distinguished guest, placed fried chicken on the table and offered it to him. Hilarion said to him: "Forgive me, but ever since I was tonsured a monk, I have eaten nothing butchered." To that Epiphanius replied: "And I, ever since I was tonsured a monk, have never lay down in bed until I first forgave my enemy." Amazed, Hilarion said: "Your virtue is greater than mine, O holy master!" This is a great lesson for all of us. Fasting is an admirable thing but it is more admirable to forgive insults. Through fasting, man is preparing for charity but, by forgiving insults, man shows charity. Fasting precedes forgiveness but fasting alone, does not save without forgiveness.

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Synaxarion For Thursday of the Great Canon

By Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos

THURSDAY of the GREAT CANON

On the same day, the Thursday of the Fifth Week of the Fast, according to ancient Tradition, we chant the service of the Great and compunctious Canon.

Verses

Grant ways of compunction, O Jesus,

To those who chant unto Thee the Great Canon.

Synaxarion

This Canon, which is truly the greatest of all Canons, was most excellently and skillfully composed by our Father among the Saints, Andrew, Archbishop of Crete, who is also called the Jerusalemite, and who hailed from Damascus. In the fourteenth year of his life, having been entrusted to a grammar school and having acquired a general education, he went to Jerusalem, where he entered the monastic life. Living a holy and God-loving life, in silence and tranquillity, he bequeathed a whole range of soul-profiting writings to the Church of God, including orations and canons, showing particular adroitness in producing Festal Canons. Along with many others, he composed the present Great Canon, which is replete with boundless compunction. For, bringing together the entire history of the Old and New Testaments, he created this poem, starting from Adam and going all the way up to the Ascension of Christ and the preaching of the Apostles. Through it, he exhorts every soul to emulate and imitate, as far it is able, all of the good deeds in the stories and to avoid all of the evil doings, and always to have recourse to God through repentance, tears, and confession, and whatever else is well-pleasing to Him. This Canon has such breadth and harmony that it is capable of softening the hardest soul and arousing to good deeds, as long as it is chanted with a contrite heart and with the attention that it deserves. He produced it after Saint Sophronios, the great Patriarch of Jerusalem, had written the life of Saint Mary of Egypt; for this life presents us with boundless compunction and affords great consolation to those who have fallen and those who sin, provided only they desire to desist from evildoing.

These works were appointed to be chanted and read on the present day for the following reason: since the Great Fast is drawing to a close, in order that people should not become lazy and negligent in spiritual struggles, completely refraining from chastity in all matters, the great Andrew, like a trainer, relating the virtues of great men and, conversely, the degeneracy of the wicked, through the stories that appear in the Great Canon, makes us labor more valiantly, one might say, and reach forth courageously to those things which lie before. The Divine Sophronios, through his marvellous account, in turn makes us chaste and arouses us Godwards, urging us not to become downcast or fall into despair, if we have succumbed to certain sins. For the narrative concerning Saint Mary of Egypt shows the extent of God’s loving-kindness and compassion for those who choose wholeheartedly to turn away from their former sins. Saint Andrew’s Canon is called “Great,” one might perhaps say, on account of its many sublime ideas and themes; for its composer, who compiled them superbly, was endowed with poetic genius. It is also called “Great,” because, while the other Canons contain around thirty Troparia and a few additional ones, this one amounts to two hundred and fifty, each of them dripping with ineffable delight. Appropriately and fittingly, therefore, was this Great Canon, which has the power to incite great compunction, appointed to be read in the Great Fast. The same Father Andrew was the first to convey this excellent and greatest of Canons, together with the life of Saint Mary, to Constantinople, when he was sent by Patriarch Theodore of Jerusalem to assist the Sixth OEcumenical Synod; for at that time, while still a monk, he contended valiantly against the Monothelites and was numbered among the clergy of the Church of Constantinople; he then became a Deacon and head of an orphanage in this city, and, shortly thereafter, Archbishop of Crete. Later on, having set out for his diocese and reached the city of Hierissos, on Mitylene, he departed to the Lord.

By the intercessions of Saint Andrew, O God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

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Thursday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent

By Fr. Sergei V. Bulgakov

At Matins on this day the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is read in its entirety once a year, which was read in four parts on the first four days of the first week, and the Life of St. Mary of Egypt is read after the Sessional Hymn (Kathisma). According to this feature of the Thursday Matins it is called either the St. Andrew of Crete or the St. Mary of Egypt Thursday.

In the Canon are collected and stated, all the exhortations to fasting and repentance, and the Holy Church repeats it now in its fullness to inspire us new strength for the successful end to Lent. "Since", it is said in the Synaxarion, "the Holy Forty Day Lent is drawing near the end so that men should not become lazy, or more carelessly disposed to the spiritual efforts, or give up their abstinence altogether," that this Great Canon is offered. It is "so long, and so well-composed, as to be sufficient to soften even the hardest soul, and to rouse it to resumption of the good, if only it is sung with a contrite heart and proper attention". And the Church Typikon (Ustav) orders the Great Canon to be read and chanted slowly and "with a contrite heart and voice, making three prostrations at each Troparion".

For the same purpose of abstinence and strength, and attention to repentance is the reading of the Life of the Venerable Mary of Egypt. According to an explanation of the same Synaxarion, the Life of the Venerable Mary also "manifests infinite compunction and gives much encouragement to the fallen and sinners", representing itself to us as a paradigm of true repentance, and an example of the unutterable mercy of God. It serves as the continuation of the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete and a transition to the order of the following Sunday. Reading the Canon of St. Andrew and Mary of Egypt on the Thursday of the Fifth Week was established from the time of the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

Kontakion in Plagal of the Second Tone

My soul, my soul, arise. Why are you sleeping? The end is approaching, and you will be confounded. Awake, therefore, that you may be spared by Christ God, Who is everywhere present and fills all things.

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The Arrival of St. Savvas To Kalymnos Prophesied

At the Monastery of All Saints lived a very holy man, Fr Hierotheos Kourounis. He lived a very ascetic life for many years. This holy man placed the first seed of piety and prepared the way for St Savvas.

This blessed man had the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and, because of his pure and virtuous life; he received the Gift of Foreseeing. Before his falling asleep, he encouraged the nuns saying:

“Do not be disturbed and sad, for another one will come, who will be greator than I”!

St Hierotheos, then, left his eyes to wonder towards the Aegean Sea, towards the island of Cos, as like he was expecting someone to arrive.

The blessed Abbess Thekla, saw a dream in which St Ierotheos took St Savvas, guided him to the upper parts of the Monastery and said to him:

“Build here. You hear, Geronda, here you will build”.

At this point I would like to state, that St Hierotheos, in the conscience of the people of Kalymnos is considered to be a “holy man”. His relics are preserved and issue divine fragrance. They are kept in the small Chaple of St Savvas. Yet, he is not recognized officially by the Orthodox Church as a Saint. The local ecclesiastic authorites, the Holy Metropolis of Leros, Kalymnos and Astypalaia, should examine this issue. Nevertheless, it is indisputable fact that, according to eyewitnesses, during St Hierotheos’s exhumation, his relics and the entire surrounding area were overwhelmed with divine fragrance.

Truthfully, St Savvas (+ 1948) arrived at the island of Kalymnos and headed for the Holy Monastery of All Saints. Thus, Kalymnos added to its list of pious and virtuous priests the ascetic personality of St Savvas.

But, from the first day he was troubled. As an ascetic, he desired quietness. The noise of the many people who were visiting the Monastery would disturb him and would distrack his attention from prayer. He decided to visit other places on the island. He visited the Holy Monastery of St Katherine and the Church of St Nicholas at Chali; but, in the end he could not find the place which his heart desired for quietness. This, unfortunate event, would encourage him to decide to leave Kalymnos. But, after fifteen days he returned to fulfill the words of Abbess Thekla:

“It is the will of God to live and die there."

From the book Saint Savvas of Kalymnos by Metropolitan Panteleimon Lampadarios of Antinoes, which can be read here.

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The Virtuous Life Begins With Patience

"You will gain possession of your souls through your patient endurance" (Luke 21:19).

St. Gregory of Sinai writes:

- In whatever work we engage patience gives birth to courage,

- Courage to commitment,

- Commitment to perseverance,

- Perseverance to an increase in the work done.

- Such additional labour quells the body's dissolute impulses and checks the desire for sensual indulgence.

- Thus checked, desire gives rise to spiritual longing,

- Longing to love,

- Love to aspiration,

- Aspiration to ardour,

- Ardour to self-galvanizing,

- Self-galvanizing to assiduousness,

- Assiduousness to prayer,

- Prayer to stillness.

- Stillness gives birth to contemplation,

- Contemplation to spiritual knowledge,

- Knowledge to the apprehension of the mysteries.

- The consummation of the mysteries is theology,

- The fruit of theology is perfect love,

- Of love humility,

- Of humility dispassion,

- Of dispassion foresight, prophecy and foreknowledge.

- No one possesses the virtues perfectly in this life, nor does he cut off evil all at once. On the contrary, by small increases of virtue evil gradually ceases to exist.

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Nazareth Celebrates Annunciation

April 7, 2011

Interfax

The Annunciation was celebrated in Archangel Gabriel’s Church, which is the only Orthodox church in the Israeli city of Nazareth. Arabian scouts participated in the divine service celebrated in four languages and in the procession with cross.

The Interfax-Religion correspondent reported that celebrations culminated in a bright and unusual procession with cross along the neighboring streets. About 200 scouts headed the procession and played Scottish bagpipes. Clergymen with Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem followed them.

From 1917 to 1948 Palestine was the Great Britain’s mandate and it influenced not only its architecture. For instance, the British introduced the scout movement here.

It is also notable that scouts played Soviet tunes among others, for instance, a famous Red Army song Polushko-Pole. The local guide explained to Interfax that “it is a result of Communist influence actively promoted in the 1950-s among the local Arab population.”

Before the procession with cross, Patriarch Theophilos celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church. The service was celebrated in four languages: Russian, Arabic, Greek, and Romanian and was attended by several thousands of believers including local residents and pilgrims from Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Serbia, Romania and other countries. The delegation of St. Andrew Foundation made a significant part of them.

The main shrine of church is its spring. According to local tradition, it was here that the Archangel Gabriel came to the Holy Virgin and announced the Nativity of the Savior.

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The History of the Hymn "O Virgin Pure" By St. Nektarios

One of the great and most beloved hymns of the Orthodox Church was written in the late 19th century by St. Nektarios of Aegina; it is called "Αγνή Παρθένε" ("O Virgin Pure"). In feeble human language St. Nektarios attempted to express the glory, beauty, power and love of the Panagia, our true heavenly Mother through whom salvation was brought to the world.

This compunctionate, beautiful and magnificent hymn was written by holy hands when, according to tradition, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to St. Nektarios in a vision. He was told to write a hymn which angelic choirs could sing, so he wrote in his Theotokarion (Book of Hymns to the Mother of God) the following hymn:

Αγνή Παρθένε Δέσποινα

Aχραντε Θεοτόκε

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Παρθένε Μήτηρ Ανασσα

Πανένδροσε τε πόκε

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Υψηλοτέρα ουρανών

ακτίνων λαμπροτέρα

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Χαρά Παρθενικών Χορών

αγγέλων υπερτέρα

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Εκλαμπροτέρα ουρανών

φωτός καθαρωτέρα

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

των ουρανίων στρατιών πασών αγιωτέρα

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Μαρία Αειπάρθενε

Κόσμου παντός Κυρία

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

'χραντε Νύμφη πάναγνε

Δέσποινα Παναγία

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Μαρία Νύμφη Ανασσα

χαράς ημών αιτία

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Κορή σεμνή Βασίλισσα

Μήτηρ υπεραγία

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Τιμιώτερα Χερουβείμ

υπερενδοξοτέρα.

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

των ασωμάτων Σεραφείμ

των θρόνων υπερτέρα

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Χαίρε το άσμα Χερουβείμ

χαίρε ύμνος Αγγέλων

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Χαίρε ωδή των Σεραφείμ

χαρά των Αρχαγγέλων

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Χαίρε ειρήνη και χαρά

λιμήν της σωτηρίας

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Παστάς του Λόγου ιερά

άνθος της αφθασίας

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Χαίρε Παράδεισε τρυφής

ζωής τε αιωνίας

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Χαίρε το ξύλον της ζωής

Πηγή αθανασίας

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Σε ικετεύω Δέσποινα

Σε ωυν επικαλούμαι

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Σε δυσωπώ,Παντάνασσα

Σην χάριν εξαιτούμε

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Κορή σεμνή και άσπιλε

Δεσποίνα Παναγία

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Θερμώς επικαλούμε Σε

Ναέ ηγιασμένε

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Αντιλαβού μου, ρύσαι με

από τού πολεμίου

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

Και κλήρονομον δείξον με

ζωής της αιωνίου

Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε

O Virgin pure, immaculate/ O Lady Theotokos

O Virgin Mother, Queen of all/ and fleece which is all dewy

More radiant than the rays of sun/ and higher than the heavens

Delight of virgin choruses/ superior to Angels.

Much brighter than the firmament/ and purer than the sun's light

More holy than the multitude/ of all the heav'nly armies.

Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded!

O Ever Virgin Mary/ of all the world, the Lady

O bride all pure, immaculate/ O Lady Panagia

O Mary bride and Queen of all/ our cause of jubilation

Majestic maiden, Queen of all/ O our most holy Mother

More hon'rable than Cherubim/ beyond compare more glorious

than immaterial Seraphim/ and greater than angelic thrones.

Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded!

Rejoice, O song of Cherubim/ Rejoice, O hymn of angels

Rejoice, O ode of Seraphim/ the joy of the archangels

Rejoice, O peace and happiness/ the harbor of salvation

O sacred chamber of the Word/ flow'r of incorruption

Rejoice, delightful paradise/ of blessed life eternal

Rejoice, O wood and tree of life/ the fount of immortality.

Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded!

I supplicate you, Lady/ now do I call upon you

And I beseech you, Queen of all/ I beg of you your favor

Majestic maiden, spotless one/ O Lady Panagia

I call upon you fervently/ O sacred, hallowed temple

Assist me and deliver me/ protect me from the enemy

And make me an inheritor/ of blessed life eternal.

Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded!

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Papa Aaron the Long-Bearded

This photograph was taken in 1910 of the Russian Hieromonk Aaron from the Holy Skete of Saint Andrew on Mount Athos.

Source: From the book Πρόσωπα και Δρώμενα στον Άθωνα.

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A Personal Experience of the Miracle In Kalymnos

My Personal Experience of the Miracle

By Fr. Panteleimon in Kalymnos

A little while ago I returned from the Holy Trinity Church in Kalymnos where the sign of Christ's appearance is still in the icon of the Panagia in the temple.

I submit my personal experience:

First I want to clarify that I am not a faithless person, but skeptical, and my first worry was not to expose the Church, especially in the days we live in, where all the challengers for good or evil purposes feel strongly compelled to challenge something even before they see it. They are almost in a hurry to hide the obvious or weaken the events to throw dirt at the Church. Also I know the difference between true faith and pure religious delirium, and as a pastor I must stress this often for the good of faith.

Second: In my first contact with the icon up close I saw a brightness, and only on the left shoulder of the Panagia, which was indistinct. I moved a distance to the candle stand and from this angle I SAW CAPTURED ON THE SAME SPOT THE FORM OF CHRIST OF THE NAZARENE TYPE crystal clear as if it were contoured and painted in brown ink. CRYSTAL CLEAR!

Third: The little icon of the Panagia in the temple located directly below the big icon of the miraculous Panagia EXUDED AN ODOR OF MYRRH. This little icon is oil-based and not done with a perfume or cologne. I sensed the same smell in the shrine of the relics of Saint Savva which was walled in and sealed with cement in a marble "box"-reliquary in the Temple of Saint Anne in Kalymnos. It gave off an odor even though it was sealed with insulating materials. For me it is clearly the same source of origin.

Fourth: I was shown a picture of the Miraculous Icon from the day before, and the image of Christ was moved to the right shoulder of the Panagia - IT IS AN IMAGE OF CHRIST OF THE APOKATHILOSIS* TYPE AS IF THE THEOTOKOS IS EMBRACING HIM. This demonstrates the true experience of many that the imprinted image "changes points" on the icon and how this consistently rules out any exploitation or prior painted picture below the layer of the original image. Here is the picture and I apologize to the source because in my excitement and shock, I forgot who the source was. I will say that it is something distributed and not hidden nor exclusive.

Fifth: As I have written, for me the miracle is related to the Christian life. It is not something that struck me as something extraordinary, because for God everything is possible. My humble opinion is that it is for those caught up in the material cares of life who pass by daily miracles, so God sends us something extraordinary that is sure to shake us. I say this ... I do not know. Also, I would urge those shaken to feel spiritual joy and security because the living God is among us showing His presence and calling us to Him. From our part is encouraged humble repentance and conversion that our joy be filled. Let us pray it is not a precursor sign of evil and suffering due to our sins, to speak anthropomorphically of God, but a sign of hope and support only. The Lord knows.

Sixth: I submit the above simply, telegraphically and bluntly, because I do not intend to simply excite the religious sentiment or deceive anyone, but only to provide A LIVE EVENT OF AN EXPERIENCE TESTIFIED BY THOUSANDS OF INTELLIGENT, CREDIBLE AND ESPECIALLY YOUNG PEOPLE, mainly without prejudice. It is something which is happening, living and factual. It is not necessary to panic, but to be sober and return to Church life. We confess together with John the Evangelist THAT WHICH WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD AND HANDLED WITH OUR HANDS. MAY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST BE BLESSED. Nothing more or less.

I will keep you updated ...

Before Your most pure image we bow down, O Good One, entreating You to forgive our sins, Christ our God. For You willingly ascended the Cross in the flesh to deliver from the enemy those whom You had made. For this we thank You and cry to You, O Savior: By coming to save the world, You have fulfilled all things with joy.

Read also: The Face of Christ Appears In A Church In Kalymnos

*The icon of Christ being taken down from the Cross, which can be seen below:

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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The Impasse

By Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)

Abbot of the Monastery of St. Silouan the Athonite -- Douma

Man’s avarice has corrupted the balance of the earth, the sea, and the air to a significant degree. Now the spirit of avarice remains, even if it is like a sleeping beast in the souls of many, and the earth and the heavens are seemingly reacting almost spontaneously. What next?

Man’s egoism and self-love preceded his love of money. Love of money gradually progressed into a system of consumption, and the system of consumption made man a prisoner of the logic of profit. The logic of profit transformed the earth’s resources into financial calculations and financial calculations loosened the reins of the passions of soul and body. The passions of soul and body became an uncontrollable harlot and in the absence of internal restraints within people’s souls, the ladder of values and traditional moral restraints collapsed and value and morals came to be centered on purported individual freedom and man’s worship of himself. Then individual freedom and self-worship caused people’s aspirations to become greater than his environment’s capacity to pump vital capital into them and so heaven and earth could no longer match people’s wild cravings. Their storehouses started to be depleted and their balance was thrown off. The environment became ill on account of the illness of man’s heart and the unleashing of his passions beyond any limit.

And now what remains? Souls have become addicted to consumption. Man has become an instrument of consumption! Today man’s worldly identity is in what he consumes! Wills have become feeble and souls have become weak! Man has tasted this number of varieties of selfish freedom and self-worship. He no longer desires or is capable of repentance – that is, of a change of mentality and behavior. For him repentance is identical to death. For this reason he starts to live off of his fantasies, his dreams, his self-esteem, his accomplishments, and his cravings until death. He sees that he is approaching an unstable precipice and he is unable to stop before it, and he doesn’t care! He has become addicted to himself and death has become less painful than resisting his addiction. In letting loose his passions, his will to live starts to die. Death becomes life for him, and he has no other life!

I know a friend who became addicted to drink and his liver was afflicted. His wife kneeled in front of him, weeping, “Stop for my sake and for the sake of your children! You will die.” The doctors said, “Do you not care?!” “Let me die,” he said, “I don’t want to live anymore. Life for me is drinking.” And he died! Addiction to passions is a spider’s web. One is cut off from love. Love becomes for him a consumer good that abets and deepens his addiction. His loved ones die in his eyes unless he humbles himself, gets sober, weeps, and repents. At that point he escapes, naturally not by his own power, but by the power of the Most High! However, the danger is that caught up in his addiction and the weakness of his soul, he will give himself over to despair. Sin always whispers to him, within his being, that he has no salvation in his God! If the Lord God desires salvation for him, then there would be nothing that helps him that he would not fear, like Peter who cries out as he is sinking, “Lord save me!” (Matthew 14:30). The Lord gives himself freely to the one who asks, not to the one who does not ask!

If mankind does not repent with the repentance of Nineveh, they are succeptible to disasters that they caused and wars that they brought upon themselves. Can they continue in their transgression to the point of complete delusion and despair, or will they repent? We do not know how the great days of tribulation will be. One who has drank deeply of the pleasure of the passions generally mocks a chaste life enjoying ordered passions. His conscious is inversed. For him, life becomes death and death life!

This is what sin does to man! The danger of sin to one who persists in it over and over is to provoke in his soul despair over life. For him life without sin becomes death, flavorless.

This persistence in self-worship changed heaven and earth, God and His servants, into consumer goods that man annihilates in satisfying his vanity and fulfilling his desires. The final thing that man consumes is himself and his desire, as though he longs for nothingness! You are of dust, O man, and to dust you return. Sin is a movement toward nothingness within existence. Thus through his persistence in sin from nothingness in existence, man is transported to black existential emptiness. This is the second death that the Book of Revelation speaks about. This is hell. Hell is not created by God. It is man’s creation. The end result of human choices is not a divine punishment!

The earth is limited, but sin does not stop at any limit. There must come a time when it cracks, today or tomorrow!

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth passed away; and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1)!

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Athonite Counsels On Faith

Τhe righteous martyr Iakovos, who had done his ascetic labours in Docheiariou and the Iviron skete, was blessed with the charism of prophecy and other divine gifts. He preached repentance and the Gospel to the enslaved Chris­tians during the Turkish occupation. He started in Thessaloniki and reached Nafpaktos. After he was cap­tured he appeared before King Salim where he confessed Christ as the true God. There he was condemned and hanged with his two students, Deacon Iakovos and Monk Dionysios.

***

A rambunctious young man told an elderly monk, "I don't believe there is a God!"

"Come near me," the monk said. "Don't you know that the hymn you hear being sung this moment is speaking about God? Don't you see my little kitten's fur, how it is? Not even Queen Frederika owned a coat like this."

The young man was moved by the elder's words. The hardness of his unbelief vanished.

***

The great neptic and reclusive hesychast Callinikos of Katounakia, at the time of his repose, after having spent a lifetime in ascetic labours and sweat, said: "I thank you God, for even if I have done nothing else in my life, I am dying as an Orthodox."

***

An ascetic said this:

"Many university students come and visit this place. At one time ten of them came asking me to work a miracle. They were very persistent. I was thinking how I could put some sense into these young people's heads. So I told them,

'Fine, stand in line so that I can cut your heads off. Then I will work the miracle: I will put them back on you again. But keep a distance between you, because there is a danger of mixing your heads and bodies up. Are you ready? Are you anxious to see the wonder?'

They reacted immediately. 'No, no! Don't use us, Father' they all said at once."

***

On the subject of radioactive materials an elderly monk said,

"Now we also know about radioactivity. What can I say? If the poison were contained only in one thing, we could say don't touch it. Now it is everywhere. There is nothing we can do about it. We on the Holy Mountain first bless everything with the sign of the cross and then we eat it. What can we be afraid of? Is there not somewhere that Christ says that the faithful even if they eat something deadly will not be harmed? Do not worry. People have lost the meaning of life in this world. They ought to find it. Unbelief is harmful. That is where all the trouble starts."

***

An elder said: "Many saints would have liked to be living and struggling in our times."

From An Athonite Gerontikon.

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Some Thoughts On Heaven and the Real Hell

Barnabas Powell

March 19, 2011

The Pueblo Chieftain

Have you ever wondered how a loving and merciful God could sentence any of his children to an eternity in hell?

If you've never asked the question, chances are you've heard another do so. Revisionists identify it as a fundamental inconsistency in traditional Christian doctrine.

Yet the scenario itself is far from traditional, since it presupposes the vengeful, honor-bound deity who only emerged in the medieval, feudal West.

Theologians (like Anselm of Canterbury) began proclaiming a God who was bound by necessity to demand satisfaction for the affront to his honor given by Adam's disobedience.

He began by killing Adam and his descendants, but this was insufficient to satisfy him since man was his creature anyway. Only the death of an equal could restore his honor.

So he sent his son into the world in order to kill him, thereby restoring his honor and assuaging his anger toward man.

On Judgment Day, we'll stand before this deity. Our deeds will be weighed in the balance. If the bad outnumber the good, he'll let the demons haul us into their dungeon, where they'll eat our livers across eternity.

There's one problem with this gruesome image, however. It makes the demons God's co-workers in dispensing justice. It rewards their evil, giving them their jollies at our expense.

Yet Scripture says they and their master will also come under judgment. They'll be defendants, not courtroom staff.

Whatever happened to the God who desires not the death of a sinner, but that he turn from his way and live, that he be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth — the God who sent his son into the world not to kill him for honor's sake, but to let him die so that death's dominion could be destroyed?

The medieval, feudal lord described above inspires as much love as the IRS. He's fair, but unmoved to pity. Is it any wonder some choose to hate him?

How can divine mercy and judgment be reconciled? Theories abound: Everyone goes to heaven. Hell is mere separation from God. Sinners are annihilated rather than punished. Fascinating, but unorthodox.

Eastern Christianity never dogmatized any one description of judgment. Unlike the scholastic West, it allowed for mystery. Of the abounding images, one preserves both God's love and righteousness.

Several church fathers foretell a judgment consisting of God's love itself, flowing from his throne like a river of fire. For those who've learned to receive and give love, God's river of love will be heavenly bliss that irrigates paradise and gives warmth and light. For those who cannot or will not love, that love will be an unquenchable, consuming fire.

Gold is purified in this flame, but wax melts before it. In either case, God loves just the same.

This heaven and hell aren't separate places, for the rich man in torment beheld Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. Rather, they're within us even now.

Nor is hell simply for those twisted monsters we read about in the news. Many who appear righteous will find themselves burned by love, such as the prodigal son's older brother, who so resented his father's generosity and his brother's return that he refused to go in to their feast. Bitterness drove him to exile.

God longs to embrace us. Those who love will feel the warmth of that embrace, while those without love will be burned by it. When someone we despise shows us kindness, our hearts burn with our own hypocrisy.

Such a judgment warns that we'd better learn to love. Love, rather than any mere claim to faith, will be our only defense.

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Chernobyl Savior Icon Transferred To Japan

April 5, 2011

Interfax

The Donetsk department of Soyuz Chernobyl of Ukraine transferred to Japan the icon of the Chernobyl Savior.

The ceremony was held in a national opera and ballet theatre. The department head Evgeny Struzhko handed over the holy image to the director of the ballet school Terada Ballet Art School Michiko Terada, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reported on its website.

When the Chernobyl power station broke down, Terada came to Ukraine with the ballet show not fearing the consequences of the tragedy.

"Today we would like to be with the suffering Japanese people who are living through the tragedy - it is very close to us. So we want to transfer the shrine to an Orthodox Japanese church," Struzhko said.

Christ, the Mother of God, Archangel Michael and liquidators of the Chernobyl catastrophe are depicted on the icon.

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How True Is Published Research?

An interesting article in PLoS Medicine:

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

By John P. A. Ioannidis

ABSTRACT:

There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false. The probability that a research claim is true may depend on study power and bias, the number of other studies on the same question, and, importantly, the ratio of true to no relationships among the relationships probed in each scientific field. In this framework, a research finding is less likely to be true when the studies conducted in a field are smaller; when effect sizes are smaller; when there is a greater number and lesser preselection of tested relationships; where there is greater flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, and analytical modes; when there is greater financial and other interest and prejudice; and when more teams are involved in a scientific field in chase of statistical significance. Simulations show that for most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias. In this essay, I discuss the implications of these problems for the conduct and interpretation of research.

Read the article here.

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The Worthless Gifts of the Deceived

Elder Paisios the Athonite (+ 1994) was asked:

Geronda, why is it that people often resort to deceivers to solve their problems?

Because the devil has worthless gifts to offer and people can acquire them cheaply. What is asked of them doesn't carry a cost, and they can remain comfortable in their passions. Instead of repenting for the sins they commit as human beings, and instead of going to a Spiritual Father to confess, they find some deceived individuals - that is, the devil himself - and ask him to solve their problems. But when they suffer even more, they can't understand that the devil has control over them.

Geronda, how do people come to believe the deceived?

People are confused. So many people claim to be leading the people on the right path, while in fact they are carrying a big bag on their shoulders with the devil hidden inside! But the benevolent God does not allow him to be entirely hidden. Once in a while the devil sticks out a horn or his tail, the people see it and shout in fear, "What is this? A horn? A tail?" But the deceivers answer, "No, of course not! What are you saying? It's an aubergine!" And they say such things to fool the people and to present diabolical things as good and beneficial.

Geronda, how can a person be protected from such deceivers?

This can be done by remaining within the fold of our Church. Of course, if someone should out of ignorance follow some deceiver, God will not abandon him. God will help him recognize his mistake and return to the truth.

From Spiritual Counsels (vol. III): Spiritual Struggle, pp. 250-251.

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The Neptic Spirituality of General Yannis Makriyannis

General Yannis Makriyannis (1797–1864) was a Greek merchant, military officer, politician and author, best known today for his Memoirs. Starting from humble origins, he joined the Greek struggle for independence, achieving the rank of general and leading his men to notable victories. Following Greek independence, he had a tumultuous public career, playing a prominent part in the granting of the first Constitution of the Kingdom of Greece and later being sentenced to death and pardoned.

By Christos Yannaras

General Makiyannis's reputation now overshadows that of his contemporaries. Well known as a War of Independence fighter, he had shown legendary courage against Ibrahim in the Peloponnese and Kutahi on the Athenian Acropolis. He also led the uprising of September 3, 1843, which forced Otto to grant Greece a constitution.

Makriyannis's fame would have rested there if his Memoirs had not come to light fifty years after his death. Without any formal education, he learned to read and write only in later life. He kept a journal recording events he had lived through from the Revolution until 1851, hiding the manuscript in his garden.

In 1907 John Vlachoyannis transcribed and published this manuscript, but the Memoirs attracted only limited attention amongst a narrow circle of intellectuals, chiefly historians. It was only in 1943 that the poet George Seferis aroused more general interest in Makriyannis, through a lecture he gave in Alexandria and Cairo asserting to general astonishment that "Makriyannis is the most important prose writer of modern Greek literature, not the greatest only because we have Papadiamantis."[1] His vigorous reading of extracts supported his analysis.

The Memoirs then went through several editions and were widely read and discussed. An illiterate fighter's popular sensibility elucidated history like a revelation.

As a witness to factional in-fighting, his work became popular with the left, sustaining their interpretation of the War of Independence as a class struggle between peasant soldiers and landowner (or Phanariote) politicians.

Makriyannis's vigorous language has appealed to Marxists, who have dominated the interpretation of his Memoirs. But there is popular piety and genuine faith on every page, unselfishness and a refusal to compromise. In his views on society and the individual he was always faithful to traditional Orthodox practice.[2]

In 1983 a second spiritual testimony of Makriyannis was published. This was his Notebook, recording his personal spiritual experiences and prayers, interspersed with daily events.[3]

This second manuscript could be described as an Orthodox saint's autobiography or Synaxari. The revolutionary fighter, tough garrison commander, opponent of politicians and Ottonian despotism, and famous general who was condemned to death and had spent years in jail, had led a discreet life of asceticism, prayer and charismatic tears, his experience of the vision of God recalling the greatest hesychasts of the neptic tradition. His unselfconsciousness is evident:

I said on Holy Thursday and Good Friday I would on these two days do 3300 prostrations day and night ... I have no other way of thanking God but by my sinful prayer, 1300 prostrations morning and evening and 100 with the prayer-rope, and whatever I can manage before I go to work and when I come home to give thanks, sinner that I am.

Zisimos Lorentzatos says that The Notebook

is permeated by the three characteristics we find in all his writings: sudden light, tears, and the impossibility of describing the indescribable ... Apart from the tears of compunction - which Patriarch Kallistos Xanthopoulos calls a sign of the spirit's participation in noetic prayer and a desire, in the humility of poverty, for ceaselessly flowing tears (On Prayer 31) - and the acknowledged impossibility of setting down what he attempts to describe - "and I cannot represent how the light troubled me and the terror and the tears of my eyes" (258); "how can I, my dear readers, describe this beauty and great light?" (251) - there are indications which enable us, I believe, to be almost certain (naturally, as far as possible) that Makriyannis in the last years of his life not only followed the difficult path of noetic prayer, the "pray without ceasing" - "Today, Friday, I struggled for many hours with sinful tears; on the other days I spend four hours, morning and evening, in prayer, when I go out of the house, and when I return, and when I am about to eat" (252) - but was also granted, it seems, the union which is "the summit of desire" where the eternal light, "if it gazes at itself, it sees light, or if it gazes at that which gives the vision, it sees light there too; and such is the union, where all things are one, so that the one who sees cannot distinguish either the means or the goal or the essence, but only that it is light and that he sees light which resembles nothing created."[4]

Makriyannis's theology in his Memoirs or more especially in The Notebook did not interest progressive Greek intellectuals. When John Vlachoyannis showed the recently discovered manuscript to George Theotokas in 1941, he responded: "This is the work of a madman."[5] And Linos Polites in his preface to The Notebook says: "The religious mania of the aged Makriyannis is offensive to us today."[6] Most reactions were in the same vein. Even psychiatrists were sought to support the view that head wounds that Makriyannis had suffered had brought about a form of paranoia.[7]

Makriyannis's marginalized witness brings hope that the Church's Gospel and its universal Greek embodiment survive and function invisibly like the buried "mustard seed." As Makriyannis said: "It is our fate as Greeks always to be few. From beginning to end, from antiquity to this day, all the beasts fight to devour us but they cannot. They consume us but the leaven remains."[8]

1. I quote Seferis from the second edition of his Essays (Athens: Phexis, 1962), 195.

2. For a brief sketch of the theology of the Memoirs see my 1966 article "O 'Laos Tou Theou' Ston Makriyanni," reprinted in Yannaras (1981) 213-27.

3. Published as Oramata kai Thaumata [Visions and Wonders] by the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece (Athens, 1983), in two volumes.

4. Lorentzatos (1984) 124-27. The last citation in the passage is from the Triads of St. Gregory Palamas, which Lorentzatos goes on to compare with Makriyannis's corresponding testimonies.

5. See Theotokas's article in the newspapaper Ta Kathimerina Nea, September 16, 1945.

6. Oramata kai Thaumata 14.

7. In a television program broadcast a few days after the publication of Oramata kai Thaumata.

8. Makriyannis (1907) bk. 1, ch. 8.

From Orthodoxy and the West, pp. 190-192.

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Overcoming Obstacles To Receiving God's Grace

We once asked an elder, "How can a person receive divine grace?"

"One cannot receive divine grace unless he endures all temptations as they come," he replied and then added: "The greatest obstacle that obstructs God's grace is self-love. When God finds one's heart emptied of all desires, He fills it with His grace, which is impossible to describe. It can only be experienced in one's heart. But even a moment's sinful thoughts can make this grace withdraw."

*************

When the athlete of asceticism, the hermit Petros, who la­boured in the cave of St. Peter the Athonite, felt God's grace in his heart, he would exclaim, "The Lord hit me with a javelin of mercy!"

*************

An elder said, "People of today do not have God's grace, and if they sometimes have a little bit of it, they cast it away then the demons stay with them. Bad thoughts ob­struct divine grace. No ascesis is as powerful as good thoughts. Good thoughts come only to those who see eve­rything through cleansed eyes."

*************

A contemporary venerable hesychast would say to me: "Not many people are graced these days. Frequently we remain empty of God's grace. Then through a sorrow or difficulty it comes back to us again."

*************

An elder said, "Many times our prayers are not answered because of us. Other times it is because of someone else and for a different reason. For example, someone asks me to pray for a person who is ill. I pray and let's say I have suffi­cient faith and am not egotistical. Still God does not answer my prayer, because the other person is not humble enough. He may believe that God will help, but his ego stands in the way. We must trust God. We should let Him do whatever He wills. If I pray correctly, I may feel the re­moval of the temptation, and everything will go well. Any time, however, that God allows us to go through a tempta­tion, it is for our own benefit, and we should probably not ask God to deliver us from that difficulty. If the difficulty is caused by the Devil, then God helps us right away. Many times God's will is unknown to us."

*************

An ascetic once was asked: "How is it that many times we don't feel anything when we pray, either in church or pri­vately somewhere else?"

He answered: "There are many possible reasons. Some­times you may feel deep compunction, or you may sense that the Lord has given you a sweet consolation, though not as a result of your own labour. Then, because you did not understand these things, He takes them away until you understand. There is always a purpose to these things.

In any case, do not strive for the gift of tears while pray­ing, or for any other spiritual gift for that matter. The si­lent suffering within a person for some sin done in the past is the best gift. Forced tears in prayer can be dangerous be­cause they can create illusions about one's spiritual state.

Tears give rest. A deep sigh many times could be worth — I am not sure, this is only my thought, and I might be wrong — such a deep sigh might be worth more than a bas­ketful of tears.

We should not ask from God the gift of tears; rather we should ask Him for repentance, over and over again. We need repentance."

From An Athonite Gerontikon

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