The Healing of a Hernia by Saint Artemios

 

By Demetrios Panagopoulos, Preacher 

(1916 - 1982)

For 25 years I suffered from a hernia. This year I couldn't take the pain anymore and had to go for surgery.

One day after one of my talks, I spoke to a monk and said to him:

"Next Thursday I will not be here to speak. I will go to operate and I will ask Father Marino to come in my place."

"I will tell you something," the monk told me. "I also had a hernia. I was suffering and had to go to surgery. But I was ashamed as a monk to go and operate. I then went and begged Saint Artemios to make me well. And he made me well! And now I'm without a bandage, without anything and I'm going around with the sack in my hand, I'm "plowing through" Attica and I'm fine. Glory to His name! Why don't you go there too?"

Why Confessions Should Be Made Before Priests and Not Icons

Near Delphi in the village of Kirra, the renowned Orthodox preacher Demetrios Panagopoulos was preaching in a church while the parish priest was hearing confessions. That December night, the priest told the preacher how a grandmother in her 80's or 90's came to him for confession earlier for the first time in her life.

She told the priest that for the past 55 years or so, before she communed, she would walk down a path from her house to the church, where nearby there was a secluded little chapel dedicated to the Honorable Forerunner John the Baptist, and there should would light the oil lamps.

Concerning Icons in the Orthodox Church (Demetrios Panagopoulos)

By Demetrios Panagopoulos, Preacher

 

(Sermon Delivered on the Sunday of Orthodoxy 

in March of 1969)

 

The Icon is an expression of the divine economy, which is summarized in the teaching of the Orthodox Church which says: "God became man, that man may become God."

The Church attached so much importance to the Icon that she proclaimed and still proclaims that the victory over the Iconoclasts was a triumph of Orthodoxy, which we celebrate during the first week of Great Lent.

Furthermore, for the Orthodox Church, the Icon is a language through which it expresses its doctrines and commandments so well, just like it does with words. It is a theology that is expressed in shapes and colors that the eye sees. In other words, it is like a mirror that reflects the spiritual life of the Church, and in which one can judge the dogmatic struggles of every age.

Greeting With "Christ is Risen" 20 Days After Easter

By Demetrios Panagopoulos (1916-1982), Preacher

I once picked up the phone twenty days after Easter and said "Christ is Risen" instead of "Hello".* The person on the other line responded:

"What are you talking about, my child? What is this place?"

"It is a house."

"What are you?"

"What am I? I'm a man."

The Heart is at Fault

 

By Demetrios Panagopoulos (1916-1982),
Preacher

In the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Publican beat his breast and not his head, as if he was saying: "My heart is at fault."

It is wrong, therefore, what many say: "My head is to blame."

Your head is not to blame. Your heart is to blame!

God does not dwell in people's brains, but in their hearts. However, when Christ does not dwell in the heart, the devil will dwell there, and will make the brains of people dizzy, and then people will do what they do.

 

 

The Nun Who Passionately Loved Christ

By Demetrios Panagopoulos (1916-1982), 

Preacher

I once knew a nun, who had divine eros. This nun helped me with her manner, so that in 1951 I returned on the path of God. This nun, when she said the word "Christ", abundant tears ran from her eyes, as if someone turned on a faucet within her. I have never seen anything like this in anyone else (I have seen it also with Elder Ieronymos of Aegina). This nun would tell me characteristically: "People should know, my Demetrios, how much Christ loves us!" As she said this the tears were running without stopping. We don't have such things, and the only things we care about, are if the third bell has rung so we can go to church for the last minute.

 

Translation by John Sanidopoulos.