Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra Resource Page

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra (+ May 9, 2019)

Charisma and Institution at an Athonite Cloister

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra Has Reposed

Monk Moses the Athonite on Contemporary Elders

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (1 of 5)

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (2 of 5)

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (3 of 5)

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (4 of 5)

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (5 of 5)

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra Has Reposed

The neptic father Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra was born Alexandros Vapheides in Piraeus, Greece, in October 1934 to pious parents who had roots in Asia Minor. His paternal grandmother Eudoxia had been from Constantinople, and his grandfather Alexandros was from Selyvria in Thrace and was a student at Halki Theological School. In 1906 they moved to Simantra in Cappadocia where they worked as teachers for the Greek students until the Asia Minor Catastrophe, when they went to Greece. Though they were married, they lived as monastics, often keeping vigils and living a life of prayer. His grandmother Eudoxia reposed as a nun with the name Eutaxia and his mother also reposed as a nun with the name Aimiliani. This is the type of family the future Elder was raised with, who taught him to love prayer, the reading of the lives of the saints and their writings, and living a life completely dedicated to God.

On the Mystery of Christ’s Obedience (Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra)

By Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra

In a few hours, we will stand before the naked servant of the Lord, Who is crucified and Who at the same time has in His face majestic triumph, regal glory and serenity.

If we are to understand the love we should have towards other people, or our love towards God, or His towards us, we have to understand the love shared by the Father and the Son. Otherwise, we’ll never understand what is meant by the word ‘love’ and it will simply be something that calls to mind certain feelings, certain acts of tenderness and something human.

Everything starts with the Father. There is a monocracy in the Holy Trinity. It is not possible that this great moment in the divine dispensation could occur except through the Father.

Christmas is Coming (Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra)

By Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra

Christmas is coming. Do you know that the pre-festal troparia begin on the twentieth of December?

The Church has also wisely set the last day in which the night grows longer. On the twenty-first of the month the day begins to grow longer. The nights and noetic darknesses leave while light and days increase.

When the Cross You Bear Seems Unbearable (Archim. Aimilianos of Simonopetra)

By Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

When, my beloved, your Christian life begins to become difficult and it seems like your cross is unbearable, remain steadfast, become a martyr. Say to yourself, "Let us stand aright," remain steadfast. Say, like the Prophet, "Behold, Lord, I stand here to execute Your will," or like the Panagia, "Behold, the servant of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word."

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (5 of 5)

...continued from part four.

"IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR FACE"

The whole ascetic life of the monk has as its goal soberness, that is, the simplification of the nous and its liberation from thoughts, concepts, or imagination, in such a way as to enable it to focus on itself, taking away from it all the world's distractions, and returning it to its natural place, the heart. When, by God's grace, this unitary state of the human person created in the image of God is restored, then the nous can progress without obstacle toward pure prayer. But, the latter is not the end of the spiritual life. The end of prayer, according to the Holy Fathers, is the ravishing of the nous in the Lord,35 and the illumination of grace through which man becomes himself light and, by adoption, god. Within the abyss of the heart, during the night, the nous of the monk is progressively purified and made transparent, in order that it be enabled to receive the light, like a crystal. It is then that the monk may await the visitation of grace. In the same text, Saint Gregory pursues this theme:

"Thus in leaving things behind, even little by little its ties with the best of them, the nous leaves all existent things completely behind. This ecstasy is distinguished as far superior to the theology that operates through negative reductions. It is the privilege of those who have been clothed with impassibility. But, this is still not union, in that the Paraclete has not yet come from on high to illumine the man of prayer who stands at the very limit of his natural capacities, as in an upper room, awaiting the promise of the Father, that through that revelation He might bear him away in order to bring him to the contemplation of light."36

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (4 of 5)

...continued from part three.

THE BRIGHT CLOUD

At sunset, after having finished his diakonia, accomplished his daily tasks, and retired to his cell, the monk does not cease to continue living the Transfiguration under the two forms that the Disciples experience in an exemplary manner on the summit of Tabor. While during the liturgical assembly he sees Christ in the light of His glory, and shares with the community and the visible world in the light of the Kingdom of Heaven, when he closes the door of his cell behind him - like the stone rolled up against the entrance of the Lord's tomb (Mk. 15:46) - then, in the depths of the night, he is covered by the cloud. At that moment, alone with God, he truly lives as a "monk," monachos [i.e., solitary]. Every vain glimmering of this world is extinguished - all sensual delights, preoccupations, ideas. The consolation of the brother's presence and the reflected glory of the New Jerusalem in the liturgy have withdrawn from him, and he must confront his own inner depths, the darkness of his passions, his unwavering, the scattering of his nous, and the hardness of his heart. He descends thus into his own inner hell in order to triumph there together with Christ, the conqueror of death.

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (3 of 5)

...continued from part two.

The Transfiguration of Human Society. This light, which shone then from the face of the Lord, was the three-fold ray of the Holy Trinity, the unique and deifying energy of the glory of God's grace, which gave to the three Apostles the lived knowledge of the great mystery of the one Godhead in three Persons, and which rendered them "participants of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4) while uniting them one with another. In this light, therefore, Peter, James and John cease to be three separate individuals and become instead, and in accordance with the model of the Holy Trinity, three persons, distinguished from each other by their free will and unique characteristics, but united in charity and concord. So it is that on the mountain of Tabor the Holy Trinity was revealed as the shaping principle of the divine-human (theandric) society of the Church. "Where two or three are gathered together in My name" - that is, in the light of My presence, as on Tabor - "there I am in the midst of them," says the Lord (Matt. 18:20).

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (2 of 5)

...continued from part one.

THE SHINING VESTURE OF THE LORD

Morning having come, after the Liturgy and a sober and fraternal meal shared out in the hermitage of the Mother of God a little below the peak, the pilgrim comes back down from the mountain in silence and joy, and bearing - not on his face like Moses coming down from Sinai (Ex. 34:30) - but in his heart the reflection of God's glory. For the participants, this feast was not simply some commemoration of an event that took place long ago, but a true actualization of all the mystery of Christ, of which everyone becomes the bearer who participates in the Holy Eucharist. They come down from the Mountain with Jesus. They have clothed themselves with Him. They have been filled with the Bread of Life, and with the continual invocation of His name, in order to continue their journey, within the context of their monastery (or skete, or hermitage), toward the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (1 of 5)

By Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

ATHOS AND TABOR

Every year, for centuries, on the eve of the feast of the Transfiguration, monks leave from the Monastery of Great Lavra and climb to the peak of Athos where there is a little chapel dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior. There, between heaven and earth, at an elevation of over sixty-five hundred feet, they will celebrate throughout the ensuing night the all-night vigil as their brothers are doing in the other monasteries of the Holy Mountain. As they slowly climb at the mule's pace the slopes of Athos, just as the Apostles ascended once before those of Tabor in the company of the Savior, they sing the hymns of the forefeast:

Come, let us ascend with Jesus

As he climbs the holy Mountain....1

En route, monks from different parts of Athos join together with pilgrims of every nationality to form a procession which recalls the gathering of the Hebrews from all the corners of Palestine to celebrate with the proselytes the feasts of the Lord at the Temple in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion...

To which the tribes go up,

The tribes of the Lord,

As was decreed for Israel,

To give thanks to the name of the Lord (Ps. 123:4).

Analysis of the Prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Have Mercy On Me, A Sinner"

By Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra

The prayer of Mount Athos, who does not recognize it? It is comprised of one small phrase, of measured words.

"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."

With the loud cry "Lord", we glorify God, His glorious majesty, the King of Israel, the Creator of visible and invisible creation, Whom Seraphim and Cherubim tremble before.

With the sweet invocation and summons "Jesus", we witness that Christ is present, our Savior, and we gratefully thank Him, because He has prepared for us life eternal.

With the third word "Christ", we theologically confess that Christ is the Son of God and God. No man saved us, nor angel, but Jesus Christ, the true God.

There follows the intimate petition "have mercy", and we venerate and entreat that God would be propitious, fulfilling our salvation's demands, the desires and needs of our hearts.

That "on me", what range it has! It is not only myself, it is everyone admitted to citizenship in the state of Christ, in the holy Church; it is all those who are members of the body of the Bridegroom.

And finally, so that our prayer be full of life, we close with the word "a sinner", confessing - since we are all sinners - as all the Saints confess and became through this sound sons of light and of the day.

Through this we understand, that this prayer involves:

Glorification

Thanksgiving

Theology

Supplication

and Confession

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

The Temptation of Life's Unforeseen Circumstances

By Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra

We have a continuous temptation before us.

The unforeseen constantly occurs in our life.

You come to the monastery to find spiritual life, and you encounter evil. This is unforeseen.

You ask for a cell on the side of the monastery where there is no humidity, you acquire it, but you believe the sea brings on allergies, so that you have no joy night or day. Immediately your thoughts will tell you, "get up and leave". This is unforeseen.

I approach you with the idea that you are a good person, and I see that you are upside down. This is unforeseen.

The unforeseen constantly presents itself to us, because we have will and desires.

The unforeseen are contrary to our will and desires, which is why they appear to be unforeseen, but in essence they aren't.

Because a person who loves God expects anything and always says: "Thy will be done".

Rain, storms, hail and lightning come? "Blessed be the Name of the Lord".

Because these things cost our fleshliness, this is why we see them as unforeseen.

To prevent agitation, therefore, every time you get upset, so that you do not have anxiety and get troubled, expect anything, so you can endure whatever comes.

Always say - "welcome sickness", "welcome failure", "welcome martyrdom".

This will bring gentleness, without which there is no spiritual life.

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

The Spiritual Life Is Something That Someone Else Gives To Us

By Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

A basic condition for the spiritual life is that we should understand that, on our own, we can do absolutely nothing. No matter how hard we try, the spiritual life is something that someone else gives to us.

And the “someone else” is the Spirit of God, the Comforter, the “treasury of good things and the giver of life”, the treasury from which all the riches of spirituality come forth, the source from which the spiritual life emerges and overflows.

Of course, sometimes we get confused, and think that to be spiritual means to be a “good person”: not to steal, not to kill, not to go to bad places or with bad friends, to go to Church on Sunday, to read spiritual books, and so on. But no, this is not the spiritual life.

A spiritual person, a true Christian, is someone whose entire life is sworn to God.

Initially by means of his baptism, and later, in his heart, such a person swears an oath to God, to live for God, and to remain with God forever.

A spiritual person is an athlete who has burst into life, who stands out from the crowds of human beings, and runs with all the speed of his soul to heaven.

A spiritual person is one who with shining eyes and chest thrust forward, has set his course and races to heaven. He is not a “good man”.

A spiritual person knows that, in order to succeed, he needs strong wings: the wings of the Holy Spirit.

A spiritual person must therefore do everything possible to attract, to win over, the Spirit of God, because only the Holy Spirit, God himself, has the gifts of the spiritual life. According to St Gregory of Nyssa, the “distribution of the royal gifts” of the Holy Spirit takes place in the Church through the Sacraments.

Source

Scandalized By the Happiness of the Impious and Faithless

By Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

Many times believers are scandalized by the happiness of the impious and faithless. Indeed, when we take a look around us, we see that God, according to human logic, very unfairly distributes His good things. Where He should be giving happiness He gives misfortunes. Where He should be giving riches He gives poverty, and where He should have given poverty He gives riches. When we await His blessings, then He gives us a heavy blow, while simultanously He maintains a perpetual smile on others. We are led to say, using a modern phrase, that God always discriminates. We are scandalized by this. Why?

Simply because our heart is directed towards all these things, is stuck on them, loves them, and longs for them. But the release from catastrophy should be sought elsewhere. We should not seek the removal of this apparent discrimination of apparent injustice. The change should occur within us. We must become total strangers towards everything human, towards human logic and human thought, and towards all good things. We must be indifferent towards everything. When estranged from everything, then God can be everything for us, for God alone to remain with us. This will give us the deep peace from within. Otherwise, even if there is something in our heart which is not of the other life but of this one, we should know that we will be continuously tormented.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Charisma and Institution at an Athonite Cloister

Charisma and Institution at an Athonite Cloister:
Historical Developments and Future Prospects

By Fr. Maximos, Monastery of Simonopetra

In 'Annual Report 2007' of the Friends of Mount Athos, pp. 17-34

It is the general consensus that those who are called to monastic life are not drawn to institutions, but rather to particular individuals in whom they sense the presence of God. In the words of a contemporary Athonite Abbot: 'Monastic life is a life lived with a particular person. It is not the acceptance of an ideology, or the gratification of certain longings; neither is it the application of principles found in a book. Monastic life means: I follow someone. And thus at the centre of monastic life is a particular person, and that person is the elder.' (1) In the words of Bishop Kallistos, it is the 'abba, rather than the abbey', that draws men to the Mountain. (2)

Our assessment of the past, then, and out thoughts about the future, will need to address the phenomenon of charismatic eldership, both as a factor in the revival of life on the Holy Mountain, and as the principal source of its ongoing vitality.