Friday, November 8, 2013

The wondrous "nectar" of St. Nektarios

St. Nektarios the Wonderworker (source)
 
If it is the Lord's will that we be granted physical healing of our illnesses, this often is brought about, in an awesome manner, through the prayers of Christ's Saints. But more importantly. the Saints, show us how to live a true life in Christ, so that, when it is time for the journey of this temporary life to come to an end, we might be shown the way to the Kingdom. The following moving event reminds me that "whether we live or die, we are the Lord's".
 
I write these lines with great emotion, faith and hope. It was the past March (2012), when the results of my mother’s MRI showed cancer in her head, her lungs, her adrenal and likely in her bones...two months to live, that’s how much the doctor gave her.
  
In the summer of 2000 there was the initial diagnosis: breast cancer. The doctor then had given her three years to live. My mother, however, from then had faith in God and a desire for life... In December 2010 she was diagnosed with cancer of her uterus, which was followed by hysterectomy with removal of the large portion of the lymph nodes. In August 2011, a new surgery: metastasis to her bladder. They opened her up, and then closed her right away, because they could not operate on her without removing her bladder. They would attempt radiation with faith. The next tests were all clean!!! Until this hopeless diagnosis in March of 2012...
  
We were mourning in advance. But she, again, became an example for us. She lifted up her cross without complaining, and with hope. “Thy will be done...” Chemotherapy, radiation, hyperthermic treatments, alternative herbal medicines from China, Germany, America...
  
One summer night, St. Nektarios appeared to my in my sleep and told me: “I will sprinkle nectar in your life.” Up to that instant, I had never ever called upon him, and I knew nothing of his life or his miracles... He simply came to me in my sleep, bringing this joyous message. I was hooked by this.
  
The next evening, I went for a walk with my husband and my children. In a neighborhood home there was a chapel in the yard, and we stopped to have a discussion. Mr. Photis had lost his son. I told him about my dream, and he told me that he had the icon of St. Nektarios in his chapel. He showed it to me, and I realized that this was the same person who appeared to me in my dream. I cried with tears of faith, and he cried, and gave me the icon... I looked online, and found your site. I read the life of the Saint and his miracles...my faith increased... “There are others,” I began to think. I brought the icon and put it at the head of her bed.
  
November 2012: the MRI was totally clean...The doctor did not believe it...self-healing, he said... I am waiting for her to get stronger, for us to go together and venerate the Saint...
  
This instant, my mother is again in the hospital, and getting a new surgery 11/1/13...Her intestines are in a ball and her abdomen is full...I am far away...I have three small children...my thoughts are with her, and I am praying to St. Nektarios to make her better, in a way that I might not know...I thank him every day for the two months that he gave her...within me the miracle was completed...and it is my egotistical need to want her to live longer...she is 59 year old, young, but with a life full of love...Most likely the hour has come for her to rest after 13 years of continuous struggle. I love her very much, and I will pray for her. And may St. Nektarios sprinkle again his nectar, in the way that he sees fit...
E.P.
(amateur translation of text from: http://www.agios-nektarios.gr/03/03_02_18.html)
 
St. Nektarios the Wonderworker, detail, by Alevizakis (source)
  
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

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