Elder Symeon Kragiopoulos: "Make good use of pain..."

Christ being taken down from His Cross (source)

  

How good it would have been if we did not let pain go to waste! One way or another we will suffer. But our whole torture and struggle will go down the drain, unless we make good use of pain, unless we exploit it. We make good use of pain, we exploit pain when we take the correct stance.

  

There comes a time when someone feels the great good which comes out of pain and –no matter how strange it may seem– he says: “Nothing else benefits humanity as much as pain”.

  

When we talk about pain, we generally mean sickness and the overall physical decline of man and death. If it hadn’t been for these, we would have been like brutal beasts. Society would have been a jungle. But thanks to them, we get tamer.

  

A Christian is capable of making such good use of every pain, so that he can constantly be in paradise.

  

Know this: When pain will have completed the work it is supposed to do, God takes away. It is not difficult at all for God to remove whichever pain.

  

When we suffer, when a pain insists, let us think like that: “God wants something good to come out of this in me; and I act as if I do not get it. And all I do is moan and groan.”

  

Let there be no complaint, no rebellion, no kicking about. If possible, whichever pain you have, deal with it by saying these words: “Let it be blessed, my God. Whatever You want.” This way our pain won’t get wasted, but will be exploited to the full. We will take advantage of it, and the great good which saves will come to our hearts.

  

When God visits you with sorrows, say: “Thank you, my God. As I had absolutely no intention to embrace a few ugly things, a few pains, and truly follow your path, you caught up with me and gave me a few. How can I thank you enough?”

  

Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.

Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos

(source)

  

Christ healing the Ten Lepers (source)  
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

A Doxology by St. Nektarios

The Vision of the Three Angels, symbolizing the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-giving and Undivided Trinity (source)

 
A Doxology by St. Nektarios
"God, to me, is glory and wealth and boast. He is the sweetest and most pleasant thing. He is my care and my nourishment. Me soul is a creation of the breath of God. My body is the fashioning of God. By divine grace, I am one of God's generation. From God I received my being, and also the ability to move and breathe and to speak.

To God I daily entrust my spirit. To God I pray. I live with God, I serve and find myself with God.

I am so happy with the great, mighty and living God, Who is the provider of assistance and the worker of good things. He follows whatever I think, say and do. I receive God as the awesome judge of whatever I have done. I have God Who is calm and forgiving, forbearing and greatly merciful, savior and redeemer.

I know God Who is the beginning of all things, Who gives good things, Who is the fore-knower, overseer, all-wise, all-knowing, Who knows both the future and the present and the past. I hymn, I glorify, I bless and I supremely exalt the good, holy, righteous and true God.

I venerate and worship God Who loves mankind. I believe in God, I hope in God, I love God, Who is the spring of love. My soul and my mind exalt God and find rest. My heart desires God greatly.

I confess one Three-sun and Tri-hypostatic God. I proclaim one God: beginningless, everlasting, simple, surpassing-essence and undivided. This Unity and Trinity. These I confess, believe and proclaim.

The end, and to the Three-sun Godhead, be kingdom, praise and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."
-St. Nektarios of Pentapolis, the Wonderworker
   
(amateur translation of text from source)
 

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

St. John of Kronstadt on Prayer, Thanksgiving and Praise

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior. His Gospel reads: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest..." (source)

  

With sincere Christians prayer is continual, because we continually sin; gratitude is perpetual, because everyday, every moment, we receive fresh mercies from God, beside the old mercies, which are numberless. Praise is also perpetual, because we perpetually see the glory of God's works in ourselves and in the world, especially the glory of His infinite love towards us.
-St. John of Kronstadt, "My Life in Christ"

  
(source)
  

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!