St. Porphyrios: "In the church, we become one..."

Weeping Albanian Icon of the Theotokos (source)

"In the church, we become one with every unhappy, suffering, and sinful person."

— St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

  

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

Homily on the Holy Maccabees by Metropolitan Avgoustinos Kantiotes

Icon of the Holy Maccabees with their Mother St. Solomone, and their teacher Eleazar (source)

  
Homily on the Holy Maccabees by Metropolitan Avgoustinos Kantiotes: "Our Faith is True"
We will speak, my beloved, on the Holy Maccabees. They are a star cluster of nine stars, one being their teacher Eleazar, the second was their mother Solomone, and the other seven are her distinguished children of this large family.

These heroes lived in the 2nd century before Christ, during the reign of the King of Syria and Judea of one of the successors of Alexander the Great, Antiochos the Epiphanes (175-163BC). This man, a fanatical idolater, had endless hatred of the Jews, who were the only ones who believed in the true God. He tried with his whole being to uproot from their hearts their faith which had been given to them by Moses. And he slaughtered, slaughtering like a wild beast, more wild than a tiger or a lion. A beast might eat three or four people, but can't eat more. He, however, slaughtered 80,000 Jews, and blood poured through the streets of Jerusalem like a river. And in order to put an end to their religion, he organized an idol-worshiping feast. In the center of the city, he placed a great and large altar, and there sacrificed sheep and goats and bulls and rams, like the Jews would do typically, but--in order to corrupt them--he also sacrificed pigs, hundreds of pigs, to the gods of the idols. And in order to defile the Jews and to strike their religious consciences, he forced them to consume the meat. We must know that the Jews never ate pork. To this day, if you go to a Jewish home, they never eat pork. I won't go into the reasons that they do it, but in any case they continue to keep this.

The Jews fast. Do we? We also need to fast. And here I will make an aside. Are you a Christian, are you Orthodox? I'm not sure. If you were Orthodox, if you firmly believed in our Orthodoxy, you must keep the fasts. Which fasts? You should fast on Wednesday and Friday: Wednesday because on that day was our Lord Jesus Christ betrayed, and Friday, because on that day He was crucified. If you were Orthodox, you would fast during holy and Great Lent, and the other fasting periods, including January 5th, the day before Theophany, August 29th, the day of the Beheading of the Forerunner, and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross.

Do Christians fast today? Unfortunately, this holy practice seems to be going by the wayside. You can break whatever you wish, and you see people even breaking the fast on Holy Friday. During fasting periods, the meat markets are full and the restaurants at night dish out tons of meat. We [Greeks] have become among the largest meat-eaters in the Balkans. We even buy and ship in meat from Bulgaria and Serbia. All of this eating of meat is very serious for our health as well.

So the Jews therefore fasted, and to mock their fasting, Antiochos forced them to eat pork that had been sacrificed to the idols. First, he called the teacher Eleazar, who was an honorable priest. He told him: "I am 90 years old. Until now I have kept the fast according to the divine law, and I cannot even begin to think about abandoning our holy tradition..." He was seized by the soldiers of Antiochos, bound, and thrown into the fine. Thus, he gave up his soul to God.

After this, one by one he called the seven brothers, the Maccabees. He hold them: "Take pity on your youth." He told the first: "I will give you honor, glories, respect." "Keep your honors, I will remain in the home of my fathers/ I will never taste pork sacrificed to the idols..." Thus, the first said not. The same occurred with the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh. And after they all denied, each began their terrible martyrdom, which one shudders to even think about. Open the Old Testament to the end and turn to the book of Fourth Maccabees (5-12). Don't just read magazines and newspapers. If you are a Christian, read the holy Scriptures. You will say, I don't have time, or I'm tired...Good try!

Let me make another aside. I tell you to fast, but you don't fast. I tell you to read the Holy Scriptures, but you don't read them. The one you don't do, neither do you do the other. What Christian are you, can you tell me? I tell you to pray, but you don't pray. I tell you to confess, but you don't confess. I tell you to commune, but you don't commune. I tell you to go to church, but you don't go. You only go to church when you're invited to a sacrament [i.e. a baptism or a wedding]. Many go for a memorial service. But this is a sin. Because every church every Sunday is a memorial service. What memorial?  Not of our father or our mother. Every Sunday, we serve a memorial for the Lord. And if you go to the memorial of your father or mother, even more so should you go to the memorial of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does faith cost you? To the martyrs it cost terrible pains and death.

The Maccabees therefore said no, and began their martyrdom. A martyrdom that makes man shudder to read it, as is described in the Holy Scriptures. They put a trident between their eyes. Another they cut off his right hand. Another they cut off the left with a saw. Another they cut off his fingers. Another, they pulled off his nails. Another they raked his flesh with iron nails. Another they skinned him alive, like the butcher skins an animal... But it was as if nothing to them! They remained steadfast.

And in front of all of this, in the presence of the martyrdom of the seven children, who was there, I ask? Their mother, St. Solomone. O, what a mother! She was not at all like some mothers today who would say: "Eat, my child, a little meat, it's nothing..." Today, many mothers are only thinking of their children's bodies, their flesh, in other words. Above the body, they don't see anything else. St. Solomone was a unique mother, a historic mother, a rare example throughout the ages. "No, my children!" she said, "Do not pollute our religion, do not loose the crown of glory!" And their mother prepared them, her seven children, for a terrible martyrdom. It was their faith in God, and this faith showed her to be a heroine, a unique and grand and lady of a woman. How did she find the strength to support all her children to be sacrificed? Don't you think that she felt pain? Of course she felt pain. As her children were being martyred, and she saw them one by one being put to death in the most terrible manner, she suffered. She was pained for each separately, and for them all together. Her pain was greatly multiplied. Mothers, when their children get sick with a fever, they entreat God for the fever to flee from their children and to come to them instead. If, therefore, each child of St. Solomone was martyred once, then she was pained for each, and it was as if she was martyred seven times, multiplied by seven. And, having endured steadfastly and unshaken throughout this trial, in the end, she herself fell into the fire (IV Maccabees 17:1). Thus, they were all burned and became a sacrifice for the love of God, martyrs before Christ.

This, my brethren, in a few words, is the martyrdom of the seven Maccabee children, of their mother Solomone, and their teacher Eleazar. What does it teach us?

One lesson comes forth today. Our faith is not a myth. It is living and wondrous. We have the most true religion, the only truth in the world. Because of this, the Prophets prophesied and gave their lives, including the Maccabees in the Old Testament, and because of this, the Apostles and Martyrs were sacrificed in the New Testament, and because of this, the Fathers and the Teachers of the Church lived in asceticism, and preached theology, and confessed the faith.

Let us as well honor and imitate their struggles out of love, that we might, together with them, become partakers in the glory of the Kingdom of God, to Whom be glory and might unto the ages of ages. Amen.
(+) Bishop Avgoustinos
(Delivered in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Ptolmaidos, on Sunday August 2nd, 1987)
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The Holy Maccabee Martyrs (source)  
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy in us and save us! Amen!

Elder Aimilianos on Life as a Spider's Web

Jesus Christ Deisis with the Theotokos and the Precious Forerunner (source)

  
"When all our days are past, and passed in your wrath, our years will be seen like a spider. Day and night [the spider] works. She rises in the morning, and cleans her corner. She works until the night, and again, the next morning, she is in her same corner. Her web was destroyed. In the morning, she must weave it again. Days and nights of agony, and she sweats and suffers, without, ultimately, her work being completed.

"Whatever I might do, no matter how good it is, is like the work of a spider.

"A work has essential meaning, and is not like a spider's web, but is eternal, only when it is a search for You, when we turn to You, when it occurs for You, when it brings me, not to a desert place, not into a foreign land, not to this temporary earth, but to the true Chanaan, where You are, in Heaven.

"Thus, O Lord, was my life. I should have come to work for You. But I separated myself from You. For me, You no longer did exist, You Who exist from the ages and unto the ages. I thought, would my life be like this? A spider's corner, which would be gone tomorrow. Was I born for this, therefore?

"We have created something which has no worth before You, O Lord, it is nothing. I worked, thought, lived, thinking that I was progressing, that I was going towards the Promised Land. Because, however, I sinned, in reality, my life had no meaning to You. All things which have worth to You are those things that objectively have importance and meaning. Therefore, that which I thought was my success, that which I saw as my joy, that which for me was an object of enthusiasm and shouting for joy, this was something away from which You wished to turn away.

"Eternal life near our sweetest Jesus Christ exists, and You call us towards You, my God!"
-Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra (+2019)
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Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra (+2019) (source)

  

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

St. Luke of Crimea: The Meaning of Sorrows

Christ healing the Ten Lepers (source)

 
St. Luke of Crimea: The Meaning of Sorrows
Continuously, people ask why the Lord God sends them sorrows and many times very great trials. It is very important for every Christian to understand that our sorrows are sent according to the will of God, Who is always good and saving. Most of the time, they are not sent to us as punishments for our sins, but in order for us re-orient our paths and our hearts, or they are sent as a response to requests that we offer to God. People many times expect God to accomplish what they ask in prayers to Him in the manner that they think is best. God, however, continuously responds to our prayers in a totally different manner, and not according to how they wished or could imagine.

If they would ask, for example, for God to give them humility, they might imagine that slowly, day by day, humility would grow within their hearts under the beneficial affection of God. The Lord, however, continuously works in a different way: He sends them an unexpectedly harsh blow, which wounds their pride and their ego and which humbles them. Frequently, our God sends afflictions, and we complain and in no way think that, the majority of the times, this is a great beneficence of God, and most likely is the response of God to our prayers, with which we entreated Him to strengthen our faith.

Do you know recognize that, many times, our Lord sends us terrible bodily afflictions and wounds our body in order to strengthen us spiritually? This occurred with the Venerable Pimen the Much-suffering, who lived in asceticism in the Monastery of the [Kiev] Caves, and whose whole life was found on the bed of pain, enduring an incurable sickness, and through this manner, he reached sanctity. Other people, who give great significance to earthly goods, seek from the Lord to increase their wealth. And the Lord responds to them with the destruction of their properties with fires, and in this manner, He helps to turn them away from their attachment to earthly things and from their greed, and to correct their deviations from the correct path, which is taught to us by the Lord's Beatitudes.
  
God treats us like His true sons, whom He chastens for their good. The sorrows that are sent to us by the Lord, we must receive as St. Peter says: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you." (I Peter 5:6). If we cannot, despite all our efforts, come to understand the reason that God sends us sorrows, then at least let us humble ourselves below the mighty hand of God, and He will lift us up at the proper time, in order for us to understand His paths, with which He is leading us for this reason. We must, with great humility and without the smallest complaining, accept all the trials and sorrows that are sent to us from God, having the humble conviction that, with these, God is guiding us, and not that He is pouring His wrath upon us. (Isaiah 27:4) We usually think that the Lord is angry with us, and this is why He is sending us sorrows. No. Never think that God is angry. "God is love." (I John 4:8). And perfect love is foreign to any form of injustice.
 
But many times, when our God gives us a harsh blow, through which He humbles us and then later exalts us, we complain against God. Do you understand, however, what a serious sin is complaining against God? When we complain against God, it means that we perceive Him as unjust, we perceive that He has not treated us properly and that He must act towards us in a different manner. However, is it not a serious sin to condemn God for injustice and to slander Him? See, therefore, how great a sin is complaining against God. Because of this: "Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile." (I Peter 1:17). We must pray greatly for our mistakes and for our impediments on our path to the Kingdom of the Heavens. But even more than that, we must have fear to break that great commandment of Christ: "Judge not, that you might not be judged." (Matthew 7:1). And complaining against God is not only judging God, but also condemning Him.
  
Let us lay aside judging those unfortunate people who willingly destroy themselves, whom our Lord Jesus Christ does not correct nor chasten, because they are not able to be corrected and are incurable. We only seek His help on our path towards salvation, that we might glorify Him and ever honor Him, together with His beginningless Father and the Lord Spirit. Amen.
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St. Luke the Blessed Surgeon, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea (source)

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

"You were led away like a stranger and a slave..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

St. John the Russian (source)

  
You were led away like a stranger and a slave, by the hands of the Hagarenes, O Father, and lived a strange life, O glorious one, living in a stable like another Job upon a dunghill, amidst struggles and trials, and ever shedding streams of fervent tears, which reached Him Whom you desired, O John, truly the namesake of grace.
-Prosomoion from the Aposticha

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Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down upon death, and upon those in the tombs He has granted life!

Truly the Lord is risen!

"I am Saint Efraim..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

St. Ephraim of Nea Makri (source)

   

I am Saint Efraim
(Written by a Pilgrim to the Monastery on June 17, 1971)
"Venerable Mother, I will tell you about a dream I had today. I dreamt that I was in the Church and we had the prayer after Supper. When it was over, as we were leaving I turned my head back and I saw Saint Efraim in front of the Altar. With fear, I went to Him and I heard Him telling me, "I am Saint Efraim. Light the oil candles of the Holy Altar." I was very scared and I called one of the Sisters. Saint Efraim approached me and once again told me, "I am Saint Efraim and He started chanting with His sweet voice, "Restrained by many temptations..." (from the Small Paraklesis to the Theotokos). 

Sts. Ephraim of Nea Makri and Nektarios of Aegina, two great Wonderworkers of the 20th Century (source)

   

He signaled us to stop, He sat down and started to tell us all about His sufferings; how much those bloodthirsty wolves, those infidel Ottomen had tortured Him. And he kept talking, "They were torturing me even after I had died. You don't know how much I have suffered. They put in my head big sharp nails and nailed it to the tree. He did His cross and said, "I suffered a lot", and did his cross again.

I wanted to cry, my Saint. To cry for your terrible ordeal, but I don't have this kind of tears that can reach you. My Saint, with your intercessions, purify my tears and accept them as a supplication of love to your Saintly martyr holiness.

My Saint, we most devoutly [venerate] your sufferings.
Don't stop mediating to the Lord to have mercy on us.

Sts. Ephraim of Nea Makri and Nektarios of Aegina, the Wonderworkers (source)

  
It is true that the Saint's grace has gotten outside our boundaries. A young woman from Kalamata told us that she had gone to Zakynthos to a Monastery and the Mother Superior had told her, "We are expecting a Saint to pass by here." When the young woman asked who that Saint was, she was told it was Saint Efraim, in glory and grandeur. Before Saint Efraim, a Nun with a lit candle was marching in solemnity.

It was September 14, 1971 that I was planning to come to the Monastery for my offering. A few days earlier, I saw the following dream: It was noon time and I was resting when Saint Nectarios along with some other Saint that I didn't know, appeared in front of me. That other Saint was dressed in an ascetic cassock. He was tall and very thin and had a calm ascetic and serious expression. When I asked them who they were, the Saint told me, "Efraim" and started telling me something about the 14th of September, the day of the Holy Cross..., but before I could understand what He wants, I woke up. Later I learned that the Saint was born on that day and on that day His sufferings started and ended on May 5, 1426."

Excerpt from the Book Visions and Miracles of the Great Martyr and Miracle-Worker Ephraim Neophanous
 

Sts. Nektarios of Aegina and Ephraim of Nea Makri, two great Wonderworkers and Healers of Christ in our days (source)

 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly, the Lord is risen!

"When you have this love, you don't have to worry about anything, not even death..."

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

St. Ephraim of Nea Makri (source)

   

"Mrs. Christina M. from Athens wrote: I was suffering with pain in my spine. One night, the pain got so bad and it reached my neck. I went to my room and crying I begged God to help me through Saint Efraim. The pain of my soul was very strong and for a moment, I felt the presence of the Saint and His sacred little hand to pet my forehead softly. I was like a 4 year old child. Crying I said, "My Saint, help." He started to comfort me, not for my physical pain, but for the pain of my soul."

"Why are you crying, my child? Stop crying and listen to me. I am Saint Efraim. The love you are looking for, my child, the real love only God has it and He gives it to those creatures who love Him and He loves them. I have come now to announce to you God's Love for you. When you have this love, you don't have to worry about anything, not even death. Because God's love can save you and protect you from any illness and misfortune and guard you soul with an impenetrable wall so that no one will be able to violate it. Watch out though that until the end of your life, you will not lose the love of God and of the search for people." He said that and He left.

I cried, "My Saint, don't go. Please stay a little longer. In this world, I have no one else, but God and you. Protect me from ingratitude. Protect me from sin. Protect me so I will be able to safeguard the love of God."

From that moment, my suffering was gone like a thread that was cut. My grievance was also gone..."
 
Excerpt from the book: Visions and Miracles of the Great Martyr and Miracle-Worker Ephraim Neophanous
 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly, the Lord is risen!

Photios Kontoglou: "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord"

Christ raising Lazarus, by Photios Kontoglou (source)

  
Photios Kontoglou: "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord"
He Whose throne is heaven, and Whose footstool is the earth, the Son of God and His Logos, Who is eternal with Him, today humbles Himself, and comes to Bethany on a little donkey.

And the children of the Hebrews received Him, crying out: "Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He Who comes, the King of Israel."

The warlords of the world, when they would finish a war and threw down their enemies, they would return glorified, and sitting on golden chariots to enter their city. Before them would go the trumpets and flags and brave generals and a multitude of soldiers, covered with iron armor and bearing weapons around a chariot that was filled with many pieces of armor and swords and spears that remained from the conquered nation.

Similar things like these were the great nails that they used in the Crucifixion of our Savior Jesus Christ!

All of these warriors were iron-clad like wild beasts, their heads locked within fearsome helmets, their spears and hairy hands were bloodied from war, their strong legs walked proudly and stretched, like a lion that tore apart a deer with its claws and stretches with roars and frightens the world.

Later would come the golden chariot of the warlord, where he would sit on a throne, adorned with precious stones, proud, haughty, fearsome, who could not be looked upon in the eye without averting one's gaze, carrying his terrible scepter, whose every movement of his command was an order, without opening the mouth of the one holding it.

Horses on that day, were harnessed to that chariot, with gold-embroidered straps with carousels and they also walked pompously and proudly like the humans. A beautiful girl, like a fairy, was decorated, holding a golden crown above the head of the champion, and other girls and boys tossed incense and other spices in great censers shaped like candelabras.

Behind them came the men and women who were taken as slaves, who were sick and wounded, and they were being dragged by the soldiers who struck them.

As much glory as the people had in front, so much disdain and misfortune had those who followed behind. They were bound with ropes and chains, many were pierced, tattered, wounded, jaundiced and half-dead, from their martyrdoms and from their vigils. Many were half-naked and their backs were darkened from the whips. Among them were women, ashamed virgins, stolen mothers with their innocent children in their hands, elderly who were holding on to their grandchildren by the hand, all traumatized like lamps going to the marketplace. Around them, the world grew insane and cried out, glorifying the victor, with many mouths foaming. A cry rose like smoke above the whole city. This scene, they called a "triumph."

One such triumph is performed today by Christ, the Price of Peace and of Love. However, He has changed all the rest and turned it upside down from what men were used to, and thus, His triumph is the triumph of poverty and humility.

The Roman ruler was seated upon a throne and golden chariot, but Christ is seated on a little donkey, possibly among the most humble and disdained among the animals.

And He Himself was humble, meek, silent, poorly-dressed, as the Prophecy which says: "Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold your King is coming, meek and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zachariah 9:9) His hand had never held a scepter, but blessed the world. He Himself is returning from war, but a war much more difficult to win, a war against evil and falsehood and hypocrisy and love of money.

And He was not going to rest from that war, but was going to begin another, even harder, to be crowned with a crown of thorns, and to be beaten and to mocked, and in the end, to be nailed upon a Cross like an evil-doer.

He was not surrounded by wild servants, but by innocent fishermen, who were disdained like Him. And He neither carried behind Him slaves that He tyrannized, but men whom He freed from the slavery of the Devil, and the dead whom He had raised through His voice.

They did not blare trumpets and drums to glorify Him, but innocent children, which symbolized the simplicity which Christians have, cried out: "Blessed is He Who comes", and instead of holding flags waved the green branches of trees. Verdant branches and clothes strewn on the road for the donkey to walk over.

And this blessed donkey, with a bowed head, humble, ignorant, bore Christ Who was sitting on its back, Whom the fiery six-winged Seraphim stand about with fear. He was not carried by a golden chariot, nor a prized stallion, nor even a seat held by others, but by a little donkey. What eye does not shed a tear and is not astonished by this mystery!

Christ overturned what sinful man saw regarding what is right and true. Who, however, is in the position to sense the freedom which He brings us, and would follow the donkey, and not the fine horses that glow proudly, which enter Rome with many idols, instead of entering together into the kingdom of Peace, the Jerusalem on high?

Many "serious" people, one could say, did not understand this, saying that the children where childish, and the men were manly. The same was said by the high priests, men of authority: But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant;  and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast brought perfect praise’?” And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there." (Matthew 21:15-17)

The chief priests and the scribes had read the Psalm of David which said how the Christ would be met by the babes and they did not believe Him Whom they hymned. And if we have read today's Gospel and the Psalm and what Christ said to the Hebrews, would we not be judged more strictly than if we had not believed Him? Our vanity and our pride prevent us from going along His poor path, and we are ashamed to follow a leader Who is riding upon a donkey. We don't want the humble, the poor. Can one become a Christian who does not love that which Christ loved?

Yesterday, Saturday, He raised a dead man, Lazaros. Who was this Lazaros? Was he a notable, famous person? Lazaros was a poor villager, but as the Gospel says, he was a friend of Christ, Who would have all men as His friends.

The Gospel notes that Christ had a friend in the world, and that he was poor and unlearned. But who among us loves this rich poverty of Christ? Where Christ is missing, there is the true poverty, because where Christ is missing, there is also missing true life and death rules. This you would understand well if you look around you and ponder. Where are those almighty Roman leaders who made their triumphant entry, as we described above?  What happened to them, and the myriads that worshiped them and knelt before them like the reeds before the north wind? Who brings to mind those who wrote the history of that time?

Bodies, souls, thrones, diamonds, horses, pride, horrors, voices, all fell into a pit and were lost and extinguished as if they had never been drunk. And what is left of all this in people's hearts? Nothing and even less than nothing.

But man is unfaithful even to what he sees and what he grasps with his hands, and he pulls the path that they have taken, and he happily drags Nero's chariot, because "his neck is iron." His ears are pricked by Him Who says: "I am God, the first and the last, I am. I nourish my sheep and I will give them rest." He Who was sitting upon the donkey, it is He Who remains alive within simple souls unto the ages, and is for them a source of nourishment, a source of immortality, joy and delight, according to the words that say: "The heart of those who seek the Lord shall rejoice."

Yes, whoever senses the joy of Christ, is like that dead man [Lazaros] who was raised. There are many kinds of pain in the world. Those who suffer in body and soul, their pain cleanses them and takes them to God, and these are the beloved ones of Christ and walk in His army with His consoling light. The others suffer futily. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.  For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death." (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).

For those who hope in God, Christ transforms their futile sweat into sweat of salvation "a refreshing sweat", but we mourn and are pained in every way like the idolaters, slaughtered by the knives of fate. They did not allow their sweat of agony to become transformed into sweat of prayer and hope.

Whoever does not believe in Christ and in the Gospel is dead, as no true life exists within him. Because life does not mean to breath and to walk and to eat and drink, but to sense the grace of immortality. Then, one can chant together with that exceptional hymn that is the Apolytikion:

"By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your passion, You did confirm the universal Resurrection, O Christ God! Like the children with the palms of victory,  we cry out to You, O Vanquisher of death; Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord!

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Christ entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (source)

  

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

St. Joseph the Hesychast: "Even though you have fallen again, get up again."

Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior of the world (source)

  
I received your letter, my child, and I saw your anxiety. But don’t be sad, my child. Don’t worry so much. Even though you have fallen again, get up again. You have been called to a heavenly road. It is not surprising for someone running to stumble. It just takes patience and repentance at every moment.
Therefore, always do a metanoia when you are wrong and don’t lose time, because the longer you wait to seek forgiveness, the more you allow the evil one to spread his roots within you. Don’t let him make roots to your detriment.
  
Therefore, don’t despair when you fall, but get up eagerly and do a metanoia saying, “Forgive me, my dear Christ. I am human and weak.” The Lord has not abandoned you. But since you still have a great deal of worldly pride, a great deal of vainglory, our Christ lets you make mistakes and fall, so that you perceive and come to know your weakness every day, so that you become patient with others who make mistakes, and so that you do not judge the brethren when they make mistakes, but rather put up with them.
  
So every time you fall, get up again and at once seek forgiveness. Don’t hide sorrow in your heart, because sorrow and despondency are the joy of the evil one. They fill one’s soul with bitterness and give birth to many evils. Whereas the frame of mind of someone who repents says, “I have sinned! Forgive me Father!” and he expels the sorrow. He says, “Am I not a weak human? So what do I expect?” Truly, my child this is how it is. So take courage.
  
Only when the grace of God comes does a person stand on his feet. Otherwise, without grace, he always changes and always falls. So be a man and don’t be afraid at all.
  
 Do you see how that brother you wrote about endured the temptation? You, too, should do likewise. Acquire a brave spirit against the temptations that come. In any case, they will come. Forget about what your despondency and indolence tell you. Don’t be afraid of them. Just as the previous temptations passed by the grace of God, these, too, will pass once they do their job.
  
Temptations are medicines and healing herbs that heal our visible passions and our invisible wounds. So have patience in order to profit every day, to store up wages, rest, and joy in the heavenly kingdom. For the night of death is coming when no one will be able to work anymore. Therefore, hurry. Time is short.
  
You should know this too: a victorious life lasting only one day with trophies and crowns is better than a negligent life lasting many years. Because one man’s struggle, with knowledge and spiritual perception that lasts one day, has the same value as another man’s struggle, who struggles negligently without knowledge for fifty years.
  
Without a struggle and shedding your blood, don’t expect freedom from the passions. Our earth produces thorns and thistles after the Fall. We have been ordered to clean it, but only with much pain, bloody hands, and many sighs are the thorns and thistles uprooted. So weep, shed streams of tears, and soften the earth of your heart. Once the ground is wet, you can easily uproot the thorns.
— Saint Joseph the Hesychast
(source)
  

St. Joseph the Hesychast (source)

  

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

A Prayer for Cancer Patients

Icon of the Theotokos "Pantanassa" ("Queen of All"), also known as "The Healer of Cancer" (source)

  

An Orthodox Prayer for Cancer Patients,

from the Cell of Elder Gabriel the Athonite,

Approved by the Orthodox Church of Greece
  

Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who rules over the spirits of affliction and health for those who call upon You with fervor of heart, and who with faith in You have emptied themselves, hearken to us sinners, along with those afflicted with the dangerous illness of cancer, and who have been seized from among us, and who persist in longstanding and painful illness, our fathers, brethren and children, full of deep sorrows and pains, and who, unable to flee from their death, entreat everyone [to pray for them]. O Lord, through Your illumining and sanctifying Spirit, guide in medical science those who are seeking to discover and use the good medicine and revealing therapy. Grant strength to those who are suffering, and patience and relief from their pains, bestowing on them every healing of soul and body, through the intercessions of our Most-blessed Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Life-giving Spring, whose waters in the queen of cities [Constantinople] healed the passion of cancer, of our Father among the Saints Parthenios, Bishop of Lampsakos, of the holy, glorious and wonderworking Unmercenaries, of the holy, glorious Great Martyr Panteleimon, [of St. Nektarios of Pentapolis, or other Saints desired to be commemorated, etc.] and of all Your Saints. Amen.
(source)
  

St. Parthenios of Lampsakos, among the Saints whose prayers especially help cancer patients (source)

   

Picture documenting "Great Helpers Against Cancer", or wonderworking Saints whose prayers especially help those suffering from this affliction, including: The Most-Holy Theotokos Pantanassa ("The Healer of Cancer"), Sts. Nektarios of Aegina, Ephraim of Nea Makri, Parthenios of Lampsakos, Patapios of Thebes, John Maximovitch, Anastasia of Rome and John the Russian (source)

   

Icon depicting the Holy Hierarchs and Wonderworkers: Sts. Luke of Simferopol, Nektarios of Pentapolis, and John of San Francisco (source)

   

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

St. Gregory Palamas: "This is the Festival of the virgin birth!"

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

The Nativity of Christ (source)

  

"This is the Festival of the virgin birth! Our address must be exalted therefore in accordance with the greatness of the feast, and enter into the mystery, as far as this is accessible and permissible, and time allows, that something of its inner power might be revealed even to us. Please strive, brethren, to lift up your minds as well, that they may better perceive the light of divine knowledge, as though brightly illuminated by a holy star. For today I see equality of honour between heaven and earth, and a way up for all those below to things above, matching the condescension of those on high. However great the heaven of heavens may be, or the upper waters which form a roof over the celestial regions, or any heavenly place, state or order, they are no more marvellous or honourable than the cave, the manger, the water sprinkled on the infant and His swaddling clothes. For nothing done by God from the beginning of time was more beneficial to all or more divine than Christ’s nativity, which we celebrate today. The pre-eternal and uncircumscribed and almighty Word is now born according to the flesh, without home, without shelter, without dwelling, and placed as a babe in the manger, seen by men’s eyes, touched by their hands, and wrapped in layers of swaddling bands. He is not a spiritual creature coming into being after previously not existing; nor flesh which is brought to birth but will soon perish; nor flesh and mind united to form a rational creature, but God and flesh mingled unconfusedly by the divine Mind to form the existence of one theandric hypostasis, who entered the Virgin’s womb for a time. By the good pleasure of the Father an the co-operation of the Spirit, the Word who transcends being came into being in this womb and by means of it, and now He is delivered from it and born as an infant, not loosing but preserving the signs of virginity. He is born without suffering, as He was conceived without passion, for as His mother was shown to be above the pleasure of passion when she conceived, so she is above grievous pains when she gives birth. “Before the pain of travail came upon her, she escaped it” as Isaiah says (Isaiah 66.7 LXX), and she brought forth in the flesh the pre-eternal Word. Not only is His divinity inscrutable, but the manner in which He was united with the flesh is past understanding, His condescension unsurpassable, and the human nature He assumed divinely, ineffably sublime, and so far above all thought and speech, that it does not admit of any comparison with creation. Even though you see in the flesh the child born to the Maid who knew no husband, He is still beyond compare. It says, “He is fair in beauty beside the sons of men” (Psalm 45.2 LXX). It does not say “fairer” but simply “fair”, so as not to compare incomparable things: the nature of God Himself to that of mere men..."
-Excerpt from the Homily on the Nativity of Christ by St. Gregory Palamas

(source)
  

The Nativity of Christ (source)

  

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

"She who loved Christ, the most beautiful..."

St. Paraskevi the Great Martyr (source)

  
She who loved Christ, the most beautiful, and through purity, was herself made beautiful in soul, and through all kinds of pains and trials approached Him as a spotless bride. Therefore, He made you worthy to dwell within His bridal chamber in the heavens, where you ever entreat Him, O All-praised Paraskevi, on behalf of those who honor you.
-Kathisma from Matins for the feast of St. Paraskevi the Great Martyr

(source)

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

St. Ephraim visiting and healing the hospitalized woman

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

St. Ephraim of Nea Makri the Wonderworker (source)

 
Sister M. from the sacred Monastery of Attica send the following letter to Makaria, Mother Superior of the Sacred Monastery Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in the Amomon Mountain (Nea Makri), Attica:
"I suffered amnesia, after a severe depression. I was like a vegetable and I was admitted to the Aeginition hospital in 1982 for a few days. I was unconscious not knowing that I was sick in the hospital. Being in this hopeless situation, I suddenly felt the presence of a Monk. He was tall, thin, pale, and ascetic exactly like he is in his holy Icon. From that moment, I realized that I was in a hospital room. This Monk approached me with an afflicted smile, sat on my bed, and stared at me without saying anything.

Suddenly, he said: "What is your problem, my child?"

"I don't know." I answered.

He said, "Why M. did they bring you here? They should have taken you first to Saint Raphael; the Saint was going to cure you and then bring you to my home as they had promised."

I told him that I did not know where I was and who had brought me here. He said, "You must tell Mrs. L to tell Mr. H to take you from here and to bring you to my home because my child we, the Monks, should not be coming here because they make fun of us."

I asked him, "Where is your home and who is Mr. H.?"

He said, "You tell Mr. L, she knows I know H. very well."

"What should I tell her; who are you; what is your name?" I asked.

He said, "You tell H. that my name is Ephraim. He knows where my home is. They should take you quickly from here and bring you to my home." He then got up and blessed me. I kissed his holy hand; he smiled, and then disappeared. After that I felt inner strength and realized where I was, I fulfilled the Saint's commandments and came to his Holy Monastery.

The day after my pilgrimage to Saint Ephraim, I saw him cheerful in my dream and he told me, "Now M., you know me. When you went to my home, I was there."

"I didn't see you though," I said, "Where are you?"

He said, "I was near you and I heard you." He blessed me and disappeared.

Glorified be the name of the Lord and of our Saint Efraim who cured me. I will always thank him for his great benevolence.

The same sister got sick with catarrhal pneumonia in 1983, as she writes:
"One day in the presence of the other Nuns, awake I saw Saint Efraim as a Monk. He was tall, dark, think and pale. As he entered my cell, he said, "I need to sit down for a while to rest. I am very tired because all day long I was at the hospitals with patients who had asked for me. So I came here too, to see how you are doing."

"I suffer a lot, Father," I said, "I have terrible pain and I cannot breathe."

He said, "Yes, I know everything; have patience, Jesus Christ will win. I also suffered a lot. They tortured me fiercely."

"Why, Father, did they torture you?" I asked.

"For Jesus Christ, my child, he said, "They asked me to deny the Lord and because I didn't obey them they tortured me. Look," he said and put aside the cassock, he showed me a big wound from his stomach to his abdomen. The intestines were visible and all around it there was dry dark blood. He went on saying, "My love thought for the Lord made me strong despite all of the tortures. Jesus Christ won. That's why I am telling you, don't have fear of anything; Jesus Christ will win. O! My child there is nothing better than suffering for the Love of the Lord."

"Father," I said "you must be hurting a lot. That is why it would be good for you to go to Mrs. P and Mr. H. who respect Monks (they were my doctors) go to them Father and they will relieve you from all the pain."

He smiled and said, "My child I have suffered a lot, but now I don't. I told you the love of the Lord has won. Now my child, I must go, but I will come again." He blessed me, I kissed his hand and he left.
 

St. Ephraim of Nea Makri, the Great Martyr and Wonderworker of Christ (source)

 
A few days later, he came again and told me, "I have come to see how you are doing."

I told him that I still have a lot of pain and "because when I am near you, I feel relief, joy and inner calmness. Please take me near you to rest. I am very tired."

He said, "My child, it is not time yet, we still have to finish some things. Don't have fear, you are under my care. I told you to have patience." Thinking that he was also a doctor I asked him if he could help the other sick Nuns.

He said, "My child I don't have the medicine to cure them, but for the love of the Lord they should have something to struggle for. There isn't any other struggle if they don't suffer; how else will they show their love?"

His face looked familiar, so I asked him, "Excuse me, Father, have I seen you somewhere? You look very familiar to me."

He said, "Don't you remember me, I had come to the hospital. That's where we first met."

"And where do you live?" I asked.

"My home is Nea Makri."

"What is your name?"

"My name is Efraim."

I still didn't realize that he was Saint Efraim. He said, "I have to go my child because I have to visit other sick people too. I will come again." he blessed me, I kissed his hand and he left.

The next day at the same time, he came again, and he told me, "Ah! My child, you are very, very sick. If this condition continues you will not last. So please tell Mr. D., your doctor, to give you a bigger dose of the medicine you are taking. It will help you."

I asked him if he knew my doctor and he said, "I know him very well, but he does not know me. That's why you will tell him to come to my home, so that he can get to know me. When you recover, you should come and clean my home because the sisters need spiritual support. You will be joyous when you will come."

Many days later, he came and said, "I was not going to come my child, but it was necessary for me to come and tell you that I have to do something to cure you otherwise you will have problems with the [Eldress] Mother." He then took out of his pocket a small box and gave me a teaspoon of medicine saying "I give you this so you'll regain your strength and get out of bed." With the cross he was holding, he blessed me, I kissed his hand, and he left. From that moment on, I was healthy again and got up"
 
Excerpt from the book: Visions and Miracles of the Great Martyr and Miracle-Worker Ephraim Neophanoys, Volumes A&B.
 

St. Ephraim of Nea Makri (source)

 

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life!

Truly, the Lord is risen!

Elder Ephraim of Arizona on Love and Truth

(source)

  
"Go to psychiatric hospitals and see how much the people’s souls suffer.
And we, the so-called ‘healthy’ ones, are called to never forget these people!
These people should not be left out of our prayer and care! Let us ask God to send them patience, relief, healing.
We must carry our brethren’s suffering!
If we don’t do that then we don’t have love!
If we forget them then we are outside the love of God!
God tries them in order to bring them into His Kingdom, and He asks us for our support. If they are locked up there, it does not mean we have to abandon them too! Because we can also be there tomorrow!
Let’s think how many people are in the agony of death! Their life is judged and they are examined by their conscience! And they say, ‘What is going to happen now?’
This pain, this agony should become ours!
And then, God, Who searches the reins and the hearts, will remember this love, will seal it and will return it to you!
He will answer, not only in the afterlife, but also in this life, there will be a time when we will also reach a hardship… and He will help us, He will enlighten other people to pray for us, as we did.
We reap what we sow!
Sow wheat, and you will reap wheat!
Sow tares, and you will reap thorns!
The earth gives the farmer back according to the seeds he sows!
Even more, God, the living God, who searches the hearts and the reins, who knows the hidden things of people, He will repay with justice."
(source)
  

(source)

  
"Therefore, having the eyes of our soul open, let us see the Truth!
This is the truth! Let us not be deceived!
When we hold the truth, we are not afraid!
Pilate asked Christ, “Who are you?” [see John 18-19] and many more, like: “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”.
And Christ answered to him: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above”.
“For this cause came I… that I should bear witness unto the truth”. Pilate asked Him, “What is truth?”
And then, Pilate left! Why?
Because he was not worthy to hear Who is the Truth.
One need to be worthy in order to know the Truth.
And He says “The truth will make you free”, from lies and deceit.
When the eyes of the soul will be opened, one will see the truth!
And what is the truth? It is what we say: that we must love our neighbor in a correct way! Not out of force, not with microbes, parasites, or self-interest!
Today, however, mankind needs a Christian and Orthodox truth and love.
We do not love as we should! If we loved correctly, it would have been seen from our deeds!
Our deeds show what our life is like and what our thoughts are about.
That is why, in our hidden work – any Christian must have a hidden spiritual work – we should not miss the essential element called: uninterested and sincere love for our brethren! Not only for the living, but also for the departed!
And the pain of the sick and desperate, and the pain of the one condemned to the judgment of God should become our pain also!
And when it will become our pain, God will heal us!
If you cover for someone, God will cover you! Allow injustice for yourself, but never do injustice! Defeat evil with good!
This is the evangelical law!"
-Transcribed and translated excerpts from two talks by Elder Ephraim of Arizona
(source)
  

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

Photios Kontoglou on Panagia as the Humble Queen

The Most-holy Theotokos and Christ surrounded with Angels depicted in the wonderworking icon of Panagia Pantanassa (Queen of All) treasured by Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos (source)

  
"Panagia is the spiritual adornment of Orthodoxy. For us Greeks [and for all peoples], she is the pained mother, the consolation, the protector, who stands beside us in every circumstance.

"In every part of Greece are built countless churches and monasteries, palaces to this humble Queen, and a multitude of chapels in the mountains, the fields, the islands, that are fragrant from her virginal and spiritual fragrance.

"Within each of these is found her ancient and honored icon with her dark hair and golden face, which receives all of the tears of our tortured faithful, because we have no one else to help us except Panagia: 'we who sin have no one else, who intercedes for us before God, praying endlessly, in ills and all dangers, for us who are laiden with our many sins and mistakes' (Paraklesis to the Theotokos).
  
"The beauty of the Panagia is not a bodily beauty, but spiritual, because where there is pain there is also found holiness, there alone is spiritual beauty. Bodily beauty brings bodily excitement, but spiritual beauty bring contrition, respect and pure love. This is the beauty which our Panagia has.
  
"And this beauty is depicted in her [Byzantine] icons which pious men fashion, who fast and chant and are found with contrite heart and spiritual purity.
  
"In the face of Panagia are depicted this mystical beauty which attracts like a magnet pious souls and brings them silence and consolation."
-Photios Kontoglou (+1965)
  
(source)
  

Forgive me, and may the Lord forgive us all and grant us a blessed Lent!

  

Most-holy Theotokos, save us!

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!

Elder Nikon of Mount Athos on the Mystery of Pain

(source)

   

This is a wonderful talk by Fr. Nikon of Mount Athos on the nature and mystery of pain in our lives, with English subtitles. As there are so many people every day who are aching in body and heart and soul, may we turn to our Lord Who is the ultimate balm for our wounds, in this life and unto eternity, using all the tools He gives us for our healing and consolation.

   

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