Archive for category: Clerical Articles

I cannot forget a teacher I knew in my childhood. May he be in good health, anywhere he would be!

So, I remember that once we discussed about how important is not to keep within ourselves resentments and to try to get rid of that.

And he made us see this in practice.

• Tomorrow, he told us, everyone of you must bring at school a plastic bag and a small sack with potatoes.

We looked at him dumbfounded, but we had learnt that he did not joke with such matters. So, the next day everybody had what he asked.

• Every time when you decide not to forgive someone, take a potato, write on it that person’s name and put it in the plastic bag.

It did not pass long time and some of the bags were quite heavy. He also told us that anywhere we would go, we had to carry with us that bag. On the road, in the car, at school, at shopping, everywhere.

Do you understand why he did this?

In this way he wanted to show us that we should not forget about the weight we were carrying. We should have become aware of it in every moment.

To have it with us in places that are somehow…the way they should be. Just imagine to see someone having a bag full of potatoes at the birthday of a friend!

Imagine it too that many of these potatoes have begun to decay. In order to remind us the respect we deserve for the refuse and pain from within ourselves, when we don’t want to forgive.

Many times we think that by forgiving our neighbor we make him a favour. I would dare say that it’s quite the opposite: we make this favour to ourselves. Because we get rid of an unnecessary weight.

Therefore, next time when it would be difficult for you to forgive someone, remember: „Isn’t your bag heavy enough?”.

„We called this shepherd who went to heaven, Mavrogheni, (Black Beard), because he had a black beard and lived away from the world with his wife and sheep. And he went down in the village only when he had to sell the cheese and buy what he needed”, Procopie began to say.

            „One day, while he was in the village for his business, he went to the church to light a candle, cause he was a God fearing, kind hearted man. In the church, the priest was speaking to the villagers, telling them about the right path of God, that leads us straight to heaven if we don’t swerve to the right nor to the left. We must go straight ahead and be compassionate with every man when he is in need. This meaning we should have a kind heart and be merciful, cause that’s what God does himself, being merciful with everyone, helping them live and go forward. And He dearly loves the one He sees that does the same like Him and takes him to heaven, where is never ending life.

            This is how the priest spoke and this is how it must be, in my opinion. Our Church tells no lies. And why would it tell?”.

            We all listened to the humble man, who was speaking in his own idiom and repeteadly wiping his moustache – have no idea why – cause he didn’t show any difficulty in expressing himself genuinely and confessing his faith.

            My friend, who had got elated, during a short break made by  Procopie while telling the story, asked him:

• And what happend afterwards? How did he go to heaven?

„When he went back to his hut, he gladly told his wife this good news, adding that the next day he would go to meet God. And this is what he did.

The morrow he took some bread and cheese with him, bade farewell to his wife and started for heaven. He took the straight path and walked over plains, without  swerving to the right or to the left, exactly how he was told by the priest.

In the evening he lied down under a tree and slept and the next day he continued  his way to heaven.

He ate all the bread and cheese he took with him and continued to walk on the third and on the fourth day. He climbed a mountain, then descended from another. On the fifth day he starved and thought what he could do to find something to eat. While climbing a mountain that was ahead, he saw on the other side a monastery. He continued his journey, rather dragging his feet than walking and the monastery being in his way, he reached the gate and knocked. They opened for him and took him to the church, telling him to wait there until they brought him something to eat.

Remaining alone, he looked around at the holy icons and marvelled. They all seemed alive to him, only they didn’t speak. When he turned his gaze and saw Christ, naked and full of blood, crucified on the Holy Cross, he cried:

• Alas, poor young man, they hurt him, bastards! And they are still keeping him crucified!

In that moment, a monk brought him some food, put it in the church porch and told him to eat”, continued Procopie. „But when he entered the church, the monk heard him talking with the Crucified One and that’s why he asked him:

• Were you talking to someone, brother?

Black Beard, suspecting the monk was one of those who crucified Him, did not say a word. After the monk left, he called the Crucified One:

• Hey, young man, can you get down from there and come to share together the food that it was brought? Shall I come and help you get down?
• No, I can do it on my own. Here I come!

So, the Crucified One descended, sat down beside the shepherd, ate and started to talk with him. The shepherd proposed to the Crucified One to accompany him on his way to  God.

• Do you want to take you with me? God is kind and will have mercy on you and will put you in heaven too. That’s why I’m going to Him. What do you say? Are you coming with me?

The Crucified One did not have the time to answer, cause He heard the monk coming back. So he hurriedly climbed back on the Cross and remained there with open arms. Getting in, the monk said to the shepherd:

• Don’t tell me you were not talking to anyone. I’ve heard you with my own ears. Say, who were you talking to?

At the beginning the shepherd was afraid, hesitated, but in the end he told the monk that he talked to the Crucified young man, being moved with compassion for Him and called Him down to eat together. Then he said to the monk:

• Do not persecute me, holy father, cause I want to go to heaven. The priest from our village told us to go on the straight path and have a merciful heart. Do you get that? That’s why I felt sorry for that young man and called Him to take a piece of bread. Did I do anything wrong?
• No, no! You did right! You should always have compassion for the ones in need, answered the monk, amazed when hearing what he was told by the shepherd.

He left him and ran to the abbot of that monastery and told him everything he saw and heard.

And the abbot came right away in the church with all the monks and they all made bows before the shepherd who had eaten with Christ the Crucified. Then asked him to say a good word for them to God, when he would meet Him.

• If I see God, I will tell Him about you. But why are you keeping that young man crucified? Take Him down to eat and get dressed, cause he is naked and hurt. And if you don’t want that, I will take Him with me.

The monks were stunned seeing Black Beard’s kindness and innocence. And after they gave him everything necessary, they accompanied him for a while on the straight path he was walking. Then they stopped and saw that the man was not walking on earth  but over it, till he disappeared from their sight.

This kind man, in my opinion, reached heaven for sure, because he had compassion for all the wounded, just like God. I am not literate, to recount nicely, but I remember my grandfather, Haralambie, told us that everything you do in this life, you would be done the same in the other. And I believe it.

This is the story I’ve heard”.

From the book ~Heaven Loving People~ by P. M. Sotirhou, Astir Publishing House.

Freedom is not gained unless we free ourselves of tangles and passions. And this is what our Church does; this is our joy; this is everything for us. This is what  hodiernal man is looking for. And he takes poisons and drugs so that he enters the world of joy, but this is a false joy. He feels something in that moment, but the next day he is broken.

One it consumes him, crushes him, burns him, while the other, the devotedness to Christ, it enlivens him, it gives him mirth, it makes him ejoy life, feel power and greatness.

It is a high craft to sanctify your soul. Man can sanctify himself anywhere. Even in Omonia he can sanctify himself, if he wants it. In your work, whatever that might be, you can become saints. By gentleness, patience, love. Make a good new start every day, by a new disposition, with enthusiasm and love, prayer and silence. Do not suffer from stress and make your chest feel pain, but work with watchfulness, simply, without torment, with mirth and  jubilation, with good disposition. Only in this way the divine grace will come.

All the unpleasant things that lie in your soul and bring you stress, may become pretexts for worshipping God and would stop exhausting you. Trust in God. It is no need to coerce yourself exceedingly, let all your exertion be to look towards the light, to conquer light. And thus, instead of being subdued by sadness, which is not from the spirit of God, you better subdue yourself to the doxology of God. Sadness proves that we don’t entrust our life to Christ.

Communion with Christ, when is made simply, gently, without coercion, it chases the devil away. Satan does not leave with constraint and exertion, but with gentleness and prayer. He recedes when he sees that soul despises him and turns lovingly towards Christ. The devil cannot stand to be despised, because he is supercilious. When you insist, the evil spirit notices this and tantalizes you. Do not concern about the devil nor pray to see him leave, cause the more you pray to see him leave, the stronger he will grasp you. The devil must be despised. Do not fight him directly. When you fight grudgingly against the devil, then he attacks you like a tiger, like a beast. When you shoot bullets in him, he throws grenades at you. When you throw him a bomb, he throws you a missile. Do not look at  the evil, look at God, throw yourself in His arms and move forward.

The humble one is aware of his inner state and no matter how bad that would be, he does not lose his temper, nor his composure. With the selfish one, who has feelings of inferiority, it happens quite the contrary. At the beginning he resembles the humble one, but when someone upsets him, he loses his peace immediately, gets annoyed and disturbed.