My Elder always advised us about the great importance of obedience: The disciple who contents his Elder, contents God!` When I heard this counsel of my ElderI made the purpose of my renunciation at the world and of my life lived near him to apply with all the power of my soul this patristic advice. I did not think of anything else day and night only to content him, not in words, but with my deeds, with my living.
And when the time came for my Elder to go to the other world, to the blessed afterlife, in order to please him and ascertain my soul I asked him timidly how pleasant my living was for him.
I was ashamed to ask him about his mystic life because I respected him very much. But this time when he was about to die, I took courage and asked him:
`Geronda, did I content you?`
As you contented me, may God content you!` And when you leave this life, if I find the daring, I`ll come before your death to ascertain you and be by your side. For me that was a great gift, because I believed and still do believe that he found a great daring since I knew that his living was extremely holy.
Excerpt from the book The Art of Salvation published by Evanghelismos.
