"Let us see what plans God has!" (Archim. Christoforos, Abbot at Monastery Grigoriou of Mount Athos )

Excerpt from the speech of the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory of Mount Athos, Archimandrite Christoforos, to the brothers of the Holy Monastery.

Now, you see, we have this case with the coronavirus, because of which there is a commotion all over the world. We must trust in God. Many scenarios are heard. But do not trust everything you hear, because people have their plans. But God also has His own plans. Above all is Christ. The Lord of life and death is Christ. The Lord of history is God; not men.

People can say what they want, plan what they want. And neither America nor Russia nor China will save us; nor anything else in the world; only God will save us. Let us not get involved in these "gears" of people's plans. Let us see what plans God has. To get involved in them, to interfere, in those that God wants for us. And what does God want from us? God wants our repentance!

According to Saint Barsanuphius, all these trials are made because of our sins. It does not happen by chance. And the causes of sin are man's choice. We do not have the right choice, the right will. Because we do not do the will of God but do the will of the flesh, that is why God intervenes many times in history. We read in the Old Testament that when the Jews departed from the law of God, God allowed the neighboring tribes to fight and defeat them. When they returned to God, although they were few, they won.

God is shaking us a little now, to wake us up. Not to see what each other is doing, but to see what we need to do, to help ourselves and to help the situation. It is not useful to dwell on what we are doing, fathers, but on what we ought to do, for God allows us this trial.

So what God requires of us is to look at ourselves. Our choice is not right, because if we have the right choice, God will find a way to help us. Know this, fathers. Above all, keep this in mind: What God asks of us in each case. And what God asks of us is to return to Him. Let us all return. Nothing else.

And when we return, a part of the Church returns and little by little the whole Church is corrected. Because, if we pay attention to "what one does and what the other does", while we do worse than them, because we criticize people, then what is the benefit? We do not benefit anyone. There is no profit when we deal with others. Because neither we nor they benefit, but rather we are harmed. But this is not how the Church can proceed.

I said all this on the occasion of the issue of the coronavirus, so that you do not listen to the various scenarios that are said here and there, because we do not know what will happen. Be that as it may, the Antichrist will come, as the Church has said. But we do not know when it will come. Let us be ready. Besides, if the Antichrist comes, what does it matter to us? Above all is Christ. That is, what is the Antichrist above Christ? Because in the end Christ will win.

People's plans will not win. If we believe in God, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Do not be confused and upset. Only repent. To have proper repentance and return to God. Let's look into this. And if we do not humble ourselves, God's mercy cannot come into our lives.

I see that many people have benefited. They pray, they pray to God, they study, they come to consciousness. They say: "God punishes us, because we did not make good use of what we had in our lives." Those who are in a good spirit will benefit. And I believe that through this evil something good will come out, at least for those who are in a good spirit. Through this "the demonic rain will come and the divine sunshine".

So don't worry, fathers. We have our goal. We will fight for what we have to do "every day", because tomorrow is not in our hands. We have today. How will we work today? Let's look into this. Do not think about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

When tomorrow comes, that day will be today again. So if we learn to work properly every day, we will work properly all our lives. Whereas, if we let the day pass in vain and think, what will happen after five and ten and twenty years, then we are not going to do anything in our life and we will leave this world without having taken anything with us…