How to find the Kingdom of Heaven by St. Innocent of Moscow

Saint Innocent of Moscow (Veniaminov) explained to his parishioners how to find the way toThe Kingdom of Heaven, in parables.

Imagine that, unexpectedly, you suddenly find yourself the sole heir of a wealthy distant relative. Before his death, this relative bequeathed to you his luxurious dacha on the top of a picturesque mountain.

Loving his solitude, this relative did not build a road to his dacha, but rather walked there himself along a path. To help you take possession of the dacha, he left you a map of the mountain, marking the necessary path on it. Thus, to reach the bequeathed dacha, you must follow the path marked by your loving relative.

Something similar must be done for us who wish to reach the heavenly abode prepared for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We must thoroughly understand the path that leads there, how not to lose our way, what to beware of, and so on.

Our map is the Holy Scriptures and Orthodox books; the foresters are the shepherds of the Church, whose duty it is to assist the faithful and guide them toward paradise. Provisions are God's grace, strengthening our spiritual strength.

Perhaps in places the path leading to paradise will prove narrow, overgrown with bushes, and difficult to navigate, while other paths will seem wider and more comfortable. But it's best not to trust appearances. The Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles repeatedly warned that only one path, the one indicated in the Gospel, leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Father Herodion, the fool for Christ of the Mount Athos desert of Kapsala

For a long time I had heard about Father Herodion. The miracle worker, the saint of the Mount Athos desert of Kapsala.

From scattered sources I collected a few poor details of his life which I offer to pious Christians so that they may know that even in these last times, God did not abandon us, but gave us strong supports on earth and ardent ambassadors in heaven.
He was born in 1904 in Romania in the province of Ordasest. His father was called Petros Manduf, his mother Helen. They were poor but honest people. Petros worked in the fields, grazed his few sheep, that is, he ate his bread in the sweat of his brow. God gave him a son, John. He was an innocent and honorable young man. Tall, burly, with bright blue eyes. He helped his father with the sheep and they cultivated the fields together. John had an intense religious nature. He was a desert-loving character. He liked to hear stories about great hermits who practiced in caves and in small huts they made from tree trunks in the Carpathian Mountains and his heart burned to imitate them. The elders told him that in Greece there is a mountain, like a prefecture in which there are only monasteries, hermitages and poor huts where for about a thousand years only ascetics have lived. The first hermit of the Holy Mountain was called Peter. He was a general and friend of the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Phocas. The hermit Peter lived as an ascetic in a cave and tortured his body a lot. He was tormented by demons a lot.
The Mother of God appeared to him in a vision full of light and said to him. Be patient in the snares and arrows of the enemy, my chosen one. This mountain is mine. I asked my Son for it, and he gave it to me. Here will come to dwell those who want to dedicate themselves to God. As long as they live, they will have my protection. I will feed them and sustain them. They will lack nothing. And when they leave this world, I will give them the kingdom of God. I will make it known and glorious to the whole world. Kings and princes will come here to worship. No woman will set foot here. I alone will reign, no king or prince will reign here.
John's heart was broken. How will I manage to get to the Holy Mountain? By what means? In what way? Won't my parents look for me? Won't they find me? But John decided to do it. So he leaves his home, comes to the Black Sea, finds a ship, and with God's help, comes to Mount Athos. But he wants to see, to study, to understand life here. So he becomes a worker at the Karakalou Monastery. He works in the vegetable gardens, in the olive groves. In every job. Always willing, always smiling, always happy. This joy is his characteristic and accompanies him throughout his life. Then he decides to join a monastic order. First he practices asceticism in the monastery of Saint Dionysius. What attracted him here? The strict formality, the zealous ascetics and the relics of the Saints. Here, a precious treasure, the right hand of John the Baptist is preserved. The hand with which he baptized our Lord Jesus Christ. But John wants to know and live in other monastic monasteries. So he leaves this holy monastery, and comes to the monastery of Philotheos.

Here he stays for quite some time. He trains himself in spiritual warfare. He accepts the arrows of the enemy and responds like a brave soldier. His heart becomes a shooting range. An unbroken battlefield. On one side, the demons. They fight him with all their might, with all their hatred. And on the other, the heroic fighter. He does not fight the enemy with visible weapons. The war is not visible. It is invisible. He fights him with spiritual weapons. Fasting, patience, silence, humility, vigilance, study of the word of God. But especially he fights him with prayer. For the monk, prayer is his first subject. If he succeeded in prayer, he succeeded in his goals. If by chance in prayer, the enemy has made great breaches in the castle of his soul, and he must rush to gain the lost ground. Here on Mount Athos, the monks pray with a simple prayer, which has become a true science. They pray with the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.” Macarius the Egyptian asked the angel. “How should we monks pray?” And the angel answered him: “If the monk is literate, let him read the psalter. If he is illiterate, let him say the simple prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.” However, many literate people prefer to pray with this simple prayer, rather than with the psalter.
The monk says this prayer throughout his life. This prayer is like the still, gentle rain. The still rain slowly waters the earth and the earth bears fruit. The torrential rain does not help the earth bear fruit. It washes away the soil, the fertilizer, the seeds.
Another example. When hot water is always circulating in the radiators, the entire room is heated. If the hot water stops circulating in the radiator, the entire room is cooled. When the sweetest name of Jesus Christ always circulates in the heart, the heart is warmed with divine warmth, and through the heart, every cell, every member of the body is warmed, purified from every impure thought, from thoughts of hatred, grudge, revenge, envy, jealousy, pride, arrogance, arrogance, ambition, greed, gluttony, gluttony, sleepiness, sloth, apathy, laziness, curiosity, multitasking, sadness, melancholy, agitation, nervousness, impatience and every passion, small or great. But our ascetic thought that here in the monastery with so much noise, the soul cannot cultivate heartfelt prayer, so he left the monastery and came to the desert of Kapsala, in which many monks and many Romanians lived a hesychast life, with absolute silence, isolation, fasting, and they also had suitable circumstances for mental or heartfelt prayer. With great care he surveyed the huts, the sketes, the small entourages and his soul rested in a very isolated cell, of Agios Dimitrios, forty minutes away from the road. It was completely deserted, uninhabited, half-ruined. The windows were damaged, the doors too, the metal sheets too. When the wind blew, it whistled inside the cell, when it snowed, the cell was always covered in snow. Father Paisios, knowing the condition of his cell, sent three of his subordinates to fix it.

There he lived for forty whole years. Alone. Very lonely. Deserted. An unapproachable hermit. He did not take care of himself at all. He never washed himself, He never took care to find a good dress. He did not take any care for food. Fathers from the neighboring cells, Greeks and Romanians, left him blessings, and with them he was sustained.
Forty years of studying God.
Forty years of heartfelt prayer.
Forty years he fought with the elements of nature and with demons.
From a recluse and a hesychast, he became a fool according to God. Crazy according to God. A mischievous, a God-dishonoring man. He spoke the world's foolishness, nonsense, he made crazy gestures. He was not noble. To the curious, he was very abrupt. When he chased them away and they wouldn't leave, he would curse them.
In the last years of his life, they realized what a treasure he was. What a treasure he hid. What insightful and prophetic gifts he hid and many visited him and he condescended and accepted them.
One says. We bought macaroni, biscuits, pears, peaches, tomatoes and went to see him.
He accepted us. "Oh, thank you, good fathers. Thank you very much." We gave him our gifts. He cuts the biscuits into small pieces and throws them in the air. "For the birds to eat." Then, he breaks the macaroni into pieces and throws them in all directions. Then, he takes the pears, peaches, tomatoes and throws them against the walls of his cell. "We needed them," they said.

 the Holy Elder of Herodion was young when he came to the Holy Mountain.

Inside, his cell was no worse. Spilled coffee and orange juice on the walls. On the floor, thirty centimeters high, discarded cans of all kinds, bottles of orange juice, ointments, and garbage of many kinds.
And his companions living peacefully and moving freely, without fear. Lizards, skunks, cockroaches, flies, mice. Of all kinds and all sizes.
And our good Herodion moving and living with them, the hermit and reconciled.
He had the gift of insight. "You, you are from Corfu," he says to one.
"You should go to Sykia," he says to another. To which fig tree, he wondered. Sykia was the name of his village.
Like Adam, before he sinned, he had power over the elements of nature, he commanded them and they disciplined him. A pious man once visited him and they talked for a long time in his cell. When the conversation was over and they went outside to see him off, he saw him melancholy. The reason was the cloudy sky. Our father noticed this and said to him. “I see you melancholy. Do you want me to disperse the clouds?” He raised his eyes to the heavens and gave the clouds an order: “disperse.” The clouds dispersed and the sun appeared warm. He asked again. “Do you want me to tell the earth to sprout flowers?” “No, no,” he said, terrified.
One afternoon, he had gone out into his rudimentary garden to plant beans. But it was drizzling. He looked up to the sky and said: “Stop.” And the rain stopped. When he had planted the beans, he looked up to the sky and said: “Now it rains.” And it began to rain.
They never saw him receive communion. Is that so?
Either an angel from heaven was giving him Holy Communion, as happened to the hermits who lived in the depths of the Egyptian desert, or he had received divine Grace so intensely that he did not need the Grace that the Mysteries provide.
In physical appearance he was stout, straight, with a little beard, here and there he had grown.
He had soft, natural and sympathetic features. Always smiling. His eyes were blue, large, bright. He was all radiant. Many times his face was illuminated by the divine light, and then you could not see him face to face.
When he grew old, Father Meletios, a Romanian by race, took him in and nursed him. When he fell asleep in the Lord on December 12, 1990, he buried him.
Father Meletios made him look great and gave him the name Herodion.
Saint Herodion was a disciple of Paul. A faithful disciple. He was ordained a presbyter and bishop and was appointed bishop of Neopatras. He was a zealot, for this reason the pagans and the Jews, after scolding him, cut off his head.
The reburial of the relics of Elder Herodion took place seven years later, and his holy casket is kept in the cell of Father Meletios.
Father Meletios is now over eighty-five, an imitator of Elder Herodion. He also imitates his folly. May
God, through the intercessions of our Holy Father Herodion, have mercy on our sinful soul and make us worthy of His heavenly kingdom and His heavenly blessings. AMEN.
A new element from his life.
A pious man visited him and gave him two icons. “Take them for your children.” “But I don’t have two children, I have one,” “Take them, take them.”… A year later, he had a second child.

Silent Prayer

Once, in a small village, there lived a woman named Maria.
Every day, before dawn, she would get up and pray in her small room. She didn't want anyone to see her prayers, because she believed that pure love needed no display.
Mary prayed for her son who had left for foreign lands, for her neighbor who was sick, for her friends who were going through difficulties.
Sometimes, she felt like her prayers were in vain, because no one knew them and no one seemed to hear them.
One night, as she was praying, she saw in her dream an Angel approaching her.
The Angel said to her:
"Do not think that your silent prayer goes unnoticed. Every word that comes from love touches the heart of God.
The hearts you pray for are slowly enlightened, even if you don't see it right away."
Mary woke up full of peace. She continued her silent prayers, but she no longer felt doubt or loneliness.
She understood that the love that one offers through the silence of one's heart has power greater than one can imagine.
And indeed, a short while later, her son found his way back home, the neighbor began to heal, and her friends felt relief, without ever learning about the prayer that Mary had dedicated to them.
Silent prayer made out of pure love has power.
God sees and hears even the prayers that are invisible to people, and the light of love touches the hearts we love, even if we do not see it directly.

Recent Miracle

PRAYER IN FRONT OF THE ICON OF SAINT NEKTARIUS

A few minutes before setting off on a long journey, I knelt before the icon of Saint Nektarios of Aegina and cried out from the depths of my soul: "Saint Nektarios, I am now going far away, please protect my family!"

I left...

That night, my wife dreamed: How a young monk entered our apartment and said quietly: "Take the icon of Saint Nektarios and place it next to the Virgin Mary where the lamp burns, it will protect you from today, it is with you."

When he told me the next day via SMS what he had dreamed, peace and tranquility spread to my soul. I continued my journey carefree...

Thank God for giving us Saint Nektarios, a quick helper and kind protector and healer to all who call upon him for help.

St. George Karslidis

In a village, a church was being built and everyone helped as they could. Anyone who had an animal used it to carry stones, and those who were old worked. There was also a very poor grandmother in the village who had nothing to give for the church.
Her soul ached for this, and as the animals carrying the stones passed by, she would gather grass and throw it to them to eat to gain strength.
When the temple was finished, they held the inauguration and wrote the name of the Bishop on an inscription.
But this is what happened: as soon as the name of the Despot was written and the inscription was placed, the next day they would find his name erased and the grandmother's name written.
This happened three times. Everyone was wondering and called the grandmother. When she went to the temple, they asked her:
– Grandma, what on earth did you do that your name is written on the plaque, while we have engraved the name of the Despot?
– Good? But what good can I do, my child, the poor thing?
But they insisted. Then the grandmother thought and answered them:
– I didn't do anything, my children. Only when I saw the animals carrying the stones for the temple, my soul burned because I couldn't offer anything, so I gathered grass and threw it to the animals.
And yet, these few herbs from grandma caught on as much as no one else's offering did, because it was genuine, humble, and secret.

A lady recounted the following shocking incident that marked her life when she was young:

A lady recounted the following shocking incident that marked her life when she was young:

"I was seven years old and it was Christmas Eve, we lived then, in a provincial town of Macedonia, in the black and terrible Occupation of '41, when the executions and massacres of innocent people were merciless and massive, the imprisonments, beatings and tortures terrifying, and hunger irritated everyone...

My family was very pious and even more pious were grandpa and grandma! People of prayer and almsgiving!

On Christmas Eve, my five-year-old sister woke up and asked me to accompany her out into the yard to use the toilet (at that time, toilets were outside, in the yards). There were six of us children and we all slept on the floor, on mattresses. There were no beds and feathers and quilts, like today...

Slowly, therefore, we went out of the room, into the small corridor towards the courtyard. Opposite was the room of grandfather and grandmother, but we were surprised, because we saw a bright light coming out of the cracks and the many openings of the shabby door.

We got closer and then, through the cracks, we saw our grandmother engulfed in flames! We immediately shouted: “Fire, fire, grandma is burning…”.

Of course, everyone woke up, as expected. Our parents ran first, who opened the door to grandma and grandpa’s room, looked inside, and then closed it gently and quietly. They then returned to our room, and our father said to us in a low voice:

“Don’t be afraid, my children, what you saw is not fire. It is the flames of the Holy Spirit that look like fire!! It is slowly disappearing!! This is how it always happens when grandma and grandpa pray, almost all night long!

If my children grandfather and grandmother, as well as who knows how many other unknown Christians, had not prayed so much, we would have been cut to pieces by the Bulgarian occupation troops... From such prayers and vigils, the Lord will never allow our Homeland and our Faith to be lost!

God's blessing comes when we give a blessing

 

Elder Savvas the Philotheusite had told me that during the great famine of 1917, the Iberians, seeing the monastery's storehouses empty, had reduced their hospitality. In fact, a stingy superior insisted and cut it off completely. Next, Christ would stop all His blessings. Then the Fathers began to starve and complain to Christ and the Virgin Mary that they were not taking care of their monastery. Unfortunately, they had not realized their mistake. One day, therefore, Christ appeared to the Monastery's Gatekeeper, as a poor man, and asked him for a little bread. The Gatekeeper sadly said to him: - We have nothing, my brother, and that is why we have cut off our hospitality. But wait a moment while I bring you this little piece that I have in my cell for myself.

He ran, went to his cell and brought him the bread he had for himself and gave it to him. But he saw the poor man's face shining. After the Poor Man took the bread, he said to the Doorman:

- Do you know why this misfortune came to the Monastery? Because you expelled two from the Monastery: the "give" and the "it will be given".

After that, he disappeared, scattering a light that dazzled the Doorman. The Doorman then lost his mind and, frightened, ran to the Superiors of the Monastery and told them the incident. At first, the Fathers racked their brains to remember which people they expelled. But then they understood that the poor man was Christ and they understood His Gospel words: "Give and it will be given to you".

They immediately repented of their mistake and as soon as they began to give from their surplus to the poor, God's rich blessings arrived.

Orthodox Parables and Stories: The Miracle of the Priest

One night a man came to a priest and asked him to hurry to bless to baptize his infant, which he had brought with him, who had suddenly fallen ill and was going to die.

So the priest got up from the bed went to him and immediately began to bless them for baptism. However when the priest prepared the water and the holy oil during service  the infant died before being baptized.

Then the priest took the infant and placed it before the baptistery and said: "I tell you, my fellow angel, with that authority which Christ has given us priests to bind and loose in heaven and earth, give the soul of this child back to its body until it is baptized; for it was not permitted to thee to receive it unbaptized. Our Lord Jesus Christ knows that I was not negligent at all, but from the moment when I woke up I immediately started to pronounce these Blessings of Baptism. Saying these things to the angel, the priest raised the infant and after baptizing it fell asleep again in the Lord.

Orthodox Parables and Stories: "The Night of Failure"

One story has it that the priest of a small town arrived at the temple to perform another evening service, but the time was passing and the people were not coming.
After a 15-minute delay, three children entered, after 20 minutes, two young people entered. So the priest decided to start the servie with all five.
Then a couple who sat on the last pews of the church entered.
When the priest preached and explained the Gospel, another half dirty man walked in with a rope in his hand. Frustrated somehow the priest finished the service with love and preached the word of God with enthusiasm and zeal.
However, as he was returning home at night, he was robbed and beaten by two thieves, who stole his briefcase with his Gospel and other valuables.
Arriving home he bandaged his wounds and thought of that day as the saddest day of his life, a failure in his ministry and the most fruitless day of my career. but... never mind, i do everything with God and for Him.
After five years, the priest decided to share this story with the parishioners in the church. When he finished telling the story, a couple in that parish stopped him and said, "Father, the couple sitting in the back was us."
We were on the verge of separation due to many problems and disagreements at our home.
That night we finally decided to break up, but first we decided to come to church for the last time as a couple and then everyone would go their own way.
Meanwhile there, we put aside the thought of divorce after listening to your sermon.
As a result, today we are here with our home and family.
As the couple spoke, one of the most successful businessmen who has helped into the lives of the people of this church waved and asked to speak too. And giving him the chance, the businessman said, "Father, I am the man who entered half-naked with a rope in his hand.
I was on the verge of bankruptcy, lost on drugs, my wife and kids had left the house because of my behavior. That night I tried to commit suicide but the rope broke so I went out to buy another one. When I went out on the road, I saw the church open, I decided to go inside even though I was very dirty and had a rope in my hand.
That night, your speech pierced my heart and I left here a changed man. Today I have quit drugs, my family came home and I became the most successful businessman in town.
At the entrance gate then the Deacon shouted:
"Father, let me also confess publicly, I was one of those thieves who stole your belongings.
The other died the same night while we were making our second robbery.
There was the Gospel in your briefcase. I read this every time I woke up in the morning. After reading all this, I decided to apply this to my life and join this church."
The priest was shocked and began to cry along with the congregants. After all, the night he considered a night of failure was the most fruitful of his ministry.

Orthodox Parables and Stories: "The Price of One Particle"

An instructive story from the life of St. Basil the Great -

A pious priest, a contemporary of St. Basil the Great, for various reasons got into debt, and these debts grew over time, and creditors began to bother the priest about the debt, which forced him to ask for help from one neighbor,a merchant friend who, having listened to his request, hands the priest 500 gold coins, with which he paid his debt, and in satisfaction of the merchant the priest promised to commemorate his name and relatives for health and repose at the proskomedia for the rest of his life.
The merchant expected that the priest would live a long time and pray for him and his relatives at every liturgy and thus satisfy his money.
The priest, however, managed to serve only one liturgy, at which he commemorated his benefactor and his relatives, and soon after this he fell ill and died after a long illness.
The merchant, having learned of the death of the priest, was very saddened and grieved over the loss of money, for only one liturgy was performed by the priest, which the merchant did not expect, for he counted on the many years of life of the priest and his prayers, for which he handed him 500 gold coins.
The merchant began to bother the deceased priest's mother to return the money to him, keeping it for herself for one liturgy.
The mother replied that she had no money, and if she had any, she had spent it during the priest's illness and now there was nothing left.
The merchant, not paying attention to the words of the mother, persistently demanded money and threatened to sue.
She turned to Basil the Great and told the saint what had happened.
Having listened to her, Basil the Great said: "I will serve the liturgy tomorrow, come to me together with the merchant and the scales, we will weigh one particle taken from the prosphora for the health and salvation of his relatives, and how much the particle weighs on the scales, that much gold the merchant will put on the other half of the scales and with that gold he will pay you for one liturgy celebrated by the deceased priest."
The mother went to the merchant and conveyed the words of Saint Basil.
The merchant rejoiced and went to the church the next morning, taking with him the scales and the gold.
St. Basil, performing the proskomedia, took out one particle for the health and salvation of the servants of God... and placed it on the scales, and ordered the merchant to place the gold on the other half of the scales.
No matter how much gold the merchant put in, one small particle outweighed everything, and the more gold the merchant put on the scales, the lower and lower sank the half on which the particle taken out by St. Basil the Great from the prosphora during the proskomedia was placed.
The merchant, seeing the great and gracious miracle, was overcome with fear and emotion and then asked forgiveness from St. Basil and the mother of the priest who had reposed in God and no longer demanded the debt.

Lessons on Misions

Someone had gone to St. Paisios and said to him:
"Elder, I want to go to Africa, to do a Mission and I'm getting ready...".
"And how are you getting ready?" asks the Elder.
“Well, elder,” he says: “I am learning their language well, because I have to tell them things they do not know, I am learning well their manners and customs, their lore and history, I am also learning some rudimentary knowledge of medicine. I'm also learning to swim..."
"What; Are you learning to swim? Why are you learning to swim?" St. Paisios asked in surprise.
And he answers him:
“For there in the village where I am going, in Africa, they have a sorcerer, who may stir them up against me, and I shall be forced me to run away. And just in case, if there is a river there, I need to swim...".
"No!", Saint Paisios tells him, "this is not how the Mission is done...
Listen, how it happens: You will become a Saint! You will go to Africa, you will meet that magician and you will say to him: "You see that dead man, resurrect him!". Of course, the magician will not be able to resurrect him. Then you will resurrect him! And the magician, seeing the miracle, will become a Christian! Thus, the magician who knows their language, their manners and customs, will then make all others Christians!"!!

What a Miracle of God we have

 A lady in her 50s comes to my church. She is a widow. She knows me from Facebook.

She says: "Father, you are different from on the phone. I ask: "how so? She says: "more alive."

She tells me that for 4 years she has suffered from terrible depression. She didn't leave the house for a year. She feared the presence, the scrutinizing eyes of people. It seemed to her that she was ugly, that she was deformed. Every laugh from a stranger she thought was her mockery. She was afraid to look in the mirror.

 - Father, I broke all the mirrors in the house. Loneliness hurts me terribly, but I can't stand the presence of people either. People hurt me, father. They are mean and sly and ridiculous and evil. They love to step on your feet.

 She hasn't confessed in four years. She was afraid and ashamed.

 - Madam, I say, the soul is like a garden. If you don't take care of it for 4 years, the weeds suffocate and kill all the flowers. In addition, some vipers, devils, are also nesting, threatening anyone with death.

 The woman nods her head in approval.

 I continue: - We need Christ like air, every moment. Otherwise we suffocate. We must always receive His Blood in the Eucharist, otherwise death digs new trenches and vast dungeons. Without God we die before death, we become dust and the dwelling place of demons.

 The woman looks blank, lost. It's already too much for her.

 I call it the release of sins. Instinctively, I kneel down next to her and hug her. She widens her eyes. She bursts into tears.

 - Father, no one has held me in their arms for years.

 I say:

 - God loves you so much that He died on the Cross for you, and now He suffers infinite longing. YOU MUST PRAY AGAIN.

 LET US CONSTANTLY TALK WITH HIM, WITH CHRIST-GOD.

 Ask His counsel in all things. SEE AND TASTE THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD.

 I give her a solid rule of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

 The woman leaves, turns from the door.

 - Father, I feel like I'm flying.

 I bless her once again.

 What a MIRACLE OF GOD WE HAVE, which we 

 DIE (ONCE)

 and RISE FOREVER.

 Prof. Lecturer Dr Ionel Istrati  School of Orthodox Theology  from Ovidius University  from KONSTANTA

I belong to God!!

Once, in a village, there was a grandmother, who every morning went out into the forest and gathered wood for her fire, and herbs to eat. One day, as she was returning from the forest, loaded with wood on her shoulder and grass on her apron, on the way she met Charontas.

"Hello and welcome, Charontas," Grandma says, unperturbed, "where are you going?"

"I'm coming for you", Charontas replies. "Come on, get ready for me to pick you up."

"Let me go home first, unload and get ready for the trip. But, to have a good question, like how do you want me to get ready?"

"As you wish," Charontas replies.

Then the grandmother goes home, lights the fireplace and puts the greens to boil. Then, she began to leaven bread and made bagels for forgiveness. Then she set a table and waited for the bread and greens to be baked.

Then Charontas appears again and asks her:

"Hey, are you ready, auntie?"

"I am waiting for the greens to boil, bake the bread and eat. Don't you want to sit down and have a bite to eat with me?"

"But... Don't you have a grudge against me, auntie, that I will take your soul?"

"No, why should I hold a grudge against you? Is my soul yours? It is the Lord's!!"!!

"And your body, where will you leave it in the grave?" asks Charontas

"Well, that's my business!" the grandmother replies. "I will hand it over to God and He will keep it for me. Have you seen where we put a cross on the graves?"

Just in time, the greens were boiled, she smelled the bread in the oven and the grandmother put down the food and put on the table two plates of greens and several slices of bread and sat happy to eat!

Charontas, however, was sad and did not want to eat...

"I don't like taking people who don't cry," he tells the grandmother.

"Can you tell me why?" asks the grandmother in wonder.

She adds: "What does it matter to you, whether they cry or not?"

"When people cry and mourn, before I take them, they are mine and I take them to hell. But when they are quiet, prayerful and meek, God takes them and takes them straight to Paradise."

"That's why you have a bad name and they're afraid of you," the grandmother tells him. "Eat a little to warm your soul, make your Cross, lest you stop punishing the world"!

Then Charontas could not stand the words of the wise and pious grandmother, he ran away from his evil, so he threw himself up and left, saying:

"I have lost you anyway. What am I sitting and loitering with you..."

The grandmother, then, carefree, continued her meal, praising God!!

Orthodox Parables and Stories: A miracle of the life of St. Gabriel Urgebadze

 

Once Father Gabriel sat quietly on a bench in the courtyard of the monastery. Suddenly he was approached by a beautiful woman with makeup and wearing tight pants. And she sat on Father Gabriel's knees, and kissed him, and said:

Father Gabriel, you are so beautiful. I'm a fan of yours ! I will come back to you again..... "

Stood stiff, didn't understand what was happening. Father Gabriel looked stoned. I thought someone sent this woman on purpose.

Father Gabriel listened to her for a long time, and did not interrupt her, then said:

"Come, Makwala, come again... "

When Makwala heard Fr Gabriel calling her by her name, Fr Gabriel suddenly stood up and ran towards the exit without looking back.

After that, Father Gabriel went into his cell and received no one all evening, and he prayed a lot in front of the icon of the Virgin Mary.

I thought if Makwala came back the next day, it would happen again. Makwala is back, but a miracle has happened:

She had nothing in common with the one that came yesterday:

She was wearing a long black skirt, she had a scarf on her head, and her eyes were crying. She stood at the door of Father Gabriel's cell and said with tears:

"Father Gabriel, I know you will not open the door for me. I know I'll never see you again, forgive me for my rudeness yesterday. Thank you for everything".

I'm blown away by this change. I couldn't understand everything right away, but now I see clearly that Father Gabriel performed an invisible miracle - he healed a perplexed woman.

The next day, I remembered, that yesterday, shortly before Makwala's arrival, Father Gabriel unexpectedly got up, entered his cell and closed the door. No doubt he predicted her arrival and didn't want to meet her.

Orthodox Parables and Stories: "I looked at him and could not believe my ears" The story of a miracle

Sometimes miracles happen in my life. And then I see clearly: someone great and unknown put his hand on it. Maybe an angel? I don't know ... I want to share such a miracle with you.

It was in the winter, late at night, in a terrible snowstorm. After painting the painting and washing the brushes, I was returning home from the workshop. I was in a hurry, because the family was waiting for me at home. But the blizzard was so strong, that I could see nothing even three paces away—it was dark, and the thick snow was thickening, swirling, and raging...

And so, reversing, my car hit something in the middle of a street. My stomach exploded. I came out. That's how it happened — I hit someone else's car.

It was a small green jeep, parked in the middle of the yard, covered in snow, which means it had been here for a long time. And how badly parked, immediately abandoned. I scratched his bumper, not much, but it was visible. And I see, that my tail light was broken.

I was walking, honking from the car. No one... I walked, I shouted, I called, maybe they will hear me, maybe they will look out the window? The snow swirled blinding my eyes. I call, but I'm shaking all over. And I thought, “Come on, now. Go away. It's his fault — why does he leave his car anywhere?' I got into my car and drove off.

I'm driving, but I feel very uneasy. And this is getting worse and worse. I've already crossed the avenue, but I ache inside. No, you can't do that I thought to myself. So I turn around and come back. I placed a violation notice and my phone on the windshield of the jeep. I went home tired, but already calm.

The next day, the phone rang. It was an old lady who introduced herself as the mother of the owner of this jeep.

— Oh, he always does that to me: he leaves the car in the middle of the yard. The neighbors were already complaining. He is a zoologist, he went on an expedition. Young, in a hurry, you know…

We met with this lady. I gave her fifteen thousand rubles for repairs. Then we left.

And this story would have been forgotten, if not for a wonderful sequel.

I used to go to Moscow in the summer. Suddenly, a friend of mine calls me. She has a problem, she urgently needs money, fifteen thousand. She's asking for help. I park, try to transfer to her card — something isn't working right... I call her.

— I'm sorry, the transfer is not possible. I can not help you.

I went further. And then at the traffic light, while braking, someone hits my rear bumper and breaks my rear tail lights and bumper.

It turned out that the young man who was driving rented the car and couldn't control the brakes.

— I'm sorry, this car is unfamiliar to me, this is my first time renting from an office, — he worries, and gives me the money, — yes, fifteen thousand, take it. I'm late ... let's not call the police, okay?

I hear him, but still he babbles, the poor fellow:

— And what indeed, turned out to be? I am in a hurry to get to the airport, I have already parked my car at home, I have such a green jeep. And I'm going on a mission, I'm a zoologist…

I was standing there looking at him and I couldn't believe my ears. I subtly asked:

— And your car, where is it parked?

— Yes, close to home, in the Dynamo area. There are artist workshops there too, you know?

— Yes. I am aware…

I even felt dizzy at that moment.

"Listen," I told him, "Don't give me the money." You can transfer them to this number if possible. And I dictated my girlfriend's phone number.

He made the transfer.

- Thank you, thank you! - he said, and grabbed the steering wheel again. — Sorry, I'm in a hurry!

Nice guy. Very abstract, but good.

I didn't tell him anything about the miracle. He was in a hurry so I didn't tell him.

But, did you understand what happened?

I hit his jeep and I paid exactly fifteen thousand rubles. And now he gave them back to me. At the right time, when my friend needed exactly that fifteen thousand.

It can't be a coincidence. This is a real miracle. This is the hand of an angel.

“Why did this happen? Probably to help my friend. Apparently, she really needed help.

And why did it happen to me? Maybe the angel decided to reward me like this? For my return to the jeep I hit?

But I think the main point is this: I was gifted this incident for you. So that I can now convey to people the main miracle: for us always, they always care from above. And sometimes they help us carefully.

And they smile at us from there, behind the clouds.

Yes, I told you. I hope you are smiling now too.

Anastasia Kovalenkova

Orthodox Parables and Stories: A miracle in a village in the Tambov region!

 

An image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared on the door of a barn in the village of Tambov.

The family bought an abandoned house in the village for demolition. The building slowly began to dismantle, the old door was removed and hung on the shed. And it hung for almost a year.

"The other day my daughter went out into the yard after the rain and saw the icon on the door - says the owner of the house Alexandra Shibina - she rushed to the face and began to kiss him, and then came running and tells me: we have a miracle in the yard - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared!".

The door was immediately removed and taken to the church in the village of Shekhman. The locals believe that the more people come to worship the shrine, the stronger the image appears. A second silhouette began to appear on the left. The face is not yet visible, but, according to experts, it is already clear that it is some kind of saint in the dignity of a metropolitan.

The restorer claims that it is a local saint, possibly St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Parishioners from neighboring regions come to the place of the miracle.

HOLY FATHER NICHOLAS, PRAY TO GOD FOR US! AMEN!

Thank God for everything!

Orthodox Parables and Stories: God hears our Prayers!

Once, a poor woman passed by a vineyard, which was full of delicious and ripe grapes. It was midsummer, so she stopped in front of the vineyard and as she was thirsty, she pondered:

"If only I had a bunch of these juicy grapes..."

At that moment, the owner of the vineyard appears on the street.

He greeted her and said:

"What are you looking at, my dear? Would you like a bunch of grapes?"

"Of course, I would!" she replied, "but I can't take."

"Don't worry," the landlord tells her. "I am the master of the vineyard and I will give you, wait for me."

He then enters the vineyard and gets lost in the tufted vines. She waited anxiously, but when she saw that the winegrower was late, she thought that he forgot about it and so she moved away from that place. After a while, the winegrower appears and finds that the woman was gone. But he saw her at the far end of the road, far away, and called for her to come back.

As soon as the woman returned, the winegrower told her:

"I'm sorry I'm late. But why did you leave? I was a little late because I wanted to choose the best bunches! Here, I brought you a full basket!"!

And he gave her the basket. The woman was ashamed, put her head down, took the basket, thanked the good winegrower and left!

This story hides a great lesson for everyone. Many times we ask in our prayer for something, but we do not get an immediate answer. Then, we believe that God does not care about us. Sometimes, after a while, and when, of course, it is for our good that we ask, the answer comes from the Lord and indeed rich and blessed, as much as we could not have expected it!

How the Olive Tree was blessed.

The night Christ was born was very cold. The cave was cold and the Virgin Mary did not know what to do.

Then Joseph thought of lighting a fire to warm up a little, but he could find no wood anywhere. He goes out of the cave, takes a walk, but nothing.

He goes back inside, takes some straw from the manger and lights a fire. As soon as she saw them, the Virgin Mary wept and said that they should always be golden.

But after a while the haystacks were extinguished. The cave froze again. Joseph came out again, and his feet became tangled in a dry branch. It was rosemary.

Joseph lit it and the Virgin Mary wished to smell and decorate the icons of the Saints. But the fire lasted a while and the frost grew stronger.

Then Joseph heard voices through his bag saying:

Go Joseph, to our mother the olive tree above the cave and tell her that Christ is in danger. She will be very sad that we knew about it and didn't tell her anything.

It was a handful of olives that he had stored along with some bread in time of need.

Joseph went to the olive tree and she began to break pieces of wood from her old trunk and push them towards the entrance of the cave. All night the fire burned and warmth spread around the newborn Christ.

In the morning the tree was nothing but a root stump. When the Virgin Mary saw it, she wept, bent down, stroked it and said:

My wish that you never dry out. May your oil nourish and illuminate people. In the evening, light the candle of Christ.

So it happened. By evening the olive tree became big again as it was before.

Since then, the olive tree does not age. It dries, but from its roots it sprouts again and feels again.

Orthodox Parables and Stories: Christ was looking for him!

I remember an event that happened in Cyprus. When I first came to Cyprus from Mount Athos, in the early years, a teacher of transcendental meditation came to me.

A yoga teacher who was initiated into all these satanic delusions and sophistry. He worked in England, traveled around, was a student of great gurus and various other delusional people of that time.

After a meeting with the elder Sophronius in Essex, his entire situation was disturbed. He was Cypriot. He came to Cyprus with his wife and they came and confessed and laid the foundations of a spiritual life. But he had many demonic actions.

Satan was fighting him fiercely. With many calculations and with a hardness of heart. Because meditation - or as the old man Paisios jokingly called it, diabolism - is based on human egoism, arrogance, vanity. So he cultivated vanity in himself for years.

He was a teacher, he had his own school with hundreds of students who taught them meditation, esoteric philosophy and more. So there was a battle inside his logic, inside his calculations and his heart could not be crushed to repent. He was coming to the monastery, confessing but struggling.

As I was taking confessions, I had next to me an image of the Bridegroom Christ, this image is the modern one that is the Bridegroom Christ with the red chlamys and the reed in his hand.

I found the icon in the monastery, I lit a candle in front of the icon and people confessed near it. He looked at it and wondered: "What does this picture mean?"

In the evening after the confession was over he went home and went to pray. In a state of dizziness, confussion etc., he fell asleep a little. He saw a vision, he himself could not understand, he saw Christ as the Bridegroom wearing that chlamys and searching with the reed in garbage and in grasses and in meadows and on cliffs.

He says: “But this is the Christ! What is Christ looking for? "

He took courage and went to Him and said to Him: "Lord, what are you looking for?"

And Christ says to him: "I am looking for some monsters like you."

And He urned and looked at him sternly. And then his heart breaks and for years he cried. Because he understood that Christ had been looking for him for so many years and he, with all these demonic things he had done, had made his heart a demonic monster.

But Christ was looking for him!

Elder Athanasiou, Metropolitan of Limassol

Orthodox Parables and Stories: The Vision of the Epitrachelion

A hieromonk father from the Neamț Monastery, an eminent scholar, typographer, bibliographer, almost half a century ago, recounted to me a moment in his life.

He was alone and loved quiet, so he lived in a small house outside the monastery.  He made his monastic rule with holiness, all the canons plus akathist and the supplication of the Virgin Mary.

 When he was a regular in the service, he did not like society and the crowd of brothers very much.  The crowd bothered him, rarely stopping by a café for food.  His head hurt for talking so much.  But what only bothered him was the crowd of worshippers at Saint Maslu.  People from all the neighboring villages flocked to the Sacrament of Unction and pulled the epitrachelion from the heads of the priests.  During the reading of the Holy Gospels, as if in sign, the whole congregation of women crowded under his neck, pulling the poor father.  It even seemed to him that it was unworthy and obscene to get under his necklace.

The abbot saw him frowning and asked him. what was wrong.  The father said to him: "Elder, old man, I came to the monastery, not to be pulled,  to be pushed by all the women, to be crushed.

The abbot said: "I will pray for you."

The next night, the father dreamt of a great lake of fire, with terrible flames in which millions of people burned.  And he was carried by an angel over the lake of fire, full of devils.

 He was wearing his epitrachelion and dozens of people were holding it screaming in fear, yet it did not tear.

 And the angel said to him: "these are the people for whom you pray, whom you confess"

Do not remove them from your neck or they will fall into the sea of fire and be lost forever.  And not only do you hold them, but they also hold you, because without them you could fall.

Since then, in fear and trembling, the Father has not turned anyone away from the epitrachelion knowing that God's grace flows through it.

Father John Istratis.