An enlightened Christian found God with a lifeline to cancer!

An enlightened Christian found God with a lifeline to cancer!

Albanian 52-year-old Porphyria talks about her decision to be baptized into the Orthodox faith, about her dark path without her faith and her illness, which eventually made her even stronger.

Porphyria comes from Albania, is a new-born Christian, lived in Greece for many years, always loved Christ and then came the blessed moment when she was baptized and named Porphyria, out of love for Saint Porphyrios. However, various difficulties forced her to live as an immigrant for the second time and now she lives with her family in Germany. We met her in Greece and she spoke to us with the warmth of a true Christian comforted by the caress of God. She narrated without false humiliation her course ion the dark path of the life without God and the sickness that she went through. She rejoiced with no trace of pride, as if she were talking about another woman's triumph.

Porphyria speaks to readers of "Orthodox Truth".
“I'm glad to be in Greece after three years. I'll try to tell them how my soul felt. And to speak even to a few who have the same experiences as me and to give them courage. I do not want to talk about my own experiences, but to glorify God for all He has given me. I want God to to make me worthy, to express this love and gratitude that I have, to be heard by others. You know it's beautiful when we talk and support as much as we can people who have cancer, but it's very different when you go through the fire yourself and you want to talk by your own experience. The common experience says many things. Actually, I got sick of cancer for the second time. The first time I was ill I was 32 years old. Although I was familiar, I was terrified too. I remember the first day I went to do my first chemotherapy. There was a nest within me, a grief, a sadness, because I knew the road and didn't want to cross it again. That day I felt like the people who were sentenced to death and just before they were executed. I had this feeling when the medicine in my blood started to flow slowly. At that moment, I'm not going to hide it, I was tearful. "

Faced with this suffering, one can not but stand with utmost respect and with this feeling we asked her if she felt abandoned by God ...

Despite my pain, sadness, and crush with the return of my illness, I was not damned. I did not feel that God had abandoned me or given me a punishment. By God's grace, I quickly got used to it. And while I felt like they were executing me, at the same time I was thinking that Christ would turn the potent medicine into water. This poison that would enter my blood, if it wasn't for my good, Jesus would make it water. Until then it was my grievance and my pain, but not against God. "

What Porphyria told us was simply told. We also discerned the noble progress made by the soul through pain, so that it may wish to impart the knowledge she had acquired in such a hard way and to become a missionary of pain to its peers.

After cancer I started searching for myself. I had read about Elder Paisios a lot and also about Saint Porphyrios, to whom I prayed a lot, though I had not met him. Saint Porphyrios was speaking in my soul! He urged people to confession and communion. He said, "My children, most of the things that afflict us, are demons. If you build your relationship with God, you'll have nothing. You will be saved. "

So step by step I started to work on myself and say that somehow I have made a mistake. So I was baptized and became an Orthodox Christian. I was learning myself through the mysteries. I resorted to confession. Man must tell everything in confession, even his sinful thoughts, without being embarrassed. Even if he has done the worst crimes in the world. Because it's all tricks of the evil one who wants to separate us from our Father. So the sly one wants to give us false cues and remorse that
make us supposedly so soiled that we can't go near God. But Christ said that He came, just for sinners, the very sinners, the harlots and the publicans, I did not come for the righteous. If He came for the righteous He would have gone to the high priests and the pharisees only. "

From what we discussed with Porphyria, it was obvious that she got this experience without having been thrown into depression. She did not feel it was a punishment of God. Cancer and everything she learned from it did not come across to her as punishment. It was almost a source of inspiration:

"We are often entangled in the prosperity of this world, in the fine foods, the drinks, the beautiful clothes, all of which is what the wicked one wants us to pursue in our lives. This is how it seduces people. And they think they are doing well. And because I lived through cancer, even if for a little while, in Christ's love, I was full in the Holy Spirit in my cancer, and I had nothing to lose. While experiencing the disease, I could not eat, drink, dress, have hair, lag behind other people around me, but I felt I had everything, that I lacked nothing. Diets and food and hair and clothes and beauty. Everything was the grace of God. And if we do not have this grace we will never be happy. God is our joy and our health and our happiness and our wealth and everything is ultimately Christ. We have lost Him and we experience so much pain in our lives. So I want to shout to people that for me cancer is not the boogeyman that scares people, I don't see it as a curse. For me this was God's blessing. Christ knew that I deeply worshiped Him in my soul even before I was even baptized. I was actually looking for Him. I had a good soul and I was a Christian without being a Christian. However, I was also very sinful. When I was an atheist, I had made two abortions in my country. My doctors were telling me abortion is nothing. Later I read that the fetus has a soul and tears to pieces. I was ruthless and God was merciful to me. He allowed the cancer for me to realize that I too could find death. “But I'm not like you, I have a lot of love. I love you, I don't bully you. I only want to slap you just to make you come back because you left Me. How to get you back from going off the cliff. So I allow something that you say is a curse, pain and sorrow, but in reality it is sanctification. This is how I finally felt got the cancer. "

"The reason I live is related to trying to cleanse myself from sin."

Time in patients fluctuates at a different rate, and often clarifies the foggy landscape that faded away so far the dominant thinking. What Porphyria put forward for her life in terms of pre- and post-knowledge was a first-rate lesson for the sick and the healthy:

“But first I found the time to think and draw some conclusions about myself and my life. At first I had a lot in my head and I didn't think about God. I took time, through illness, to think about why I came to life. To work from morning to night? To have more and more to eat? I realized I didn't come to earth for that. The reason I exist on earth is not to sin. Then there is no reason for me to live. The reason I live is related to trying to cleanse myself from sin. To make Porphyria clearer than snow, as the psalm says ... This is what we should ask of God, He only knows what is good for us, no matter what we usually ask for in our prayer. We are unhappy because we want our will to be done. But God does not have the same will as ours. Because he knows better than us what we ask him of. And so I slowly learned to leave it in His hands. And let Him bring whatever He wants.

"The Lord used the hard way to bring me back"

It would be naive to believe that after this "happy end" they lived better and we did better. Porphyria does not leave us in such illusions, which gives courage to the people who fall and fall again, that is to all of us. She will tell us:

"I was not always in a state of grace, let's say. Although I got baptized and communed, when I went to Germany again the living worries came. And I was sad because my will wasn't being done. Things weren't happening the way I wanted them too. Of course, man also thinks in spiritual life that he manages  things on his own. He reads a book and thinks that's enough. Then comes selfishness and it crushes you. So I want to say that for me cancer was life-saving. It brought me to God from whom I had been so far. When God abandons me I am tragically unhappy. I miss everything, I blame everything and I want to put the blame with everyone and on everything. God used the hard way to bring me back to salvation. Everyone has to search within themselves whether or not they have lost God. God is everywhere and within us and around us, but I may have lost him personally. And something must be done or done to find Him. So I ask God to dwell in my soul, because everything is ultimately a gift from God. Do what you can and you will realize the rest are God's gifts. "

“It is a paradise to have Christ in us. Otherwise, we will never be complete”

Often those of us who are baptized as infants run the risk of cultivating, a lifeless silence in our faith. But a newcomer, after years of ignorance that took his breath away, when he finds it again becomes excited and becomes a teacher. Porphyria teaches us:

By the grace of God I realize how much I love the whole world and those who have troubled and distressed me. This can not be done without Grace. People should not fear cancer or other misfortune. Even losing our children, no matter how difficult it may be, even then we are not discouraged. If one divinizes his child and forgets God, then the child's loss can work so that we can find the true God we had forgotten. First of all is God, we must love Christ above all. Then we are complete. If we ask Him, God will teach us His will, He will tell us what He wants from us. I say to myself that I am 52 years old and have lived most of my life. So I have to fight my passions step by step  and become a child of light. A child of God, to show us how our Father is. If we are not saints, then we think we are living, but we are dead. It is a paradise to have Christ in us. Otherwise we will never be complete. We will always miss something. And that then leads us on the wrong paths. Because when we miss something we always look for it in the wrong places.

Sophia Chatzi
published in the newspaper
ORTHODOXY ALITHIA Sept 11, 2019

Famous French Photojournalist Becomes Orthodox Monk! by Sophia Chatzi

Famous French Photojournalist Becomes Orthodox Monk!

"I became a monk in order to penetrate the meaning of life, to learn the world!"

In his passage from Greece, the French Monk Jean accepted to meet and talk about his personal association with the Orthodox faith. Before becoming a monk, his gaze was focused mainly on an artistic surface of life, since he was a world-renowned photographer. But it all took a different form, when a series of unforeseen events prompted him to meet with the poetic nature of God and recognized him as a true artist. Nikolaos Douligerer, a father with whom Monk Jean has been a friend for many years after their first acquaintance on Mount Athos, helped translate the interview.

The Monk Jean, formerly Gérard Gascuel, was born in 1947 in Seven, France. He studied photography in Paris (École Louis Lumière) and then worked as an art photographer in famous fashion magazines and newspapers, as well as in the advertising field. Personal photo exhibitions have been hosted in Paris, at museums (Museum of Photography) and at Art Festivals Abroad (Japan, Canada, USA etc.)

In 1983, during a journalist mission to Greece, Fr Jean discovers Orthodox monasticism. Shortly thereafter he becomes a monk on Mt. Athos.

At the beginning of the discussion, he tells us with a look of excitement that he will never forget his first days on Mount Athos, when he went with his camera to capture the nature and monasticism, for a Japanese newspaper he had worked for:

“Before I became a monk, I was a journalist. I went to Mount Athos, Greece, to write an article for a Japanese newspaper in which I kept artistic reporting. One day, walking in the woods, I found myself in front of a ruined church. I came in, and in her crypt I discovered an ossuary. This random meeting was the decisive turning point for me. I was 30 years old then. At this age, one only thinks of devouring life, seeking immediate pleasure, power, knowledge. Suddenly, I was faced with my own reality. One day I'll be there, on the other side without having lived. I realized that I was not living for myself, but for the impression I wanted to give to others.

Deep emotion

Coming out of the church, agitated by the view of the ossuary, I see an old monk - I've never met him before. Many times Divine Providence sends us the person we need, when we need it. I asked him to tell me about the spiritual meaning of the picture, but he didn't speak any of the languages ​​I spoke. So, to explain to me, the meaning of the image he began to chant in Greek. I didn't understand a word, but listening to it caused a new uproar: it was a new one for me. The emotion was not cerebral or aesthetic; it had touched the bottom of the heart. Chanting a hymn, he interpreted the mystery of the image of the Crucifixion. Overcoming the language with the words unseen one who died as a slave and was glorified as God. From a simple hymn, I discovered a new "language", the language of the heart. I died and was reborn into a new reality. My life soon turned to Orthodoxy. Once, after two years, I decided to go meet him, but no matter how much I searched, I couldn't find the man, nor his hut. I asked at Stavronikita monastery which I thought was close but in vain, no one had heard of it. I had been looking for a whole year, but I was assured that such a hut never existed. I firmly believe that I have experienced a personal miracle.

Everything in me found an appeal!
He says: "Returning to Paris, all I thought about was learning the language of the heart. The Divine Providence still guided me: in the subway, I confused the exit and went out, "by chance", in front of an Orthodox church.

I entered the temple. Everything resonated within me: the gold of the images, the incense, the solemn function, the chilling atmosphere of the congregation of the faithful… I said to myself: I must get on this road for the good. And so I became a pilgrim to the sanctuaries. "

When I asked him "how he made the decision to become Orthodox and how he finally accomplished it", he smiled with the feeling that it should be explained in such a way that his listener, who has not gone through such a stage, would understand him:

“When you make a decision, you are given the power to make it. As soon as the desire got flesh and bones, the place to root was to be found. In the Orthodox tradition, the search for a place is the same as the search for spiritual paternity. You need a Father to keep you alert so that you can understand this "language" - not speech or education - a Father who will wake you up to feel the crunch of the Divine Presence within you. I was not seeking intellectual understanding, I did not want to learn a new technique; I wanted to embrace my living and lived Tradition. This means working in the fields, that is, manual labor, learning to pray, learning to respect, learning to live under the guidance of an elder, learning to talk in secret with the living Christ. I wanted to know in depth the Word, that is, the Divine Names, the life-giving Power of the Spirit, and not the letter that stones the Spirit. The fact that I didn't speak Greek didn't stop me at all. I left for Mount Athos and then went to the Judean desert, where I stayed for some years. I needed in my new faith God to be everything to me. I know that God speaks in a "pure heart", but before the heart is at peace, in the wilderness all our passions, all our weaknesses, all our dreams and infirmities, what we have not fulfilled, what we have not done right: it takes a lot of work to cleanse and care for oneself before entering, by the grace of God, into the inner Silence. "

Being an Orthodox is a struggle, but deciding to turn to charisma shows that this man wants to practice at a championship level. It also shows a need to move away from the mundane. I told him, and he clearly replied:
"I became a monk not to avoid the world, but to penetrate the meaning of life, to know the world deeper and in a more personal dimension.

I became a monk to get to know in depth this language, the language of the heart, which is revealed to you only by experience, by experiencing, and experiencing a relationship of trust with eternity at all times. This language does not deny the world, instead, it listens to it, marries it, transforms it, calls it by its name, lives with it the miracle of everyday life. The monk does not reject the world, which would mean rejecting himself. Instead, it is at the heart of the world and the monk's relationship with the world is refined and meaningful. "

At first Father Jean goes to Mount Athos and then goes to the Monastery of Saint Savva in the Judean Desert, where he resides next to his Elder, Father Seraphim, a man who chose him for his spiritual guide and inspired him into spiritual life . Seraphim will masterfully remove his European rationality. I asked him to detail this meeting:

“A monk who had come to Mount Athos spoke to my father Seraphim, who lived in the monastery of Saint Savva in the Judean desert near the Dead Sea. After many difficulties, I went to meet him. I immediately realized that this was the guide I was looking for. It had a luminous beauty. A luminosity that does not mislead you, but illuminates you, transforms you, pacifies you with true words, with a distillation of simplicity. This Elder made the Presence of God manifest to me. I decided that I would become a monk and that this man would obey. But things were not easy with him and I quickly learned my first lesson. Imagine, please ∙ a young man of thirty-three years, arrives in the desert of Judea, having abandoned everything and a very good life in Paris, and asking to join the congregation. They put me in the kitchen - can you imagine it? Me, a Frenchman! I was taught to wipe the floor, to wash dishes… Of course, washing dishes in the desert is not a simple affair, because water is scarce. I learned again, as a toddler, everyday things and how they relate to the Spirit. It was not learning practice. It was an initiation. There is so much beauty in simple movement, beauty that can become doxology, testimony, embodiment of Presence."

The weight we all carry and the incident with the Turkish delight, which made him realize a lot 
Father Jean goes on to describe: On the first day in front of every monk's dish I put a dessert, a Turkish delight. Back then there were twelve monks, so I put twelve delights. When I came back, my Turkish delight had disappeared. My place was next to Father Seraphim, so the job was his. If the Spiritual Father steals my Turkish delight from day one, what will happen after fifteen days? Abuse of power, terrible! Think about it well! And in Paris someone may steal from you, understandably; but in a monastery, the first day the abbot steals from you! Another thing! I had repented and promised obedience! I started to think negatively, which was affecting my prayer.

Repentance
After dinner, I went to see Father Seraphim. I repented and asked him, "Father, why did you take my Turkish delight?" He let me talk without answering. After five minutes I had nothing else to say. He said to me: "Did you say everything?" "No" I replied "but I don't understand anything". "I wanted to see if you would criticize me; if you had done so, I would have told you: Set the door, you can leave." For me, this was an unusual, paradoxical lesson. I really didn't go to the desert to judge thieves and liars. Of course I could also preach to him a little bit: you know, that was not good, it wasn't nice ... I could get up and leave the monastery and report to Father Seraphim in the press on charges such as: abuse of power or theft,a scandal ...

If I came to the monastery carrying the burdens of the world with me, I would have no job in the desert. Father Seraphim taught me ∙ “You are not here to judge, you are here for you. If you see a brother doing something wrong, it doesn't matter to you. But if this is a problem for you, then come and see me. But when you see a brother make a mistake, whatever his mistake is, pray for him, don't start judging him, filling him with guilt, making him a moral lesson. " One of the first lessons in the desert was that I was there for myself. And how, without being isolated, I was alone before God.

In his life in the Judean wilderness, he learned many lessons. I beg him to take us to part of his spiritual apprenticeship. Without thinking too much, he responded as a person experiencing this doctrine he was taught:

"One day I felt flooded by Divine Grace. I went to Elder: "Father, angels have visited me, I understand the meaning of the Gospel ..." Elder didn't even look at me. "Come sweep the toilets and see if the angels are still with you." Father Seraphim did not rule out the existence of Intangible Forces, but his concern was to eradicate any trace of spiritual pride. Father Seraphim, tenderly overbearing, threw the covers off, purified my eyes, pursued my illusions and ignorance, to give me the grace of the light. He offered me freedom with love, let me wash up, clean myself, let me be rehabilitated. He didn't kill me, he didn't reject me, he removed all the unnecessary."

With Spiritual Desire He Founded the Skete of St. Foy in Seven
He spent three years in the Judean wilderness, and then, with the wish of his spiritual father, in 1996 he settled in Seven, southern France, where e founded the Skete of St. Foy, a place of prayer and seclusion. Saint Foy was a 15-year-old girl who was martyred in the early Christian years. From the Skete of St. Foy, today is published the journal Art sacré, while P. Ioannis is the author of many works: Hommes de Lumière, Fils de lumière, Pèlerinage au Mont Athos, J'ai soif d'une eau de vie, L ' amour in question, Insaisissable fraternité, Le jardin de la foi.Today, he is performing with another monk and gathering with him French pilgrims, old friends from the arts, Christians and seekers of God who study in Orthodoxy. From our discussion, I have come to realize that today, slowly but surely, a few, perhaps few citizens of France are tasting the truth of Orthodox faith. Getting an External Mission in France today by an Orthodox Frenchman in a monastery in the mountains of France is a fact that assures us that God's grace fills people's shortcomings and turns us into Resurrected Surprise.

Sophia Chatzis
Published in the Greek newspaper
ORTHODOXI ALITHIA, 06.02.2019

The Divine Liturgy in Mani dedicated to children with special needs

The Divine Liturgy in Mani dedicated to children with special needs

Maria Kasampalakou describes the very special experience she is going through, with her son Angel, who is in the spectrum of autism, at the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

A Divine Liturgy dedicated to some children that differ…
I met Maria Kasampalakou and her son Angel a few years ago. Angel is incarnating what his name means, and he is aware of his autism. After the first meeting with Maria, it was revealed to me that a man can truly see the pain as joy, as great ascetics try to achieve through years of praying. Mary’s prayer is Angel, her son. It’s like kneeling to the ground and performing hard fasting. Every day she carries over and over the body and heart of Angel on her shoulders.
An opportunity to reunite was a Divine Liturgy involving children with special needs, accompanied by their parents and unsuspecting worshipers. The latter experienced some shocking moments that awakened many sleeping hearts. Even if they did not experience in their own life such a form of pain, they embraced the sorrow of their brothers and sisters who suffer.
And all this happened at the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration of our Lord, Jesus Christ in Mani, Messinia, Greece. Among us there were young people with mental retardation and slight disabilities from the organization, “Lyssous Garden”.

They learn organic farming methods
The “Lyssous Garden” is a training program in organic farming that was voluntarily created two years ago by the German journalist Valtraud Sperlih and Eva-Maria Lange. Their main funding comes from Liechtenstein’s Hercules Foundation. The program concerns the vocational training of young people with slight mental disabilities, in organic farming, under the guidance of agronomists, gardeners and social workers. For this purpose, there are two educational nurseries in the city of Kalamata and the area of Mani, where 15 young people aged 18 to 42 learn to cultivate using organic farming methods. Upon completion of their training, they will be able to work in seedbed farms and other gardening jobs. Together with these children, Mary came from Athens with her son Angel. She has been asked to describe that very day to us, and so she opened her heart:
“There are times when you don’t really feel like talking. It’s not because of the anger, sadness, illness, or isolation mood. But because you are so moved and really unable to find the right words that will “address” your emotion or your doings. Times that you feel that the most meaningful words you could ever have spelled, are shaded by the splendor of moments.

And when moments make up a day like that Sunday ... then you feel your smallness in all its grandeur. Nevertheless, because love is multiplied when it is shared, and the pain is divided, I will try to describe that day’s events.

It was a spring Sunday that we met between “two gardens”, to the one monastery to which we all come to, leaving our souls in the hands of God and our beloved elder and monks, and he Garden of Lyssous with its flowers: which flooded the monastery by performing and composing the dream of Mani’s Metropolitan Chrysostomos. The whole group, the parents and the musicians who, with the blessing and the Auspices of Messinia’s Metropolitan, Chrysostomos, last year organized the event: “Autism Our God’s Children”, this year we all went up to the monastery in Upper Doli!

Thee Divine Liturgy for Autism & Disabilities was inspired by Metropolitan of Mani Chrysostomos. Certainly because he has a sensitive heart, but also a special relationship, alove between him and a young autistic child Nikolas Zanidakis. Nicolas is delighted to be able to play violin, and those around him dare to express the belief that he performs as a professional. The child has also a special relationship with Elder Gabriel Koviliatis. When they stare at each other, their eyes sink so deeply into each other, so that if you are close to them, you feel really overwhelmed.”

I asked how everything started and how the efforts to set up this feast were coordinated. Maria Kasampalakou, with her inherent enthusiasm, replies:
“One evening, in early February, Metropolitan of Mani called us and expressed his desire to have a Divine Liturgy for those children of the same faith. This desire was ours too!!! So it happened.

Whenever God allows me to enter this place, I always have tears in my eyes. Disabled children flooded the area. The hearts of people broke! …they didn’t know what happened.”
That morning we arrived too early. It was drizzling, and the iron cross standing at the gate of the monastery stood patiently in place with clouds in the background. Whenever God allows me to enter this place, I stand there. And for a while I am the only person existing there. Me, the cross and the horizon. Every time I have tears in my eyes. It hurts deeply inside… it’s because our human nature when seeing our paradise knows that soon we shall leave it. How many times, entering in this holy place, I wondered looking at this cross: “My God, You brought me to paradise. How can You stand taking me back”

The Divine Liturgy had begun early, and two chants came from Sparta. With Maria Leftakis, we were welcoming the pilgrims, especially those who did not know what was going to happen, and with finality and modesty we were trying to explain about what was to come up. Metropolitan of Mani, Chrysostomos arrived and the monks welcomed him with the appropriate honor. Cheerful bells echoed and the birds sang too with all their spring mood!

Who cares about the weather? Let it rain!

“Lyssous Garden”
The children of the Autistic Spectrum, who just arrived too, with some of them holding their ears, while some others were performing small tuning shouts. The Liturgy began in grandiosity and “Lyssous Garden” members also arrived. Children with all kinds of disabilities flooded the area ... Young adults, with the right to live equally, enjoy the day with fellowship, participating in the blessed sacrament of the Holy Communion and being a part of the congregation.

During those very moments, the hearts of people broke! …they didn’t know what happened.

I saw two or three of them running to the faucet in the yard and coming back with their faces washed, while others were crying publicly and staring down on the ground humiliated for what they were carrying until that moment as a grievance: “Heart devastated and humbled.”

This is the power of contacting affliction. If joy and love is the salt of the food of the soul, affliction, I would say, is the pepper. Even though it is spicy, it flavors the dish called spiritual development. And it is not a lie to say that if you learn to love, pain will soften up. And if you make the pain smile ... oh, then you both win!

“Thine own of Thine own, we offer unto Thee on behalf of all and for all ...” the Metropolitan chanted inside the Church.

The Church was full of souls, devoted to God. Liberated and coexisting. Not a whisper of dissatisfaction or a strange look. Everything in place, as our Father in Heaven has arranged.

And all of us, in a conscious humbling.

Come and join us! Today we have become better people! This is wonderful!

“A stranger approached me, looked me in the eyes and asked me: ‘Is this the way you suffer all day long?’ And he began to cry.”After all this narration, I dared to ask Maria how she practices in her everyday life, in dealing with the pain, under the prism of a gift, that most of the people doubt. She also narrated a little story that happened to her in the courtyard of the monastery after the final words of the priest “By the prayers of our Holy Father…” at the end of the Divine Liturgy:

“To make you understand, I‘ll tell you this: I was approached by a gentleman, unknown to me until that day, who, when he saw us parents and children, he told me that his chest was filled with emotion and that he had never felt that strong feeling before. Only on TV or in the street he watched several times a couple of disabled people. But this feeling surpassed him and looking into my eyes he asked me: ‘Is this the way you suffer all day long?’

The stranger then began to cry. I grabbed his hands and said:
‘My heart does not feel pain for myself. I’m happy. I wouldn’t change my child’s autism. I’m sorry for the others. Now you also commiserate. That’s the main reason we all came here today. To have compassion! Because if you do not reach rock bottom you won’t really appreciate the good times you’re living in.’

“I never return to myself and my people, the same exact person as I start off, not only from this gathering at the monastery, but from every place or situation I let my soul walk to.”

After the Divine Liturgy, a beautiful celebration followed in the courtyard of the Holy monastery where, along with the feast, the sound of music was offered filling the ears and hearts of young and old people. Maria Kasampalakou is telling our readers the following:

“Even the weather cooperated! Actually, after the pouring rain, a great opening above the temple appeared, and “Mr shiny sun” rushed to dry the stone terrace. So we all sat down.

Everything was placed in order, appropriately measured and saved by the hand of God. Nothing left over and nothing was missing.

Athena Chiotis was there, a young lady gifted by our God, apart from everything else, with the voice of a nightingale. She managed to travel our senses chanting beautiful hymns. Christos Palamidis recited uniquely and Othon Bikakis caressed our ears with his lyre.

Then it was my turn to stand towards the door of the temple and speak. I saw all of them in a circle, and realized the beauty of the name of our association “Holy Protection” (name of Most Holy Theotokos) and that the words I was about to read were as if I had not written them two nights before, but as if I spoke spontaneously at that very moment, which was in fact a public confession of faith. Finally, I approached my beloved elder Gabriel and asked him:
‘Father Gabriel, could you allow me to say that today we are experiencing a big spiritual encounter here?’

‘With all my heart!’ he responded.

How does Mary expect the future to come for her and her son Angel? I am asking her and the answer is not far from the enthusiastic spirit of our whole conversation:

‘I never return to myself and my people, the same exact person as I started off, not only from this gathering at the monastery, but from every place or situation I let my soul walk to. As always, before starting any path, I wonder:

What has God prepared for me this time? What will He teach me this time?’

Don’t think I am anxious! I am expecting it! I have the appetite of a young child who is impatient to participate in a new game with his beloved friends.

And nothing changes, but also nothing remains the same ...”

Mary’s attitude against sadness and pain, but also for most of those parents, seems to derive from a profound knowledge of Saint Isaac the Syrian’s word, though we may not have heard or read it: “If, however, the moment that something makes you sad, you only see the surface and you cannot examine your hidden wounds that activated it, the more you complain, the more depressing your misfortune will be.”

__________

Sofia Chatzi
published in Greek newspaper
ORTHODOX TRUTH, 15.05.2019