A spiritual Father’s diary

“Someone recently described Thessaloniki as like a dry cake. I’m not sure about this simile. I would prefer to describe it in terms of warm slices of bread. Exchanging a cold, windy, wet Manchester of 13C for a calm, warm late evening 25C, Thessaloniki was indeed a taster of what was to come. Having navigated the vicissitudes of the roaming signal with a friendly local, a familiar “taxi” driver arrived to pick me up from the terminal. 

I have often thought that the word terminal speaks of rather sad endings rather than the springboard and opening to new adventures. 

Having been delivered to my assigned apartment I enjoyed the sleep of the just traveller. 

The five days in Thessaloniki spent with my spiritual children had both an eternal and a brief dimension. Time expands and contracts according to God’s ordinance. 

House blessings, Confessions, Social Gatherings, Prayers, Church and Monastery Visits and the not so mundane coffee stops roll into a well risen loaf with the yeast of kindness and the warmth of hospitality. 

In just one day we visited: 

1. The Holy Church of St Nicholas Orphanos 
2. The Church of Pammegistoi Taxiarches where there was a Byzantine Crypt and huge Basil bushes outside. 
3. Vlatadon Monastery. 
4. Latomos Monastery and later the cave Church of St David the Dendrite. 
5. St Demetrios Church. 
6. St Theodora Monastery and Church where we venerated the holy relics of St Theodora and St David. 

Stopping for late lunch the first thing to arrive on our table was warm sliced bread — a gift and a symbol of the spiritual slices of holiness we had tasted earlier. 

We took the bread, blessed it, gave thanks, broke it and shared the humble gift with the meal — a eucharistic pattern that is woven into every fabric of the Christian Life. 

So many precious memories in a short space of time — but God’s time (kairos not chronos). For these treasured moments I give thanks to God”.