One Saturday morning, a very young woman dressed in black came to the church of Saint Constantine in Glyfada, where we were at the time, holding her two young children in her arms. A 5-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. She had lost her husband, who was also very young, and with him she lost the land beneath her feet. She had come to confess to Fr. Constantine, and she had brought her children for Catechism.

Naturally, during her confession, she wondered and asked Fr. Constantine, as she later confided in me, what would happen to her children if she died too! The Father had reassured her that if she died, he would take care of her children, which would be very good for them!

But when she wondered why such great evil had befallen her, and why God did not take pity on her and gave her something she could not bear, then Father asked her:

– May I ask you for a moment for a favour?

– Of course, Father, whatever you want.

– Here outside the sanctuary, they have left a sack of potatoes for me. Should we call your son to bring it here, so I can give it to you?

– Thank you, Father, but my son is only 7 years old. How many kilograms does the sack weigh?

– It is 20 kilograms.

– Well, a 7-year-old child cannot lift a 20-kilogram sack of potatoes!

– Yes, but I want to give it to you. How can he bring it to us?

– How? Should we give him a little bag to put a few potatoes in, as many as he can lift, and bring them to us here, little by little? Or bring them to us little by little with his little hands if you don’t have a bag? What do you say?

– Is this what you are suggesting? Little by little?

– How else? He can’t carry them all at once, since he is a little child.

– Ah! So you are thinking of your child who can’t lift 20 kilos of potatoes, and God doesn’t think of you, who are His child, and gives you more than you can lift?

– Oh Father, what are you saying to me now?

– I’m telling you the truth. God doesn’t think of you, who are His child, while you think of your son?

The sequel is amazing since this advice took root in the family.

Recently, I saw the widow in question by chance on the street and now a grandmother! After we hugged and kissed, she told me that her children got married and had children too, and the family grew, but her daughter’s husband got cancer with all that that entails…

“But”, she tells me, “whenever I say to my daughter, ‘Ah, my child, what you are going through!’, she answers me 40 years after that confession of mine, ‘Mom! Remember the potatoes! I can handle what I’m lifting’ “.

Her son’s wife abandoned them, and the widowed mother says to her son, “Ah, my child, why did that girl leave and leave you? What harm she has done to us!” And my son replies, “Mom! The potatoes! That’s all I can handle!”

“So”, she tells me, “as you can see, potatoes have been on the agenda in our house for 40 years now, and so we can’t complain about anything!”

This was Father Konstantinos. Inventive about everything!

He changed our minds! He gave breath and impetus to our lives! He healed our pains and our souls!

He often said about whining in his speeches, what a soul-destroying disease it is.

(As Much as a Book can Hold, Memories by Fr. Konstantinos Stratigopoulos)

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That is a powerful sentiment to start the year! Whether those “potatoes” are unexpected challenges or the daily grind, whatever heavy stuff life throws our way, having the resilience to carry them, the perspective to see the harvest ahead, and most importantly, faith and trust in His Providence, makes all the difference. May we all carry our ‘bags of potatoes’, without whining, this year and all our lives! May our “sack” be light, our grip be strong, and our harvest be plentiful. Amen!