Author Archives: little city hermit

Saint Paisios – Signs of the Times

Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is in our midst.

War is raging all over the world and the Fathers are urging us to fall on our knees and pray. Not stop our obediences, but pray!!! I am not ignoring this appalling tragedy unfolding day after day before our own eyes, but in this specific blogpost and in a couple more to follow, I would like to address one rather sensitive matter unfolding in Greece these days, and that is the Holy Synod’s of the Church of Greece decision, on June 12 and 13, 2025, under the presidency of His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, to endorse the new “personal number” system introduced by Presidential Decree 40/2025. This system aims to replace existing identification numbers, such as the ID card number, tax number (AFM), and social security number (AMKA), with a single unified number to streamline public sector registry integration. In its official statement, the Holy Synod clarified that the personal number does not raise theological concerns or infringe on individual freedoms, including personal data rights.  This approval and endorsement is one problem, but the Synod’s insistence “that the personal number does not raise theological concerns” is even more problematic since it seems to contradict most recent Saints’ opinions on this matter.

For this reason, I would like to present to you in a series 3 documents I have from + Gerondas Gregorios, my spiritual father of blessed memory, and St. Paisios, starting with the “Signs of the Times”. The following text of Saint Paisios is written in the Saint’s own hand, in the year 1987, and it was the only time he had given the order for it to be distributed in photocopies (with his handwriting and spelling errors), because as he himself said, he knew that they would try to deny that He had written it and to distort His opinion. What follows is the translation of St. Paisios’ text:

After the demonic storm, the Divine sunshine will come.

I

Behind the secular spirit of today’s “freedom” of disrespect for the Church of Christ, for elders, parents and teachers, who fear God, lies spiritual slavery, anxiety, and anarchy, which lead the world to a dead end, to mental and physical destruction.

So, behind the perfect “service card” computer security system, lies the global dictatorship, the slavery of the antichrist. “Rev. John ch. 13’ 16 “to give them a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that they may not buy or sell except one who has the mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom; let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man, and his number is sixty-six”. = 666.

Saint Andrew of Caesarea concludes the following: “About the impure name of

II

Antichrist. And the accuracy of the vote, as well as the rest of what is written about him, will be revealed by time and experience will bring wisdom;…… but divine grace did not deign to write the name of Lymeon in a divine book; as in a gymnasium, there are many things to be found…. ” Saint Andrew of Caesarea, explanation of the Apocalypse of John, pp. 341-42, ch. 11. –

The strange thing is, many spiritual people, besides giving their own interpretations, are also afraid of the worldly fear of being enveloped, while they should be spiritually concerned, and help Christians with good concern, and stimulate them in faith, to feel divine comfort.

I wonder! Don’t all these events concern them? Why don’t they put at least a question mark on the interpretations of their minds? And if they rely on the antichrist for the sealing, how do they lead other souls to perdition? This means; “…deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Mark. 13’ ”.

Those who interpret them with their minds will be deceived.

And while the signs are clearly visible; “the beast” in Brussels with 666 has almost sucked all the states into the computer. What do the card, the identity card, “the introduction of the sealing” reveal? Unfortunately, we only watch the radio to see what weather we will have.

What will Christ tell us? “Hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot understand the signs of the times?” Matt. chap. 2, 5!

So after the card, and the identity card, “the envelope” to proceed cunningly with the sealing, they will continue to say on television that someone took his card and withdrew his money from the bank.

On the other hand, they will advertise “the perfect system”; the sealing on the hand or forehead with laser beams, which will not be externally discernible, with 666 the name of the antichrist.

Unfortunately, again “certain gnostics” will swaddle their spiritual children like babies, supposedly so as not to worry; “this does not bother, it is nothing, it is enough that you believe inwardly!”. And while we see the apostate Peter who externally denied Christ, and it was denial, they deny the Holy sealing of Christ that was given to them in Holy Baptism; “Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” by accepting the seal of the antichrist, they also say that they have Christ within them!!

Unfortunately, such logic was also held by certain “gnostics” in the years of the Holy Martyrs, who were trying to convert the prospective martyrs, as Basil the Great mentions in his speech to the Martyr Gordius: “… many were foolish in trying to convince the Martyr to deny only with words, and to hold the faith with the soul, the inner disposition, because God does not pay attention to the tongue but to the disposition. However, the Martyr Gordius was inflexible and responded: “He does not tolerate any tongue created apart from Christ to speak against the Creator… do not be deceived. God is not mocked. “From our own mouths he judges us, from our words he justifies us and from our words he condemns us”.

Also, during the reign of Decius, he demanded by decree that the pagans confess their religion, and all those Christians who declared themselves Christians and sacrificed to idols received a certificate and were spared martyrdom. Not only were these deniers of Christ, but also those who gave money to the pagans in the commission and received the certificate without refusing, the so-called “libellophores” and these our Church considered apostates – fallen.

And while we have so many examples, such as the miracle of Saint Theodore, which is celebrated every year on Saturday of the First Week of Lent: “Julian the transgressor, knowing that the Christians They are rather purified by fasting in the first week of Holy Lent, which we also call Clean Week for this reason, and it was then decided to defile them. Therefore, he secretly ordered that during those days, odors contaminated with the blood of idolatrous sacrifices be placed in the market. But the Martyr Theodore, in a dream, divinely revealed to the then Archbishop of Constantinople, Eudooxion

and having made the matter known, he ordered him to summon the faithful immediately on Monday morning and prevent them from using those odors, and to make up for the lack of necessary food from what was at hand with kolibons”…… In this way the purpose of the transgressor was thwarted, and the pious People, preserved undefiled……” – Horologion the Great, p. 446…-

To abstain from idolatrous sacrifices is a rule of the Holy Apostles. Acts. Apos. chap. 6e’…… “And the apostles and the elders were gathered together…… to abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication…”.

Despite all that I have mentioned, one unfortunately hears a mass of nonsense from certain “Gnostics” of today, one saying; “I will accept the identity with 666, I will also put a Cross”, and the other saying; “I will accept the seal on the head with 666 and I will also make a Cross on the head…..” and a mass of similar nonsense, who think that they will be sanctified in this way while these are errors.

Only those that accept sanctification, only those are sanctified. Like; Water,

accept sanctification, and it becomes Sanctification. Urine does not accept sanctification.

Stone, by a miracle, becomes bread. Impurity, does not accept sanctification.

Therefore, the devil, the antichrist, when he is in our identity or on our hand, or on our head, with his symbol, is not sanctified by putting on a Cross.

We have the power of the honorable Cross of the Holy Symbol, the divine grace of Christ, only when we are content with the Holy Seal of Baptism, when we renounce Satan, and we are united to Christ, and we accept the Holy Seal; “Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit”. –

May Christ give us good enlightenment. Amen. –

Holy Mountain, Koutloumousiou cell “Panagouda”

Saturday of the First Lent 1987.

With much pain and love of Christ,

Monk Paisios”.

Open to me the gate of loving-kindness, blessed Mother of God

Inside St George Karslides cell and chapel

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, Christ has ascended! Truly He has ascended from earth to heaven!

Here, at the Ascension Monastery, St George Karslides, in Taxiarhes (Sipsa), Drama, the sisters celebrate its annual Feast with a hierarchical Holy Liturgy at the Ascension chapel of the Saint and a blessing of the waters.

St. George last words were “Open to me the gate of loving-kindness, blessed Mother of God”. His dead body was supple, just said the case of those on the Holy Mountain.The two cypress trees at his grave bent, as though in veneration, as he had foretold, and lots of birds gathered at the time of his burial, with no fear of the large crowd of people. Everyone felt, was certain that they were burying a Saint.

These are the two cypress trees which bent at his burial and “un-bent” 40 days later

Indeed, for centuries, Middle Eastern and European cultures have revered the cypress as a symbol of the transition between life and death, with cypresses symbolizing the uplifting of the human spirit and the possibilities of eternal life. So many poems have been written about them by poets and philosophers. Cypresses are even discussed in Gerontikon (see below). But such participation of Nature in a Saint’s life is of an entirely different level.

This miracles brings to my mind another one, from the life of the Theotokos. The Synaxarion of the DORMITION (KOIMISIS) OF THE THEOTOKOS,
One of the Virgin’s prayers at the Garden of Gethsemane was to behold the holy Apostles who were then scattered throughout the world preaching the Gospel. When our Lady knelt and offered her petition and thanksgiving to her Creator, her prayer was accompanied by a wonderful manifestation: the olive trees growing on the Mount of Olives bowed with the Theotokos as though they were animate. When the Theotokos knelt, the trees bend down, when she arose, the trees straightened themselves out again. Thus, even trees revered and honored the Lady and Mistress of the cosmos. (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)

Also, in the life of St Irene Chrysovalantou, we read that during one of her all-night vigils, one of the nuns, unable to sleep, left her cell and entered the courtyard. The nun was blessed to witness Irene motionless, hands raised in prayer and floating off the ground and two cypress tress bent to the ground before her. After Irene had finished her prayer, she blessed the trees and they returned to standing upright. God is glorified in His Saints.

At the Ascension of our Lord feast, the cell of the Saint is open all day for pilgrims, a rare privilege, and Gerondissa Porfyria assigned my obedience for today to “guard” the chapel, the Saints’ relics which the Saint had brought from Russia (and his own of course), and the Saint’ holy cell which all have the fragrance of myrrh. I was speechless at the honour and the blessing!

The cross on his skull! He is one of few Saints known to bear an imprint of the sign of the cross on his skull.

St. George Karslides cell

Here, when a special needs pilgrim prostrated last Sunday, the Saint ‘visited’ her and blessed her with an amazing abundance of fragrance felt by everybody here. Miracles of healing happen all the time. The faith of the pilgrims is so powerful. God is glorified in His Saints.

The cell next door to the Saint’s cell. Originally used for storage by the Saint. Later, + Gerondissa Akylina moved here in the final years of her life and had the care of the now Gerondissa Porfyria (cf the framed photos over the bed).

Sayings of Saint George Karslides (+ 1959)

– “God cares for everyone. Despair is basically a lack of faith”
– “The Panagia does not want big candles, she wants mercy shown to the poor.”
– The Elder said that what saves man is “the good works of God: humility, obedience, love, and mercy.”
– He said to a woman he met at the monastery: “What? You go to church every day and have not forgiven your children?”
– “Do not sit at the hour of the Divine Liturgy. Your mind should not fly here and there. As long as you are in church make the decision to devote all of the time to prayer.”
– “Do not think only about what to eat, what to wear, how large a house you will build. Knock on the doors of the poor, the sick, the orphans. Prefer more the houses of the sad rather than happy. If you do good works, you will have a large reward from God. You will be made worthy to see miracles, and in the other life you will have endless jubilation.”
– “The Christian who loves all people has a great reward, especially if he forgives those who do him evil. For if we don’t love our neighbor, all the good works we do will be worthless. They amount to nothing, we will be worthless. Love, my brethren. God requires love from us.”

Cypress and Gerontikon

One great elder was strolling at a place with different cypresses, big and small. The elder told one of the pupils, “Pull up this cypress!”

The cypress was small and one of the brothers did it with just one hand. Then the elder pointed to another cypress tree, bigger than the previous one, and said, “Pull up this one, too! The brother began to sway it in both directions and finally rooted it out.

Afterwards the elder showed his pupils an even bigger tree and told the brother to do the same thing. It took far more efforts and time for the pupil to pull up the tree. Then they came across an incredibly big cypress and the elder had the same request for his pupil. Though the brother was breaking his neck to pull it up, he failed to do it. On seeing that the elder told another brother to help him. Eventually they managed to pull up the tree together.

Then the elder said the following, “Here is how our passions work: we can easily eradicate them while they are small. However, if we neglect our fight with them, they get stronger. The bigger and stronger they get, the more effort is required to pull them up. Then there is a moment when it is impossible to root them up alone, and we remain helpless until we begin to seek help from the saint people who offer their assistance to humans upon God’s grace.

Prayer of an Old Man by +Elder Eusevios Vittis

Elder Gabriel, disciple of St. Paisios– cell of St. Christodoulos of the Koutloumousiou Monastery, Holy Mount Athos

Prayer of an Old Man

Lord, you know that I have already reached old age. Help me to realise this reality more deeply, so that I may not become tyrannical or boring or burdensome or unsympathetic and hateful to those around me and especially to my occasional co-workers.

Deliver me from insisting on my outdated ideas with senile stubbornness. I do not ask You to improve my judgment or memory. You gave me these invaluable gifts to a certain extent in my productive age. I thank You for this precious gift of Your goodness. Now, as my entire biological, psychological and spiritual existence is declining, the decline of my judgment and memory is bound to naturally follow. Often this situation diminishes me, saddens me, humiliates me beyond imagination and not rarely does it humiliate me in my own eyes, forcing me to constantly apologise for my small or large blunders and gaffes. Of course, I do not fully understand this alteration. However, You, Lord, You know how much my diminution and shrinkage are also necessary to me at this point. I humbly accept it, because You know. And since You know, I do not need to know the deeper “why”. Besides, I cannot understand it. So why should I be sad and suffer for this? Should I not humbly accept the corruption of my nature? And should I not also humbly submit to the order, which You, with such kindness for Your creatures, and therefore for me, have determined?

Seal my chatty lips with an inviolable seal so that I may not burden others with boring, meaningless and without any interest or meaning, retold stories of outdated events of some distant and forgotten years of an insignificant era. At the same time, however, soften my reactions and judgments about the judgment and memory of others. And never allow me to feel pangs of jealousy about the freshness of memory and the power of judgment of others. Make me, on the contrary, rejoice in it and thank You wholeheartedly for the flowers of youth, when I happen to be among them and smell their fragrance.

Enighten me with the meaning of the words of Your Apostle: “Even though our outward man is decaying, but the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). And may I strive to live this reality.

Finally, support my faltering and unsteady steps with Your “high arm,” so that I may no longer roll on, attached to the earth and contemplate “earthly things,” but instead have my gaze fixed on Heaven and help me contemplate the heavenly realities, until I rest in Your loving divine embrace.

My Lord, Lord, I thank You. Amen.

+ Elder Eusevios Vittis (+December, 2009) Memory Eternal!

“Toward the last years of his life, I had the blessing to speak with him in private and pray together. Those piercing, blazing eyes! Elder Eusebios, the mystic, the poet, the Seer of God, as they called him! This Meeting burns still in my heart!  I have also met a number of his spiritual children and know firsthand how much he helped them in all their lives’ trials and tribulations, how Father-like he stood by their side! May we have his blessing!” (Little city hermit)


*

A distinguished scholar and theologian, yet humble; a tireless writer knowledgeable of many foreign languages and translator of ascetic texts; a holy spiritual father who dedicated his life to the salvation of the soul of his fellow man; a true Father of the Church, divinely illumined, frequently included in the ranks of Saint Paisios and Saint Porphyrios. This is how his disciples and spiritual children remember hieromonk Father Eusebios Vittis, who reposed at the age of 82, in his hesychastirion (skete) in Faya Petra of Sidirokastro (Greece), where he spent the final years of his life in prayer. “He was very humble. He did not want his name to be put on any of his books and he signed them with a pseudonym “Kehri” (translation: millet seed), signifying something “utterly unimportant.”

Hieromonk Eusebios Vittis came from Ptolemaida. He began his priestly work as a clergyman in Sweden. The lack of Orthodox priests in this country at the time made him decide to become a priest. His ordination took place in Stockholm. He then travelled all around the country to serve the various emerging Greek communities. Soon he started leading his life as a part-time janitor in a retreat house and diocese center belonging to the (Evangelical-Lutheran) Church of Sweden. He cared for the Orthodox and all people indeed without pay. He bought an old house in the forest a few kilometers away from his work and turned on of the rooms there to a chapel. The Holy Hesychastirion (Skete) of St. Nicholas in Ratvik, Sweden is entirely his own work. There he withdrew in 1973, with the aim of devoting himself to prayer, meditation and writing. Fr. Eusebios kept the Athonite schedule, and as recorded in the bulletin of the Metropolis of Sweden and all Scandinavia (1979), the monastery was seen throughout the years as being “the sleepless lamp of the Metropolis of Sweden and a place of spiritual healing for the faithful.” The visitors of the holy hesychastirion found comfort, rest for the soul, and the road leading toward salvation.

In 1980 Fr. Eusebios returned to Greece, in obedience to his spiritual father, and retreated to a hermitage in Faia Petra, Sidirokastro. He spent the last years of his life on earth in prayer and confession. Christ is Risen!

*

Another Prayer of an Old Man …

Psalm 71 

I have a safe place in you, O Lord. Let me never be ashamed. …3 Be a rock to me where I live, where I may always come and where I will be safe. For You are my rock and my safe place. … 5 For You are my hope, O Lord God. You are my trust since I was young. 6 You have kept me safe from birth. It was You Who watched over me from the day I was born. My praise is always of You. …

9 Do not let me fall by the way when I am old. Do not leave me alone when my strength is gone. 10 For those who hate me talk against me. Those who want to kill make plans together. 11 They say, “God has turned away from him. Run and catch him, for there is no one to take him out of trouble.”

12 O God, do not be far from me! O my God, hurry to help me!  …

17 O God, You have taught me from when I was young. And I still tell about Your great works. 18 Even when I am old and my hair is turning white, O God, do not leave me alone. … 20 You have shown me many troubles of all kinds. But You will make me strong again. And You will bring me up again from deep in the earth. …

A Day of Dogs

A blessed Feast of the Annunciation to you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Theotokos, the invincible Defender, in her irresistible might, keep us safe from all trials. I am so moved by the icon, how Gabriel’s feet suggest that he is running to share the news with Mary!

Last week in England, I had a day of dogs! Any number between 5 to 1 to the houses we visited in various pastoral visits. How comforting is their unconditional love, their presence with the elderly, the housebound, the downtrodden.

Certainly, the dogs have characters, the obedient, the timid, the loud, the excitable, the nervous,the angry, the loving. A bit like humans.

As much as Fathers and Saints have always shown love for God’s Creation, they have also warned us against idolatry:

Let us consider St. Silouan the Athonite words:

“There are people who grow attached to animals, stroke, caress them and talk with them; and they have abandoned the love of God, and thus the love between brothers, for which Christ died in terrible agony, is lost. It is foolish to do so. Feed animals and cattle, and do not beat them—in this consists man’s duty of kindness towards them; but to become attached, to love, caress and talk to them—that is folly for the soul.

“The soul that has gotten to know the Lord always stands before Him in love and awe; how can it be possible to love, stroke and talk with cattle, cats and dogs at the same time? This means that someone has forgotten the commandment of Christ to love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (Mt. 22:37)…”

True, it is hard for us to accept these words: is there anyone among us who has never patted a dog, or stroked a cat or talked to them, thus expressing their love for them? Moreover, they too need our love: just feeding them is not sufficient. They are emotional creatures: dogs, for instance, experience a whole gamut of emotions.” (“The Blessed and the Dumb”)

Aren’t these words by the Saint very strict, maybe even too strict? Isn’t really the problem when affection (or, rather, attachment for a pet) replaces our love for people and God, making up for a lack or a complete absence of the latter?

As my spiritual father told me, we need “a strong balance here. No tightrope but one foot firmly planted in the love of the creator and one firmly planted in the love of His Creation. It is when we love dogs to the exclusion of God therein lies the problem. There was a popular sign in the back of car windows some years ago “A dog is for life not just for Christmas!” I would add “God is for life, not just for Christmas!”

This day of dogs reminded me of an obedience of mine back in Greece: to undertake dog walking of an ill person’s therapy dogs. These dogs offered him comfort, companionship, and joy but he could not take care of them. Many a time, I found myself grumbling about this extra, ‘pointless’ work every day. Surely I had other, far more important tasks and obediences to undertake? Then one day I read the following by St. Paisios which brought comfort and peace to my heart, and from that day onwards, I have started to learn saying Yes, from the heart, to the love of God, even in ‘pointless’ works:

“My mind tells me that even the animals are better than me; so, I humble myself and obey them. Very early this morning, being tired from praying all night and exhausted because of my illness, I lay down to rest. After a while, I heard a kitten meowing outside my cell as if she needed something. I really wanted to rest, but I humbled myself and went against my own will. I obeyed the kitten and replied to her calling. I went to open the door. It had started to rain and I let her in so she wouldn’t get wet. What do you think then? Should I obey the animals or not? My thoughts tell me I should.” – St Paisios

“So, I humble myself and obey them. … What do you think then? Should I obey the animals or not? My thoughts tell me I should.” – St Paisios

Your prayers and your thoughts

Life after Death— Part 2

The aerial toll houses, the demons, our guardian angel and the Sacrament of Confession by + Elder Efraim, St. Andrew Skete

“… From the moment the soul leaves the body and until the third day is completed —counting with our own earthly time, because the soul does not experience time, unlike us who both measure and experience it— the soul passes through the aerial toll houses during this three-day period. As the demons fell at the words of Archangel Michael “Let us stand aright!”, some remained in the highest layers while descending and remained in the air… These are the so-called aerial toll houses. (1)

So as the soul of every Orthodox Christian ascends to Heavens after death, every soul without exception passes through the aerial toll houses. However, not everyone is forced to stop at the aerial toll houses. Only those who have unconfessed sins… The faithful who have repented and confessed their sins in the Sacrament of Confession, pass through the customs like a … rocket ! By express! That is, they are not forced to stop anywhere, their way upwards is not blocked…

They will stop somewhere, mid-way, only in the case where there is still an unconfessed sin. If it is not a mortal sin (2), this sin is “weighed” and overcome with any good acts they have committed, and they continue to the next aerial toll house, and so on and so forth, until they arrive in front of our Christ! If anyone’s upward movement is blocked midway by some mortal unconfessed sin, then they are destroyed on the spot and fall straight to hell…

We have cases, mostly of women, who have committed adultery or fornication, and who have confessed heavier, worse sins, but these sins they did not confess, out of shame, because of our old self and of the enemy who incited them to act in this way. So, they did not confess them at the risk of losing their souls. In the case of clergy this is even more terrible! Therefore, special attention must be paid here. Allow me to repeat this: when someone has confessed all his sins to a priest, he passes through the aerial toll houses without being hindered or stopped by anyone.

The worst aerial toll houses that today imprison and prosecute people are: First, of witchcraft, second, of homosexuality and immorality, then of selfishness, avarice, blasphemy… Mainly the first two that I mentioned. Satanism and immorality in their most extreme form worldwide…

During the first three days, the soul goes through the aerial toll houses, and when we pass through all of them, then the Guardian Angel of each one of us leads our soul to Christ, to the humanity of the Lord, because the Divinity is not visible… We then see our Christ as we see Him in the icons. Christ has exactly this form, the form that He had in the flesh.

This is the form He has when man stands before Him and worships Him. Our Christ then blesses him without saying anything at all. The soul worships Him and He only blesses it without saying anything. It is our first personal worship of Christ.

*

(1) Cf. The Holy Anaphora in Divine Liturgy:

Deacon: Let us stand aright! Let us stand in awe! Let us be attentive, that we may present the Holy Offering in peace.

The Holy Anaphora echoes the following incident:

The leader of all the angelic hosts — the six-winged Seraphim, the many-eyed Cherubim, the God-bearing Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Virtues, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels — is the Archangel Michael. When Satan, Lucifer, fell away from God and drew a part of the angels with him to destruction, then Archangel Michael stood up and cried out before the faithful angels: “Let us attend! Let us stand aright! Let us stand with fear!” and all of the faithful angelic heavenly hosts cried out: “Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory!”

(2) According to Gennadios Scholarios, George Koressios, the Orthodox Confession, and Chrysanthos of Jerusalem, mortal sins are those voluntary sins which either corrupt the love for God alone, or the love for neighbor and for God, and which render the one committing them an enemy of God and liable to the eternal death of hell. Generally speaking, they are: pride, love of money, sexual immorality, envy, gluttony, anger, and despondency, or indifference.”

To be continued … Part 1

*https://www.decani.org/en/spirituality/on-celebration-of-holy-archangel-michael

http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/exo_sintypes.aspx

https://thedepartureofthesoul.org

Life after Death — Part 1

Where the Soul goes away after death—The Great Journey

+ Elder Efraim, St. Andrew Skete

Our soul is taken out by Christ, with the executive minister Archangel Michael, to whom He gives the command. Archangel Michael is the one who “takes out” our soul by the command of the Lord. It is a supreme honour for us Orthodox that our Christ has appointed the leader of the Angels, Archangel Michael, to take out the soul of every Orthodox Christian.

When the leader comes to take the soul, not the officer, the soldier, but the leader, it means that we are princes! Like likes like. “Birds of a feather flock together”. The baptized Orthodox are the spiritual princes of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the greatest honor that Michael, the leader of all Angels, comes!! He is cheerful, joyful and not at all strict, as some want to present or depict him… Angels have nothing to do with fear, terror and ugliness… Especially the Archangels Michael and Gabriel… If some are afraid, it is not from the sight of the Angel, but from the sight of their own unrepentant state… As at the sight of our Christ, some are demonized and go to hell because the unrepentant people themselves are not receptive to the divine vision.

So the Angels come, the demons come, the Saints come, the senses are dulled, and when the eyes, the physical eyes, fall asleep, then the soul with the mind sees everything. The soul has already entered the sphere of eternity of the other world before it even leaves the body. These are the last moments, the last photographs from which we can determine whether this soul is judged or is saved…

These are some secrets that the saints have revealed to Gerondes to pay attention to and discern … That is, if there is anxiety or sweating… the movements of the eyes right and left, up and down, the movements of the hands, the change of colour, screams or blasphemous expressions, a stench emitted from the mouth of the soul-bleeding person or from the environment, or agitation and fear, an increased heart rate and sweating, shared by the rest of us, in an incomprehensible way… all these mean that we have the presence of demons and that something is wrong… We must then be very careful and perform many forty-five liturgies.

But when he falls asleep, from the moment the guardian angel receives the soul, then such grace and cheerfulness are painted on the reliquary that you constantly want to be near him without fear or hesitation… These are perhaps the last moments because time is measured as the burial and at that moment we are given the opportunity by God to experience this mystical spectacle…

This is very important for us. We do not feel the separation… We want to be constantly close to the dying person… There was a monk that his “death-agony” lasted fifteen whole hours, and I was by his side all this time until his final breath. He had a little difficulty, but in the end he was saved… His death-agony lasted many hours and was exhausting for everyone…

So Archangel Michael takes the soul and delivers it into the hands of other Angels who depart for the aerial toll houses. As for the Guardian Angel, he stands next to the relic and does not leave until the burial. When there are cases when the burial is delayed (due to some circumstances, e.g. group deaths) the Guardian Angel remains near the deceased relic until the body is buried… As a debt of honour!

This is very important! Nonetheless, the soul, together with the other Angels, begins its journey…

To Be Cont.

Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

The Valley of the Shadow of Death By George Inness, 1867

Physical (biological) death vs “brain death”

Is physical death the same as “brain death”? No! A “brain dead” patient may be in a coma and apnea, but most of his organs are functioning with appropriate medical support; so, when his organs are removed, he is still warm, his heart is still working, and his blood is circulating! (1)

They will tell you that organs are taken when the person is dead. This is not true. There are several recorded cases of “brain dead” people who came back from this state. The vital organs of the “donors” are taken while they are still ALIVE, resulting in a violent interruption of their life during the process of taking their organs. Many leading scientists in Greece and abroad (2) express serious scientific objections and do not hesitate to even propose the complete abandonment of the concept of “Brain Death”.

Professor of Pediatric Anesthesiology at the leading University of the USA, Harvard, and Director of the Intensive Care Unit at the University Children’s Hospital, Boston, Dr. Robert D. Truog states: “Brain Death remains incoherent in theory and confusing in practice. Furthermore, the only purpose that this concept (of brain death) serves is to facilitate the search for organs for transplantation. That is why, after all, the concept of “brain death” was “invented” only in 1968 by some Harvard scientists.”

The fact of death is a great mystery, the Holy Fathers of the Church tell us, and no one knows nor will ever know when (at what exact moment) the soul separates from the body… As long as the heart is functioning, the soul is united with the body.

Saint Paisios of Mount Athos, when asked about transplants, he categorically opposed the transplantation of vital organs (organs without which the donor cannot continue to live), for two reasons: First: “it constitutes an impermissible intervention, opposing the creative work of God, on the one hand, by killing the donor, and on the other by creating in us the conceit of animating the recipient.” And second: “It will become a cause for inventing ways to kill the sick in order to take their organs.”

Saint Porphyrios was also opposed to the transplantation of solid organs from “brain-dead” people. He made the following recommendation to a couple who wanted to donate the organs of their child after a serious accident: “There is only one death. Donate only the cornea of the eyes…” A person in a state of so-called “brain death” is a seriously ill patient but not dead… By taking vital organs from a “brain dead” patient, he is forcibly led to definitive clinical death… this action, by the criteria of Orthodox Theology, is equivalent to Murder.

They will say that organ donation is self-sacrifice and a noble act, an act of humanity and altruism. This is not true… The one who determines when we will die is our Creator and not us. In the Old and New Testaments, as well as in the Hymnography of our Church, it is emphasized that the Creator alone is the master of life and death. Even when there is consent, the “DONATION” of VITAL ORGANS IS NOT SELF-SACRIFICE, because it takes away from the donor the possibility of repentance, that is, to say, even at the last moment, “Forgive me, my God” and for God to possibly save his soul.

By a beloved brother in Christ, Stavros Amfoterodexios (cf. “Ehud the son of Gera, the son of Benjamin, a man equally adept with both of his hands” Judges 3:15)

1. Dr. Alan Shewmon, internationally renowned Professor of Pediatric Neurology at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).

2. K. Karakatsanis 2001, E. Panagopoulos 1998, M. Vrettos 1999, I. Kountouras 1999, K. Christodoulides 1995, N. Balamoutsos 1999, N. Konstantinidis 1999, M. Giala 1999, A. Avramidis 1995, P. Kougias 1999, A. Goulianos 1999, etc.) and abroad (R.D. Truog 1992, D.A. Shewmon 1997, R.M. Taylor 1997, etc.),

For every Angel in the world

Let us put aside the curses for the guilty and the hypocritical accusations of God – We ourselves first owe to Aggelos (Angel) an apology.

A three-year-old martyr. This is the Angel who made all of Greece cry. A little angel that no one heard, no one saw, no one understood the unspeakable torture he was going through. Not because there were no opportunities. But because in this case the brain-dead person is one: our society.

It is not possible that there was no doctor, an acquaintance or even a passerby who saw signs of abuse. But the same mentality prevails. Where should I go to… to get involved ? Let me not get into any… trouble too. Have we forgotten how a few months ago a girl had fallen prostrate on the road, hit by a car on Athens Avenue, and the passing cars passed her as if she were an inanimate object?

Perhaps little Angel was born to show us the monster in the mirror again. Perhaps he was a destined martyr for our Colosseum. He came with wings and leaves with wreaths. Every blow, every bruise, every cigarette stub, every cry of complaint, is a nail in the coffin of a society that has become alienated. To the point of not realizing that a hell exists next door. Or even worse, pretending not to realize it.

Thousands of prayers have been said for Aggelos, but our materialistic system has evicted miracles. God’s final signature has been replaced by the signature of a doctor. The sacred mystery of death is being mashed up in the gears of godless science. The relatives gave their consent for organ transplant, as soon as it was certified that the brain was not responding. An unfathomable organ that scientists are still “exploring”, but the “court issued its verdict” immediately. Sorrow upon sorrow; the switch of life is being turned off by a human decision. But joy upon joy, that the child will receive his due glory in the ages of ages to come. Fortunately, God has His own laws and draws His own conclusions.

Many fools blame God for what the Angel suffered. They only demand from God to make amends for what they neglect, for what they are indifferent to, for what they are willfully blind themselves, for what they cover up, for what they allow, for what they vote for, for what they incite with their own sins. As if God is our personal street cleaner, who will work for us while we are having our orgies.

Only a Luciferian mania can lead to such cases of child abuse. These happenings are purely demonic. All Christians discuss this among ourselves. The human race gets crazier and instead of blaming our apostasy for the suffering of children, we blame God.

When He gives us 100-200,000 children a year and we slaughter them before they are born, we say “stay out of it God – Let us commit our genocide”. And when some beasts abuse their own children, we say “where was God?” When He intervenes, they deny him. When they think He is not involved, they curse Him. They have it both ways in their unreasonable self-justification.

Oh Man, sit down and think, before you open your mouth. What conclusions can you draw when you don’t even know what to wish for such a tortured child like Angel? Are you sure that he must live a life that will perhaps be pitch black and scarred? Who will guarantee that he will not carry unspeakable wounds in his soul? Will you guarantee it? Will I guarantee it? We always hope for life, yes. We always hope for a miracle, yes. But how such a child will fare and what his eternal profit is, only God knows.

Have you considered how many thousands of such children like Angel have been saved by charitable organisations, like the Ark and the Smile of the Child, from the claws of such psychopathic parents? Do you understand what it means to be the shield against such beasts? Do you understand the enormous difficulty of managing such children and bringing them out into society? And do you understand why it is a crime for the state to target such structures?

“There is no salvation for our species,” others claim. Salvation does exist, and it has already been offered to us. We are the ones who choose to remain prodigal. We are being transformed into beasts, because you cannot serve two Masters at the same time. Ultimately, you will either resemble the good God, or the absolute evil, the ruler of this world. And our world has become possessed by Satan, for anyone who has even two drams of spiritual perception.

Such a world clips the wings of Angels. Such a world tortured the Angel. If you do not want the next Angel to fall again to other two-legged monsters, keep your eyes open. Keep your ears open. Take an interest in every evil you encounter. Curse your “Oh brother!”. Demand a welfare state. Pray for the children. Support the charitable organisations of the church and other governmental and non-governmental organisations. Regain the alertness of a proper citizen. And the wide embrace of a Christian brother. May evil retreat back to its root, so that all the Angels who find no place to tread together with us, can live free.

Transl. And adapt. By the dear brother in Christ, Elefterios Andronis, Sportime

In the Angels’ Arms

Police and doctors have never seen, for decades, a child so badly abused, especially at such a young age!

Little Angelos was badly abused by his mother and her partner in Therisos, Iraklio, and was discovered, following a neighbor’s call for emergency assistance. Upon arrival at the hospital, doctors discovered a large subdural hematoma, and the child was rushed into surgery to relieve the pressure. Examinations revealed large subdural hematoma and multiple injuries, including bruises, contusions and burns in various stages of healing, suggesting prolonged abuse. Memory Eternal, our little Angel! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

My little Angel

My little angel, soul so pure,

How did you suffer such a wound?

Cruel arms, meant to embrace you,

Offered you pain,

Sorrow and death.

A star in dark night your heart, 

The earth cried, the heaven moved,

Christ stood at the door

And took you in His arms.

Your body may rest here,

But your soul is now 

Joyfully  running in roads of Light.

At the feet of God, with radiant eyes, 

Your laughter lights a new dawn.

 The Theotokos took you in her arms, 

“Come my child, here there is no shadow”.

Angels chant in the deep blue

“Welcome, little one, to Paradise.”

Clouds have become a gentle crib,

Stars lull you to sleep

Fear not, dear one, sleep with no fear, 

No malice here can reach you.

On earth, the trees are still crying 

Rocks break, shadows watch you,

But your soul feels no pain any longer, 

Flies free, like spring snow.

The Theotokos is kissing you on the forehead,

“You will become the sign for every orphan”.

Christ is dressing you with light,

“Live now in peace”. Come,

Enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you.

The moon is holding you in her arms.

Every night from now on,

You will speak secretly to the stars,

Whisper mystically to all who suffer

“Fear not, there is Light here”

Memory Eternal, Little Angel,

Forget us not weary sojourners

Angel of light, flying over wide meadows

Little flower that blossomed in rain

Bring His Life to all child victims.

By an Elder in Attiki, Ad.

https://youtu.be/2ma_Ouv74_8?si=Utv5g22QEeGMyQ7q

A heart whose pulse may be Thy praise

Gratitude by Jack Garren (In the 1960s, his grandmother, Myrtle Copple)

Father Josiah Trenham on “The Most Important Times to Give Thanks” and George Herbert’s poem “Gratefulness” From The Temple (1633)

“Gratefulnesse”

THou that hast giv’n so much to me,
Give one thing more, a gratefull heart.
See how thy beggar works on thee
By art.

He makes thy gifts occasion more,
And sayes, If he in this be crost,
All thou hast giv’n him heretofore
Is lost.

But thou didst reckon, when at first
Thy word our hearts and hands did crave,
What it would come to at the worst
To save.

Perpetuall knockings at thy doore,
Tears sullying thy transparent rooms,
Gift upon gift, much would have more,
And comes.

This notwithstanding, thou wentst on,
And didst allow us all our noise:
Nay, thou hast made a sigh and grone
Thy joyes.

Not that thou hast not still above
Much better tunes, then grones can make;
But that these countrey-aires thy love
Did take.

Wherefore I crie, and crie again;
And in no quiet canst thou be,
Till I a thankfull heart obtain
Of thee:

Not thankfull, when it pleaseth me;
As if thy blessings had spare dayes:
But such a heart, whose pulse may be
Thy praise.

Perhaps the scenario of this poem seems a little ridiculous to you: no one need spend so much vigour on trying to persuade God of the virtues of gratefulness, as it’s a gift that’s so obviously within His will to give. Please forgive me but I do find all this elaborateness and farfetchedness — indeed one of the hallmarks of seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry — charming in its “innocence”. Esp. when compared to our century’s meta-diction and meta-visions…

The first two lines of the poem could be taken in isolation as an earnest and prayerful reminder to be thankful always for God’s goodness, perhaps in the same vein as a verse from Joseph Addison’s wonderful hymn of 1712: ‘When all Thy mercies, O my God’:

Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ;
Nor is the least a cheerful heart
To taste those gifts with joy.

But as the poem progresses, it seems that such is the weakness of our human condition that even an act or disposition of gratitude needs divine provenance – and persistence on the part of the poet: ‘Thy beggar works on thee by art’ (stanza 1); ‘Perpetuall knockings at Thy doore’ (stanza 4); ‘I crie, and crie again’ (stanza 7).

George Herbert leaves us in no doubt that God is gracious when beholding our noise, indeed our every ‘sigh and grone’.

What I find most moving is that the beggar’s request in the final stanza — not just a grateful heart from time to time, but one that is grateful all the time, continuously, as a beating pulse — is indeed granted in the end!

Look at another, famous poem of his, “Praise (II)” :

KIng of Glorie, King of Peace,
…
Thou hast granted my request,
Thou hast heard me:

Sev’n whole dayes, not one in seven,

I will praise thee.”

What a gift! How are lives, certainly mine, would be transformed, were our hearts grateful, did we possess hearts “whose pulse may be Thy praise”! Listen to the hymn of ‘Gratefulnesse’ here.