Traveling light : Luke 22:35 “Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered.”
The packing is almost completed. One can just imagine what it would be like for Britain’s largest family with 22 children. Of course they are from Morecambe. I recall years ago when Pilgrimage to Orthodoxy met with his Beatitude Ignatios ( of thrice blessed memory) in Paris I took a small case for the weekend. On the coach to meet with his Beatitude from the hotel I asked one of our brethren where was his case, he pulled out a tooth brush from his top pocket with the words: ” here it is !” Some of you know him. He now has the longest beard in the Archdiocese! Once again I find myself in that waiting period but making the most, quietly, of the time here amongst new friends.The reception staff ,one Cypriot one Romanian, last evening talked with me about monasteries in Cyprus and Romania. It was a joyful conversation. They said “why don’t you come and live here in Cyprus father? ” I replied with a wry smile” I don’t think my Archbishop or my people would like it!” Such are the vagaries of the English language that a word can have more than one meaning which can be confusing but sometimes revealing! It is important not only that we travel light, but perhaps more importantly that we travel with the Light of Christ , bringing it to all He has given us to meet. Be a traveling light!
After every trial comes a blessing. I went to collect the icon of St Amphilochios. Ioanna had it ready and gave it as a gift. She was so pleased I had introduced her to this saint who she didn’t know that she offered to paint an icon for our Parish. Dimitri from church kindly translated my thankyou letter.I bought some more komboskini and crosses and blessed them on the relics of St Lazarus. As I was praying with my hand on the relics for some of our people I felt a surge of energy through my fingers and joy.
As it was my last full day, I went to my favourite cafe and had prawns with chips and a glass of local white wine. No Octopus! Sophia( I named her) the cat spotted me ( ah here is the clerical guy) sat at my feet pleading once more for the prawns tail ends. Yet again I gave in to her petition.I have so many gifts that I needed to distribute some of them otherwise my suitcase would be too heavy I was given a rose cordial and some basil from my visit to Nicosia.Together with an icon of the Mother of God of Patmos I gave them to the daughter of a priest Pater Makarios who fell asleep in the Lord in 2019.
As I was about to leave the church I saw the Russian lady who I met on the first day in church. We sang some hymns together in Russian and Greek…..others started quite spontaneously joining in with usI shared the last of my icon cards, St Dimitrios to a lady whose son just happened to be called…
Online apps are a world and age away from my simple technology of pen and paper. Having to obtain my boarding pass online for returning to the UK has proved a testing time this morning. The reception could not help me so they suggested I took a taxi to the airport. There was no TUi desk there, I went to Swiss Air, they said “You have to download the app but didn’t show me how and the information desk didn’t think I needed to download it! The phone call I made to the travel agent gave me a series of options, none of which I wanted. No tui representatives at the hotel.
In the end, I had reached a point of frustration with my own incompetence and so I called my secretary and spiritual son Dmitry.
In a few minutes, he diffused my panic and solved the problem.
Yet my concern remains for the ever-advancing voracious monster of Artificial Intelligence consuming reality and feigning the image of God.
One of our great saints, St Kosmas Aitolos spoke words of prophecy. He predicted many things before his martyrdom in 1779, some of which have come to pass, others yet to be fulfilled.
” the time will come when people will speak from one far place to another, for example, from Constantinople to Russia as though they were in adjoining rooms.”
” you will see in the plain a carriage without horses which will run faster than rabbits.”
” you will see people flying in the sky like blackbirds and hurling fire on the earth.”
A blessed Apostles fast to you all. We are allowed fish wine and oil. God is so gracious!
An Icon shop near the church of St Lazarus had some komboskini and holy bracelets in the window. In the morning I bought some to give to our children. I ordered a small icon print on wood of St. Amphilochius of Patmos. Maria the Iconographer and shopkeeper said she would have it ready for tomorrow afternoon. Some things happen very quickly in Cyprus!
I took the bracelets and komboskini and placed them on the Holy relics of St Lazarus for blessing to give to our children at church.
Wherever we go in accordance with Saint Amphilochius’ instructions we should buy a tree in memory of a loved one, as a gift to others, as an act of contrition for our sins and to bear the fruit of goodness.
The prophet Nehemiah has a recurring theme in his book in the Old Testament :
“Remember me O my God for good.” It is the prayer of a pilgrim in this life who whilst knowing his sins, asks God to remember the good deeds he has done through following His commandments:
“Blessed art Thou, O Lord,
teach me Thy statutes. The choir of the saints has found the fountain of life
Prince Vladimir/Volodymyr of Kyiv (AD 958-1015) sent his emissaries to tour the world in search of the True Faith. Upon their return, they reported to him as follows:
Then we went to Greece [Constantinople], and the Greeks (including the Emperor himself) led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth, there is no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. These words came to mind after the 3-and-a-half-hour service of Matins and the Holy Liturgy from 6.30 to 10 00 a.m. As we are beginning the liturgy at home everything is finished here. I was able to be at the altar of St Lazarus church in Larnaka, a most ancient and beautiful church. I remembered you all at the proskomede and the names which I had written on Wednesday were read out by another priest. I lost count of the number of huge baskets of antidoron blessed. I took two prosphora given to me by K’s mother and C’s mother.
A late lunch before the fast. The local cafe cat spotted me as a soft and easy target for food. Looking deep into my eyes and with a pleading meow I gave in to the cat’s supplication.
A long, busy, eventful, fruitful and most joyful day.
Trying to shake off the nuisance of a cold, induced by my temperamental air conditioning I suspect, I gathered myself for a tight schedule of visits. C arrived at the hotel at 11.00.
He was my guide, chauffeur and auditor on our many visits. Thank you, C.
Our planned itinerary of several monasteries had no relation to what took place. Our first visit however was to the Monastery of Mavrovouni and an audience with Geronda Symeon the translator being monk Porphyrios.
A beautiful Monastery is next to the fields where St Spirydon kept his sheep and goats. They are building a new church made completely of stone. A stone cutter was working whilst we were there.
C’s car overheated and we stopped. I could understand it because it was a hot day. I shared some sympathy with the automobile, indeed I was overheating a little also! We made it to the garden centre and the car overheated again. I bought two olive trees in line with St Amphilochios’ 11th commandment “Love the trees.” We were in Nicosia when the car decided to overheat again. We tried to make it to C’s’ parents’ house but the car had had enough and so we called C’s father to come and collect us. We had an amazing meal…the first of many that day…
” We have no grandmas( giagiades) in this community; you are the Church. ” This was my reply to a group of Cypriot students who, when faced with my request for them to build and decorate the Epitaphion for Pascha ten years ago, exclaimed ” but father our giagias do this in Cyprus.”
Meeting A… today took me back in time to those days when we had to build a church every week…
.. Then, we made our way to the Metropolis where his grace Bishop Nektarios of Kition afforded me more than 30 minutes of his precious time.
The time we offer to others is indeed a grace reflecting the time that God gives to us. We will find when we allow the Lord into our schedule and daily agendas, time is stretched.
We must not think that time belongs to us or even that we can manage time. If we are not interrupted then we are of no use to God or humans. We only have to look in the Gospels to see that our Lord Jesus Christ was continually interrupted in His earthly ministry. Time belongs to God alone.
Metropolitan Philaret writes: “In unforeseen events let us not forget that all are sent by God.” When we seek first the kingdom of God, everything falls into place and time(kairos).
I recall trying to persuade some anxious students to come to church during their exams. I said : Don’t worry God will give you more time, a clear mind and a peaceful spirit for your revision!”
A day of rest and adjustment. Adjusting to the heat of a Mediterranean country takes an englishman by surprise. It is 25c first thing in the morning without air conditioning( it was faulty, now corrected).
Acclimatisation is not just about the weather it is about culture and faith too. Our colder climate often means we british are more reserved; we need more outer clothing, live indoors and thus become less sociable. We need to become acclimated to God too.
I feel better in a hot climate. Perspiring toxins as one adjusts brings a certain sense of well being. So that’s why they have saunas in cold countries!
There is a temptation to eat more on Holidays.
Actually holy days often require fasting. Whilst it is difficult to avoid hospitality the body benefits from restraint and exercise. The Church is a gymnasium.
St. Basil the Great says “one who truly fasts abstains from anger, rage, malice, and vengeance. One who truly fasts abstains from idle talk, empty rhetoric, slander, condemnation, flattery, lying and all manner of spiteful talk.”
The old men sit and drink lots of coffee, the cleaners work so hard in the hotels. Rest and ascesis are found as neighbouring realities.
I say my prayers and visit St lazarus asking his intercessions. As I leave the supernatural brightness of the church and go once more into the natural brightness, words of St John of Damascus come to me:
“The Father is the sun, the Son is the light and the Holy Spirit is the heat.”
If I believed in purgatory (which I don’t) I think airports come close to the image. Souls coming and going, carrying their baggage, waiting and hoping for a better state of being somewhere else.
The final checks completed, the aeroplane takes off to another place and time, two hours ahead. After a short while, we seem not to be moving in the air but we are being moved all the same at some considerable pace; rather like life in the Holy Spirit. The clouds disappear as we leave Manchester and the beautiful patchwork of fields open up below like Joseph’s coat of many colours or a court jesters costume displaying the truth of God’s abundant creative power and mocking the insanity of war on His sovereign soil.
Arriving in Cyprus my phone goes to roaming mode as I switch to my faltering spoken greek.
The taxi driver is quite silent which whilst strangely surprising is also a relief.
I have a most beautiful room overlooking the harbour, the serenity broken incrementally by the increasing noise from families in cafés, rather like refreshments after the Holy Liturgy.
Off to St Lazarus church to pray for the faithful. Prayer in a holy place intensifies the memory and promotes good thoughts. Meanwhile, two Russian ladies with heads respectfully covered seek a blessing from me which the unworthy one duly gives. We exchange icon cards. The saints like to be shared amongst the faithful it seems!
Everything within me and around me, both the small and the great, things past and things infinite, the simple and the puzzling, the dark and the bright, the visible and the invisible, the mortal and the immortal, the good and the evil, all things and everything in all worlds that I know and feel, they motivate me to blatantly pray: Lord have mercy!
Our pain summarizes all human words in one prayer and cry: Lord have mercy!
Turned toward You we are found to overflow within our whole being only one sigh: Lord have mercy!
We would like to speak of ourselves, but our tears are pouring and we tell You of our entire soul within these two words: Lord have mercy!
Every creation has its heart, and the heart is with this heart because it sighs and tends towards You: Lord have mercy!
In this sad world, man has no greater need than to be granted mercy primarily from You: Lord have mercy!
And together with You and behind You that all things and all creation grant him mercy: Lord have mercy!
“The Temple is but a piece of Heaven on Earth, Earth becoming Heaven, a haven of immortality, a haven of Paradise in the sea of Hell on Earth“
Such powerful words of consolation! Such boldness of vision! They also felt like precisely describing my experience here on Earth, especially over the last few months: “A sea of Hell on Earth!”
“By reading the Bible you are adding yeast to the dough of your soul and body, which gradually expands and fills the soul until it has thoroughly permeated it and makes it rise with the truth and righteousness of the Gospel.”
This Saint set himself the rule of studying three chapters of the New Testament every day and continued to do so throughout his life! And I barely make a chapter every day with my busyness… I wish I could follow his example with his prayers!
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“If you are suffering for your faith in Christ, the Lives of the Saints will console you and encourage you and make you bold and give you wings, and your torments will be changed into joy.
If you are in any sort of temptation, the Lives of the Saints will help you overcome it both now and forever.
If you are in danger from the invisible enemies of salvation, the Lives of the Saints will arm you with the ‘whole armor of God,’[1] and you will crush them all now and forever and throughout your whole life … feeling with all your being that your life is in heaven, hidden with Christ in God, wholly above all deaths.[2]“ + St. Justin Popovich,” Introduction to the Lives of the Saints,” Orthodox Faith & Life in Christ
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The more I study his work, the more I am astounded by his holiness and his compassionate, yet bold, uncompromising revelation of Truth! A real treasure especially for the Orthodox Christians living in the West! “A way out of its innumerable humanistic hells!” “Is there a remedy for those innumerable deadly sicknesses? There is, there certainly is: repentance. … (+ St. Justin Popovich, “Reflections on the Infallibility of European Man,” Orthodox Faith & Life in Christ)
Our Father St Justin amongst the saints pray to God for us!
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE 