Category Archives: Monastery Diaries

Day 8- Part A: Not for the Faint-Hearted

About vigils, the Feast of the Theotokos’ Sacred Veil (Skepi) and Her Holy Protection, the power of the Psalter and the monastery’s chicken coop!

“By Fasting, Vigil and Prayer Thou didst Obtain Heavenly Gifts” (Fourth Great Lent Sunday- St. John of the Ladder , Troparion, tone 1)

Not for the faint-hearted! A most ascetic monastery, I must admit. I, for one thing, thought that I had no problem with fasting, and yet here, I realise that I am such a dainty eater! I have had enough of their plain bread, watery, fasting soups and fruit!

As to vigils, rising at ungodly [sic!] hours to chant Psalms, after two consecutive vigils, one at St Demetrios’ Feast in Thessaloniki and the other one here, at the monastery, for the Sunday Holy Liturgy, I believe that I have reached my limit. If I had any doubts (which I did not have) now I feel confident that I am not yet ready for this second step in this ladder, for this “violence” on our flesh. Not to mention the third ring, prayer …

“By Fasting, Vigil and Prayer Thou didst Obtain Heavenly Gifts”

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12

Oh dear! A most ascetic long weekend. I have been so food deprived, so heat deprived, and so sleep deprived—the worst part— that I cannot put it to words. I certainly need time and rest to recover from all this ascetic labour. I do feel blessed and most grateful, I am floating, but this monastery’s specifications are for angels, fleshless, holy beings. The sisters are of course lenient with us poor guests, yet even the “compromise” they bless for us is so hard for my spiritual level! I cannot even begin to imagine how it is to spend Great Lent here, with only meal a day, and what a meal …

One can”feel” their asceticism even in their etherial chanting. Indeed, an ascetic hue to the spectrum of light explored so far on my way of a pilgrim. And so “hidden”! Adding a wholly  empirical dimension to the verse “our lives being hidden in Christ!” So very different to my previous two pilgrimages to Dormition monastery in Panorama and St George Karslides monastery in Sipsa. Such a humbling experience! Probably because of all this most demanding typikon, this monastery has the least pilgrims or faithful attending, even when its gates are open. As to the sisters, they humbly believe that they they are useless, lukewarm, “end of times” monastics, not honouring their calling.

Matushka Constantina is so right when she writes at her blog (Lessons from a Monastery): “Encountering monastics reminds the pilgrim that there are better Christians than himself (not that he cannot also learn this in the parish, he most certainly can, but it is an indisputable fact that one is faced with at a monastery). Hence the famous statement: “Angels are a light for monastics, and monastics are a light for the world.”[9] The monastic is simultaneously humbled and enlightened by reading the lives of the saints, just as the layman is when he compares his life with that of a monastic. … the layman makes pilgrimages to monasteries in order to draw the soul away from the distracting world and into an environment of stillness and prayer, where the atmosphere is conducive to taking stock of one’s life alongside that of a dedicated monastic, and to allow the grace of the monastery to help him see his own sinfulness.”

Economia is granted to me and I arrive late at the morning church service. I don’t think I could take one third consecutive vigil in a row. Today, on October 28, the Holy Orthodox Church in Greece commemorates the Holy Protection of our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary, that is, her sacred veil (skepi) kept in the treasury of the sacred temple of Blachernae; and we also remember how the righteous Andrew, the Fool for Christ’s sake, beheld it spread out above and covering all the pious.

The Feast was originally marked on October 1st, yet the Greek Orthodox church, in 1952, transferred its celebration of the Protection to October 28 in conjunction with “Okhi Day” as a testament to the rejection of European aggression and as a day of national remembrance.

Before daybreak on October 28, 1940, the Italian ambassador to Greece, representing Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, went to Greek general Ioannis Metaxas with an ultimatum. Italy wanted full control of Greece to occupy “strategic locations”; otherwise it would brutalise the country. General Metaxas shouted “Okhi!” meaning “No!” Thus, Greece was plunged into the Second World War, as Italy burst through, and then Nazi Germany eventually, wreaking havoc and horrors on the Greek people.

Both dates recognise the Ever-virgin’s constant defence for all the faithful, all over the world, whenever we prayerfully seek her protection and shelter in distress and strife. It goes without saying that we must ask the Theotokos to extend her protection and intercession every day of our life.

A holy, sacred place, an agios topos

St Paisios, the spiritual founder and father of this monastery, +Gerondas Gregorios, St Paisios spiritual child, founder and spiritual father of the monastery, and +Gerondissa Euphemia

Everything is holy in the grounds of a monastery. It is an agios topos, a holy, sacred place. The prayers of the monastics, the saints that dwell within, the angels that protect it, its chapels and the temple of God in its grounds, all these sanctify the place. “And Moses said, I will go near and see this great sight, why the bush is not consumed. And when the Lord saw that he drew nigh to see, the Lord called him out of the bush, saying, Moses, Moses… loose thy sandals from off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3: 3-5). All monasteries I have visited so far feel holy, sacred places, yet this monastery seems the most etherial, otherworldly of all. This holiness permeates all its grounds.

St Paisios, + Gerondissa Euphemia and Sister Paisia, looking at the camera behind Gerondissa. I had the privilege to spend quite some time during my stay here with Sister Paisia.

11 For He will give His angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways. 12 Upon their hands they will lift you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra, trample the young lion and serpent. (Psalm 91:11-13)

Let me share with you a story which a sister here told me about the power of the Psalter, transfusing holiness …

… even to their chicken coop!

This is what the monastery’s chicken coop looks like. You can tell that it is unprotected from the top and sadly the sisters had many problems with hawks attacking and snatching their chickens. The sisters would take turns, one after another, every hour, to protect their chickens, to no avail really, until Sister T. appeared, a frail, old sister …

This sister had a particular affection for the Psalter. Rather than recite the kathismata in her cell, she got the blessing from Gerondissa to sit on her chair inside the chicken coup grounds and recite the psalter there, together with the chickens. She kept doing this every day, for two years before reposing in the Lord.

These two years, all hawk attacks suddenly ceased! Not only this, but even after her sleep in the Lord, for 16 years counting until now, no hawk has attempted a single attack on the chicken! Amazing! For 16 years going! So, the sisters have stopped guarding the chicken coop and chasing predators away. The sister who told me this story, added that Gerondas Gregorios of blessed memory, after this sister’s sleep in the Lord, wondered how long her psalter protection will last. Well, it lasted 16 years and going! This frail, old sister with the particular affection for the Psalter died a holy death on an Easter night, after receiving Holy Communion at the Pascal holy Liturgy. Glory to God for all things!

Sadly, the time for my departure has arrived, but I am not leaving alone. I have to drive two university students first to the church of St. Demetrios, and then one of them to the airport for Cyprus. Glory to God for all things! What an amazing synodeia! The family of one of these two students I am offering this drive has 10 children (!), her father is a priest and a teacher, and their mother comes from a family of … 13 children! They have all moved from Athens to Metamorfosi and build their house here to live next to the monastery, together with all their nephews, children and grandchildren.

How many stories have I heard on the way! What a joy and a privilege to be together with these young people! How fast time flies! A few decades ago, other pilgrims drove me back to Thessaloniki, to spare me the buses, the walking and the long hours of waiting. Now it is my turn to return the favour. Glory to God for all things!

Day 7 Hidden in Christ

Some reflections on “hiding” and “hiddeness” in God, on holy obedience, on the force of the preposition ‘in’, and lovely, amplifying words by George Herbert, my favourite metaphysical poet (1593 – 1633), in his poem ‘Colossians 3:3’

Eothinon VII

Mode grave

“Ἰδοὺ σκοτία καὶ πρωΐ… Lo, darkness and early dawn. And why, Mary, are you standing by the grave, your mind full of darkness? Why do you seek where Jesus has been laid? But see the disciples running together, see how they have realised the Resurrection from the grave clothes and the napkin, and have remembered the Scripture concerning this. With whom and through whom we too have believed and sing your praise O Christ, the Giver of Life.”

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“For you have died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3:3)

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It is probably my first ever Sunday Holy Liturgy at about 02:00!! Other than Easter Sunday of course. Only “one worth comes to mind with the chanting,…ethereal! I meant word but indeed it is worth in the true sense of a noun … the level at which someone or something deserves to be valued or rated.”

I feel surrounded by angels, not monastics. These sisters never sleep! They pray all the time and they are hidden from the world.

I kneel to receive the blessing of Gerondissa Mariam before Holy Communion and she tells me that she has read my note and gives me her blessing to come as often as I want, unconditionally… What a gift! Such undeserved mercy and graciousness!

Inside the church, other than the sisters and the priest, it is only the five of us, fellow pilgrims. How strange for a Sunday Holy Liturgy even in a monastery, let alone a parish in the world, to be so “empty” at the Sunday Holy Liturgy!

After the dismissal of the Liturgy, silently we retire to our cells for some rest and hesychia, and then proceed to the morning common meal where we eat while listening to a sister reading Saint Gregorios Palamas’ homily on Nestor. Then Gerondissa Mariam takes the floor and offers a homily on the mystery of holy obedience to our spiritual father: (Just in case, we had missed that key point in all the sisters’ words yesterday: that Holy Obedience is the “one thing needful … that good part which shall not be taken away” ,Luke 10:41–42).

“St Nestor first received the blessing from his spiritual father, St Demetrios in the prison “bath-house” where he was chained, and then contested and defeated Lyaeus. This is so revealing of the power of holy obedience. St Demetrios blessed Nestor and in fact told him that he would be victorious but would then be martyred. Receiving the Saint’s blessing and sealing himself with the sign of the precious Cross, Nestor presented himself in the arena, and prayed, “O God of Demetrios, help me!” –“Ο Θεός του Δημητρίου βοήθει μοι”, uniting his will with that of his spiritual father, and ultimately with God’s Will.

Straightway he engaged Lyaeus in combat, and much to everyone’s surprise, the stripling novice smote Lyaeus with a mortal blow to the heart, leaving the former boaster lifeless upon the earth, and defeating the previously undefeated imperial champion. Nestor thus stroke a blow against idolatry. Many of the spectators believed that “the God of Dimitrios” had, indeed, helped him. This infuriated Galerius, who must have suffered considerable loss of face, and he ordered the decapitation of the young man. See the fruit of holy obedience? This we must all imitate!”

Our morning common meal comes to an end, prayers are said, and all nuns swiftly disappear back to their cells to pray, other than the very few ones whose obedience are the guests. No visitors yet, as the monastery gates are still closed and will open up only much later in the afternoon.

If yesterday it was the silence of the monastery which struck me, that true hesychasm, today it was the mystery of its hiddeness which permeated me. Certain experiences are so difficult to express in words.

The rest of the morning is spent in silent strolls, the Jesus prayer and quiet conversations with a few nuns around us, “pondering the mystery of “hiddeness” in our heart” (Luke 2:19). A different ‘spiritual surgical procedure’ in the “Antechambers of paradise”.

St. Paul says that “our true life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Such a rich verse that apophatically speaks of theosis, true mysticism! The sisters humbly admit that these lines are beyond their understanding.

It is this preposition “in” that makes all the difference. I don’t believe that there is a God, intellectually; I believe in God empirically. I believe you….or should I say …I believe in you. What force this has! “I believe in one God ….”

+ Gerondas Gregorios’ cell outside the monastery

Let us now see how George Herbert, a favourite metaphysical poet of mine, expands these Bible words ‘Our life is hid with Christ in God’, taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians and how these words are themselves hidden within this poem. Pay attention also to how he personalises the words– ‘our’ is changed to ‘my’.

Colossians 3:3′

My words and thoughts do both express this notion,
That Life  hath with the sun a double motion.
The first Is straight, and our diurnal friend,
The  other  Hid,  and doth obliquely bend.
One life is wrapped In flesh, & and tends to earth:
The other winds towards Him, whose happy birth
Taught me to live here so, That  still one eye
Should aim and shoot at that which Is on high:
Quitting with daily labour all My pleasure,
To gain at harvest an eternal Treasure.

Isn’t this beautiful? As in many of his poems, Herbert uses pattern and shape to explore his theme. The expanded line runs diagonally through the poem, creating a tension which is only resolved in the final line. Double meanings help to create the tension. On the one hand, we live our everyday, earthly lives. On the other hand, we live our eternal, heavenly lives. Our life ‘wrapt in flesh’ pulls us down to earthly things: the upward movement ‘winds towards Him’. Christ himself experienced a double motion. Not only did he come down to earth from heaven in his human birth, but he was raised to heaven in his resurrection.

As in other poems by Herbert, ‘sun’ and ‘Son’ are punned. The movement of the sun is used to shine light on the movement of the Son of God. For the sun has a double motion – we are most familiar with its daily east to west motion, ‘our diurnal friend’. However the sun moves annually from west to east, and this pattern was illustrated by an oblique or diagonal band around the globe. ‘It doth obliquely bend’.

There is a hidden quality to the ways in which people live out their faith in God, for there is a hidden quality in the way God is active in the lives of people. We do not always recognise God’s purposes and ways of working in the world. We do not see the whole until the end, but for Herbert, the treasure to be found during earthly and eternal life is Christ.

The day is coming to a close. At long last, the monastery is full of pilgrims, even if briefly. Vespers follow, coffee, and social time for everybody. Then obediences for us in the kitchen, washing and tidying. The kitchen seems to be always the busiest area in any “home” 🙂

Day 6 Silence as Sacrament

Reflections on silence and holy obedience

“Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord,” exclaims the prophet Zechariah (Zech 2:13).

Upon entrance, silence envelops me. Abruptly, I am separated from the tumult, noise, busyness and endless distractions of the outside world.

“Peace, be still!” Jesus orders the wind of noise, confusion and tumult to cease in the midst of our own storms and turmoil.

I feel separated from other people, all people, too! Is anybody here?! What a contrast to last night’s feast! There, at the vigil in St. Demetrios church, in Thessaloniki, an amazing Resurrectional experience unfolded in a packed church! So many holy chalices all around the Royal Doors! So many people receiving Holy Communion and then, at the dismissal of the holy liturgy, flooding the streets outside the church. Here, I am all alone — the silence of the heart! And what a deafening, thundering silence that is!

“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” (Rev. 8:1)

Yet, how can it be that a monastery of more than 50 sisters plus novices and postulants look and feel so uninhabited, so “desolate”! Am I really all alone here? ...

“Let us love silence till the world is made to die in our hearts.” St. Isaac of Syrian

Sister Elizabeth approaches and welcomes me. She gently inquires about my news. This sister was coordinating my endless faxes to Gerondas when I was at the UK and sending his replies. She knows everything about me! Her question: “Have you got a spiritual father now?”

This question will become a refrain during my brief stay here, asked by all sisters who spend some time with me. In fact, a refrain addressed not only to me, but to all pilgrims and visitors here. It is not that the sisters are not concerned with/about our problems and sorrows, but our obedience to a spiritual father seems of paramount importance and the key to everything. Even if with his guidance and help, our problems are eventually not “solved”. The mystery of holy obedience. “Obedience shows love for Christ. And Christ especially loves the obedient” (St. Porphyrios, Wounded by Love, p. 25).

Saint Simeon the New Theologian wrote the following to one of his spiritual children:  “We conceived you through teaching, we underwent labour pains through repentance, we delivered you with much patience and birth pangs and severe pain and daily tears”  (Epistle 3, 1-3).

Barsanuph’s soul-stirring prayer makes the immense love of a spiritual father for his spiritual children more palpable: «Behold, here am I and the children that You gave to me; protect them in Your Name, shelter them with Your right hand. Lead us to the harbor of Your Will and inscribe their names in Your book…  Lord, either include my children along with me in Your Kingdom, or erase me also from Your Book… » (Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, “Book of Barsanuph and John”, Response 99).

Reciprocally, in this mystery of Christ, the spiritual child should place everything at his Father’s feet, with humility and filial trust. Saint Basil the Great urges us to “not keep any movement of the soul secret, but to bare whatever is hidden in the heart”  (“Oroi Kata Platos” – Conditions breadthwise, 26, ΒΕΠΕΣ 53, 184). Nothing should be concealed from our spiritual father. That is the only way our sins are forgiven by God.  We are freed of the burden of guilt. We uproot our passions. And the spiritual father thereafter guides us safely through our spiritual life. There is simply no other way! Our goal is not simply to manage/ solve all our problems here on earth, but “receive the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls”. (1 Peter 1:9)

Other sisters soon join us for a minute to welcome me and hear the news about St Demetrios’ vigil in his church –it is after all his feast today– but they quickly disappear. Not a minute of idle or small talk. I am shown to my St Paisios, St Arsenios and St Porfyrios (!) cell, and there is still some free time until our common meal at 15:00 to take a quiet walk inside the monastery or … sit in my cell.

Inside my cell

“A brother came to Scetis to visit Abba Moses and asked him for a word. The old man said to him, ‘Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.’“

God calls each one of us in silence and invites us to go into our inner “room,” shut the door and pray to our Father in secret, assured that He will answer our prayer (Mt 6:6). It is only in this silence and stillness that we can listen to Him, hear His “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-13). The quiet water of Siloe flows without noise or sound, “goes softly’ (Is. 8:6).

Gradually, the guests house starts to get filled: two young ladies, university students, in their early twenties, settle in, then another one arrives, this one still in high school, with fond memories of +Elder Gregorios treating her with candies and hugs, and finally a young engineer who attended at the nearby Ormylia monastery a service of monastic tonsure.

Gerondissa Euphemia’s grave (+15 April 2020, 88 years old). She was the first Abbess of the monastery and fell asleep in the Lord shortly after Gerondas Gregorios’ departure to Heaven (19 Νοεμβρίου 2019).

Bells ring and the common meal with the sisters begins, with a reading of Saint Gregory Palamas’ homily on St Demetrios. Our meal is a very ascetic one, as we are all preparing for Sunday Holy Communion.

We retire very early in our cells. The Sunday service will be a vigil from 23:00 to 03:00!

At the insistence of Sister Elisavet, I prepare a brief note for Abbess Mariam. Briefly, I share my news and ask her blessing. No questions or requests. Only her blessing to allow me to stay here longer and more often. –Which was one of the things +Gerondas Gregorios had always urged me to do, Sister Elisavet points out to me …

I give the note to the sister in charge of the guests’ house, pray and wait. After all, our vigil will begin very soon.

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“Do not be afraid that there will be no fruit when all dies down; there will be! Not everything will die down. Energy will appear; and what energy!” St. Symeon the New Theologian

“Silence is the sacrament of the world to come” — St Isaac the Syrian

Monastery Diaries: Back into the Mother’s Womb

Such silence and peace at the Monastery of St John the Forerunner, Chalkidiki! Another colour and spiritual hue in the rich tapestry of monastic visits

For years, here, Gerondas Gregorios of blessed memory offered his prayers with tears and his never-to-be-forgotten spiritual guidance. My rebirth in Christ ((John 3:4), my new life literally started here about 40 years ago.

Off to my next pilgrimage, then, on this year’s three-day public holiday for Thessaloniki: 26 Sat, +St. Demetrius, 27 Sun and 28 Mon: Ohi, national holiday. I can’t wait!

Back in 2019, I undertook the same pilgrimage of mine, and precisely on the same dates and days!

More recently, my own spiritual father visited this monastery just last year.

May it be a refreshing and strengthening experience in His Mercy!

Day 5 If we Burn Ourselves Up as a Candle

… We Become Lights in the World.

Nothing had prepared me for what happened today at the monastery. Mother Porfyria had texted me back at night that, God willing, we would meet briefly today, sometime before we leave. In turn, I had texted my spiritual father for his prayers to help me discern what to discuss with her in these precious, few minutes. His reply: “Let Christ decide. He will be there with you”.

And yet, nothing had prepared me for what happened today at the monastery. I remember that this is what I had told you at my first monastery pilgrimage, at Panorama Dormition Monastery, but this time the spiritual experience was far more powerful, overwhelming I would say.

Such beautiful chanting in Church! Listen to a recording of sisters chanting Matins, Semantron and Bells:

After the Holy Liturgy, I went straight to St George Karslidis cell and chapel, open to the faithful only on Feast Days and Sundays, thinking that Mother Porfyria would rest a bit after these long church services, before venturing out in the public. She is so loved by the sisters and all the faithful that there is always a long queue following her wherever she is going. Here one feels what joyful obedience out of love is.

Saint George Karslides cell

And then, it happened! When I emerged out of St George Karslidis cell, I saw her! but what did I see?! I saw Gerondissa climbing up the stairs of the guests’ house in a hurry and ‘frantically’ searching for me everywhere, checking the guests’ living room, and ignoring everybody else! I rushed towards her and asked her to forgive my disappearance, but I thought she might rest a bit. Are you kidding me? Mother Porphyria rest a bit? How little do I still know her! No sleep, no rest, no ease, no break-fast, no coffee, nothing for her sake, only burning herself as a candle, always full of love and humility, always ready to sacrifice everything for her ‘neighbour! 

If we burn ourselves up as a candle, we become lights in the world.

It was so embarrassing for me! I must have scandalised all the pilgrims and the sisters in the monastery! First this frantic search, and then this grabbing me and ‘pushing’ me further and further behind the inner gates, since pilgrims and sisters never stopped approaching her, literally disappearing and returning after half an hour! Half an hour?! So, the Abbess disappeared for half an hour at the monastery’s busiest visitors’ time, after the Sunday Holy Liturgy, with the monastery literally packed, overflowing with people?!

What’s more, not for 5 min but for half an hour, all alone, listening to her precious spiritual counsel! What a blessing! And what a profound spiritual encounter ours was! Mother Porphyria reflected on our “common” Way of the Cross, dating back to 1988, at our visit to Sipsa monastery, both of us lay persons then, both of us spiritual daughters of + Gerondas Gregorios. Such a beautiful synaxis after so many years! She insisted how our first meeting sealed our future in God’s unfathomable Providence. Back at this time, she was exploring various monasteries with the desire to become a nun, while I was visiting various monasteries for my spiritual growth, before my graduate studies and work at the States. This first meeting dates back to the Pentecost Feast of 1988. Our 36 years anniversary in her words!

Providence brought us to the same monastery, with the blessing of +Gerondas Gregorios, and the following amusing misunderstanding happened then: because I arrived earlier than Mother Porphyria, the sisters at Sipsa monastery thought that I was the one interested to become a novice. So they offered me a single room to have more “space” and privacy to pray. When Mother Porphyria arrived, the sisters understood their mistake but because they did not want to upset me and have me change room, they left me all alone, at peace, and accommodated Mother Porphyria in a double room. Of course, I was clueless about all this, and when I met her, later in the day, at the services and the meals, she did not give anything away. To this day, she finds all this very funny!

Glory to God for all His gifts, especially our fellow travellers in the Way! Mother Porphyria stressed how important is to be always grateful, how God loves those who are grateful. Our faith and life is literally eucharistic. Glory to God for all things were Saint John Chrysostom. last words as he died in exile in the year 407. The word “Eucharist” is derived from the Greek word eucharistia, meaning ‘thanksgiving. This term originated in the 1st or 2nd century A.D. as early Christians commemorated Christ’s Last Supper with thanksgiving. Such thanksgiving inspires and empowers us to act in humble, loving, compassionate ways, with empathy and in service to others.

She also told me that gratitude and total surrender to God will make us fools for Christ and full in His Joy. Galatians 2:20 speaks to the profound change that occurs when we surrender to God: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” And then, the greater the trials and tribulations, the greater our Joy will be. Mother Porphyria told me that this was a key teaching of Gerondas Gregorios of blessed memory to his spiritual children.

She then added that when we are ‘crucified’ wherever God’s Providence has placed us, then our martyrdom, and especially our prayers during our martyrdom, transfuses our crucifiers with His love. And this is such a blessing to offer to the world because sadly there are lots of people who rebel against God’s boundless Love and refuse to accept it and then share it. But the key to become such a channel for God’s Love is the will to be crucified and our gratitude for all our crosses. There is simply no other way!

God is indeed doing something wonderful. If we burn ourselves up as a candle, we become lights in the world. These are my spiritual Father’s words.

“Just as the oil and wick burn in the vigil lamp, submissive to our will, so let our souls also burn with the flame of love in all our sufferings, always being submissive to God’s will”, St. Nikolai Velimirovich.

This burning, of course, hurts, but Christ, our Bridegroom, bore the heaviest Cross of all: All our crosses plus only He knows what more …

Then Mother Porfyria moved on to some very private matters for herself and myself, which obviously I cannot share. All I can say is that her words were overpowering. A bit too powerful and profound for my spiritual level … standing in awe before the Burning Bush… We have been meeting all these years, but never before had she administered such a “deadly blow” on me! She has always been supportive and kind, wiping my tears, but this time was “only” “tough love”. Days later, and I find myself still reeling… Very tough love…

When I shared these words with my spiritual father, he told me: “Indeed tough love but which bolsters faith in an uncomfortable way”. And it was not so much her words, but the Holy Spirit through her words. Such a powerful presence! Even now, days later. Palpably so…My eyes have opened a little bit to the price our spiritual fathers and mothers “pay” when we ask for their prayers.

Please forgive me for not being able to share further our private discussion. And also forgive me if I cannot put her holy wisdom into words. Days later, I listened to a homily from Essex Monastery, which emphasises the same point: “The Taste of Death is a Prelude to Resurrection Life” How Elders burn themselves up to offer light and “how their spiritual children can make them prophets [ie. prophetic lights] with their holy obedience”, in Saint Sophrony’s own words. But I repeat, it is one thing to just listen to these holy words, and another thing the holiness of the speaker to be transfused to your heart and nous. “… and a great multitude of people … came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases … for power went out of Him and healed them all” (Luke 6: 17-19).

One thing I can certainly share is Mother Porfyria’s insistence on the power of the Psalter in spiritual warfare, which she also stressed at a group discussion with the faithful, at the monastery courtyard, shortly after our private discussion: “The Psalms of the prophet David – the sacred Psalter – are an age old weapon, an effective cure against fear, terror, and demonic forces.”

Mother Porfyria’s insistence on the power of the Psalter, reminded me of another homily, by Metropolitan Neophytos of Morfu this time, about a holy ascetic of our times, Elder Theodoros the cave-dweller from Agiofarango, Crete (†2016), about the power of the Psalter:

“If you were to ask me to tell you what I learned after so many years in the desert, I would simply answer this: the power of the Psalter. If I were to start my life over, I would struggle to do one thing: memorize the Psalter. This is the womb of noetic prayer. This is the fertile soil where the seed of prayer thrives. It scourges the demons. When I was reading the Psalter during my vigils, a demon came, roaring like a wild boar in my ear, especially when I said the verse, “Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee before him…” (Ps 68:1 (67 LXX)) and the verse that says, “…for You are my Lord and my God”. He was in a rage, grabbing me by the throat and choking me. He tried to mess up my words so that I wouldn’t say it.”

Saint Paisios of Mount Athos reveals a similar experience of his about the power of the Psalter:

“How much consolation I find with the Psalter! That hour and a half when I read the Psalter, I see it as the most positive help to the world… The Psalter is divinely inspired, it was written with divine illumination, this is why it is so potent, so deep in meaning… With the Psalter I feel like rejoicing… I was pounding the devil with a cannon. During the day I pounded him with the Psalter, at night with prayer.” https://www.orthodoxwitness.org/the-power-of-the-psalter

Mother Porphyria also urged the faithful that flocked around her to cense, ie. offer incense to, not only our icons, immediate environment and people near us, but also God’s creation!, those afar, our families at school, our colleagues at work, our families and friends away, all over the world … She told us that is what Fathers have told her and insisted on this. So, we must sense and cense … since before we offer incense we must sense them.

If we burn ourselves up as a candle, we become lights in the world.

What I find most moving, though, are not her words to me or to all the faithful huddling up near her, but the prayer and the Holy Spirit she transfused us through her words.

Like the other sister with a charisma from God at Panorama Dormition monastery, who offered me 5 minutes of her time before I left the monastery. When she told me, for example, to focus on the Holy Liturgy “which is Everything” in Saint Sophrony’s of Essex words, or the Jesus prayer, she transfused the energy of the Jesus prayer to me, and for some hours and days after this, the Jesus prayer would not stop echoing in my heart. Likewise, when Mother Porphyria spoke to us about the power of the Psalter, she transfused this energy, and from there on, for some days, all I could do was to recite the Psalter…

St. Justin Popovich

“To be Orthodox means to have the God-man Christ constantly in your soul, to live in Him, think in Him, feel in Him, act in Him. In other words, to be Orthodox means to be a Christ-bearer and a Spirit-bearer.”

Day 4 “Take off your shoes”

The Burning Bush

His holy presence is immediately felt upon entering the monastery gates! This Saint is St. Georgios’  Karslidis, the New Confessor of Drama, the founder and first spiritual father of the Ascension Monastery. A bit exhausted after the long drive, off we rush to kneel before his relics and venerate them. … Rush! Waste no more time! “The doors are not yet shut; the bridegroom hears you”. St. Basil the Great

“Take off your shoes”

Hundreds and thousands of the faithful, all these years, especially since his canonisation in 2008, have knelt before him, to seek comfort in life’s trials and tribulations. So many miracles are happening and are being recorded every day!

“Take off your shoes”

Next, we kneel at Gerondissa Akylina‘s grave. Saint Paisios characterized her as “Gerondissa of Gerondisses; ie. Abbess of Abbesses” and Saint Porphyrios of Kausokalyvite called her “Cherub with golden wings”. Her canonisation is expected to take place soon and her relics are now displayed inside the Ascension Church, next to those of St.George Karslides, for veneration too.

So many contemporary Saints and spiritual Fathers and Mothers have blessed her diaconate: Saint Paisios, +Gerondas Iosif Vatopedi, +Gerondas Gavriil Dionysiatis, +Gerondas Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis, +Gerondas Theofilos (Lydia), Elder Efraim of Arizona, establishing her prayer rule, +Elder Georgios Kapsanis Gregoriou, +Elder Aimilianos, Saint Porfyrios, Mother Nikodemi-Ormylia monastery, +Mother Fevronia-Dormition Panorama monastery, to name just a few.

(Mother Porfyria’s obedience for a decade was the exclusive care of the elderly and frail Gerondissa Akylina).

“Take off your shoes.” 

The nuns welcome us, show us to our rooms, offer us a meal, in the separate guests’ house, and leave us to rest before Vespers. Yet, what seems most urgent is the need to repent. Now, on the interpretation of the Greek Fathers of the Burning Bush, St. Gregory of Nyssa for example, shoes, made from the skins of dead animals, signify the deadness of repetition, boredom, inattentiveness. 

“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. … And he [God] said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:2-5 KJV )

“Take off your shoes.” 

Start afresh, free yourself from what is lifeless, from enslavement to the trivial, the mechanical, the repetitive. Shake off the deadness of boredom. Wake up. Come to yourself. Open your spiritual eyes. Cleanse the doors of your perception. Look and see! Listen!

“Take off your shoes.”

The monastic triptych of “prayer, study and work” (Abba Isaiah of Scetis ascetic discourses) is observed here too, but with a greater austerity than in other monasteries, probably because of the +Gerondas’ and +Gerondissa’s relics’ omnipresence and the specific typikon they follow, at the inspiration of +St. Efraim of Arizona. A variation of this salvific triptych is “prayer, attention and work”. This triptych offers balance, healing, consolation. There are 38 sisters in this monastery, and lots of young novices and postulants, pre-novices. Nuns come and go busy bees, novices and postulants race all round, pilgrims flock, beautiful gardens and fields surround us, yet everything fades before my eyes. My heart has been struck, smitten (Psalm 102:4)

“Take off your shoes.” 

In the evening, I text to Gerondissa Porfyria to plead for a meeting, even for 5 minutes, anytime, before we leave the next day. The day is coming to a close. We retire to our cells. I pray and wait …

Gerondissa Porfyria’s balcony is the one with the lanterns

St. Gregory of Nyssa

“Sandaled feet cannot ascend that height where the light of truth is seen, but the dead and earthly covering of skins, which was placed around our nature at the beginning … must be removed from the feet of the soul.”

St. George Karslides

“God cares for everyone. Despair is in effect a lack of faith.”

Monastery Diaries The Return of the Prodigal Son

The Holy Monastery of Ascension of the Savior located in the village of Taxiarches (Sipsa)
St. George Karslides, the Founder of Sipsa monastery

Amazing! After 8 years (originally posted 9 Nov. 2016)! What memories and tears now that I am planning a return of the prodigal…

“… Gerondissa Porphyria has always been so full of love and humility, always ready to sacrifice her ease,  her rest and sleep, everything for her ‘neighbour! How many times has she consoled me in the trials and tribulations of my life! Always by my side, always! How many times has she offered a shoulder to cry on and precious, practical counsel! Her prayerful presence is intensely, intimately felt even thousands of miles away, here at the UK, and her smile warms my heart. Oh, just look at her smile in the photographs below with a pilgrim at the monastery and imagine the rays of the sun warming your shoulders after a rainy, cold day! How blessed am I to have such a spiritual mother by my side! Over the years I got better acquainted with the friendly and hospitable nuns there and the pilgrims and the faithful who regularly visit this monastery. St. Georgios’ holy presence is immediately felt upon entering the monastery gate, and there is always a queue at his tomb where his spiritual children kneel before their spiritual father, now in Heaven, to ask for his spiritual guidance and to seek comfort in life’s trials and tribulations. …” (9 Nov, 2016)

All this and so much more! Nothing has changed! Only deeper and deeper in the Burning Bush.

Today’s Abbesses of Abbesses

Day 3: “But you have kept the good wine until now.” John 2:10

Nothing had prepared me for what happened today at the monastery! Literally the last minute before I departed! I am still in tears of gratitude and trying to digest the Burning Bush Our Lord and Panagia have granted me to experience.

The day started as usual with very early Midnight Office, Matins and Holy Liturgy. The chanting of the sisters was most beautiful and the faithful in the church were praying with tears and prostrations to the Theotokos. Soon the church was full with lots of people with health conditions or impairments, all pouring out their hearts in prayer for a miracle. “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” (John 5:4)

Why was my heart so lukewarm? What common did I have with all these fervent disciples? My pilgrimage was soon coming to an end, after the formal Sunday meal at the monastery trapeza (ie. refectory), at the end of the Holy Liturgy, and coffee offered to the monastery guests, in other words in about 3 hours. My days here have indeed been a time of healing, but how did this compare to the thousands of miles and long hours, nearly a day, some of my brethren and sisters had travelled to make it here?

I tried to make the best of my few remaining hours and spend quite a lot of time with the Pennsylvania brother sharing amazing experiences of his with Geronda Efraim of Arizona of blessed memory. We decided to stay in touch since by God’s Providence we both arrived and were leaving the monastery the same days and hours. I prayed and watched other pilgrims who had sat down in corners with the sisters and were talking privately. I had not made such a “connection” with any of the sisters for all their warm hospitality. This felt a bit sad and disappointing but may it be blessed.

The meal at the Trapeza was very formal and characterized by prayer, reverence and serenity, as the process of the meal is a ritual. The readings were on the Gospel reading for today, esp. the line “The Lord said, “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. … Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful”, and they were from St Gregory Palamas and St Paisios the Athonite. At the end, Gerondissa Melani spoke for a few minutes, highlighting a few points, and then we were ceremoniously escorted outside by the sisters, to the monastery gardens.

I was about to thank the “arhondarissa”, the sister in charge of the guests, for their hospitality during my stay, and proceed to the parking lot, outside of the monastery gates, when I heard a sister calling out my name! I turned around and lo, a sister approached me, wishing to introduce herself! It was Sister I.

Yesterday evening, I had indeed made a request to the arhondarissa to meet Sister I, if that was possible, at the persistent recommendation of a friend, who knows this sister for decades, but nothing had happened, so I assumed that the sister was just too busy to meet me.

Sister I. was indeed a revelation. In just a few minutes, she conducted a thorough spiritual surgical procedure on me and started gently to guide me!I have no words for what happened during these few minutes together. Our 10’ discussion started in light rain and ended in bright sunshine! But it was her eyes that were most radiant and her smile most bright than the sun! Her eyes and smile reminded me of an elder who has charisma from God: Gerondas Efthymios, St Paisios successor, a Geronda that I briefly met at Gerondas Gregorios funeral. Radiant eyes, bright smile, the burning bush!

Back to Sister I., we first got introduced to each other and soon started discussing missionary work at the UK, as Sister I. has been visiting the country, engaging in like activity, and Essex monastery in particular. She is the spiritual daughter of St. Sophronios the Athonite, the founder of Essex monastery, if I got that right. She certainly cited lots of his sayings and spiritual pedagogy. Sister I. has been involved in helping British people discover and reclaim their lost Orthodox heritage, their Saints, and return to the Orthodox Church.

I spoke to her about my recent visit to a parish at the UK, small but compact, with lots of catechumens and inquirers, and told her that the love and holiness I experienced at their church services and gatherings made me feel like I was in the Acts of the Apostles, in those early church communities. She agreed, having experienced similar cases, and we were both reminded of Saint Arsenios of Paros †1877 prophecy that “the Church in The British Isles will only begin to grow when she begins to again venerate her own Saints”

Soon though, our discussion moved to another level and felt more like prayer than a mere exchange of opinions. How piercing were her spiritual X- Rays! “He told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:39) I have never experienced something of the like with a “mere stranger”! Sister I. felt like a Gerondissa who has charisma from God! (*) She revealed to me how I should walk together with the Lord. A real Mother! Among other things very personal she insisted on the Jesus Prayer and Divine Liturgy, which is Everything! I need to pray and reflect on all she revealed to me, and certainly discuss it with my spiritual father to see if he blesses her words.

Sister I. promised to spend more time with me next time we meet in God’s Providence. She told me we could do an obedience together, pray and be open to what God wants us to do together then. I certainly want to meet this Sister again. I have no words to express my gratitude and thanksgiving to our Lord. What an experience! What a great event of my life, the meeting with this Sister! “It was given to me,the least of men, to live approximately the same experience”. Indeed, He has kept the good wine until now.”

“The greatest event of the life of our holy elder, as he himself related and wrote, was his meeting with his holy Father, Silouan. The historical fact of this spiritual bond had definitive importance for the later spiritual development and theology of Saint Sophrony, who write: ‘By the prayers of Saint Silouan, I, too, was placed in the same spiritual perspective … It was given to me,the least of men, to live approximately the same experience.’” Archimandrite Zachariah, The Seven Basic Points of the Theology of Saint Sophrony

(*) My spiritual father told me that he prefers the term “she [Sister I.] / he [Gerondas Efthymios] has charisma from God. In order not to confuse her/him with those Protestant evangelicals who claim to be charismatic and who roll around on the floor” (his words).

Day 2: To the Theotokos, let us run now most fervently

“My spirit seeks You early in the morning, O God, for Your commandments are a light upon the earth”.

At 5 am, Matins begins, and everybody literally rushes to the church under the stars. “To the Theotokos let us run now most fervently”.

This monastery has 3 dedications to the Theotokos: the first is on The Mother of God of the Life-giving Spring or Life-giving Font (Greek: Ζωοδόχος Πηγή), on bright Friday; the second dedication is on the Dormition of the Theotokos, on August 15th; and its third dedication is on Panagia Eleftherotria, ie. Theotokos the Liberator, on the Feast of the Holy Protection, October 28th. This third dedication is the most important for the monastery and apparently for all the Greek nation. It is true that the piety of the faithful all over the world have adorned the Virgin Mary with thousands of names, but this particular one I have personally not encountered in any other nation.

Most Holy Theotokos was declared a Great General, Τη Υπερμάχω Στρατηγώ, by the Greeks of Byzantium in 626 AD, to protect Constantinople from the combined siege by the Sassanid Persians, Avars and allied Slavs. After numerous sieges and attacks in the centuries to follow, culminating in the fall of Constantinople from the Ottomans, Panagia then became the “Eleftherotria”, the hope of thousands of Greek faithful and especially of Greek neomartyrs, suffering martyrdom under the Muslim yoke for more than 400 years.

Tradition holds that it was this Great General who freed the Greek Nation from the Turkish yoke in 1821 and protected the Greeks from the attack of the Italians in 1940 AD. This is why the Feast of “Αγία Σκέπη”, the Holy Protection of the Theotokos, was moved from Oct 1st to Oct 28, the Ohi Day, also referred to as the “Day of No”, the day when the Greek prime minister rejected an ultimatum given by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini during World War II.

Panagia is, of course, the Protector of all Orthodox Church and nations, and a Mother to us all, liberating us not so much from our visible enemies, but from the invisible ones, ie. our passions, our sins, ultimately from the evil one. Pilgrims from all over the world tearfully share miracles and pray to Her here, in Her monastery, for liberty from their concerns, worries, thoughts, illnesses, for Liberty of their souls first, ultimately from sin.

Beneath thy compassion,
We take refuge, O Mother of God:
do not despise our petitions in time of trouble,
but rescue us from dangers,
only pure one, only blessed one. (1)

Holy Liturgy finishes at 8:30 and a light meal is awaiting us, before we all head to our obediences. Today, to our surprise, ironing, and not ivy pruning, is our obedience: ironing piles upon piles of the sisters’ and pilgrims‘ bedsheets. May it be blessed. Again, long hours of manual prayer await us, accompanied by the Jesus prayer. Glory to God for all things.

At long last, break time and a walk in the monastery gardens and lush forests! Once outside of the cells and the various workshops of iconography and embroidery, one marvels at the beauty of trees especially and flowers everywhere. Nature is enveloped in the Holy Spirit.

Most Holy Theotokos’ presence and protection is felt most powerfully in Her monastery gardens and forests, and there are votive offerings, “tamata” for Her everywhere.

Enwrapped in such beauty and holiness, immersed in the Theotokos, one forgets tiredness, drowsiness, even hunger, but the semantron summons us again, this time for our midday meal of Greek Briam, a traditional Mediterranean recipe that uses all homegrown summer vegetables —potatoes, zucchini, aubergines, red onions, and tomatoes—and bakes them together in olive oil.

Siesta, quiet time follows, then Great Vespers, Compline, and another, very light, fasting meal, since most of the pilgrims are preparing for Holy Communion. Cars and pilgrims keep arriving in large numbers, especially now that weekend has started. At the sunset, pilgrims and monastics, all together, in small groups, share precious fellowship time in the monastery gardens. Even at the close of the day, Sisters continue to be amazing busy-bees with their obediences, errands, charity and gracious hospitality.

In anticipation of tomorrow’s guests 😀 At weekends, the numbers of the faithful at the monastery services increases exponentially!

The blessing of Gerondissa Melani seals our day and we retreat to hesychia in our cells. How richly, orderly, deeply and blessedly time flows in a monastery! So different to the hasty, stressful, exhausting, chaotic perception of time in our lives.

To the Theotokos, let us run now most fervently

Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva on the Panagia:

“Our Church highly honours our Panagia. I very much love our Panagia. When I was young on the Holy Mountain I very much adored her. I had a small icon of the Panagia under my pillow. Morning and night I embraced her. I lived with her night and day. Whatever happened to me, I resorted to her. What can I tell you? She is better than a mother. There was nothing else I wanted more. She had everything”.

(1) The oldest prayer we know of dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Coptic Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250 A.D. It is used in the Coptic liturgy to this day, as well as in the Orthodox, Ambrosian, and Latin liturgies. Orthodox Christianity Then and Now.

Monastery Diaries Day 1: A Time of Healing

The time has come! The day has finally arrived! After a long, tiring month full of all kinds of jobs and obediences —other than a blessed Synaxis at Holy Cross, UK —and an especially hard time last week, I have finally arrived at the first monastery in my pilgrimage “list”: the Dormition of the Theotokos monastery at the Panorama suburbs of Thessaloniki.

This most beautiful monastery is dedicated to Panagia Elefterotria, the Liberator. It was founded in 1957, has 60 nuns and Melania is their Mother Superior.

Last August, we visited this monastery together with Father J. but our visit was very brief …

I remember so little from our visit last year. I cannot find my way anywhere around. I have arrived so upset, sad and stressed out. Yet here at the monastery, there is an hesychia and a fullness of the Holy Spirit that is most healing.

The hospitality and kindness of the sisters is felt in their warm smiles and their radiant, kind, prayerful eyes. They offer me breakfast, ask me to wash the guests’ dishes, then take me to my room and I start meeting pilgrims from all over the world!

Talking about hospitality, please have a close look at this notice in my cell:

I translate the last two paragraphs: “To our dear guests: A humble request: … You can leave a pair of your own bedsheets if you are a frequent guest. Please do not keep the monastery bedsheets, if you are not considering returning to our monastery within a fortnight”. “Returning to our monastery within a fortnight”!

Everything is happening very fast and with as few words as possible. The sisters work hard and very fast, they multitask, they are such bright busy-bees, yet more importantly they constantly pray. They had to accommodate nearly 300 (!) pilgrims during Dormition Fast in August.

My first obedience, upon arrival, is ivy pruning. I sense that this will be my obedience all these days, until I leave, as the monastery fence is a very long, miles long fence. The other pilgrims from other countries cannot suffer the heat and the sun. As for me, after all this prolonged, all summer training of 40-45 Celsius here, this 30+ C heat and sun feels a bit autumn-like breeze!

So, I prune and pray and hope my sadness will fade away since this is what my spiritual father reassured me and is praying about. I always love to work in nature, yet even here my thoughts, my logismoi still bother me and interfere. But I have faith in my Gerondas’ words. I am under obedience, he will stand by my side on Judgment Day before our Lord, surely he knows better.

Hours pass under the sun with pruning and the Jesus prayer. A little tortoise seems confused with our pruning and we have gently to carry her across the road to greener paths. Glory to God! Little by little, my sorrow begins to evaporate with this heat, sun and prayers. So Gerondas was right, again! “A disciplined schedule, manual labour, study and prayer” (Abba Isaiah of Scetis Ascetic Discourses), and this blessed monastic community did work miracles for my pusillanimity and faintheartedness.

No time for logismoi, thoughts, moaning, worries, fear, sorrow and self-pity. This is the time, καιρός, for metanoia, obedience, faith, and joyful, godly, bright sorrow, “Charmolipi” (an old Greek work made up of ‘chara’ (joy) and ‘lipi’ (sadness). There is no equivalent word in English; it means a feeling of happiness and sadness at the same time.

10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Lunch is served at midday, delicious crispy veggie balls and rice, and then a few words and fellowship with the other pilgrims before a bit of rest and Vespers and Little Compline. Of all the pilgrims I met today, I am most impressed by two, one from the States and the other from Canada, both baptised at a mature age, and both really close to Elder Efraim monasteries: Holy Protection Monastery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and St. Kosmas Aitolos Greek Orthodox Monastery, Ontario and Holy Monastery of Virgin Mary the Consolatory, Panagia Parigoritissa, Quebec.

One has literally moved next to the monastery to be there all the time, and the other one does not mind driving 6 hours to be at the church services and the fathers of the monastery! This pilgrim was baptised in a Roman Catholic Church due to his Orthodox parents “carelessness and ignorance” — the pilgrim’s own words— but our Lord found him, guided him to His Church, and he is now on pilgrimage together with his mother! Glory to God for all things! All these Elder Efraim’s monasteries, 20 in total, I believe, in USA and Canada, are all following the Cenobitic way of monastic life (“Cenobitic” is derived from the Greek word “Keenovio” which means “common way of life”) therefore consisting of common work, common meals, and common rest periods.

These monasteries have wrought such a miraculous renewal and perform such amazing missionary work according to all first-hand testimonies I hear from our Protestant brethren finding the true faith and the true church. The value of this treasure and the unquestionable contribution of the Elder Ephraim to the Orthodox of North America and Canada is beyond appraisal.

After Little Compline, a small fasting dinner and then hesychia. My sorrow has been healed and joy fills my heart. What a transformation in just a few hours! My spiritual father was right: “The time there will be a time of healing”. All this prayer and few idle words, manual labour and study, have wrought a miracle.

Abba Isaiah of Scetis

“Observe these three things: your manual labour, your study, and your prayer. Think to yourself daily, “I only have this day to do something in this world” and you won’t sin before God.“