Kneeling Vespers, Pentecost
Diary of a Pilgrim — Day 2
Thursday 8th
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.”
Indeed, amen!
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Diary of a Pilgrim — Day 1
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!
Love and prayers
Abouna
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Little grass, have mercy!
A blessed Pentecost and Feast of the Holy Spirit!
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Lord Have Mercy
Little grass, have mercy!
Little bird, have mercy!
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!
Mother, have mercy!
Friend, have mercy!
Little grass, have mercy!
Little bird, have mercy!
All that is within the entire cosmos:
Have Mercy! Have Mercy! Have Mercy!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos
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Do Saints visit us? Saint Justin Popovic is lately all the time in my thoughts.
What probably started all ‘this’ was an “icon” in the beautiful icon corner of my little spiritual father.
Then, I came across some of Saint Justin’s quotes that truly moved me:
“Man sentenced God to Death; by His Resurrection, He sentenced Man to Immortality.” (A PASCHAL HOMILY OF BLESSED JUSTIN OF CHELIJE)
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“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!
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Survivor of the Deadly Train Collision in Tempi and Saint Luke of Simferopol
The 20-year-old student studying commercial engineering, Michalis Klapsis from Leipsoi, speaking on T. Stefanidou’s “T-Live” show today, attributed to Saint Luke of Simferopol the Physician and to his icon of him that he always has with him his salvation in the carnage in Tempi, but also that he was found worthy to help and save his fellow human beings, among them a baby.
“Everything I did I did thanks to him,” he declared “… the strength I got to do all this, I believe my patron Saint Luke the Physician gave me because I always carry his icon with me.”
More at www.mystagogyresourcecenter.com/2023/03/survivor-of-deadly-train-collision-in.html
Caption: 57 Tickets to Death
Nea Moudania High School
One of the many protests
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Christ is Risen! + Kyprianos
+ Christ is Risen!
Memory Eternal!
Kyprianos + 28/02/2023
Kyprianos Papaioannou, one of the 57 victims, mostly young people, of an appalling train crash in Greece
A chanter and a poet
A priest’s son, one of Fr. Christodoulos’ 6 children from Cyprus, and a priest’s grandson
He was on his way back from a monastery retreat in Andros, after he kept there a three days’ complete fast («Τριήμερο» ie. He abstained completely from any food and water for three days) for the beginning of Great Lent, received Holy Communion, blessed his wedding wreath at the icon of Saint Marina since he was planning to get married soon and left …
Kyprianos wed our Bridegroom, Christ.
Our brother in Christ and now our “ambassador”, interceding for us to Christ, Our Lord
Words cannot communicate our gladdening sorrow! The Mystery of Death! We now better understand our Gerondas’ words to always be ready …
Kyprianos’ grandfather, a priest too, knew his fiancée Christina since a very young child, since she was going to Confession to him. Upon learning the news of the engagement, he was filled with joy in the beginning, but later confessed to his grandson that he saw a strange dream where the sacrament of the marriage was taking place between Christina and Kyprianos, but when the time came to exchange the wedding wreaths between these two, only Christina was there but Kyprianos was gone! The whole family were perplexed at this strange dream! What were they to make out of it? Kyprianos’ grandfather told him that the meaning of the dream in his opinion was that there will be no marriage! He was right! They had been warned by God!
Butterfly
(Kyprianos’ recent diary notes)
Man should be like a butterfly,
Picking only the necessary
From this world’s goods.
Food – for example –
One ought to eat
Only what is necessary
Love –
As is proper,
As offered by God
If any abuse occurs,
Our little life,
Given by our Lord,
Shrivels…
Withering jasmines…
Our garden’s sweetness’
Roses and lilies
Delight we miss…
Kyprianos chanting to the Theotokos:
O Most Holy Theotokos
How much do I love Thee!
Grant my wish to chant thy hymns
Until my hour of death
And stand by Thee then!
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His priest father’s words:
“It is very difficult for a parent to lose a child that he has helped grow hour by hour, day by day. This has always been the worst nightmare of my life since I have 6 children. And now I am called to experience this. I cannot, though, hold any grudge against anyone. … We are all human and we may all make errors. Let us forgive them. This is my consolation. This is how I am helping myself and Kyprianos’ soul. Nobody, nothing can comfort you, no drugs, no psychologist. So, I will forgive all those who are responsible for this so that my soul and my son’s soul are comforted. When I for a moment got upset with the shortcomings and errors, I felt inside my heart that I am betraying Kyprianos. If I held any grudge against my son and he left like this, suddenly, I could never find peace. “A blessed Ressurection. Christ is Risen!” This is what I would say to him. Kyprianos was always very careful with his conscience. He never held any grudges. He has always been like this. Since a baby. A very good child.”
Here, you can watch his father and family in Cyprus: https://www.megatv.com/2023/03/05/tempi-to-megaleio-psyxis-enos-patera-thymatos-tha-sygxoro-tous-aitious-gia-na-parigorithei-i-psyxi-mou/
An update from Kyprianos’ family:
“On Sunday night at 20:00, a vigil will take place where the Psalter will be read. Then, a PresSanctified Holy Liturgy will take place, and those of the faithful who are ready, let them commune the Holy Sacraments on behalf of Kyprianos and all those who died that sudden, violent death. On Monday, 10 am,the Funeral Service will take place at the Holy Churc of the Apostles Peter and Paul, in Avgorou. The request of the family of the departed one is that all who will accompany the funeral procession should be dressed in white. All dressed in white, in the Heavenly Liturgy, revealing Christ’s Light of Truth. Please offer memorials, instead of funeral wreaths, for the completion of the church restoration, In Memory of the soul of Kyprianos”
Kyprianos’ classmates goodbye:
PS. Christ is Risen! So many families here have ‘lost’ loved ones! So young most of them! May our Lord grant them a rich entrance into His Kingdom and may our Theotokos comfort the hearts of their close ones so they do not blaspheme His most Holy Name! Only yesterday another friend of mine texted me that they are to attend the funeral of their beloved cousin and they only have his leg to bury… 🙏
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A little Abouna — Reflections 1
It is better to be with God and tired and at Peace than tired without God and anxious.
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Only by God’s grace are we able to bear the little martyrdoms.
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The Love of God is a Mystery; not only beautiful and undeserved but also powerful and unreserved.
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God gives a special grace to those of faith who live alone. It is the gift of poverty of spirit that knows the need and presence of God.
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The deep love of Christ is to be seen in His suffering and hidden in an all-pervading joy in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
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How to Pray
How to Pray
Gerontissa Makrina had the gift of prayer since a child. Once she asked with tears our Lord to show her how to pray. That night an Angel of the Lord appeared to her in an all-white robe and taught her how men ought to pray depending on their spiritual condition. According to the Angel’s suggestions, if the soul experiences a perfect Love for God, then one should pray with his hands raised. If humility and remembrance of his sins prevail in his heart, then one should cross his hands on his chest and lower his head. If the soul is engaged in a battle against passions and experiences the ultimate humiliation (ie. Άκρα ταπείνωση), one should pray with his hands ‘tied’ behind his back, like a convict. Then the Angel started praying on his knees, weeping, like he was embracing Christ’s feet, revealing thus the soul’s awareness of its utter insignificance and its ineffable joy and comfort from God. (Pp. Words of the Heart, Gerontissa Makrina Vassopoulou 1921-1995, pp60-61).
See also by Gerontissa Makrina and How to Pray, How to Deal with Someone You Can’t Stand Dealing with
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Our Sorrows and Wounds
If you do not learn how to stay calm amidst life’s adventures, you will be constantly vexed, and the cause will be your reaction to what is happening.
So, master the art of staying calm and ‘indifferent’ towards all.
Whatever may come, the greatest temptation and the greatest difficulty and the greatest death, height, depth, whatever that may be, accept it, welcome it; God is in charge, God knows…
Thus, God will synergize with you, so that you enter His Kingdom.
Make peace with life’s adventures.
Whoever does not master how to live and move comfortably amidst difficulties, will never become a man of prayer.
This means that I will not pray for my difficulties to disappear, as most of us do.
But I will pray to make peace with the sorrows and the difficulties that come to me so that I can stay together with God.
From the book About Prayer
Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra
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The Blind Shepherd
This is the amazing story of a blind shepherd, Ioannis Hasiotis, who knows by heart all 27 books of the New Testament! Ioannis Hasiotis [Ιωάννης Χασιώτης in Greek] was born in a small mountain village, Milia, Metsovo (height 1300m) in 1947. After completing primary school, he started to tend his sheep, following the example of his father. There, one of his village friends approached him and offered him a prayer book to keep him company in his hours of solitude. While reading it, he saw references to the New Testament and wanted to acquire a copy.
In the meantime, he was diagnosed with a serious eye disease and doctors warned him that in 20 years’ time, he will gradually lose his sight. Fearing that with this health issue, he would not be able to read the New Testament in the future, he embarked on a wrestle with time to learn it all by heart. Thus, he succeeded in learning by heart the whole New Testament in three years, at the age of 25! In particular, he mastered the 14 Epistles of Saint Paul in 8 months and 10 days!
Ioannis does not recite the New Testament mechanically, which would be very difficult on its own, but critically so. He knows in detail the chapter and the verse of any New Testament quotation, how many times and where a specific reference may be encountered, which quotations refer, for example, to the divinity of Jesus, or the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and so on and so forth. Today, Ioannis Hasiotis is 76 years old, retired, married, with 3 children, and blind. A humble soul close to the Church and Her sacraments and services. Ioannis bears with thanksgiving the Cross of blindness, offers continual thanksgiving to our Lord, and recites the whole New Testament by heart at least once a week!
In the following Youtube link, you can watch him recite excerpts from the New Testament to Professors of Theology!
The following Youtube link is a playlist of some of his interviews and ‘homilies’ in local channels
https://www.youtube.com/@user-pu2lx5no1i
To this Gift of His Love, I would love to add a brief excerpt from an all-time classic, which I have repeatedly featured in this blog, Abbess Thaisia, An Autobiography, Ch. 4 “Preparation for a New Life”
where she describes how and why she learned by heart the Holy Gospel by the age of 16-17. “The book I loved most and treasured above all was the Holy Gospel. Not only did its words give comfort and sweetness to my soul, but I also felt a strange need to have these words always with me and never be separated from them. This not being feasible or possible, I set myself the task of learning the Holy Gospel by heart.
Thanks to my good memory, this gave me no difficulty at all, and soon enough I had learned by heart, word for word, the Slavonic text of all the Gospel events and teachings by those evangelists who gave a more detailed version of them.” Then follows a detailed description of her “performance” before the Bishop on the day of her last graduation examination, where the Bishop asked her to recite by heart chapters 14 and 15 of the Gospel according to St. John—the parting words of our Saviour to His disciples. (pp49-51)
May we follow their example! As St. Efraim the Syrian, the mystic and the poet, whose memory we honour today, acknowledges “Scripture brought me to the Gate of Paradise, and the mind stood in wonder as it entered.”
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE 