Our holy father John Kalaides - Memories of the holy Elder.

Our holy father John Kalaides - Memories of the holy Elder.

Our holy Father John was a lover of the sick but never complained! When we asked him how his health was, after an illness he had suffered, he would say: "Thank God my child and no worse". When he was sick, he would come by ambulance to the Serres hospital, where I would wait for him several times and stay with him until his children came from Thessaloniki. During one of his hospitalizations, I sat next to his bed and felt a great blessing and emotion. At that time, I was suffering from an eye disease and I begged him to cross me with his hand. He said to me sadly: "My child, I cannot raise my hand" and he meant his right hand. Being ignorant, I begged him to cross me with his left hand.  Then he said to me: "This is not allowed, my child"! But shortly, going beyond, he raised his right hand and crossed me over both eyes, saying: "I could not stand it, my child, and I crucified you". He always went beyond to relieve his fellow human beings! He was deprived of the sleep and rest that he so badly needed because he remembered thousands of names every day. He wanted to help others and he did this to the point of self-sacrifice! 

In those days, they brought to the bed next to him a priest of the old calendar, who did not speak to Father John!!! When they brought the holy relics of Saint Raphael for Father John to venerate and thus be helped in the matter of his health, he also begged him with great love to venerate the holy relics of the Three Newly Appeared Saints. In this way, he managed to calm this miserable soul too! 

 He gave undivided love to the flock entrusted to him by our Christ, but also to every fellow human being who approached him with a good mood! He was in every way an imitator of the Lord! 

May we have the honest wish of our holy Father John! May his memory be eternal! 

Miltiadis Tsesmetzis - educator

THE LIFE OF BLESSED NAZARIUS

Sportime. gr:''Saint Paisios: Thousands of people at his tomb from every corner of Greece – The only "popular pilgrimage" that smells of eternity''

Sportime. gr:

''Saint Paisios: Thousands of people at his tomb from every corner of Greece – The only "popular pilgrimage" that smells of eternity''

Social "explosion" in the world's love for the Saint in recent years - A blessed phenomenon that shows that nothing has been lost

...After the screening of the series that literally made all of Greece cry with its sanctified messages, the already busy pilgrimages associated with the life of Saint Paisios, the attendance recorded an "explosion" of new pilgrims.  Both in Panagouda on Mount Athos, as well as in Konitsa and the Monastery of Stomio, thousands of pilgrims rush to feel something of the blessing left behind by the greatest Saint of our time....

Faithful people from every corner of Greece have been arriving since Friday morning at the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian. Defying the expenses and the kilometers, ignoring the scorching sun, bypassing the worldly joys of summer, they go by the thousands to rest on the headrest of a sanctified tomb. A tomb that is infinitely more life-giving than many living wandering "tombs" that dominate or teach this hermit country.

Every pilgrim who either physically - or mentally kneels before Saint Paisios, receives golden purses of free grace.  His soul is healed by the balm that despite our decline (individual and national), the Saint is not going to abandon us. If he was anxious about his place while he was alive, bleeding his knees from repentance and writing a letter as a legacy for the future, how much more so will this “radio operator of God” now come running who now transmits his miracles directly from the frequency of Paradise.

We hear a lot of sadness in our days, we see phenomena of eschatological decline, we are constantly concerned with the invasion of darkness and its infinite forms. As humans, we often become darkened by this discouraging climate.  But somewhere you will turn your gaze and you will see a Saint Paisios in an icon, in a book, in a vigil, looking at you with that look of deep grace and whispering sweetly to you "...that His mercy is for ever, alleluia"....

...You see young people, old people, families, travelers from abroad, every class and education and profession, flooding the paths that the Saint walked, searching for the traces of his walk, discussing his words in the wells of pure company, resting in every word of his that remained on paper, invoking him in every dark hour, having him as a shield against every thought of little faith, feeling him as a father and brother and friend and comrade, as a beat of our heart that was added to beat continuously for Christ and Greece....

Saint Paisios loved Our Most Holy Theotokos very much and had the Blessing to see her many times throughout his life.

“Kindness softens and opens up the heart, as oil opens a rusty lock.”Saint Paisios the Athonite

“The Publican and the Pharisee” on the Electric Train.

 “The Publican and the Pharisee” on the Electric Train.

“I am taking the Moscow-Petushki electric train. A homeless man from the Kursky station gets on. He has a black eye. His face is swollen. He looks about thirty. He looks around and begins:

- Citizens and gentlemen, I haven’t eaten for three days. Honestly. I’m afraid to steal because I don’t have the strength to run away. But I’m very hungry. Give me as much as you can. Don’t look at my face - I’m drinking. And I’ll probably drink whatever you give me!” - and walks along the carriage. Our people are kind: they quickly threw the homeless man about five hundred rubles. At the end of the carriage the homeless man stopped, turned to look at the passengers and bowed at their feet:

- Thank you, citizens and gentlemen! May God bless you all!

And suddenly, a bad man sitting at the last window, who looked a bit like the vegetable grower Lysenko, only he was wearing glasses, suddenly shouted at the homeless man:

- You bastard, you bastard, you ask for money, you ask. And maybe I have nothing to feed my family. And maybe I was fired three days ago. But I don’t beg like you, you bastard.

Hearing this, the homeless man suddenly takes out everything he has from his pockets (probably two thousand in different bills with change) and gives it to the man:

- Here, take it. You need it.

- What? - the man is stunned. -

Take it! You need more! And they will give me more. They are good people! - He put the money in the man's hands, turned around, opened the doors wide and entered the vestibule.

- Hey, stop! - the man jumps up and runs into the vestibule with the money in his hands.

The whole carriage, without saying a word, fell silent. For about five minutes we all listened carefully to the dialogue in the vestibule. The man shouted that people were scum. The homeless man insisted that people were kind and wonderful. The man tried to return the money to the homeless man, but he wouldn't take it back. It all ended with the homeless man leaving and the man being left alone. He wasn't in a hurry to return. He lit a cigarette.

The train stopped at the next station. Passengers got off and got on. The man, having finished his cigarette, also returned to the carriage and sat down in his seat by the window. No one paid him much attention. The carriage was already living its normal life. The train stopped occasionally. Someone got off, someone got on.

We passed about five stops. This was my station. I got up and went to the exit. Passing the man, I glanced at him quickly. The man was sitting, turned to the window and was crying.

Priest Dmitry Vidumkin

On one of the American forums, a girl asked a question:

 

On one of the American forums, a girl asked a question:

“I am a beautiful, cheerful, intelligent girl. I want to marry a man who earns at least 500 thousand dollars a year.”

One of the young financiers took the time to answer her to the point:

“I read your post with great interest. And that’s how I see it all.

Your offer, from the point of view of a man like me, is definitely a bad deal, and here’s why. In short, you are offering your beauty in exchange for my money. Great. But your beauty will fade, and my capital will only grow. Of course, the possibility of my capital increasing can be questioned, but you certainly will not become more beautiful!

So, in the language of finance, you are an undervalued asset, and I am a profitable asset. But you are not just an undervalued asset: your value is decreasing faster and faster, and in 10 years no one will even look at you.

Buying you (which you are asking for) is bad business, so I would rather rent you.

If my words seem harsh to you, consider that if my money disappears, so will you.

Marriage is a miracle on earth.

 

“Marriage is a miracle on earth. In a world where everything and everyone goes wrong, marriage is a place where two people, because they have fallen in love with each other, become one, a place where discord ends, where the realization of a single life begins. And this is the greatest miracle of human relationships: two people suddenly become one person, two people suddenly, because they have fallen in love and have accepted each other completely, completely, turn out to be more than a couple, more than two people - they turn out to be a unity.”

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

THE MOST HONORABLE BRIDE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER?

THE MOST HONORABLE BRIDE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER?

WE SEE that on the days of the Crucifixion when we fast, Wednesday and Friday, the troparia are also more ascetic and composed with joy and sorrow.

Even the Virgin Mary temporarily restrains her glory before the Holy Cross and her troparia no longer have the usual gravity of her greatness, like a feast and a feast, but only the sweet melancholy of Good Friday and that is why they are called the Stavrotheotokia.

 How then, in these days of Christmas mourning, do some people celebrate weddings and dances in churches and in public, and what bride, adorned like a peacock, would dare to appear more glorious than the Virgin Mary, who stands out in respect for the day and this heavenly glory of Her?

Imagine what kind of blessing and success such marriages would receive from Christ.

Fr. Dionysios Tabakis

Ο Μελ Γκίμπσον, διάσημος ηθοποιός, σκηνοθέτης και παραγωγός, έφτασε σήμερα στην Ιερά Μονή Χιλανδαρίου, όπου θα παραμείνει τις επόμενες ημέρες. (Hilandar.org).Mel Gibson, famous actor, director and producer, arrived today at the Holy Monastery of Hilandar, where he will remain for the next few days. (Hilandar.org)

Неко ко истински воли Бога у нашем Хиландару.😊

Да да Бог да се врати и у нашу веру!

Мел Гибсон, познати глумац, режисер и продуцент, данас је стигао у Свети манастир Хиландар, где ће боравити наредних неколико дана. (Хиландар.орг)

"I’ve never felt such a strong connection with God anywhere like I did here." 💖💙🤍☦️  (Никад нигде нисам осетио тако снажну везу са Богом као што сам је осетио овде.)

Mel Gibson

Κάποιος που αγαπάει πραγματικά τον Θεό στο Χιλανδάρι μας.😊

Είθε ο Θεός να μας δώσει να επιστρέψουμε στην πίστη μας!

Ο Μελ Γκίμπσον, διάσημος ηθοποιός, σκηνοθέτης και παραγωγός, έφτασε σήμερα στην Ιερά Μονή Χιλανδαρίου, όπου θα παραμείνει τις επόμενες ημέρες. (Hilandar.org)

«Ποτέ δεν έχω νιώσει τόσο δυνατή σύνδεση με τον Θεό πουθενά όπως εδώ.» 💖💙🤍☦️ (Δεν έχω νιώσει ποτέ πουθενά τόσο δυνατή σύνδεση με τον Θεό όσο εδώ.)

Μελ Γκίμπσον

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:18)

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:18)

In biblical terms, “fear of God” refers to or denotes a profound respect, reverence, and awe for the Almighty. The absence of this “fear” indicates spiritual deficiency and moral decay. 

The meaning of “before their eyes” suggests a deliberate choice by a person or people to ignore or reject God’s presence and authority. Again, in biblical terms, the eyes often symbolize one’s perception and understanding. Therefore, when individuals or nations fail to see God “before their eyes,” it indicates as willful choice to be blind and/or ignorant of God’s love and power – signaling man’s decline in relationship to Christ.

Fr. John

Saint Gabriel of Samtavrus (Urgebadze)

 

Saint Gabriel of Samtavrus (Urgebadze)

Once Father Gabriel asked his spiritual sister what she would do if she saw Christ being led to Golgotha. “I would cry,” she replied. “And I would sacrifice myself,” said the elder. He held the love of Christ in his heart as firmly as Saint Sidonia held the tunic of Christ. It was probably no coincidence that he grew up on a street called Saint Sidonia Street before the Bolsheviks. Sometimes he would say words that, if spoken by someone else, would cause great embarrassment, but words spoken from the heart took on a different meaning in his mouth.

From the book “The Diadem of Elder Gabriel.”

Saint Gabriel of Samtavrus (Urgebadze)

 

Saint Gabriel of Samtavrus (Urgebadze)

A monk of the American monastery of Saint Germanus in Alaska, Gerasimos (Eliel), having learned about Father Gabriel, visited him in 1991 in Georgia. His memories of Father Gabriel conclude as follows:

“Our last question, which we dared to ask Father Gabriel, was this:

“Is it true that they say about you that you burned the portrait of Lenin?”

“Yes.”

“But why?” we asked.

He answered very simply, something like this:

"I am a shepherd and God has entrusted me with the care of His sheep.

They have set up an idol and wanted people to worship before it.

He is a kind of Antichrist, either more like a man or more like a beast.

The communists wanted to give him honors that belonged only to God.

I could not allow this to continue.

Father Gabriel blessed us and we left, having witnessed the triumph of the New Testament Church in our time."

The servant of God Sophia testifies:

 

The servant of God Sophia testifies:

– My husband and I had a fight after he forbade me to continue going to various doctors and healers in order to get pregnant. To my great regret, I said hurtful words to my husband – I mentioned the fact that he advised me to seek alternative and folk medicine. He left the house and said: when you stop believing your old healers, then call him. I was so offended that I was not going to call him myself.

It would be wrong to say that our family was church-going or deeply religious. About five days passed and I came across information on the Internet that an icon from Georgia, before which many miracles are performed, would be in Moscow and that they would also bring an ark. I thought: “What do I have to lose? I will go and try to be healed, because many have already found comfort and healing.” I went, entered the church, approached the icon and began to ask who these saints were.

I did not immediately recognize Seraphim of Sarov and did not know anything about Father Gabriel. I expected that the icon would flow with myrrh or shine, since it was miraculous, but not seeing anything of the kind, I was a little disappointed, but nevertheless I bowed to it and returned home. On the way, I remembered that I had not asked anything from the icon, but I consoled myself with the fact that the icon did not shine or flow with myrrh anyway, so it was not so bad.

A few days later, I had a strange dream. I was standing in a church with several women, a service was being held, several priests were incensed, and one stood on the pulpit with a cross and repeated the words: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife…” When I woke up, my soul was restless. I thought it was a sign from the Lord that I should reconcile with my husband and ask him for forgiveness.

I got dressed and returned to Irina’s church to at least ask the saints to give me the strength to reconcile with my husband. I entered the church, approached the icon, and saw my husband standing in line for the icon. I could not believe how such a coincidence had happened, that without prior agreement we decided to come to church at the same time. This happened despite the fact that before that we only went to church once a year. My husband was also very surprised to see me. He kissed the icon, and I followed him. And before I could say that I had decided to apologize and reconcile with him, he gave me the book “Good Grandfather Gabriel” and said: “I bought this book. It turned out that he is a Georgian saint. And he is a miracle worker.” I was stunned. On the cover I recognized the face of the priest who had said in my dream: “Women, obey your husbands…” The image in the icon was different, and the face in the photo was the one I had seen in my dream.

We left the church in silence, reconciled, went home, and my husband said to me: “Imagine, let no one say that the Lord does not exist. Do you know why I came to church? I had a strange dream... It was as if I was standing in a church, and Seraphim of Sarov was serving there as a priest, a censer. And some priest came out to the pulpit and repeated several times: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.” I woke up and could not find a place for myself. I began to search the Internet for the location of the church of Seraphim of Sarov and came across information that in the church of Irina there would be an icon with Seraphim of Sarov and Gabriel of Samtavros. From a photograph, I learned that Gabriel was the one serving. So I went there to worship him and would call you to make peace.”

A shiver ran through me and tears flowed from my eyes by themselves. I also told my husband about my dream. We visited the icon almost every day, and then we went to my husband's parents in Yekaterinburg for a week. We told a priest we knew, a relative, about our dreams, who told us that it was Saint Gabriel who reconciled us and read us verses from the Gospel that are read during a wedding.

After learning that we were not married, he advised us to get married anyway. After some time, we got married, started going to church, and literally a few weeks ago we found out that I was pregnant.

I can't hold back my tears when I look at the icon of the elders, which we bought and put in the most prominent place in our apartment. We went to Diveyevo, venerated the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, and soon we will go to Georgia to venerate the relics of St. Gabriel, because they supported us and supported us in such a friendly way. It is no coincidence that the icon is called “Friendship in Christ of the Russian and Georgian Orthodox peoples".

FILL THE MIND AND EMPTY THE HEART!!!

 

FILL THE MIND AND EMPTY THE HEART!!!

FATHER, should we learn the events that are happening around us?

-It depends. There are things that you learn and build you up and others that you learn and harm you.

In the old days, as the old people used to say, you listened to something and you also got something. Now you listen to something and you also lose something.

I believe that there has never been an era in human history when knowledge and information were so abundant while at the same time we have so much spiritual deficiency and poverty today.

We filled our minds and emptied our hearts.

We are today quite educated and thoughtful but not post-thinking.

Fr. Dionysios Tabakis

Icons testify to the truth of Orthodoxy. Iconoclasm makes the Baptist religion and Islam false in equal ways; Lutheran refusal to venerate icons and Anglican laxity in iconoclasm also make them false. Only Orthodox Christianity stands true

Condolence for the commemoration of the New Damascene Antiochian Martyrs:

condolence for the commemoration of the New Damascene Antiochian Martyrs:

A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping... Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.

My brothers and sisters, how heavy is this scene, how painful it is to the soul and the heart! The hearts are shattered, and spirits are bowed under the weight of loss. But do we die as the world dies? No—for we are not a people without hope. Our martyrs have not vanished into oblivion; they are planted in the memory of God, in the heart of the Church, and in the essence of our coming resurrection.

Yes, we weep... but our weeping is pure, without bitterness, for they did not die in vain—they died in the image of the Master. They offered themselves like wheat sown into the ground, and they have become the fruit of eternal life. From the early apostles, to Joseph of Damascus, to the new martyrs—an unbroken golden chain lifts us toward the heights.

Yet amid this light, another sorrow arises: a grief without comfort, a lament without hope... It is for the one who gave his soul to the deceit of the devil, lured by false promises. He thought that by choosing death he would find bliss, but was lost in a darkness without dawn. He is not among the martyrs but among the victims of destruction. We weep for him, for his heart did not know the truth, and his eyes did not see the light of Christ.

Beloved, may our tears today not only express parting, but loyalty to truth, longing for holiness, and a steadfast hold on hope. Let us seize this hour of sorrow to pray—not only for those who have departed—but for ourselves, we who remain on the path of struggle. May we live lives worthy of our calling and one day reach, with them, the city of the living.

Amen.

Day by day. Diary of an Orthodox Priest! 170

 

What to Pray for?

June 23.

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26).

Never do we feel our infirmities so keenly as in prayer. How often are our thoughts scattered in all directions, and we become feeble in our efforts to lift them up to the Lord! Who among us has not suffered from this weakness to pray, who has not experienced this coldness, this dryness which overtaketh us, against which we are powerless to fight? Sometimes we do not know what to pray for, we do not ask for what is needed - we do not know how to understand the very spirit of prayer, we do not have that faith that would teach us to bring our heavy burden to the feet of Christ and leave it there with full hope.

We ourselves are powerless and weak, but the Spirit of God can strengthen us - “He strengthens us in our weaknesses”. One with God the Father, He knows what is pleasing to the Lord to give us, and when we ourselves do not know what to pray for, He intercedes for us with “groans that cannot be expressed”.

The life-giving Spirit of God can make us feel, almost involuntarily, a powerful wave of higher desires and aspirations that overwhelms us, separating us from earthly vanity. Let us surrender to this wave with our whole being, leaving behind all our petty everyday quarrels that often chain us to this earth - let us rise higher, even with wordless prayer, knowing that “unutterable groans” intercede for us before the Throne of the Most High!

Let the uncontrollable power of desire sometimes reach pain, let our heart languish and weep. The Lord does great things in our soul at such moments, pouring down showers of blessing upon us and quenching our thirst! This is true prayer: the desire of the soul to pour out before the Lord all that is deep, inexpressible, incomprehensible to us, that finds no words and fills the thirsty heart with vague longing. And the Spirit of God, who lives within us, takes this desire from us and prays within us!

Tomorrow the Church will speak to us about the calling of the Apostles by Christ....

Tomorrow the Church will speak to us about the calling of the Apostles by Christ....

But at the same time it celebrates the gathering of all the Fathers of Mount Athos.

You know, every father, in order to make such a crucial decision, to literally renounce the world, and to dedicate himself body and soul to God, to plant himself in the garden of the Virgin Mary, had, like the apostles, a meeting, a calling from God.

 They did not lose their minds 

and some even left careers, 

with studies and others with fortunes 

to put on a tattered robe 

and never again be satisfied 

neither sleep nor food....  

But they lost their hearts.....

they were captivated by the sweetest Jesus Christ. 

Do we really hear the call of God? 

or do we let the voices of our passions 

cover it? 

How easily procrastination 

(this ‘’come on, child, now…we have time…’’) 

makes God’s call…. ‘’unanswered’’..... 

And well, they left everything 

and followed Him, what about us? 

We….the old man we carry 

(the rascal that even a grandfather used to call)! 

Father John Papadimitriou.

MAKE YOUR WORLD BEAUTIFUL.

 MAKE YOUR WORLD BEAUTIFUL

...SAINT Paisios once advised a nun:

-My child, don't turn on the tap so much.

-But Elder, we have plenty of water!

-We have water, but you can't even understand the Africans who lack it. How can you pray for them when you leave the tap running all the time?

Therefore, learn to say "Glory to You, God" in your life. This way, anxiety will go away, this way, panic will go away... this way, everything will go away. Do you understand what is happening?

Think good thoughts and see everything beautifully and don't say "it's the system's fault, it's the circumstances' fault". One person is to blame, the other is to blame. No one is to blame. Our thinking is to blame. Because if we asked Joseph who was to blame, he should have said all his brothers in a row... "Reuben is to blame... Judah is to blame, Simeon is to blame..." However, he did not have such thinking. God had allowed it for a purpose. God does not reject human systems, He simply uses them for His plan.

"Make your world beautiful" - Fr. Dionysios Tabakis