'' I don't like to prophecize '' ( Saint Porphyrios )

(From the Holy Kalyva of Zoodochos Pege, of the Holy Skete of Kaufsokalyvia on Mount Athos)

At a time when more and more people feel the need, because of the profound crisis affecting mankind, to deal with eschatological events as described in the Apocalypse of Saint John the Theologian, as well as those things revealed by the Grace of God to the Prophets, the Fathers of the Church and contemporary saintly elders like Elder Paisios, we must especially stand with the view of Elder Porphyrios, and decode why such a great Saint of our time, while knowing with precision and detail everything that we are living and where things come from, avoided talking about these things.

It must especially puzzle us why the Elder didn't speak at all about what is coming, but only revealed what was necessarily required for certain people.

The core thought of Elder Porphyrios was that people need to consolidate and grow in love towards their Creator, not through fear of things to come, but through a selfless relationship, as an affectionate father towards his child.

Because the unity that was the greatest legacy of Christ to His Apostles, can be ensured when the child is joined with his Father primarily through love and not fear.

Elder Porphyrios aptly likened the times we live in to the years just before Jesus came.

What existed then? A Roman "peace" in power and idolatry, and a priesthood alienated by the passion for power that was hypocritical without being beneficial, but rather distanced the people from God. And finally there was a small portion of pure and good people.

All this describes in detail what is going on today, and the repetition of this in our era should probably strongly trouble us.

Before Christ there existed prophecies about His coming as well as warnings for repentance to the people of God, as in the case of Jonah and Ninevah.

However, these prophecies were sent by God for those few good and pure people of each era, as I said before, because they had the goodwill to receive the messages and know what to do.

Elder Porphyrios acted with this in mind, calling people to approach Christ with love and not the fear of terrible events.

He knew but he did not say. He spoke laconically and in codes, understanding that in our era there was a great gap between the spirituality of people on Mount Athos with the outside world.

For this reason he sent a man to notify Elder Paisios to stop speaking about the Antichrist, the mark, imminent wars, etc.

Not because it was wrong that which was informed to Elder Paisios through Divine Illumination, but because the spiritual measure of the world is at such a level that fear has no practical effect and that the only approach needed was love for Christ.

For if man loved God, then God, when people change, will change history. The same happened with the imminent destruction of Ninevah.

The same Elder Porphyrios, during his last days, stressed the moral degradation and misery which we find ourselves in as people, and stressed to his spiritual children to find a verse in the Old Testament that says "You have a cloak, you be our leader" (Is. 3:6).

There we were told describes clearly the current situation. The same situations of "old Israel" with the "new Israel" and the same symptoms.

The "old Israel" lost its unity with God and the "new Israel" lost exactly this path of unity with Christ.

This was the great longing of the Elder and he served it literally till his last breath.

The Hierarchical Prayer of Christ, "that all may be one", was what the Elder served as long as he lived and he slept with it on his lips. Because he knew that when mankind is ensured with unity with Christ, then they will fear neither wars nor the Antichrist.

In contrast, today we approach evil and examine those things that are coming as an inevitable evil. Here we lose the entire essence.

Wars, calamities and upcoming events are the ultimate remedy to human apostasy, which is why Elder Porphyrios would say: "The Apocalypse was written for it not to happen".

The Apocalypse has as its purpose to alert, and the way to avoid it is to serve the unity which Christ left to us as a legacy.

This is the therapeutical treatment to the sick, because if the sickness progresses, the events of the Apocalypse will be the amputation caused by the physician when gangrene sets.

The Elder would say: "Our time is like the time of Christ. Then the world had reached a terrible state. But God spared us. And now we must not despair. I see through the calamity to appear some very important person of God, who will rally and unite the world for good."

It was one of the few occasions when the Elder spoke about that which we are living and is upcoming. He stressed that the justice of God is changing and that our situation is miserable.

But he saw that the mercy of God will once again visit mankind. Elder Paisios said the same thing when visitors approached him with evident anxiety about upcoming events and when he was asked when the wrath of God will come. He would say: "We need to ask that His mercy comes, not His wrath."

This is what humanity needs and this is how we must approach what the Saints told us. That which was prophesied in our time are for those few who, like before the time of Christ, have the goodwill to serve their unity in Christ.

The tabloids, the foreign press, the electronic media channels deal systematically with what Elder Paisios and other contemporary elders said. I don't know if they do it for the sake of advertising, trade, etc. But we must think. We must think to look for the substance in all this.

In 2009 while visiting Russia, as part of the effort of issuing the letters of the first Ruler of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, we met with senior officials of the Russian Federation. With surprise I heard a question that relates to all of the above.

He asked me:

"Elder George, the fathers of Mount Athos say there will be a war between Russia and Turkey for Constantinople. What do you say about this?"

I answered him without thinking, in a way I believe Elder Porphyrios would answer:

"Saint Kosmas Aitolos, who is a great Saint of Orthodoxy, said: 'They will try to resolve it with the pen, but will not be able to. 99 times with war, and once with the pen.' However, us, we are with the pen," I said.

The Greeks I believe had the blessing to be sent by God a revealing personality like Elder Porphyrios to show us the way and the path to avoid calamities and difficulties.

It is up to us to manage the legacy he left to us, and not wait for the ship to collide with the iceberg.

If each of us acts alone and cut off from Christ, it is certain that we will say that which the Holy Elder said: "He may, however, according to the plan of God, come; to come so that people can acquire an awareness, to see the chaos alive in front of them, and to say: 'Oh, we are falling into chaos, we are being lost. Everyone back, everyone back, turn back, we have been deluded.' And they will return again to the path of God and the Orthodox faith will shine."

The last days of Elder Porphyrios were the most revealing for his spiritual children and for all of humanity. The Elder gathered us in his Cell in Kaufsokalyvia and told us: "I don't like to prophesy, but I will tell you one prophecy."

The Elder told us about what will happen in Greece and what its future will be. It was revealing for the future of Greece. All of these have now begun to be realized. Today we are living all that he told us and began to take place with exactitude.

The greatest revelation of God was the last night of his life, when for a half hour he prayer the Hierarchical Prayer of Jesus: "That all may be one".

The same Holy Spirit prayed within Elder Porphyrios for the unity in Christ of all Christians and for all of humanity, so that the sufferings of the Apocalypse would not come.

This prayer is the greatest legacy of Christ to humanity. May the unity of humanity with God materialize.

This legacy today, 21 years after the repose of Elder Porphyrios, remains alive and is depicted in an icon: the Panagia "That All May Be One" Patriotissa, a prophetic and escatological icon, which all of Christendom knows.

We his children serve today this legacy and hope in it.


Saint Porphyrios

The Prophecy of St. Kosmas Aitolos (1714-1779) (Concerning wars in Greece and the Balkans)

1. One day this will become Romaiko (Greek) and fortunate is he who will live in that kingdom.


(St. Kosmas would say this in different places in Greece, then under the Turkish yoke, that later on fought and acquired their freedom.)

2. O! Blessed mountain, how many souls, women, and children will you save during those difficult years.

(This prophecy was said in Siatista (northwestern Greece) and elsewhere where there were mountains. Women and children made them their refuge during the revolution.)

3. Those who will seek refuge up here in these high mountains will be fortunate; they will protect you from many dreadful sufferings. You will hear of but not see the dangers. You will suffer for three hours, or three days (prophesied by the Saint in Siatista).

4. That which is longed for will take place in the third generation. It will be seen by your grandchildren.

(This exceedingly important prophecy of the Saint, which nursed the sweetest hope of the enslaved Greek people, received astonishing fulfillment. For theyears of the liberation of the Nation are in fact the third generation from the time when the Saint made this prophecy, in as much as is known, each generation is reckoned as twenty-five years.)

5. There will come a time when your enemies will even take away from you the ashes from your fire, but do not deny your faith, as others may do.

6. There will come the red caps, and afterwards the English for fifty-four years, and then this region will become Romaiko (Greek).

(This was said in the island of Cephalonia regarding the liberation of the Heptanese, also known as the Ionian Islands, which were under Venetian occupation. The French soldiers were called "red caps" because their headgear was red during the years of Napolean. This prophecy found amazing fulfillment. For after the Venetians, the Ionian Islands were taken over by the French, and after their departure there came the English, whose occupation of them lasted for fifty-four years, that is, as many as the Saint had prophesied. The English seized the Heptanese in 1810- except for Corfu, which surrendered in 1815 to Campbell- and in 1864 they gave it up to Greece.)

7. The boundaries of the new nation (Greece after the revolution of 1821) will be the river Asos.

(A prophecy by the Saint in Old Arti)

49. If three powers are in agreement, you will not suffer anything.

50. If the matter is solved with a war, you will suffer much destruction. Out of three countries, one will remain.

51. A time will come when you will hear (learn) anything.

52. Give them whatever they ask. Just save your souls.

53. If they find silver in the road, they will not bend down to take it. But for an ear of wheat, they will kill each other trying to take it first.

54. The evil will come to you from the learned.

(It was by the intelligentsia that atheistic, materialistic, anti-Christian, soul-corrupting ideas have been introduced into Greece from Western Europe.)

55. It will last for either three days, three months, or three years.

56.A time will come when there will not be the harmony that exists now between the laity and the clergy.

57. The clergy will become the worst and most impious of all.

58. In the City (Constantinople) so much blood will be spilled that a three-year old calf will swim in it.

59 .Fortunate is he who will live after the great war. He will eat with a silver spoon...

60. After the great war, the wolf will live with the lamb.

61. First a false Greek will come. Do not believe him. He will go back.

62. The warships will gather together in Skaloma and the red-vested will come to fight for you.

63. The Turks will leave, but they shall return and will come as far as Hexamilia. In the end, they shall be driven away to Kokkina Milia. Of the Turks, one third will be killed, another third will be baptized, and the remaining third will go to Kokkina Milia.

(Kokkina Milia was a region which the imagination of the enslaved Greeks placed in the depths of Asia Minor and beyond. It is there that they hoped to push back their oppressors, i.e., where they originally came from.)


64. So many things will happen that mothers will give birth prematurely out of their fear.

65. No animals will remain. You will also go with them. From Joumerka you will take their breed again.

66. Do not make big houses. Make makeshift shacks so that they do not come in.
(A larger house draws more attention, as being a source of loot, booty.)

67 .They will try to enforce a huge and unbearable tax, but they will not make it in time.

68. They will put a tax on chickens and on windows.

69. They will seek to take you as soldiers, but they will not do so in time.

70. The Turks will learn the secret three days sooner than the Christians.

71. When you hear that the war has started from below (the south), then it will be near.

72.If the war starts from below (the south), you will suffer little. If it starts from above (the north), you will be destroyed.

73. The crags and the pits will be full of people.

74. It will come quickly. And either the ox will be in the field or the horse on the threshing floor.

75 .It is sad for me to say it to you: today, tomorrow we will endure thirst and great hunger such that we would give thousands of gold coins but still will not find a little bread.

76. After the war, a man will have to run half an hour to find another human being to join him in fellowship.


(The situation prophesied here fits with that anticipated today in the case of a nuclear war.)

77. Do not plant vineyards because they will be ruined like the ones in Dryinoupolis.

78. There will be a kingdom of paper (red tape) which will have a great future in the East.

79. The world will become so poor that it will clothe itself with tendrils.

80. The cause will come from Dalmata (Serbia).

81. France will free many Greek parts, and the Italians will, too.
82. France will free Greece, and Italy will free Epiros.

83. Through three narrow passes, Kra, Krapse, and Mouzina, many armies will pass to go to the City. It would be good for women and children to go out to the mountains. They will ask you if the City (Constantinople) is far away. You should not tell the truth, because they will do you evil. This army will not reach the City; on its way it will learn that the war has ended.

84. The time will come when the devil will make his turns with his pumpkin.


(A strange prophecy! Is it about the technical satellites, which like pumpkins turn about in space and evoke the astonishment of men, who gape before these pumpkins and deify science? By this, we do not wish to depreciate the value of scientific discoveries, but we censure the arrogance of the contemporary world, which seeks to place the idols of the inventions in the place of the True God. In comparison with the enormous spheres which the omnipotence of God has created and released, in order that they might whirl in the vast space. What are the greatly admired technical satellites, but small and fragile pumpkins in the infinite universe?)

85.You will see people moving from place to place.

86.Freedom will come from down there where the rivers empty.

87.Do not expect destruction from above and from Skales (a specific area).

88. One loaf will be half lost, and one will be lost entirely.

89. A time will come when one woman will drive away Turks with a distaff.

90.You should curse the Pope, because he will be the cause (of the war mentioned).

91.The destruction of the place will be done by a general by the name...(unreadable).

92. Many villages will be destroyed; the three villages will become one.

93.Have three doors; if they seize one of them, leave from the other.

94.If you hide behind the door, you will escape. It will happen quickly.

95. Entreat that it will be day and not night, summer and not winter.

96. People will be left poor because they will not have love for the trees.

97. People will end up naked because they will become lazy.

98. From up high, from the port the destruction will come.
99.They will throw you down a lot. They will ask to take it back, but they will not be able to.

100. You will save others, and others will save you.

101.You will leave by the mountains on the left, not from the right side.

Do not be afraid of the caves.

102 .It will come suddenly. The horses will be left tied up at their chores and you will leave.

103. It will be the eighth millennium when these things happen.



(The eighth millennium is where we are now, according to the Scriptures.



104. Hide next to the door or beside the table, if it is sudden and quick.

105. Many things will happen. The cities will end up like shacks.

106. A time will come when the cursed demon will come out of his wooden bowl (i.e., will be given much freedom).

107. A false prophet will come once. Do not believe him and do not rejoice with him. He will leave and will not come back.

108.A time will come when the Christians will rise up against each other.

109. Have a cross on your forehead so that they know that you are Christian.

110.The army will not reach the City (Constantinople). The news that what was always desired will be fulfilled (the City once again becoming Greek).

111.Go and you will be rewarded on the road.

(This was said in Derbistani about someone who spoke ironically about the Saint. Soon afterwards, he was wounded on the road by one of his enemies.)

112. Tell those idols not to come here, but to turn back.

(As the Saint was teaching in Assos of Cephalonia, he interrupted his preaching for a moment and sent someone from the audience to the house of the governor of the place, to say these words. When he went he found four aristocratic women indecently dressed, who were ready to come and listen to the Saint's preaching.)

113.You are building fancy houses, but you will not dwell in them.

(The Saint said these words in Assos of Cephalonia, when one day he was passing buy a new house. Shortly thereafter, all the owners died except for one woman.)

114. This child will make progress, will rule Greece, and will be glorified.

(This was said of John Koletis. When St. Kosmas received hospitality from the wealthy Koletis family, which had a child of about five years of age. This child, charming in every respect, sat in the lap of Kosmas and fondled his beard. The mother of the child had heard about Kosmas' gift of prophecy, and asked him about the future of her child. Kosmas said: "The child will be educated. He will go abroad. He will become a famous man. And he will die ruler of Greece." Indeed, the child was educated. He went to Europe and became a Physician. He took part in the Revolution of 1821. He became Minister, and in 1847, during the reign of Otto, he died as Prime Minister of Greece.)

115. You will become a great man, you will conquer all of Albania, you will subjugate Preveza, Parga, Souli, Delvino, Gardiki, and the very stronghold of Kurt Pasha. You will leave a great name in the world. Also, you will go to Constantinople,...but with a red beard. This is the will of Divine Providence. Remember, however, throughout your whole reign, to love and defend the Christians, if you want your successors to retain their power.

(This was said at Tepeleni, in present day Albania, to Ali Pasha, and found amazing fulfillment after some thirty years. He became the sole, powerful ruler of Epiros. In saying the Ali Pasha would go to Constantinople but with a "red beard", the Saint meant that Ali Pasha would be beheaded and his head with bloody beard would be sent to that city. This, too found fulfillment.)

116.Things will come out of the schools that your mind does not even imagine.

117.You will see in the field a carriage without horses running faster than a rabbit.

118. A time will come when the earth will be girded by a thread (electrical power grid and telephone lines).

119. A time will come when people will speak from one distant place to another, as though they were in adjoining rooms--for example, from Constantinople to Russia.

120.You will see men flying in the sky like starlings, and throwing fire on the earth. Those who will live then will run to graves and will cry out: "Come out you who are dead so that we the living may enter."

(These five successive prophecies of St. Kosmas are in books that were written about a century before the related inventions were made. Hence, they arouse admiration and manifestly testify to the Saint's gift of prophecy.)

121.The evil will come up to the Cross, and it will not be able to go down further. Do not be afraid. Do not leave your houses.
(This was said in the area of Polyneriou Grebenon. Indeed, in 1940 the Italians reached the place called "The Cross" where the Saint had preached, and they stopped there.)

122.When the branch falls (where the Cross is erected), the great evil will occur, and it will come from the place the branch points. And when the tree falls, a greater evil will occur.

St. Nilos the Myrrh-Streamer Prophecy

                
After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time for the advent of the Antichrist approaches, people’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People’s appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right hand way from the left. At that time morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds, and murder will rule in society.


At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptisms, and equally of remorse.


The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. Then they will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of lightening of their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints. And all this will result from the fact that the Antichrist wants to be lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, he will produce miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation with another from one end of the earth to the other. At that time men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is deceit of the Antichrist. And, the impious one! – he will so combine science with vanity that it will go off the right path and lead people to lose faith in the existence of God in three hypostases.


Then the All-good God will see the downfall of the human race and will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible…then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear and kill the perverter and his servants.

        
The people that will be living around the eighth century (7500 years since the creation), will acquiesce into corruption of the flesh, and will argue incessantly with no beginning and no end. Then the eighth Synod will convene….and things will become peaceful for a while, but soon people’s minds will revert back to the evil ways and perdition. They will not respect the sanctity of marriage but with dissipation will gravitate towards perdition which will be worse than during Sodom and Gommorah… committing many more evil works. The more evil works, the more calamities will befall the people. The people then will be committing twice as much evil, believing that whoever does evil is good…The more greedy men become the more sorrow will visit the earth. Love of money will become an insatiable passion. Greed leads to perdition and destitution leads to salvation, for man is risking salvation through greed.
This curse (greed) will bring great sorrow to the world and happiness will disappear and will be replaced with discord. Greed will be the throne of the antichrist. Greed offers to the world lies and people are attracted to lies and become lawless being abducted by injustice. Truth has disappeared and everybody believes in lies. Truth is the intimate economy of Christ and of the teaching of the Gospel, but the lie is the advent of the antichrist and his kingdom, which wishes to bring global calamity and perdition to the world. Like the Prophets prophesied the coming of the Lord, likewise over concern will darken the intellect of men, they will become insensitive to their salvation from their over concerns they may have. Salvation will be rescued only by those that refrain from partaking in the works of the antichrist whose works are the cares of this world and the hoarding of treasures. To day’s men are given over to hoarding treasures and worries and have surrendered themselves over to perdition through looting, betrayals, lies, homosexuality, gluttony, pride , hardness of heart and overwhelming avarice….
When the world will become impoverished of the grace of the Holy Spirit, then the world will be encircled by all types of calamities. Firstly the world will suffer from lack of love, peace and moderation. Secondly, every country will suffer and there will be great loss of capital from every country. The Church of Christ will also suffer due to lack of priests and spiritual shepherds. After this calamity the unclean one will be born from the belly of filth and will bring forth signs and beasts with demonic fantasy, pretending to the world that he is meek and humble at heart but he will be foxy at heart and a wolf at mind. His sustenance will be the agitation of the people and when ever the people become agitated, he, the antichrist, will be filled.
The agitation of the people due to condemnation, envy, vindictiveness, hatred, enmity, greed, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, loss of faith arrogance, will be the food of the antichrist, who will be the head of many countries and have authority over all the world. He will have power over the feelings of people and all will believe him because he will be the dictator and emperor and he will bring spiritual loss to the people. Those that are on the way to perdition will believe that they are being saved.
Then the Gospel will be ignored because the spiritual loss will bring great unhappiness in the world and signs and terrible events will occur. Man will hunger greatly and will not be able to be filled, for then he will be eating seven times more than he eats now but he would still not be satisfied and there will be great sorrows everywhere. Then, whoever was sealed with the seal of the antichrist, many will die in the streets and the heart of most will weaken, not being able to bear hunger and faintness, they will revert to eating the dead. On the seal will be written, “you are mine, yes I am yours, voluntarily I come and not by force”. Woe to him who bears the seal, for there will be a great agitation in the world. God seeing the unsettling of the people, will order the sea to become exceedingly warm, so when the antichrist will sit on his cursed throne, the sea will boil like molten copper and the earth will be depleted of vegetation and trees from the warmth of the sea and the source tributaries will dry up and the animals and birds will die from the breath of the sea.
And then the day will be like an hour, the week like a day, the month like a week. Due to the wickedness of man, the elements will speed up, that the time will end soon, as proclaimed by God. Then will come the prophets Elijah and just Enoch to proclaim that whoever is patient and is not marked by the seal of the antichrist, will be saved and will be accepted by God in paradise eternally, only that he not be marked with the seal, but instead make the sign of the Cross, for the seal of the Cross frees man from the torments of hell while the seal of the antichrist delivers him to the torments of hell. And if they hunger, they should not ask for food but should have patience, for He will send help from above… The most wicked children of the antichrist are: fornication, adultery, homosexuality, murder, confiscation, stealing, injustice, lies, torture, the buying and the selling of man….. so evil will human nature become, that they will use wickedness worse than the demons…. And the antichrist seeing that human nature became more evil than the demons, will rejoice greatly….

Prophecies concerning the baptism of Christ

Just as with the other events of Jesus Christ’s
life, the prophets also spoke about His baptism in
the Jordan River. The Holy Scriptures foretold
the following:

Baptism would bestow forgiveness:
And he brought me out by the way of the northern gate, and he led me round by the way outside to the gate of the court that looks eastward;
and, behold, water came down from the right side,
as the coming forth of a man; and there was a measuring line in his hand, and he measured a thousand cubits with the measure.
And he went into the water, the water of for
giveness(Eze. 47:2-3).
 
Christ would sanctify the waters:
And he said to me:
This is the water that goes forth to Galilee that lies eastward, and it is gone down to Arabia, and has reached as far as to the sea to the outlet of the water; and it shall sanctify the waters.
And it shall come to pass, that every animal of
living and moving creatures, all on which the river shall come, shall live:
and there shall be there very many fish; for this water shall go thither, and it shall sanctify, and everything on which the river shall come shall live
(Eze. 47:8-9).

Christ would come out from the Jordan with glory:
Behold, he shall come up as a lion from Jordan (Jer. 27:44).
The Jordan would turn back when it saw Christ:
The sea beheld and fled, Jordan turned back. The mountains leaped like rams, and the hills like lambs of flocks. Why did you flee, O sea? And why did you turn back, O Jordan?
Why did you leap like rams, O mountains, and like lambs of flocks, O hills? From the face of the Lord the earth was shaken, from the presence of the God of Jacob (Ps. 113:2-7).
The waters saw Thee, O God. The waters saw Thee and became afraid; the abysses were troubled ... In the sea are Thy ways, and Thy paths in many waters; and Thy footsteps shall not be known
(Ps. 76:17-20).

Christ would crush the head of the devil in the water:
Thou didst establish the sea by Thy might. Thou didst break the heads of the dragons in the water. Thou didst crush the head of the dragons, Thou gavest him as food to the Ethiopian peoples
(Ps. 73:13-14).

The voice of God would bear witness as Christ is baptized:
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory hath thundered, the Lord is upon the many waters (Ps. 28:3).

The desert of Jordan would spring forth water of life:
Be glad, thou thirsty desert: let the wilderness exult, and flower as the lily.
And the desert places of Jordan shall blossom and rejoice; the glory of Libanus has been  given to it, and the honor of Carmel; and my people shall see the glory of the Lord, and the majesty of God ...
for water has burst forth in the desert, and a channel of water in a thirsty land.
And the dry land shall become pools, and a fountain of water shall be poured into the thirsty land; there shall there be a joy of birds, ready habitations and marshes.
There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not pass by there any unclean person, neither shall there be there an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk on i
t, and they shall not go as tray ... but the redeemed and gathered on the Lord's behalf, shall walk in it, and shall return, and come to Zion with joy, and everlasting joy shall be over their head; for on their head shall be praise and exultation, and joy shall take possession of them:sorrow and pain, and groaning have fled away (Isa. 35:1-10).

St. John the Forerunner would appear before Christ:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all the crooked ways shall become straight, and the rough places plains.
And the glory of the Lord shall appear, and all
flesh shall see the salvation of God: for the Lord has spoken it(Isa. 40:3-5).
Behold, I send forth my messenger, and he shall survey the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come into his temple, even the angel of the covenant, whom ye take pleasure in. Behold, he is coming, saith the Lord Almighty (Mal. 3:1).
And, behold, I will send to you Elias the Thesbite, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes, who shall turn again the heart of the
father to the son, and the heart of a man to his
neighbor, lest I come and smite the earth grievously (Mal. 4:5-6). 

http://www.stnektariosmonastery.org/