St. Porphyrios and the Hippies

St. Porphyrios once said:

One day a hippie visited me. He was dressed in something colorful, strange clothes, and wore an amulet and jewelery, and he asked to see me. The nuns were worried, so they came and asked me, and I told them to have him enter. As soon as he sat across from me, I could see his soul. He had a good soul, but was wounded which was why he was a revolutionary.

I spoke to him with love and he was moved. "Elder", he said, "nobody until today has ever spoken to me like this." I had told him his name, and he was confused as if I knew him. "Well," I told him, "God revealed your name and that you travelled as far as India where you met a guru and you followed him." He was in even greater wonder. I told him other things about himself, and he left pleased. The next week he arrived with a group of hippies.

They all gathered together within my cell and sat around me. A girl was also with them. I liked them very much. They were good souls, but wounded. I did not speak to them about Christ, because I saw they weren't ready to hear of it. I spoke their own language about topics that interested them. When we were finished and they got up to leave, they told me: "Elder, we would like a favor: allow us to kiss your feet." I was embarrassed, but what could I do, I allowed them. After they gave me a blanket as a gift. I will call for it to be brought, so you can see it. It's very nice. After a time the girl visited me, the hippie, by herself. They called her Maria.

I saw that Maria was more advanced in her soul than her friends and she was the first I spoke to about Christ. She received my words. She has come other times, and has taken a good path. Maria also told her friends: "Hey naughty children, I would never have imagined that I would come to know Christ through hippie friends."

 

St. Porphyrios

Racism from the Church's Perspective - Met. Ephrem (Kyriakos)

Met. Ephrem (Kyriakos) "Our life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3)

Christ God came, suffered, was crucified and rose from the dead: all this for the salvation of the world, for the sake of every person.

Therefore, there is no place for nationalism or for sectarianism... Every person is meaningful before God, whether he knows God or does not know Him, whatever his nationality, race or religion. The Holy Bible affirms the dignity of every person created in the image of God. It is true that the Jews were known as God's chosen people. This was only a historical stage when God used them as a means to come in the body and to make every nation that believes in Him His own nation. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

Indeed,Christ-- whether a person knows Him and believes in Him or does not know Him and believe in Him-- is sown in the heart in every human and even traced upon every human face.

In his Spiritual Instructions, Saint Dorotheus says, "Suppose a circle whose center is God and whose rays are different paths. Every person of the created world walks along one of the rays toward the center, where Christ God is (whether the person realizes it or not). He approaches his brother walking along a different ray toward God, the center itself. The more they distance themselves from one another, the more they distance themselves from God."

Racist behavior has been rooted in the reality of sin since the beginning of humanity. A saying known among the Greeks is "he who is not a Greek is a barbarian". This racism is rooted in our blood, us weak humans, but those who believe in Christ reject it and fight it with the word of the Gospel: "
Love your enemies, bless those who curse you and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).

"All the seed of Adam is intended for salvation, having been renewed in Christ," according to Saint Irenaeus. People saw in the early Christians a "third race", as Tertullian put it, in the spiritual sense. That is, a "new people" in whom the two races, Jews and pagans, meet. Therefore, Christianity rejects every form of racism or religious discrimination. My neighbor is not only the person from my tribe, my neighborhood or my religion. Rather, he is every person that I meet along my way. Therefore we must respect strangers and accept dialogue, participation and cooperation with other ethnicities.

Europe attempted to renounce such distinctions after the French Revolution through embracing secularism but it deviated from the right path by renouncing at the same time all divine, religious values. Christ participated in the salvation of all outcasts, such as the Samaritans and pagans like the Canaanite woman, and so we must emulate Him. Schools have a prominent role in working to acquire a conscience that is not racist, through education that focuses on what is common to all people and that that which is unique about the other can be a source of richness for us.

+Ephrem
Metropolitan of Tripoli, Koura and Dependencies

To see Paradise with a telescope ( St. Paisios )

Whoever thinks that he can come to know the mysteries of God through external scientific theory, resembles the fool who wants to see Paradise with a telescope.


St. Paisios

Small Things are Important ( Saint Luke the Surgeon )

This short story is an example how the little things demonstrate our firmness in our faith. Valentine Voino-Yassenesky was a highly respected surgeon at the time of the Communist revolution in Russia. He stands as a example for us because of the faith he demonstrated in a most horrible period of persecution for Christians in Russia. He later became Bishop Luke and then was affirmed as Saint Luke the Surgeon.


Valentine's deep faith was revealed in his life and work. His love for the sick and his great interest in the suffering sprang from his faith in God. He had an icon of the Mother of God hanging in the operating room. Before an operation he would make the sign of the cross, pray, and then make a cross with iodine on the patient's body. Only after this would he get down to work.
In the beginning of 1920, however, an examination committee ordered the icon to be removed from the operating room. Doctor Valentine reacted vigorously without fearing the consequences. He left the hospital, declaring that he would return only when the icon was returned to its place. ONe of the representatives of the committee declared with a certain dose of irony: "The operating room is a place of public service. We have separated the state from the church. IF your surgeon wishes to pray, that's fine and dandy, but he should keep the icon at home!"
Valentine did not yield. One admires his courage. At a time when he was in danger of losing not only his position but even his life, the faithful doctor dared to stand up to the resolute authorities for the sake of his faith. Hie persistence and unshakable faith in God brought quick results.
The wife of one of the Party members was brought to the hospital in need of an immediate operation. She demanded that only Professor Voino-Yassenetsky operate on her. Valentine was called to the visitor's room and asked to do the operation, but he answered firmly: "I am very sorry but in accordance with my beliefs, I cannot enter the operating room until the icon is first hung in its place."
The husband of the sick woman promised that, if the operation was done, the icon would be back the next morning. Valentine agreed. The operation was successful and the husband of the sick woman kept his world.
I recommend that you read his story in the book The Blessed Surgeon by Archdeacon Vasiliy Marushchak. It will not only give you a sense of what a strong faith can mean, but also give you an insight to the great difficulties the Russian people faced during the Communist period.

Teaching the Jesus Prayer ( St. Porphyrios )

This is a story of one of the spiritual children of Elder Porphyrios told about how he taught them to pray.

He placed us towards the east, two of us to his left and two to the right, with him in the middle. “Now we’ll pray noetically. 

First, I will say the words, and you will repeat them. But be careful, without anxiety or force, you’ll say the words calmly, humbly, with love and sweetness.” The Elder started off with his fine, delicate and eloquent voice, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” He said it very slowly, word by word, without forcing it at all. It was as though he had Christ before him and he was begging him, with a log pause after the word “Christ”, Coloring his words “have mercy on me” with an entreating tone. And we repeated it each time, trying to imitate his stance, the color of his voice and if it at all possible his spiritual disposition. 

At some point, the Elder stopped saying the prayer out loud and just continued whispering it on his lips. We did the same thing. How long did our night-time prayer take? I don’t remember. All I remember was that the Elder imparted an emotion to us that I cannot express with human words.