Elder Porphyrios' conversations with Cypriot friends

   

Elder Porphyrios: Jesus prayer VIDEO (English subtitles)

  

 Elder Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) of Kafsokalivia

Canonization of Two New Saints by the Ecumenical Patriarchate

 

Elder Porphyrios told me...

Shortly after he was appointed chaplain to the Church of St. Gerasimos in the Athens Polyclinic, by Omonia Square, he had a problem at the time of the Liturgy. Directly across the street from the Church was a store that sold gramophones and records. The shopkeeper played records on the gramophone in order to attract customers. He played them so loudly, however, that Elder Porphyrios could not bear it. He had reached the point where he thought of resigning even though he wanted the post very much.

In this situation, as throughout his whole life, Elder Porphyrios did not put his own wants first, but with much prayer and humbleness, asked God to show him what he should do.

Therefore, following three days of fasting and prayer he found a notebook that belonged to the son of a Church council member, in the corner of the Church. He was a student at the University. It was a physics notebook, -Lord, we always marvel at your works- which gave Elder Porphyrios the solution to his problem.

Leafing through the pages, he found some notes that referred to acoustic waves. Studying it, he had a thought. If you throw a pebble into a lake, the water is disturbed and circles form. If, on the other hand, you threw a rock into another section of the lake, new bigger circles are created which neutralize the first circles.

This was the answer from God that Elder Porphyrios was waiting for. The next day, he tried to concentrate all his spiritual and mental powers into the prayers and the acts of the Divine Liturgy. Thus, on the basis of the reasoning he had done about the lake, he formed circles in his mind and his heart that canceled out the circles that were formed by the gramophone. It no longer disturbed nor distracted him from the Divine Liturgy.

There was a priest who struggled to overcome the smoking habit. When he was just about to give up, temptation would defeat him and he was overcome again. He had tried to give up smoking often, using different methods. Each time he failed.

This continued until he visited Elder Porphyrios one day. They talked about different subjects. When they began talking about priest's family situation and about certain differences that he had with his wife. Elder Porphyrios told him that the real reason for the friction was the fact that, without the priest himself realizing it, he smoked.

"When you give up smoking," the Elder said to him, "you will see that your wife will love you more, your differences will end, and everything will be as you wish in your house. I'll pray for you and you won't smoke again. Now throw that pack of cigarettes you're holding out of the window immediately."

The priest was obedient. He threw away his cigarettes and did not smoke again. Even though he had been trying to give up smoking for years and always failed, this time he encountered no difficulties in the realization of his decision.

When he finished telling the story, Elder Porphyrios called one of the nuns to his room and asked her to bring in a priest who was outside with his wife. It was the priest about whom we were talking. There we heard the priest and his wife telling us how much suffering this habit had caused to their personal relationship. It was through Elder's intervention that everything changed and they both became different people.

Then Elder Porphyrios explained to us that in another situation he showed a spiritual child of his yet another method to stop smoking. You cannot suddenly give up smoking from one moment to the next, (as in the case of the priest who he advised to throw away the pack of cigarettes immediately). This new method was in stages. The specific advice in this case was to lessen the number of cigarettes by one every three days.

When we asked him why in one instance he suggested one way and in the other instance another way, he answered that for each person different things apply. One person can bear one thing and another person something else.

AN APOCALYPTIC STORY OF THE ELDER PORFIRIOS

The following real life story reveals to us once again the importance of living life according to the commandments of God. It tells most graphically that disobedience of God's Holy Commandments will bring nothing but sorrow and inner turmoil.

The name of the person telling the story is Antonis. He is a taxi driver in Athens, Greece. He and a fellow-pilgrim are on their way to Mt. Athos to visit the Elder monk who had helped them miraculously in their personal lives. On their way to Mt. Athos they missed the ferry boat in Ouranoupolis and were forced to spend the night in this small fishing village. Prior to falling asleep, they shared their dramatic life experiences and how the Elder had miraculously helped them. They also discovered, in sharing their stories, that they were going to visit the same Elder on Mt. Athos.

Antoni is a taxi driver in Athens and he shares this most astounding story of the spiritual power possessed by those holy men and women of our Church who truly live the life of the Faith.

Antoni now relates to us his story. "As I told you, I worked and I continue to work as a taxi driver in Athens. When I finished my tour of duty in the army, an uncle of mine came to me and said: Listen here, nephew. I have lived the majority of my life and I must soon give up the taxi business. Since God did not give me any children, I think it would be a good idea to take you into my business. If you so desire, I can teach you the business and when I retire, you can take over the whole operation. 

You may not get rich, but at least you will have enough money to feed your family. In regards to the license, which is worth a lot more than the automobile, you can pay me off a little at a time and in the end, all will belong to you without your realizing it." At first, I did not like the idea of leaving my village that was outside of Kyparissia, which was a heavenly place, and moving into Athens. But when I carefully thought it over, I liked my uncle's offer. He would be able to relax knowing that he had a family member running the business. And I would have a job and an investment in his automobile. In a few years, it would all be mine without having to go into debt to a bank. I told my father and mother about the deal. 

They said that I should do as my heart desires. I, therefore, gathered up my belongings and went to Athens. In the beginning I lived with my uncle in Peristeri. Later I rented a home in Galatsi. I also met a young woman at a festival of one of my fellow villages. I liked her very much. I asked her hand in marriage and she accepted. And in a short while we got married. She was a very good girl and she was from a village that was located close to my village. It was not more than a kilometers distance from my village.

We finished the house. We bought a big refrigerator and an electric kitchen - all the things that are necessary for a home. In the meantime, my uncle got sick and died. My aunt left to go and live in the village. She said that I could live in her house if I so desired. I did not like this. She then rented it and I sent to her the monthly rent and I took care of all the other paper work that came to the home. This included the pension, the electric bill, the water bill, the house taxes and all the other things that they bombard you with in Athens.

My wife worked as a sales lady in an Athens shop. I asked her to stop working. I wanted her in the home, not roaming around here and there. She was disappointed with this decision of mine but she didn't say anything to me. This was about the time that I met a new young lady who was very attractive, as if sent by the devil himself!  I picked her up as a fare from Pagkrati and I took her to Halandri. 

Before I dropped her off, she said to me: "It is a little early yet for my appointment. If you would like we can go for a walk in the Penteli Mountains. I would not object to this." I, who was watching her in the rear view mirror, saw that she was devouring me with her eyes. I took the road toward Penteli until we reached the shaded fir trees. Further on, we reached the forest and the large oak trees. When we parted, I asked if I could see her again and she accepted. She became such a part of my life that I started to ignore my wife. 

And as if this wasn't enough, one day when Satan had totally possessed me, I said to my wife: "Take your things and go back to your father in the village. This house no longer has room for both of us!" This hit my wife like a lightning bolt, coming as it did without any warning. I also thought that during the three or four years of our marriage she hadn't become pregnant and I wanted to wound her with this accusation: "In addition to this, I do not wish to remain without an heir. I want to have children. I want the house to be filled with boys and girls." 

She began to cry and I heard the question and the complaint: "And how do you know that I am at fault on this issue?" But I did not want to hear anything. "Take whatever you like," I said to her, "and leave, the other issues will be dealt with by the lawyers. Don't look for a solution." While she was crying she took a suitcase and filled it with her personal things --- mostly clothes. At the door, she looked at me with downcast eyes and said to me: "You should know, Antoni, that I love you and I will wait for you. Now, do you want to take me to the bus station so that I can take the bus to Kyparissia?" The demon had so possessed me that I denied her request saying to her: "Take some money and take a taxi. I have work to do." 

She left with much sighing, trying to hide her face that was filled with tears. I immediately called the other woman and told her to get ready for I had already kicked my wife out and she was free to come and live in my house anytime she desired. She had told me she would do this the day before. She told me that she wanted to be with me day and night, that I should be totally hers.

Some time had passed.  Two or three years, may be more. And there when everything was moving along like clockwork, my conscience started to eat at me like a knife was ripping me apart. I could not feel any peace either at night or during the day. I did not know what was wrong with me. I argued with my clients. I fought with my girlfriend whom I loved so much and had taken into my home like a wife. And during that time when I had plans to see a doctor, the following unbelievable thing happened to me. 

I was in my taxi and I was waiting for a fare in Omonia Square. A gray-haired old priest approached my cab and asked if I was free. He got in and said: "Can you take me to Turkovounion via Gkyzi?" I started the car and proceeded to move on. I did not quite have time to turn onto Stadiou Street when I hear him speak to me with a great deal of concern. "Why are you so upset and want to see a doctor? Don't you understand that your problem is not with your body but with your soul?" I was so startled that I almost crashed into another cab that was passing on my right. I turned on the direction signal. Then I stopped at a bus stop.

"Please tell me, Pappouli: Do you know me? Have you seen me before?" "No, my child, I have never seen you. Just now when I entered your taxi, I saw that in your face white and black shadows were battling. They appeared to be choking you with guilt feelings and you did not know what to do and how to defend yourself."

"Tell me Pappouli, who spoke to you about me?" "No one spoke to me. I did not know your taxi or you. When, on the other hand, I saw your face, I thought that demons and angels were battling inside of you for the possession of your soul. On the one hand you would see that the angels were justified, but on the other hand you felt embarrassed and the demons gained control of your life. They have been in control from the time that you kicked out your wife."

"My dear Pappouli," I said to him with trembling voice, "either you are a prophet or a saint or a demon greater than Satan. I do not know what else to tell you."

"My son, I am neither one nor the other of those things you say. I am a sinful man, but I am a priest and I look upon the tassels that hang from my stole as the souls of people who have been entrusted to me by God. It is for this reason that I pray and as much as possible I am concerned about those souls. It is because of this that I saw your soul suffering and I felt sorry. 

 

I felt the same sorrow for the soul of your wife whom you threw out of your house without cause. She loved you and she had all the virtues to make you a very happy man. Later on she would have made you a father which you desired so much. But you were not patient. You threw her out, the person to whom you were crowned in holy matrimony, and you took a woman who is concerned only about your body and your wallet."

At this point, I completely caved in to what I was hearing. I could not catch my breath. I looked at him and waited to see what else he would say about me. I expected him to strip me naked of all my inner secrets. But he did not do this. On the contrary, sweetness poured forth from his face and his words. I have never seen this in a priest or in another human being. In fact, at one point I thought: "Do you suppose this is an angel sent by God to save me?" And immediately he said:

"Do not put those thoughts in your mind that I am an angel because you do an injustice to the angels of God. The good I desire for you, in order for you to find peace of mind, to save your family and your soul, to save your unfortunate wife who is crying like a widow in the village, you must change your way of life so that Christ can return to you. Then everything will become as it was and even better."

"But please tell me, Pappouli. Say that I make the decision to change, how will she look upon this? Will she return to my home after so many years?

"Not only will she return but you will have children and you will all live a very blessed life. Gas up your car, call your home and tell that woman that she is to leave your house within the hour with all of her personal belongings. Tell her you have made up with your wife and you await her return momentarily. And this is not a lie because she is waiting for you. For days now she has been ready. You are to call her to return."

"Are you sure of this, Pappouli, that she will return?"

"I am as sure of this as all the other things that I have told you. I am as sure of this as we are now on Stadiou Street, and we are heading for Kyparissia and then on to her village."

I did not have a choice of choosing another road. A war was taking place within me but I knew that the angels were winning. I started the car and I turned into Aristeidou Street so that I could take Pireaus Street. From there I could take the Holy Road. I gassed up, I checked the engine, the oil, the battery and the fluids. I checked the tires and started off while making the sign of the cross.

"You are doing the right thing," Pappouli said to me, "when you invoke the power of the Cross as your helper. A troparion of the Church says to us: "The Cross, the protector of the whole Universe." All of us find ourselves in that Universe, you and I and when we make the sign of the cross it protects us and defends us."

We proceeded, sometimes talking and sometimes silent as far as Corinth. At one point, he said to me:

"If you would like, stop the car so that I can get in front with you. Now that we are friends it is not necessary for me to be a customer and you to be the taxi driver. I like to sit up front because I can see better God's creation. I always marvel at the creation of God and all His creatures. How important and how beautiful they are. They are so important that I am compelled to chant continuously: "You created everything in wisdom! Glory to you Lord Glory to you! Alleluia!"

Sometimes when he was silent, I thought that he was sleeping but saw his lips were moving. It was evident that he was saying hymns and prayers within himself. At one point he asked me: "please tell me, do you ever pray? What prayers do you know?"

I became embarrassed but I could not tell him anything but the truth in all things, knowing that he reads our inner thoughts better than I can myself.

"Pappouli, it has been years since I prayed and I have forgotten how to pray."

And he did not get angry with me or say any harsh things to me. And then he said: "That is why Satan found the opportunity to infiltrate your life and in fact with great ferocity. When the shepherd is absent and the sheep dogs are away from the flock that is when the wolf attacks and tears apart the sheep. This is the same with man when he distances himself from Christ and does not assign angelic guards through his prayers to protect his life."

And he told me many stories from the New Testament and from the books of the Holy Fathers of the Church. He did this to impress upon me that I am not the first, neither am I the last who loses the straight path of God and takes the dark trail of Satan. At this point I had the courage to ask him:

"Do you suppose, Pappouli,  that God will forgive me for my many sins?"

"Listen to what I am saying to you and remember it once and for all and never forget it. There is no sin that is bigger than the love of God! As many sins as a person has committed, when he repents in confession, all are obliterated and forgiven. Only those sins that a person does not confess and does not repent, only these are not forgiven.

All the other sins that are hung on the stole of the father confessor are drowned in the ocean of the love of God and they are obliterated. It is for this reason that guilty consciences are a problem and might create a problem in later life."

I then interrupted him in order to ask: "Is it possible for you to hear my confession, Pappouli?"

When you feel the inner desire for this, I will gladly hear your confession. Every moment of our lives can become the beginning of a new life through confession. When we make the decision, we erase the old evils and we proceed forward with the grace of God for a new life. And this life, with the strength that we get from the grace of God, becomes easier, happier,  more blessed.

I felt within myself a wave of contrition welling up within me and overwhelming me. If I could only erase every dark moment in my life up to that time, how happy I would feel! My words were welling up in my throat but they were going down again. This went on until they came out in a torrent and became the desire for me to ask the priest:

"If I desired right now, Pappouli, to confess, could you confess me?

"As you can see", he answered me, "I always carry with me my stole and the Small Prayer book. I do this for exactly this type of situation that God brings before me. Stop in a quiet corner and I will put on my stole. You can tell me all the sins that you have committed and the sinful thoughts that you didn't act upon, and I will read for you the prayer of absolution and you will once again become pure as a white dove. You will become free of the burden of sin and the darkness that frightens your soul."

I found a quiet corner near the forest. We got out of the car and sat on a rock.

I confessed all the sins that I could remember. As I was confessing the sins, I immediately began to feel lighter. In fact, when he read the prayer of absolution while placing the stole upon my head, I felt like a new human being! We got into the car again and continued our journey. We only had a few kilometers to go and we would reach our destination. I expressed to him my doubts:

"And how is my wife going to respond to these things?"

"Do not worry," he said to me. "She is waiting for you like Pascha! It is like the Anastasi for her because she had suffered so much all these years. The pain is deep and it was as if she was sent to the other world!"

After unburdening the weight of my sins, I even felt as if the car was lighter and moving more quickly. Upon getting closer to my wife's house, without my telling him anything, he said to me:

"You stay here. I will go and call upon your wife so that she will not be startled. When I come out, you can approach and we will take her and we will leave for Athens."

And this is the way it happened. From what I heard later, he spoke to her with much love, actually quite tenderly, to prepare her. He only asked her for a glass of water and he told her to prepare her things. She could not believe her ears! "My, but is he so close, Father," she asked him.

"As soon as you are ready, tell me to call him and we will leave."

"And how did this miracle happen, Father?" she asked him, crying.

"Prepare yourself now and we will talk about it on the way back, the other things will be told; to you by your husband in your home."

"And the other woman with whom he was shacked up?"

"He phoned her to take her things and leave, or else."

My wife got ready. Pappouli came out and called to me. I proceeded closer with the car and I opened the trunk to put in my wife's suitcase. As she approached the car, she dropped her suitcase on the sidewalk and she ran to embrace me. Her tears moistened my face. I squeezed her in my arms for a long time. I was also crying, the person who had been tough as a rock! We got into the car and left.

 We arrived in Athens late at night. We fist went to Tourkovounion in order to drop off Pappouli. When we reached the poor and humble home of Pappouli, I got out of the car, I kissed his hand and I said to him with tears in my eyes:

"Pappouli, I am not very well educated so that I could express to you in fancy terms my sincere thanksgiving. But you must know that there is no other priest like you. As far as the fare that you owe me, we will make it even when you come to chant the services of the blessing of the water and holy unction in my home. I want you to do this to rid my home of all the demons!"

"Don't talk to me about money. I would personally desire for you and your children to come and work in my garden in Kalisia."

"From your mouth to the ear of God, Pappouli.  And not only one day will we work. We will work for a whole month in your garden at your monastery."

My wife kissed his hand and we said good night to him.

In our new life, after the services of the belssing of holy water and of Holy Unction by Pappouli, in truth the demons did not dare to enter our home again. My wife and I have been happy ever since.  We first had a daughter and then we had two sons. Our daughter is engaged and this is why I am going to see Pappouli, I want him to crown her in marriage. 

This is difficult for him to do because he has become very sickly and he continuously tells me that he will no longer leave his monastery on Mt. Athos. My wife and I would like to thank him one more time. 

Don't worry, Vasili. Even if we do not get to see him one more time, Pappouli has received such grace from God that even after his death; he will be able to perform miracles!

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Elder Porphyrios - How Our Past Affects Us

   

Elder Porphyrios: The Disposition of a Moralist

Man has such powers that he can transmit good or evil to his environment. These matters are very delicate. Great care is needed. We need to see everything in a positive frame of mind. We mustn’t think anything evil about others. Even a simple glance or a sigh influences those around us. And even the slightest anger or indignation does harm. 

We need to have goodness and love in our soul and to transmit these things. We need to be careful not to harbour any resentment against those who harm us, but rather to pray for them with love. Whatever any of our fellow men does, we should never think evil of him. We need always to have thoughts of love and always to think good of others. Look at Saint Stephen the first martyr. He prayed, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. We need to do the same.

We should never think about someone that God will send him some evil or that God will punish him for his sin. This thought brings about very great evil, without our being aware of it. We often feel indignation and say to someone: ‘Have you no fear of God’s justice, are you not afraid of God’s punishment?’ Or else we say,‘God will punish you for what you’ve done,’ or,‘O God, do not bring evil on that person for what he did to me’; or, ‘May that person not suffer the same thing.’

In all these cases, we have a deep desire within us for the other person to be punished. Instead of confessing our anger over his error, we present our indignation in a different way, and we allegedly pray to God for him. In reality, however, in this way we are cursing our brother. And if, instead of praying, we say, ‘May God repay you for the evil you have done to me,’ then once again we are wishing for God to punish him. Even when we say,‘All very well, God is witness,’ the disposition of our soul works in a mysterious way and influences the soul of our fellow man so that he suffers evil.

When we speak evil about someone, an evil power proceeds from within us and is transmitted to the other person, just as the voice is transmitted on sound waves, and in point of fact the other person suffers evil. It is something like the bewitchment of the evil eye, when someone has evil thoughts about others. This occurs through our own indignation. We transmit our evil in a mystical way. It is not God who provokes evil, but rather people’s wickedness. God does not punish, but our own evil disposition is transmitted to the soul of the other in a mysterious way and does evil. Christ never wishes evil. On the contrary, He commands, Bless those who curse you…

…

Within us there is a part of the soul called the ‘moralist’. This ‘moralist’, when it sees someone going astray, is roused to indignation, even though very often the person who judges has strayed in the same way. He does not, however, take this as an occasion to condemn himself, but the other person. This is not what God wants. Christ says in the Gospel: You, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? It may be that we do not steal, but we commit murder; we reproach the other person and not ourselves. We say, for example: ‘You should have done that and you didn’t do it. So see now what’s happened to you!’ When we think of evil, then it can actually happen. In a mysterious and hidden manner we diminish the power of the other person to move towards what is good, and we do him harm. We can become the occasion for him to fall ill, to lose his job or his property. In this way we do harm, not only to our neighbor, but also to ourselves, because we distance ourselves from the grace of God. And then we pray and our prayers are not heard. We ‘ask and do not receive’. Why? Have we ever thought of this? ‘Because we ask wrongly.’ We need to find a way to heal the tendency within us to feel and think evil about others.

It’s possible for someone to say,‘The way that person is behaving, he will be punished by God,’ and to believe that he is saying this without evil intent. It is not a simple thing, however, to discern whether he has or does not have evil intent. It does not appear clearly. What is hidden in our soul and how that can exercise influence on people and things is a very secret matter.

The same is not true if we say with a sense of awe that another person is not living well and that we should pray for God to help him and grant him repentance; that is, neither do we say, nor deep down do we desire that God will punish him for what he does. In this case not only do we not do harm to our neighbor, but we do him good. When someone prays for his neighbor, a good force proceeds from him and heals, strengthens and revives him. It is a mystery how this force leaves us. But, in truth, the person who has good within him radiates this good power to others, mystically and gently. He sends light to his neighbor and this creates a shield around him and protects him from evil. When we possess a good disposition towards others and pray, then we heal our fellows and we help ‘them progress towards God.

Do you see what happens? With the Spirit of God we all become incapable of every sin. We are made incapable because Christ dwells within us. We are henceforth capable only of good. Thus we will acquire the grace of God and become possessed by God. If we abandon ourselves to the love of Christ, then all will be overturned, all will be transfigured, all will be transformed, all will be transubstantiated. Anger, resentment, jealousy, indignation, censure, ingratitude, melancholy and depression will all become love, joy, longing, divine eros. Paradise!

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Elder Porphyrios and Dr. G. Papazahos - A Cardiologist and the Spiritual Life

Dr. George K. Papazahos, Assistant Professor of Cardiology at the University of Athens, served as one of Elder Porphyrios' physicians.  The following testimony of Dr. Papazahos regarding Elder Porphyrios is included in the book, Elder Porphyrios: Testimonies and Experiences by Klitos Ioannidis*

 

"Here I will mention a self-diagnosis of himself.  He verified changes in his electrocardiograph without a cardiograph machine.  One night, he called me up quite concerned, 'Come here, late as it is, to see the changes in the cardiograph.  I was in pain many times today, and the pain was anginal.' Indeed, I ascertained that there were ischaemic changes (to arteries V3-V6) and I asked him under what kind of stress he was today.  He began to cry and with frequent interruptions he began describing something in detail to me.  He was seeing scenes from the street fighting in Romania.  It is was the day when the people rose up against Ceaucescu.  With his gift he saw the shootings and the deaths in the squares just like they were being published in the newspapers the following day.  He continued to cry, and I begged him to ask God to take away this vision.  His heart was in a dangerous state because of the stress.  His blockage could get severe.
     I found myself in the same kind of stress while witnessing the sensitivity of the 'other' heart of a saint.  I avoided looking at the cardiograph and thought to myself, 'What meaning does this nitrite anti-angina medicine that I am about to give you have for you, Elder? You're not of this world.  Your heart is beating in Oropos and is living in Romania.  On the ECG the heart is shown with an ischaemic "condition" at the ST interval, but in reality can be found "resurrected" to the heavens.'  I left there quite late, trembling because I had seen a little of the light of a saint." (268)


Elder Porphyrios "never refused the medical help of the many doctors who were also his spiritual children.  In fact, one day I asked him, 'Why do many spiritual people, especially monks, refuse medical help, thinking that the Panagia will help them quickly?'  He answered.  'It's egotism. It's the work of the Evil One, thinking that God will make an exception amongst all the others and will miraculously intervene for you.  God performs miracles, but you should not expect one for yourself.  It's selfishness.  On the other hand, God Himself acts through the doctors. 'The Lord gave us physicians and medicine,' says the Holy Scripture.'" (267)

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, the Physicia

"The Elder, as a doctor, did not only 'see' my physical ailments, he concerned himself with my many spiritual imperfections, too.  He tried to help me find humbleness.  One afternoon he telephoned me at my office immediately after a couple of patients had expressed their extreme love for me for the care I gave them.  I recounted his words, 'George, It's the Elder.  Both of us are going to hell together.  We'll hear, "You fool, this very night your soul is being demanded from you."  You enjoyed the good things in life.  "And the things you have prepared whose will they be?"'  I interrupted him, 'What did we enjoy in this life, Elder?  The broken down car, the empty bank account or the non-existent sleep?'  He answered abruptly, 'What's that you're saying? Don't people tell you what a good doctor you are?  You love us.  You take care of us.  You don't skin us alive. And you welcome this praise, you swallow it down.  Eh, you've already lost your reward.  The same thing happens to me.  They tell me that I have "gifts", how I can touch them and perform miracles, that I'm holy. And I gulp it all down, weak fool that I am. Eh, that's why I told you that both of us are going to hell.'
     'If we're going to go together,' I replied, 'let's go to hell too!'  And he hung up the phone saying, 'I'm speaking to you seriously and you're always joking. Good repentance to the both of us.'
     One day I was downcast, thinking that most of my life has gone by pointlessly in the midst of useless daily details.  The Elder telephoned me and lifted my spirits with two or three of his expressions, 'Doctor, did you ever hear the phrase, "they will not taste death?"  We can, if we wish avoid death.  All we have to do is love Christ.  You, "with all your heart", Mr. Cardiologist.'  He laughed." (270-271)

* The following testimony of Dr. Papazahos regarding Elder Porphyrios is included in the book, Elder Porphyrios: Testimonies and Experiences by Klitos Ioannidis (Athens: Holy Convent of the Transfiguration of the Savior, 2007), translated from the Greek 5th edition.  The testimony previously appeared in Synaxis (January-March, 1992, pp. 93-97):

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Elder Porphyrios the Kapsokalivite on Winning People Over Through Love

 

You must not wage your Christian struggle with sermons and arguments, but with true secret love. When we argue, others react. When we love people, they are moved and we win them over. When we love, we think that we offer something to others, but in reality we are the first to benefit.

* This excerpt is from “Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit” translated and compiled by Herman A. Middleton

ELDER PORPHYRIOS: There ye saints chasing evil

There ye saints chasing evil.  

Let the bad. Look to Christ and He will save you. Rather not stand outside the door and kicks the enemy, the scorned. It comes from seeing evil; Give yourself but gentle way from there. 

That challenge comes to your evil, you give your inner strength to good, to Christ. Pray: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." He knows how to have mercy on you, what manner. And when loading from the good, not anymore turns to evil. Ye yourselves, by the grace of God, good. Where to find the place you evil? Disappears! 

Catch you fear and frustration. Turn to Christ. Love simply, humbly, and without requiring you dispense Himself.

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What is the Church? - Elder Porphyrios

“The Church is without beginning, without end and eternal, just as the Triune God, her founder, is without beginning, without end and eternal. She is uncreated just as God is uncreated. She existed before the ages, before the angels, before the creation of the world – before the foundation of the world, as the Apostle Paul says (Eph. 1:4). 

She is a divine institution and in her dwells the whole fullness of divinity (Col. 2:9). She is an expression of the richly varied wisdom of God. She is the mystery of mysteries. She was concealed and was revealed in the last of times. The Church remains unshaken because she is rooted in the love and wise providence of God.

The three Persons of the Trinity constitute the eternal Church. The angels and human beings existed in the thought and love of the Triune God from the beginning. We human beings were not born now, we existed before the ages in God’s omniscience.

The love of God created us in His image and likeness. He embraced us within the Church in spite of the fact that He knew of our apostasy. He gave us everything to make us gods too through the free gift of grace. For all that, we made poor use of our freedom and lost our original beauty, our original righteousness, and cut ourselves off from the Church. Outside the Church, far from the Holy Trinity, we lost Paradise, everything. But outside the Church there is no salvation, there is no life. And so that compassionate heart of God the Father did not leave us exiled from His love. He opened again for us the gates of Paradise in the last of times and appeared in the flesh.

With the divine incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God, God’s pre-eternal plan for the salvation of mankind was revealed again to men. In his epistle to Timothy the Apostle Paul says, ‘Incontrovertibly, the mystery of faith is great. God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory’ (1 Tim. 3:16). The words of the Apostle Paul are dense in meaning: divine, heavenly words!

God in His infinite love united us again with His Church in the person of Christ. On entering into the uncreated Church, we come to Christ, we enter the realm of the uncreated. We the faithful are called to become uncreated by grace, to become participants in the divine energies of God, to enter into the mystery of divinity, to surpass our worldly frame of mind, to die to the ‘old man,’ and to become immersed in God. (Cf. Col. 3:9, Rom. 6:6, Eph. 4:22) When we live in the Church, we live by Christ. This is a very fine-drawn matter, we cannot understand it. Only the Holy Spirit can teach us.

The head of the Church is Christ and we humans, we Christians, are the body. The Apostle Paul says: He is the head of the body, of the Church. (Col 1:18)

The Church and Christ are one. The body cannot exist without its head. The body of the Church is nourished, sanctified and lives with Christ. He is the Lord, omnipotent, omniscient, everywhere present and filling all things, our staff, our friend, our brother: the pillar and sure foundation of the Church. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the basis – everything. Without Christ the Church does not exist. Christ is the Bridegroom; each individual soul is the Bride.

Christ united the body of the Church with heaven and with earth: with angels, men and all created things, with all of God’s creation with the animals and birds, with each tiny wild flower and each microscopic insect. The Church thus became the fullness of Him who fills all in all, (Eph. 1:23) that is, of Christ. Everything is in Christ and with Christ. This is the mystery of the Church.

Christ is revealed in that unity between His love and ourselves: the Church. On my own I am not the Church, but together with you. All together we are the Church. All are incorporated in the Church. We are all one and Christ is the head. One body, one body of Christ: You are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12:27) We are all one because God is our Father and is everywhere. When we experience this we are in the Church. This is our Lord’s wish for all the members of the Church as expressed in His great high-priestly prayer: that they may be one. (John 17:11,22) But that’s something you can only understand through grace. We experience the joy of unity, of love, and we become one with everyone. There is nothing more magnificent!

The important thing is for us to enter into the Church – to unite ourselves with our fellow men, with the joys and sorrows of each and everyone, to feel that they are our own, to pray for everyone, to have care for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for them just as Christ did for us. In the Church we become one unfortunate, suffering and sinful soul.

No one should wish to be saved alone without all others being save. It is a mistake for someone to pray for himself, that he himself may be saved. We must love others and pray that no soul be lost, that all may enter into the Church. That is what counts. And it is with this desire one should leave the world to retire to a monastery or to the desert.

When we set ourselves apart from others, we are not Christians. We are true Christians when we have a profound sense that we are members of the mystical body of Christ, of the Church, in an unbroken relationship of love – when we live united in Christ, that is, when we experience unity in His Church with a sense of oneness. This is why Christ prays to His Father saying, that they may be one. He repeats the prayer again and again and the apostles emphasise it everywhere. 

This is the most profound aspect, the most exalted meaning, of the Church. This is where the secret is to be found: for all to be united as one person in God. There is no other religion like this; no other religion says anything of this sort. They have something to say, but not this mystery, this exquisite point of the mystery which Christ demands and tells us that this is how we must become, that he wants us to be His.

We are one even with those who are not close to the Church. They are distant on account of ignorance. We must pray that God will enlighten them and change them so that they too may come to Christ. We see things in a human light, we move on a different plane and imagine that we love Christ. But Christ, who sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous, (Matt. 5 :45) tells us: Love your enemies (Matt. 5:44). We need to pray that we may all be united, united in God. Then, if we live out this prayer, we will achieve corresponding results; we will all be united in love.

For the people of God there is no such thing as distance, even if they be thousands of miles apart. However far away our fellow human beings may be, we must stand by them. Some people regularly telephone me from a town on the edge of the Indian Ocean – Durban is what it’s called, if I am pronouncing it correctly. It’s in South Africa, two hours drive from Johannesburg. Indeed, a few days ago they came here. They were taking a sick person to England and they came here first to ask me to read a prayer. I was very moved.

When Christ unites us, distances don’t exist. When I leave this life it will be better. I’ll be closer to you.”

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