Saint Ephraim the Katunakiotis said about the Virgin Mary
In a monastery on Mount Athos, you know, it was peculiar. The priest said to the conductor:
– Mr. Dimitri, are you bringing me five or ten loads of wood to burn in the winter?
-I’ll bring you, Papa-Efraim.
Brought.
– Bring them from here.
-Not from here, the animal is afraid, Elder.
-Bring them from here, bro.
They argued.
-Unforgivable.
And you are incommunicado.
The conductor left and went up the mountain. What should the priest do now?
Can it work, bring to indifference, that I was right? No.
It can work; No. What to do.
Now the two are fighting: “Well, tomorrow when he comes – because it was late – tomorrow when the conductor comes, I tell him to forgive me.” The other says, “Well, if the conductor doesn’t come tomorrow and he gets a telegram from his wife to go that the child is sick, what are you going to do?”
Father, here is the monk’s treasure. Prayer.
-My God, what should I do? (Iberon was the monastery.)
-Virgin Portaitissa, what should I do, help me.
Lightning comes the information, the inspiration, let’s say, the presence of the Virgin Mary.
We all knew that the monasteries of Agioreitika close when the sun reigns. But they also have a door so small that they rarely open it in time. So the priest lights his lantern, goes through the gate and climbs up the mountain.
-Good evening.
– Welcome, papa.
– Blessed Mr. Dimitris, forgive me.
– God forbid. Forgive me too.
They were forgiven and the priest came down again and officiated the next day. You see that in every case prayer is required.
You can’t at that time what to do, you are confused you don’t know what to do. “Holy shit, what should I do?”
And the Virgin Mary helps you. You can’t, father, function.
“Don’t let my sins hinder me until Your Holy Spirit comes.”
Father, we function, we partake, grace descends, but “not in pity or in condemnation”, we say this too.
Saint Ephraim the Katunakiotis
