– Elder, what distinguished some Saints, old and young, and they knew when they would die, when such and such an event would take place, etc.?
The most honorable, or great simplicity, or humility and faith. They did not put into their lives the logic that shakes faith. Great thing or faith!
You see, even the Apostle Peter walked on the waves with faith.
But as soon as logic came in, it started to sink. Have I told you about Father Charalambos, where he lived a few years ago in the Koutloumousiou Monastery? He was a very simple, hardworking and spiritual monk.
When he got old, a severe flu put him to bed and the doctor told the Fathers not to move away from him, because in a little while his life would end.
Father Charalambos, when he heard it from under the blankets, replied: “What are you saying? I will not die if Easter does not come to say “Christ is Risen”.
Indeed, almost two months passed, Easter came, he said “Christ is Risen”, took communion and then rested. This honorable simple old man had become a real child of God and together with God determined the day of his death!
– Elder, or how does faith grow stronger?
Faith grows stronger through prayer. A person who did not cultivate his faith from a young age, but has the will, can cultivate it through prayer, asking Christ to add faith to him.
Let us ask Christ to give us faith and to increase it. What did the Apostles say to Christ? Didn’t they say, “We were faithful the other day”? When you say “tomorrow”, it means that you trust yourself to God.
Why, if one does not trust himself to God, what will God add to him? We ask God to give us faith, not to perform miracles, but to love Him more.
To increase faith in God, everything helps, including flowers and grasshoppers and stars and even lightning.
We all see this, but we are all not helped, because we accept the “telegrams”, the calculations that the enemy brings us. E.g. if there was no salt, even the sea would stink.
But whoever examines it in his laboratory, without faith, is not helped, because he has not cleansed his heart of the salts.
If one works with respect, with good calculation, even the most upside down things are seen with another eye, with divine illumination, and glorify God.
GERONTOS PAISIOU AGIOREITO
REASONS B
SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
HOLY HISCHASTERION
“EVANGELIST JOHN THE THEOLOGY”
SUROTI OF THESSALONIKI
