And May You Experience Them All
The Elder continued, “And you, while you are there at the monastery, you must be very focused during the service. You are to follow them. You should experience them all. This includes the hours, the mid-hours, the psalms, and the canons. Don’t allow one word to escape your attention. You are to read clearly and with meaning. We should proclaim with love and worship unto our Lord, ‘Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.’
Do many prostrations. Do as many as are required of you. They purify and sanctify the body and the soul.”
“From now on you will not be able to come here. Our communication will be spiritual. When you pray to our Panaghia seeking help every time you have a problem or some difficulty, you will say to her, ‘Most Holy Theotokos, through the prayers of the Elder, help me with such and such a problem: And I will be informed of your problem and I will pray for you spiritually. I want to know the day and the hour that you will be tonsured because spiritually, I will also be there near you.”
The Little Horse of Saint George
As a monk, my communication with the Elder did not stop. He continued to guide me by telephone from his little cell in Milessi.
Once I told him, “When I was in the world I helped the poor a lot. Now I know people who are suffering and I can’t help them and that worries me.”
“Be careful,” he warned, “I had suffered the same thing when I was on the Mountain. I wanted to help a friend of mine to come to the joy of the Mountain.
For one month my thoughts and my heart were focused on this issue. How could 1 find a way to bring him here? I lost my focus for prayer and peace. 1 told this to my spiritual father.”
“You should have told me sooner,” he told me. “The devil is bothering you.” “Tell me, who brought you here?”
“God, Father.”
“This is therefore the issue. Pray a lot. Tell God about your friend. Tell St. George and he will bring your friend with his little horse. You should not worry. Entrust every person you love to God. I now answer you in the same way. You might send others to the Monastery but always with the blessing of your Elder.”
~Adapted from Monk Agapios, The Divine Flame Elder Porphyrios Lit in My Heart
