God always provides for our goods

   God is kind by nature and always provides for our good and, when we ask Him for something, He will pro­vide it, as long as it is for our good. Whatever is necessary for the salvation of our soul and for the maintenance of our physical existence, God will provide it in abundance, and we'll have His blessing. Whatever He deprives us of, either to test us or to protect us, we accept with joy as well as with thoughtfulness, as it is for our benefit. God knows when and how to provide for His creation. He helps in His own way at the right time. However, often His weak creation is anxiously impatient because the moment we ask for something, we want to receive it, like a little child who wants the cookie from its mother even before it is baked. We shall ask, we shall be patient and when it is ready, our Good Mother, Panaghia, will give it to us.

   - Geronda, when do the Saints help?

   - Whenever it is necessary to help and not when we think it is time to help. In other words, they help when it will be beneficial for us. Do you understand? A child, for example, asks his father for a motorcycle, but the father doesn't buy it. The child then says, "I want the motorcycle because I get tired walking to school, to work." Still the father doesn't buy it because he is afraid of the dangers involved. "I will buy you a car later when you grow up," he tells his son. So they put the money in the bank and when enough money has been saved and the boy is more mature, they'll buy him a car. In the same way, the Saints know when they should help us.

St Tikhon Zadonsk Last Homily

(feast day 13/26 August)

   Tikhon's voice was heard for the last time when his will was read at his funeral, which in its triumphant praise of God had pierced through all his earthly trials and conflicts.

   Glory to God, for he has created me in his image and likeness!. Glory to God, who redeemed me, the fallen one; Glory to God, for he was the providence of my unworthy self. Glory, for he called me, a sinner, to repentance!. Glory, for he has handed to me his Holy Word as a lamp shining in a dark place, and by it He taught me the true way. Glory to God, for He has illumined the eyes of my heart!. He has granted me to know His Holy Name!. Glory to God, for He has washed away my sins in the waters of baptism!. Glory, for He has shown me the way to eternal bliss. And this way is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who says of Himself: "I am the way, the truth and the life." Glory to Him, for He did not ruin me in my sin but in His mercy was patient to my transgressions!. Glory to God, for He has shown to me the vain enticements and vanity of this world. Glory to God, for He has helped me in the multi­tude of temptations, grieves and tribulations!.

On the Mother of God

Saint Silouan the Athonite

Fresco in the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God
Saint John the Baptist Monastery - Douma - Lebanon

   When the soul abides in the love of God - how good and gracious and festive all things are! But even with God's love, sorrows continue and the greater the love, the greater the sorrow. Never by a single thought did the Mother of God sin, nor did she ever lose grace, yet vast were her sorrows; when she stood at the foot of the Cross her grief was as boundless as the ocean and her soul knew torment incomparably worse than Adam's when he was driven from paradise, in that the measure of her love was beyond compare greater than the love which Adam felt when he was in paradise. That she remained alive was only because the Lord's might sustained her, for it was His desire that she should behold His Resurrection, and live on after His Ascension to be the comfort and joy of the Apostles and the new Christian peoples.

The Transfiguration of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Fresco in the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God
Saint John the Baptist Monastery

   In the third year of His ministry, the Lord Jesus spoke more frequently to His disciples of His coming Passion, but linked it always with His glory after His suffering on the Cross. That His coming suffering should not utterly shatter His disciples, so that they fall away from Him, He, the all-Wise, decided to show them, before His Passion, something of His divine glory. He therefore, taking with Him Peter, James and John, went by night onto Mount Tabor and was there transfigured before them. "And His face shone as the sun, and His raiment became white as snow", and there appeared beside Him Moses and Elias, the great prophets of the Old Testament. And the disciples saw and were amazed, and Peter said: "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles: one for Thee, one for Moses and one for Elias."

Concerning Trials

   

They are Blessings

   Events which now seem like misfortunes, later on, prove to be God's blessings.

   

Trial and Reward

   Let us not reconcile the unreconcilable to avoid the cross and to secure our ease. Let us not seek little pillows on which to rest our guilty conscience. Because then, God will allow us both to suffer harsh trials and also not have a reward in heaven.

The Purpose of Afflictions

   If afflictions did not exist, we would not seek Paradise.

Just Like Operations!.

   We should accept afflictions just as we accept the hardship of a surgical operation in order to secure our health. Pain humbles man. And the more he is humbled, the more he approaches God.