Friday, June 1, 2018

The Testimony of the Saints.
Archimandrite George Kapsani.



Father Georges Kapsani.
Archimandrite George, the former Abbot of St. Gregorios Monastery (1974-2014), was well known throughout the Orthodox world both as a theologian and spiritual father. He has written many books and articles on theology and the spiritual life. His works have been translated into many languages. He reposed in the Lord, the day of Pentecost, 8 June 2014. 


The Church is the place of our meeting with the Holy Trinity and the Epiphany where the fullness of Grace and the real gifts of the Spirit exist. Where everything is perfect, since "the divine Fathers put everything in its proper order". They were driven and guided by the authenticity of the omniscience of God and "having recollected all the science of the soul" have passed on to us authentically" the great mystery of piety". The real piety, not the fake, not the in­dividual piety according to everyone's personal opinion, but piety of the Church.

We, the Orthodox Christians, in our honorable struggle daily die according to the old man and go from admiration to admiration and from surprise to surprise. We act as such even when we take up our cross, each one personally his own, despite our human passions and weaknesses.

We confess that we are completely unworthy to dwell in this holy place of God, the Church. We dare not judge it; we don't try to describe it because it is beyond our abilities.

We only cry out with affliction in prayer:

"Lord, forgive me for not being worthy of Your invitation, of such a blessing, of Your Kingdom. Tolerate me. Transform slowly my ugly counten­ance being, only don't refuse me of being Your child".

We consciously know that we are Christians but not in order to live in bodily comfort on earth. The Christian's joy doesn't come from the absence of temptations and sorrows but from his participation in the body of Christ, when he takes up fully with patience and faith Christ's cross.
Mother Gabriella (1897- 1992).
The struggle for the purification from the passions is painful, painful even to death. Christ didn't promise us a life without pain. And we the humble ones taste this and confess it: He who chooses to truly follow Christ will endure pain.
He will endure:
Crosses, first of all, in his attempt to overcome his passions and his weaknesses.
Crosses in his urge to isolate himself from the worldly mind of this life.
Crosses, finally, from the devil himself and his cohorts.
However, with Christ's cross and His help, the pain is sweetened. The passion of egoism is uprooted and man enjoys spiritual health. In time, he inhales the clean oxygen of divine life, of divine consolation. He has a taste of the immortal life to come.
After all, what is life worth, without much labor, without great joys, without struggle but also without justification?.
We despise a dull, unenjoying, unloving and tasteless life. A life void of meaning and divine beauty. A life without God which is accompanied by destructive pain, inconsolable grief, uncon­soled sighs. We desire the pain that transforms and is changed into unspeakable, heavenly joy. We seek the labor that relaxes, we seek the struggle that deeply pleases us.
Thus  we, the Orthodox Christians, with the Grace of God and the guidance of the Church, put ourselves in this holy struggle. We turn our­selves against the "old man", who always wishes the pleasures of the flesh, and our soul rejoices at such behavior.
You sacrifice yourself for your brethren and you end up more favored and happy.
You stay awake during prayer and the night seems to you luminous from the shining light of Christ, Who gives joy to the heart of His humble lovers.
You fast, you take pains, you suffer for Christ and you receive His generous reward peace of thought and calmness of mind.
Those who have advanced a lot in this strug­gle, have reached great access
towards Him because they made great sacrifices for His love and offer whatever they had to obtain Him. They became His close friends, His brethren, heirs of His Grace, even from now here on earth.
Father Elias Morkos (1921- 2011).
They are God's Saints.
They don't simply believe in God. They live in God and God lives in them. That is why they keep on hoping even in the most difficult mo­ments, where the rest of us are at a loss.
They remain steadfast, even when everything around them is shaking.
They are filled with a mystic joy, even when everything tends to be surmounted by sorrow.
They are in peace, even when confusion over­comes everyone and everything.
Frost warms them, as it did the Forty Martyrs in the frozen lake of “Sebastia”.
The heat wave refreshes them, as it did the three Children in the kiln of “Babylon”.
The elements of nature and the animals res­pect and obey them, as did the wild
beasts to the Holy Martyrs in the arenas at the time of the persecution of the Christians by the Romans.
All these supernatural things which happen in their life seem so weird that they resemble fairy tales. Many people, in fact, mock and easily disbelieve their Life Books (Synaxarions). It is very difficult for them, indeed, to understand those who have overcome their nature and have reached the super-natural. It is very difficult indeed for those who ignore their spiritual naked­ness.
However, the Saints become with their life the salt of the earth, the light of the world. They didn't pursue it themselves, for they are deeply humble. It came of its own.
They came "out of great tribulation" and the slaughtered Lamb, Christ, made the robe of their soul white (see Rev 7, 14) and now the glowing arrows of the devil don't harm them.
The Saints are red hot from the warmth of the Spirit and are armored with the
Elder Elia Nozdrin.
shield of faith. They become armored with Christ's apathy, His life-giving humility and love. Thus they become sons of God, comforters after the only Paraclete.
There are today, even in our times, such heaven­ly people on earth, "having flesh and living in the world", but "being not of the world". They lived and still live among us, but are not known by many. However, those who have discovered them, they are the ones who now understand the words of the Church: "Taste and see that the Lord is gracious".
Man, far from God, has singers, actors, footballers and politicians as models for imitation.
He imitates people that in general are far from God's morality; empty, egoist and proud men, filled with glory that corrupts and is corrupted.
He imitates people without content, without peace and without any spiritual beauty.
He imitates individuals imbued with sin.
Individuals with confused logic and shallow ideas, with strange or even silly behavior and with animal-like sometimes and inhuman in­stincts.
He imitates disturbed and repulsive faces that testify the obscurity of their souls.
He imitates distorted images of the heavenly Archetype, in which images almost nothing reminds us of their divine origin.
We have other models.

After Christ, we have the Theotokos, our Saints and the contemporary Saints of our Church.
They have truth shining on their graceful faces.
These are holy faces, clean and luminous, with a peaceful and meek look; a look full of sympathy for the tribulations of this world. They are ready to offer themselves for every sacrifice of love.
Humble and modest. Brotherly, for they are godly. With their smile they inspire.
Their every movement is modest and discreet. Their speech always decent, wise, supportive, instructive.
They have deep knowledge of man's soul. They are scientists enriched with the real wisdom of God.
They are prophetic images that question con­sciences with their love without anyone being able to question them.
Huge statures of the Spirit. Protectors of all the world.
Secret protectors with their powerful prayer towards God.
Our light-houses, guides, our Fathers.
We cling to them and we hope. After God, they nourish us. They open our eyes and we realize, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebr. 13, 8).
They convince us that we, too, the humble ones can, if not only succeed like them, at least live according to their example. They con­vince us that even today men can unite with God and sanctify themselves, as always, in the Orthodox Church of Christ.
With their example and their life, they teach us not to be misled by the terrible current of the times, the "masses". They test all those who pretending "sinful pretences", claim that "these things don't exist today in the 21 st century". They test those who claim that "there aren't people any longer who faithfully put into prac­tice the Gospel, who live Christ's life". They silen­ce those who boast of their worldly "knowledge" and "wisdom".
These Saints are the God-blown trumpets, preaching that God's law is steady, eternal, without compromises and changes, as are the laws of men.
Our contemporary Saints are the successors of the glorious assembly of the old Saints of the Church, of the Saint-bearing mother of the first begotten children, "whose names are written in heaven". This is our holy generation, our holy Tradition, our inheritance, our pride!...
All of us have been summoned to become like them. To struggle like them in our
life, in order to truly feel happy as they do.
These are not words without content. They are not illusive ideas and dreams.
They are tangible reality. The Saints, the Saints of our days, interpret, explain and prove to us that they are tangible truth.
That is why it is of great value, it is an in­expressible blessing for us to be worthy of meet­ing Saints in our life!
The Merciful Lord has made us, his humble children, worthy and we have met His Saints in our life. From this humble experience of ours, we want our brethren too, to be informed in their hearts.
We want to confess and thunder out to our brethren, who for whichever reason find it difficult to accept Christ in their life, that our
Faith, the Faith of the Orthodox, the only true Faith of Christ is “Alive” more than ever in our times. The Faith that:
- Was preached by the Apostles.
- Was honored by the Martyrs.
- Was taught by the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church.
of the Church.
- Was luminated in the life of the Holy Asce­tics.
- Achieved great feats in the life of the Ortho­dox heroes of our noble race and
- Illuminates and supports even in our days with the luminous example of the contem­porary Saints.

    
Martyrs of Batak in Bulgaria.(1876)
These holy people (the Apostles, the Martyrs, etc.) paternally call out to us, the contemporary Orthodox Christians, that:
It is not honest to discard all this glorious Tradition even before we study it.
It is irrational to be occupied with other alien and destructive activities.
It is out of every notion of prudence and wis­dom to import in our life foreign philosophies, barbaric manners and customs. All these distort the nice and noble character we inherited from our glorious roots and origin.
We are invited to imitate and follow these Fathers and ancestors of ours.
Reference:
The Struggle in Christ in the Apostasy of Our times (4th edition, 2000). Archimandrite George Kapsani.
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