Dear Mother Mariam!
Your prayers!
Saint Sophrony with Father Touma(Bitar)
and Mother Mariam (Zacca). Essex. 1990.
Greetings from Austria. I am
a Greek Catholic priest in Salzburg and I simply wished to write to thank you
for your powerful testimony about Elder now Saint Sophrony Sakharov.
Some fourteenth years ago an Athonite monk advised me to read
Father Sophrony’s book WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS. Unfortunately, I waited a long time and only
read it in 2019.
This
book has had a tremendous impact on my life.
Thank you for your blog and your witness to Fr. Sophrony in your life.
Your blog has been a great blessing! Forgive me for writing so spontaneously, but
I wish to thank you for sharing this. In
a strange way I feel that Fr. Sophrony has truly become part of my life and
life of my wife and our little family.
May the Lord uphold your monastery and grant His blessing to
beautiful Lebanon and all the nations of the world. I humbly ask for your prayers.
With greetings in the Lord from the city of Salzburg, Austria,
Father John Reves
“The action on man's spirit of the Light of which I write bears
witness to its Divine Nature. It is uncreated, unnameable. It is mysterious,
imponderable, inviolable.
I do not know how to describe it. By nature it is otherworldly,
supranatural. Its coming down on us is no less than the manifestation of God to
man, the revelation of heavenly mysteries.
By the gift of this Light at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor was
knowledge of God confirmed. From the moment it shone there on the three
Apostles it entered into the history of our world, to become the inalienable
inheritance of generation after generation of those who believe in Christ-God.
Without this Light the earth would have for ever lacked true
knowledge of God. Judging by my own experience I would call it the Light of
resurrection. Its coming introduces the spirit into the sphere where there is
no death. Without its irradiation it is impossible duly to apprehend the ways
of salvation. The world - people - would remain in the darkness of ignorance.
Even the most exquisite abstract theological formation does not mean salvation
since it merely provides intellectual understanding without lifting one to the
realm of Divine Being.
Sometimes this Light can be likened to a mountain-cloud over the
heights where you stand. The cloud itself is saturated with light but you
cannot see anything but cloud - all the rest of the world has disappeared.
Thus the Divine Light, bringing a new image of spiritual being,
screens from our eyes the sight of the material world. This Light is steady,
entire. It is full of profound peace. In it the soul contemplates Divine Love
and Goodness. In its rich outpouring man ceases to be aware of his
surroundings, even of his own body. Furthermore, he sees himself as light. This
Light approaches softly, tenderly, so that one does not notice its embrace.
Such a condition is like the gentle falling asleep of an ordinarily healthy
person; but, of course, it is by no means sleep but fulness of life.
With the departure of this Light, as quiet as its advent, the soul
slowly returns to her usual awareness of the everyday world. In the softened
heart there is a deep peace.
The spirit continues to dwell at one and the same time on the
divine plane and the earthly. The former, however, gradually recedes and a certain sadness
invades the soul - a feeling of regret that with return of physical sensibility
the inexpressibly benign touch of the Divine Spirit is fading away.
The fragrancy of the vision fades but does not altogether
disappear. However, the very fading away begets a gentle longing for God; but
prayer flows peacefully and from the whole being. Dwelling with the Lord destroys
the passions - there is no more hankering after renown, riches, power or
anything else of this world, all of which are connected with the passions,
marked with tragedy and of short duration”..!!
(“We
Shall See Him As He Is”, Archimandrite Sophrony(Sakharov), Essex 1988)
We Shall See Him As He Is.
... And I ask myself.!..
Does anyone dare put down an
answer to this affirmative title... “We Shall See Him... As He Is”.!..
Who dares say that.?!...
The Heart of God Is
the answer.!!..
Who carries God’s
Heart.?!..
God Himself.!!!.
We can’t but say: This book of
“We Shall See Him... As He Is”, remains a very different and difficult book
that was written by “Saint Sophrony Sakharov”...
And the answer, which is No
answer is:
It Is only God who “dares”
give an answer.!!!.
This is how and why a human soul
gives an answer.!!!.
It is not a “Human Soul” that
carries the Breath of “Saintliness”...
It is only: The Heart of God The Lord, Creator of Humanity
and Saintliness that dares says:
Yes.!!. I Am Who I
Am.!!!.
I Am Who Is.!!!.
GOD LORD CREATOR.!!!.
AMEN.!!!.