St. Ephraim of Nea Makri, the Great Martyr and Wonderworker - Commemorated May 5th and January 3rd -
“O honored Abbess and Holy Mother,
with respect I kiss your hand, the servant of God, A.
To begin, I ask for great forgiveness
from St. Ephraim, because I was slow in relating the miracle that I
was made worthy of (in order for it to be included in the books of miracles),
due to many problems, after roughly nine years, when the Saint
visited me the sinner.
I hope unshakably that our Lord, the
Most-holy Theotokos, and our Saint will forgive me. I had very many
family troubles, sicknesses and deaths, which absorbed me such that I
forgot to write of the miracle. But I will never forget the great
benefaction of our Saint, and I will not cease thanking him and
praying to him.
It was an afternoon in November 1990,
when my phone rang. It was one of my friends, who told me: “A., I
learned that in Nea Makri there is a Monastery, where there is a
Saint named Ephraim. Do you want to go venerate?”
Here I should say as an aside that then
I was very far from God, not that I didn't believe, but I had so many
family troubles, as I mentioned above, that my faith was shaken, it
was lukewarm, I was going backwards, nothing was going right. I was
indignant and burdened therefore, and I blasphemed with very evil
words, like those used by lower classes of society [spiritually], who might be far
from God, like I was.
I was working in Athens, and for 25
years, I did not go to Church on Sundays or take Holy Communion.
I would only go to Church on Pascha,
along with everyone else, without understanding the deep sentiments of
the faith.
I was very greatly influenced by the
Killer of Man (the Devil), and he did with me whatever he wished...
Thus, that afternoon when my friend
called me and told me to visit the Saint, I was still very lukewarm.
My friend, in contrast, believed in God together with her family, and
performed all of their religious duties. They were people of God...
Because she was a very good
friend who helped me psychologically and morally, I didn't want to
hurt her feelings, and I agreed to go, myself the sinner, when I was
talking on the phone. When I understood what she wanted to tell me, I
groaned within myself, saying:
“Oh...now she's going to tell me to
go to the Monastery, like I would ever run to Monasteries!” (I was
very far away from them then).
How mistaken was my thought, however. Without my knowing that this was my first visitation to the Saint,
whom I had never even heard of before.
When she told me his name, and I heard
it for the first time, I asked:
“What did you say the Saint was
called?”
“St. Ephraim” she told me.
“What did you say? Ephraim? That's
the first time I heard the name. What is it, Turkish? Egyptian? What
is it?”
She told me, “No, it's Greek...”
Ultimately, we came to his grace, and
venerated with reverence, because he is a Saint, but not with deep
religious sentiments as every faithful person. When we exited the
Holy Monastery into the courtyard, I saw the tree on which they hung
our Saint, but I did not think much of this, I was very lukewarm.
In the courtyard was a bookstore. I
went in alone, while my friend was likely giving priority to the
Saint. There, I was reading some of the book covers:
“Visions and wonders of the Holy
Great Martyr Ephraim the Wonderworker."
At that instant, I murmured:
“Ok, now we are talking about
miracles? What are they saying? What miracles occur in the 20th
century? Why are you talking about miracles?”
I was utterly curious and doubtful, I
had darkness in my soul, and I mocked what I read at that instant.
However, at the same time that I was
mocking, I was intrigued by the book, and something within me told
me: “Get it...get it...”
With great hesitation and without
knowing what I was doing, I stretched out my hand and bought it, as
if someone was pulling my hand and telling me: “Get it...”
Ultimately, I made the decision: “I
will get it out of curiosity, to see what they write...” How would
I have known that the sinner, at that instant, began to experience
the salvation of my soul from our Lord, while naturally, at that
instant, I did not understand all the depth, but only later I
understood...
I don't wish to tire you, and I ask
forgiveness, but I should write this in detail. When I ultimately
bought the book, I began to read it every day during my afternoon
nap, and slowly I began to read more and more.
The 2-3 chapters increased, and I soon
wasn't sleeping at all at noon in order to finish the book. It began
to please me, and it was something that interested me, and by the
time I reached the middle of the book, I greatly began to love our
Saint, and I sensed that I had known him for many years, while in
reality, I had never known a Saint At that instant I sensed that
noetically, I was very near the Saint.
Those hours when I was reading the
book, I sensed that I knew the Saint well, and I thanked him for
healing all of those sick people, as if I had sent him. I sensed this
joy, and wholly thanked him.
At one point, I sensed how I had been
affected by those 25 years that I had not gone to Church. I had never
gone to Confession, and naturally I did not take Holy Communion, and
straightaway, as I was sitting on my bed, I lifted up my eyes to
heaven and said:
“My God, my Christ, thank You for
healing those sick people, and forgive me as well...I, O Lord, have
not walked in Your Church for 25 whole years...” (even though there
were four churches in my neighborhood).
And later, I began to thank our Saint
again, and said:
“My Saint Ephraim, I embrace you and
kiss you, for you healed those sick people through the Lord...”
And, O the wonder, at that instant, as
I put in the bookmark, I turned over the book, and kissed the icon on
the cover, and thanked the Saint with indescribable joy and
exaltation...
Before I kissed the icon of the Saint,
within me passed a very beautiful smell, like cologne.
At that instant, I did not understand
that this smell was called divine fragrance, because as I wrote
above, I was far from the Church and did not know these things...
At that same instant, I began to have
great curiosity and I asked within myself what that beautiful smell
was, and I smelled the book to understand what was that beautiful
smell. The clothes that I was wearing smelled, along with the air in
my room. It did not leave me thus, but my whole studio smelled
beautiful. And I asked, what was this?
My ignorance, my curiosity and my
intrigue was solved by my friend who had called me before, who told
me: “A., St. Ephraim visited you!”
On the phone I asked: “Where is the
Saint? I didn't see him enter my house.”
My friend replied: “The Saint visited
you through his divine fragrance, because we went to venerate him.
The smell that you sensed is called divine fragrance, and this is the
presence of the Saint, because the Saint wanted to visit you...”
My friend then asked me: “Did you
light your vigil lamp?”, and I responded: “Paradoxically, yes.”
In reality, I don't know how, but I had
lit my vigil lamp, and all that I remember was that I was kneeling
and thanking God and the Saint who enlightened me, and entreating
that I be forgiven, who had been so many years away from them.
O my honored Abbess, there when I was
kneeling and crying, without any depression, I felt an internal
change within me, and I put my head to the ground, and sought
forgiveness for all my sins, for all of the years that I was very far
away from God.
At that instant I asked myself, and had
the thought: how could I learn all that is read within the Church,
and come to know Christ better. How could I learn that which the
priest and the chanters chant, and how could I learn about our
Saints?
And again a divine illumination came to
me! I should go purchase the Lives of the Saints, and other Christian
books, in order to learn the Divine services, and everything that
has to do with the Church, along with the hymns and apolytikia of the
Saints. This is what happened.
During my first Holy Confession, I said
this all to my Spiritual Father, and when I left for my home, I
couldn't relate to you what a weight had fled from on top of me, and
I walked as if I wasn't walking at all, but like a bird in the air (I
became free in reality)...
From then when I was enlightened and as
if re-baptized by St. Ephraim, I entered again to a religious road,
and this I attribute to our Lord and to the Most-holy Theotokos, who
intervened, sending our Saint Ephraim to enlighten me. Therefore, I
owe a great thank-you to the Holy Great Martyr Ephraim.
From then on, I go to Church every
Sunday and on Great Feasts, I confess and I commune.
Because of the wonder which St. Ephraim
worked for me, I glorify and thank him every day, and confess his
wonder to the world, and I give people his Paraklesis, his icons and
his books to read. O my honored Mother and Abbess, I ask forgiveness
from the Lord and our Saint for neglecting to write of the good that
he did, and I ask forgiveness for tiring you...
I hope and pray that our Saint will
protect your Holy Monastery, together with the sisters, and that you
might pray for me, the sinner.
With love in the Lord, your humble
servant,
A. D. A.
October 2003, Amaliada.
From a book of miracles of St. Ephraim,
Volume 18, September 2011. Amateur translation of text from source.
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
Source-full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.ca
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