Tourist and Spiritual Guide; Miracles – Father Pimen Vlad
30 June 2022
The Pitfalls of Distancing From the World – Father Theologos
5 July 2022
Watch a powerful speech by Father John Meiu, one of the ambassadors of the Romanian nation to the Holy Sites, in which he tells us about the spirit and miracles of these sites, of which the Holy Sepulcher occupies a central place, of course.
Enjoy!
Father Theologos: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit now and forever and ever. Amen. For the prayers of our Fathers Saints, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Father, say Heavenly King…
Father John: Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who everywhere you are and all you fill, the Treasurer of goodness and the Giver of life, come and indwell you in us, and cleanse us from all filthiness, and save, Good, our souls.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit now and forever and ever. Amen.
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.
With us is God with His grace and with His love of people always, now and forever and ever. Amen.
Father Theologos: Dear beloved, we have with us Father John from Jerusalem. He is the representative of the Romanian Orthodoxy there…
Father John: Not the representative, the minister priest.
Father Theologos: The ministering priest is, yes. He is a ministering priest in Jerusalem and I would first of all like him to tell us something that has always fascinated me in Jerusalem. That there the Orthodox Christian are very united. They are all as a community, if you will, as a true Orthodox communion, all of them including the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and that I think is a special grace that is not found anywhere else, and I would like Father John to speak to us a little bit about it.
Father John: Father Theologos, we thank the Mother of God, I thank the Mother of God for allowing us to be together again in the Holy Mountain, in her beautiful and blessed and gracious garden.
Even for us who come from the Holy Sepulcher it is a great blessing to be here in the Holy Mountain, because here we penetrate more easily the grace and tranquility of God. Jerusalem, of course, that comes first in terms of blessing and grace, but being a rowdy city and many problems, it is much harder to experience the grace of the Holy Sepulcher, of the Tomb of the Mother of God or the other places that are there.
Indeed, as you said, there is a unity of the Orthodox in Jerusalem and that is very well connected and held by Patriarch Theophilus III of Jerusalem, and due to the fact that ever since the Byzantine period when Empress Helena first came to Jerusalem and wanted to build churches over all the Christian places where Jesus passed: Calvary, the Resurrection, Bethlehem with the birth in the cave and so on.
Since then, this leadership of the Greeks as a Patriarchate in Jerusalem is still preserved, but for the fact that apart from the pilgrims there are very few Christians in Israel, then for the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, all Christians who come as pilgrims from all Orthodox countries are received and are seen as the sons of Jerusalem.
That is, all the delegations from the Orthodox countries, all the pilgrims who come to the Holy Land, get to have a meeting with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to receive a blessing. He tells them a useful word, gives them an icon with the Holy Sepulcher, and this creates a very strong communion and love, unity offered by the Holy Sepulcher, with which people go to their Orthodox countries and who, in return, share it with their brothers from Romania, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, orthodox countries, Greece Cyprus and so on.
Father Theologos: In fact, it lives, if I’m not mistaken, the spirit of the early church.
Father John: It still feels like that, yes. And due to the fact that the pilgrims come with great piety to the holy places and the piety that makes Christians and people really live what Christians lived in the first centuries.
Father Theologos: Yes, this is a special grace that exists there and is unrepeatable, but on the other hand, I have always been impressed beyond this grace and the fact that – all respect for the Holy Land – but the Holy Land is a piece of stone, it is a desert. And I ask you: why was so much blood shed? I don’t know if there is such a place on the surface of the earth where so much blood has been shed.
Father John: Yes, the walls of the city of Jerusalem are soaked with blood. Indeed, as we also know from history and archaeology, there have been a lot of wars fought in Jerusalem and in general, in the Holy Land and unfortunately, most wars in history, we have because of religion, religions. It is a pity that this is happening and the fact that this has happened and is still happening because we still have a lot of Christians who are being persecuted in Africa and other countries.
There is a kind of persecution of Christians in Israel as well. That is, we are not very loved by some of our brothers there, but indeed, because it is the holiest place and the devil knows this and that is where he presses the pedal the most to produce division, war and bloodshed.
We know from history, starting from Abraham, 4,000 years ago, who went to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah…
Father Theologos: That’s there.
Father John: That place is there. And (it is) the site of the second Jewish temple, and currently it is the Dome of the Rock mosque on this Mount Moriah. It’s because of these conflicts primarily between Jews and Muslims, then also Christians because Empress Helena also built a church there. After that, the crusaders took that place. It was a whole… the Persians, the Ottomans, the Turks, all…
Father Theologos: So we can say that the holy places are the places with the most grace on the surface of the earth, but also the place with the greatest demonic energy, let’s say.
Father John: I wouldn’t say it’s a demonic energy.
Father Theologos: No, no, but a power of the devil, I expressed myself wrong.
Father John: A very strong spiritual energy.
Father Theologos: Yes!
Father John: I mean, we have the great prophets and prophets of the Old Testament who are still buried the valley of Gideon, the valley of judgment. They still have their graves there, at the base of the city of Jerusalem, between Olive Mount and the city of Jerusalem. In the Garden of Gethsemane is also the tomb of the Mother of God, and I can even say that there is an extraordinary energy in Jerusalem. But just because the devil knows of this positive energy, he is also trying to do his job.
Father Theologos: This extraordinary energy, this extraordinary grace somehow manifests itself beyond…. Of course it certainly manifests itself in the hearts of people and even please, folks, go to Jerusalem at least once in your life. Go! You won’t regret it!
Father John: Well, if Muslims have a duty to go once in their lives to Mecca to worship, even more so we who have the right faith, the Way, the Truth and the Life, through Jesus Christ, would be indebted at least once in our lives, the holiday money otherwise spent in Thasos, Santorini….
Father Theologos: Tenerife or God knows what…
Father John: Which are also beautiful, but at least once in our lives let’s save money to go to Jerusalem. Let’s see the empty tomb of Christ!
Father Theologos: That’s right.
Father John: Because we will be asked on judgment day. Those who did not know of Jesus Christ, of His gospel preached, of the fact that He was resurrected… Those will be asked, have you seen My empty tomb? But where was I? That I wasn’t there, I was resurrected. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves to see the empty tomb to confess the Resurrection.
Father Theologos: Yes, that’s right. Let us have the palpable testimony. In Protestant circles, or, let’s say, even atheists, there are words that Jesus’ tomb would not have been there, it would have been somewhere farther away. But I reckon that the proof of grace is the greatest evidence, beyond… You could tell us some miracles, some unique events related to the Holy Sepulcher or the restoration, because I understand that it was a restoration.
Father John: Yes. Of course the first testimony is the work of grace that we feel and the very powerful energy of the Holy Sepulcher. But there is an archaeological and historical attestation of the fact that Empress Helena, when she came around 325 to Jerusalem, with a lot of money, her son Emperor Constantine, excavated all this area of Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher, the garden with tombs as they were then, because the Roman Empire, since their coming to power, buried this whole area of Calvary and these tombs, among which the tomb of the Lord near Calvary, to defile somewhat the work of Christ, that the world may not believe in him.
Father Theologos: Was it a landfill or what?
Father John: Garbage dump. And they put over the Tomb of the Lord a pagan statue and over Calvary, the same. Not realizing that by the fact that they wanted to defile, they marked exactly the places. The Empress knew this, that she was the Empress of the Roman Empire. And she excavated all this area, built a great church over the Holy Sepulcher and over Calvary and under Calvary, the place is marked even now, under the rock of Calvary, the Holy Cross was also found.
Father Theologos: Yes…
Father John: Of course they were thrown from Calvary because there were many crucifixions at that time of the Roman Empire, it was the ugliest way to die and the most shameful. Of course they found a lot of garbage, skeletons, pieces of wood, crosses and so on. How could Empress Helena find out which is the cross of Christ? And in that period lived Archbishop Makarios of Jerusalem, and there was a funeral cortege, a woman who was dead. He was passing through the area.
And they touched all those crosses, pieces of wood to the woman’s coffin, and when she touched the Cross of Christ, the woman was resurrected.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: Then they lifted up the cross, the feast that we have on September 14, and they knew what that was the Cross of Christ.
Father Theologos: Oh, because of that, so in the wake of this miracle…
Father John: Yes.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: Jerusalem, as we know from the prophets and the prophet David in the Old Testament, is also called the navel of the earth. That from the midst of the earth came salvation.
Father Theologos: Yes.
Father John: Why does is it called the navel of the earth? Right in the Church of the Resurrection – the Orthodox church in front of the Lord’s tomb, there is a stone pillar that represents the navel of the earth. In fact, it is the symbol of the Holy Sepulcher, if we may say. For in the tomb, Christ God came down among men to lift them up from the tomb and to deify them. So it’s an umbilical cord through which we feed on the deity. The tomb.
Father Theologos: Yes.
Father John: Therefore, from the midst of the earth came salvation. From Jerusalem.
Father Theologos: From Jerusalem.
Father John: And indeed, as you said that Protestants say that it would be in a place, the tomb of Christ, even somewhere very close to the headquarters of the Romanian Patriarchate, to our Romanian church. But it is a mistake because it is documentary attested that Empress Helena found exactly the tomb of the Lord.
The city from the time of the Savior is somewhere between 7 and 10 m below the city of Jerusalem today because they built continuously, empires succeeding, demolishing the old and building over. Being only rock, they built on the rock, on stone pillars – all the cities rose on top of each other. There are tunnels even accessible to tourists under the city of Jerusalem, and others are closed, they are for access only for the army because there is no oxygen at all, accessible only with oxygen mask and so on.
But when we go to the Holy Sepulcher, we descend even more than 7 m to the Holy Sepulcher.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: And a few years ago it was recorded, also shown on National Geographic and on media channels – news: for the first time this “edic” or the royal chamber that dresses the Tomb of the Lord, made of marble, was restored.
Father Theologos: A small building that surrounds the Holy Sepulcher. Yes, and it has restored because in 200 years there hasn’t been any work done there.
Father Theologos: It posed architectural problems.
Father John: Architectonics, from earthquakes, from different… And for the first time in 500 years, this team of specialists, coming from Athens, who also rebuilt the Acropolis, opened the stone of the Holy Sepulcher, the stone that we kiss, the marble slab to see if underneath is the original rock on which Jesus was placed. How could they know if it was the original rock?
They tried with a probe to extract rock from the rock underneath to see if it had the same chemical composition as the whole mountain there – Calvary and so on. The Patriarch of Jerusalem bears witness to this, even in an interview in Greece, he confessed that … – and I was right here in that minute at the Holy Sepulcher – that when they tried to extract rock, a very strong magnetism, a very strong energy sprang from the tomb and the machines broke down. Appliances are very expensive.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: Glory to God! But they were very expensive. But the Patriarch of Jerusalem said, so far. The tomb is alive!
Father Theologos: Yes. Glory to God!
Father John: I mean, he showed that he was alive.
Father Theologos: And were you there?
Father John: Yes, I was on one of the days when work was in progress. Pilgrims were not allowed in, but representatives of the churches were allowed to enter. It was a very emotional moment! Speaking of the miracles experienced in Jerusalem. To the glory of God, almost every day, having chores at the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, I went and worshiped in the Holy Sepulcher.
Father Theologos: Yes, yes.
Father John: Know that even if I go every day to worship at the Holy Sepulcher, always when I enter I feel that I am entering for the first time. And when I go out, I look and look, maybe I see for the last time, the Tomb of the Lord.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: But then, I was let in after they put the marble slab aside – which hasn’t been set aside for 500 years. And I put my hand right on the rock where Jesus was placed, which is 30 cm below the marble stone that we are kissing. But it was an extraordinary emotion and energy.
Father Theologos: Yes!
Father John: I had for the moment the feeling that I was living what the apostles lived when they entered and saw the empty tomb.
Father Theologos: Glory to God! Yes.
Father John: So I stayed very…
Father Theologos: Have you experienced the Resurrection?
Father John: Marked then, yes. I think then was one of the crucial moments, yes.
Father Theologos: Crucial, life……
Father John: Of course the greatest miracle is the Holy Light.
Father Theologos: Tell us a little bit!
Father John: On Holy Saturday, at the time of Vespers, that is, at about 1 o’clock at noon, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, together with the group of hierarchs and priests and representatives of the Orthodox churches who come to take the Holy Light to spread it in their countries, perform the great vespers service that is united with the Divine Liturgy.
The vespers service begins, the Tomb of the Lord is surrounded three times, the Gracious Light is sung…
Father Theologos: Oh, how beautiful! How beautiful!
Father John: The gracious light that is expected to come. After surrounding the tomb three times and singing The Gracious Light, the Patriarch of Jerusalem sits in front of the Holy Sepulcher, is stripped of the archdiocesan clothes – the bag, the homophore, the cross, the engolpion – and only in the sticharion, sleeves, is controlled to have no source of fire, is controlled by the Jewish police and by a representative of the Muslims and Armenians, enter the Holy Sepulcher. All the lamps throughout the Church of the Resurrection which is huge because it is a complex in which there are several churches located in the Church of the Resurrection or the Holy Sepulcher.
Father Theologos: So all the lamps including Calvary, including…
Father John: Everything, everything, everything. Including what is electric, that is, bulbs and lamps and candles, everything is off. Even from the Catholics who do not keep…, it is rare to have the Resurrection on the same day. They are all extinguished in the Holy Sepulcher as well.
On the Holy Sepulcher is placed a large candle with oil, with eight clean wicks, not lighted. The prayer that the Patriarch of Jerusalem reads, which also read in Romanian. It is a very beautiful prayer of invocation of the Light and a small candle. I even have a photo taken by a hierarch of the Holy Sepulcher who had access to enter before His Beatitude entered the Holy Sepulcher and quickly took a picture and I have this photo. How the Holy Sepulcher is prepared before the coming of the Holy Light.
And the Patriarch kneels and prays, reads this prayer. And sometimes, it gives the feeling that he does not even get to read it all because the Holy Light springs from the Tomb of the Lord because the Tomb is life-giving, light-giving, as it says in the prayer of the Holy Sepulcher.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: Although many Christians and there are countless testimonies of many Christians, priests and hierarchs who have seen the Holy Light coming in the form of lightning in the Holy Sepulcher. Shaped like a globe of light. Other people saw how the lamps lit up above the Holy Sepulcher.
Father Theologos: They also light up on their own and I understand that even in the people’s hands they light themselves.
Father John: Yes, I saw in 2007, at that time I was not yet a monk, priest, my first visit to Jerusalem and I went to see the Holy Light then and I saw a woman that had the Holy Light lit in her hand before the Beatitude came out with the two large bundles of candles.
And maybe some people will say, yes, the parent is carried away with the raft and hasn’t seen well. But there are a lot of people who have seen this, even outside the Holy Sepulcher. It also sits above where the dome of the Holy Sepulcher is. There is the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and there is an esplanade and people are staying there too. There’s a lot of people.
Father Theologos: In the balcony upstairs for who doesn’t know.
Father John: Yes, and in the courtyard of the Holy Sepulcher, people who were kindled out of their love for God and for the Holy Light and for Jerusalem, the light lit in their hands. But also to the people who were very unfaithful and did not believe, their light lit itself for them to believe.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: Okay, let’s say maybe, these people were cheated or maybe they didn’t see well then in 2007. But the testimony I give on my beard this time, saying that every year, since I am under this obedience in Jerusalem, when the Holy Light comes, we as representatives, and I and Father Theophilus, the superior of the Romanian settlements in the Holy Land, participate in the procession and we are in front of the Holy Sepulcher. And we light the candles right from His Beatitude when he passes by. And for a minute, the flame is not material.
Father Theologos: Doesn’t burn!
Father John: Doesn’t burn! Not even my beard, because I put the flame in my beard and it did not burn.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: After that, it becomes materialistic, but up to a minute. Historically, old abbots, old nuns say that in ancient times it lasted about more than three minutes. But probably because of our sins and our spiritual palsy, now it is less of this miracle. But I’m telling you for sure that it doesn’t burn. The delegations saw that, also the journalists saw, who were present this year at the Holy Sepulcher. There are videos, there are written testimonies.
Father Theologos: I give you a testimony of mine. Forgive me for telling you! I didn’t know that the light of Jerusalem didn’t burn just for a minute. I just knew it doesn’t burn. Good. The light comes into the Holy Mountain after a long time, yes, by plane and so on, by boat. At night, yes, exactly. And I was still in my pants, so I wasn’t even a convent brother and I was working in the kitchen.
And we went to take the light – “come take light!” – we all took light and I knew it doesn’t burn and I put my hand above and I saw that it really doesn’t burn. But I didn’t know it wasn’t burning for just a minute, so to speak. And then I was constantly playing and it was something really very non-material. So it was there, but it wasn’t. I went to the kitchen and was constantly playing with this thing. And up to a point when my brothers said to me, “come on, what are you doing? come on, help us make food!” I was a helper there.
And then, the smart father Theologos what does he do? He says, ok, I will extinguish it because I will light it from the others afterwards. I extinguished it and then, when I lighted it up again, it burned me.
Father John: For the joy you had then and the innocence and faith, it did not burn.
Father Theologos: It didn’t burn.
Father John: What Christ say: your faith has healed you. Your faith!
Father Theologos: Yes, exactly.
Father John: So miracles cannot be performed unless there is a communion between God and man. You must believe. You can be in front of the Holy Sepulcher and the Holy Light comes and you’re made of stone.
Father Theologos: Even the Jews or not necessarily the Jews, but the others, do not believe? I mean no…?
Father John: You should know that a lot of the policemen who are at the Holy Sepulcher are Jews, that there are most of them, there are also Palestinians who have Israeli IDs, but most of them are Christians.
Father Theologos: Really? Glory to God!
Father John: In the Holy Sepulcher they make a cross, they kiss the Holy Sepulcher, they put their hats, that they must keep some the local tradition of the Old Testament.
But really, good question: what do those who do not believe and are indifferent at that time say. That they see. Okay, you see it comes out with a flame. Anyway they think that the Patriarch lights it up.
Father Theologos: Yes, good….
Father John: Let’s say I light it up from the others… but the others, when you see that there are so many priests, male or also female…
Father Theologos: Hair, with a headscarf that can light up…
Father John: It’s a whirlwind that there are thousands of people out there with bundles of 33 candles. That is the tradition in Jerusalem. The bundle of candles that we light with the Holy Light, 33 candles represent the 33 years of the Savior on Earth. But many people have five bundles that they want to return to everyone in the country, to give blessing a candle at a time.
You realize what a whirlwind is there with so many thousands of people, it never happened to catch anything on fire.
Father Theologos: Glory to God! Yes, that’s really…
Father John: Although the police have some sprays on them with which they put out the fire lest something happen. Nothing ever happened.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: But why don’t they believe? Well, neither did the disciples believe when Christ committed them.
Father Theologos: Yes, exactly. They were of stone.
Father John: Some were of stone. Some have denied Him by not believing that It is the Bread that descends from heaven.
Father Theologos: Man must also be a little openminded.
Father John: Yes! If not, God wants to see our intention. If man’s intention is good, God knows that he is taking a thousand steps towards him, and then faith and miracles also happen.
Father Theologos: But let me ask you something. When we were there, we were received by the Metropolitan of Kapitolias, I think you know who it’s about, a hierarch very…
Father John: Yes. High Isychios…
Father Theologos: Yes. And I asked him to tell us some miracles regarding the light in Jerusalem and he said, I’m going to tell you something that you’re not going to expect. I mean something that’s not… And he told us that at one point, I think it wasn’t with the current Patriarch, with the one before, that there were some Copts, if I’m not mistaken, from Africa in any case (and) they were doing a very big mess.
Father John: That’s how they manifests themselves… Often
Father Theologos: Yes, and the moment the Patriarch entered the Holy Sepulcher to read the prayers, annoyed by this blasphemy, by this uproar, he said to these Africans: Be silent, once! Be silent, once!
After which, when he entered the Holy Sepulcher back and read the prayer, the Light did not come. After that, he realized that he had hurt these people, he went outside and said: do as you will, do as your conscience tells you!
Father John: You see that the way Christians manifest – and so it should be – does not have to be a sad one…
Father Theologos: Yes
Father John: Christianity is joy.
Father Theologos: Yes.
Father John: Spiritual joy, of course.
Father Theologos: Yes, yes, yes
Father John: At the Holy Sepulcher when the Holy Light comes, there is an indescribable hustle. Because all Christians – Orthodox Christians, Coptic Christians, Armenian Christians – they generally celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection together – have a different way of manifesting the joy of the Resurrection.
You asked me about the greatest miracle I saw. The greatest miracle I have seen in Jerusalem is this joy of the Resurrection.
Father Theologos: Yes, exactly.
Father John: Because in some people the Holy Light can arrive late and burn them or maybe they do not have the faith not to be burn by its flame in the first minute and so on. That’s not what we should look for – whether or not it burns us, the flame. But let our heart burn.
Father Theologos: Exactly.
Father John: It is an indescribable joy when the Holy Light comes that you cannot explain in words, the Mysteries of God – “mistirio” in Greek sounds more…
Father Theologos: More mysterious, more mysterious
Father John: More mysterious. It’s not something I can explain.
Father Theologos: That’s right.
Father John: The mystery cannot be translated. What you experience when the Holy Light comes is between laughter and crying with joy.
Father Theologos: Yes.
Father John: Because Christ is risen and because we are no longer subject to death. Death is not a fatality, it is only a passage – from death to life, as Christ says, and His words are alive. We don’t die. Or how this saying exists in the Holy Mount Athos at a monastery – let’s die before we die so that we don’t die when we die. Right?
Father Theologos: Yes, yes, yes. If you die before you die, you’re not going to die the minute you die.
Father John: Like that. That is, to die to the sin.
Father Theologos: Exactly.
Father John: And let us be resurrected in Christ. And I believe that when the Holy Light comes, we foreshadow this state of our encounter with Christ in the Garden of Heaven. I think Adam had this joy when he met God in the coolness of the evening.
Father Theologos: Overcoming death, actually.
Father John: Yes. I mean, at that moment you’re not afraid of death.
Father Theologos: Yes, yes, yes
Father John: What I experienced in those moments and I also saw in Father Theophilus and in our brothers who were there, all Christians – if it happened then that we went beyond, I think we would all go happy and prepared.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: Because it’s that gracious state.
Father Theologos: Glory to God! Great, great joy!
Father John: Therefore, I tell you, go to Jerusalem as much as possible, while there is still peace as it is now, we can still rejoice. And another testimony.
I was with a lady from a television, I’m not going to call her name now, who did a show about the Holy Light this very year, very decent people because they had Holly Communion on the night of the Resurrection.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: People on television wanted to confess they sins, to take the Holy Communion.
Father Theologos: Glory to God! May God bless them!
Father John: Yes and explaining them, I was on Good Friday or On Holy Thursday, I was explaining to them in the Holy Sepulcher everything there and I was in the Angel’s Chapel, the antechamber of the Holy Sepulcher where on the stone at the door of the Tomb, a piece of what was left of the stone at the door of the Tomb, the stone of the Archangel Gabriel is called because it is the stone set aside by the Archangel Gabriel who told the myrrh-bearing women that Christ is not here, he is risen.
There is a candle that always burns with the Holy Light. And I told them: anytime, on any day of the year if we put our hand in this flame, it does not burn so much. Not only when the Holy Light comes on Holy Saturday at noon, but on any day of the year when we enter here and put our hand does not burn. You’ll see, when you come, we’ll do…
Father Theologos: Yes, yes…
Father John: And they put their hands on it. And they stayed – there’s this setting on the show and this joy is seen on their eyes, how they stayed with their hands in the flame and it didn’t burn them.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: If we light a match or a lighter, it immediately bites you.
Father Theologos: Yes, yes, yes
Father John: There I was sitting with my hand in the flame and it was not burning.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: Any day of the year. In the Holy Sepulcher.
Father Theologos: Glory to God!
Father John: There are testimonies of the great spiritual fathers, even St. Paisios of Mount Athos whom we all love with whom he says that very often the Light descends in the Holy Sepulcher not only then of the Resurrection…
Father Theologos: Yes. On Holy Saturday and so on…
Father John: But few see because our eyes, due to our sins, are closed. But many times we live in the heart this descent of the Holy Light.
Father Theologos: Yes! Glory to God! It’s something that needs to be lived, it can’t be explained actually….
Father John: Yes, like I said: the mystery is lived.
Father Theologos: It’s lived…. And in fact, Orthodoxy is a mystery, a mystery.
Father John: The whole of Orthodoxy.
Father Theologos: Yes. So, folks, go to Jerusalem and try to live the mystery. We thank Father John very much for sharing with us a little of the mystery of the Resurrection, of the mystery of the Holy Sepulcher.
For the prayers of our Saint Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen!
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