“I went to Christouli and Panagitsa high in heaven”

I went to Christouli (Christ Jesus) and Panagitsa (Mary, Most Holy Mother of God) high in heaven” 

E. and T. T., from Drosato N. Kilkis, are the parents of three children. They relate the following: “On March 30th 2001 we took our M., four and a half years old, to the Hospital in Thessaloniki because of an unbearable stomach pain. With the appropriate tests they diagnosed him with obstructive ileus, and operated on him for three and a half hours, removing half a meter of necrotic gut.

Our doctors said that the child passed a very difficult situation, but was not out of danger yet. Monday evening he had a 40 degree (Celsius) fever. Tuesday he was transferred to the ICU with sepsis and acute respiratory shock. His hopes of living were only 10%. In the mean time, without us knowing anything, a neighbor of ours saw St. Raphael in a vision who told her: “Antonina, I’m leaving, because you don’t need me any more. I will go to E., he has need of me now!” The woman later learned about our son. A friend of our family from Goumenissa, Mr. P. S., went to St. Raphael in Griva and knelt with the priest reading the paraklesis for the…
… salvation of our child. Our brother A. went in the evening to our empty house to chant the Paraklesis to St. George for the health of M.. At one point the room started to shine, so much that he was shaken. Where did this much light come from? Most likely it was the Grace of the Saint. After these, the child’s situation began to improve, until the Saturday of Lazarus, when he opened his eyes. On Holy Monday he was totally well and exited the hospital. After being sick for 23 days, we left the hospital. When we returned, he began to tell us different things: “I went to Christouli and to Panagitsa high in heaven, where there are a lot of clouds, with the white horse of St. George. I saw uncle Fani (our neighbor who died eight months before) and Despoula (a little girl who died three years before), there were many people I didn’t know there and they wore golden angel’s clothes and everyone was singing…Christouli and Panagitsa asked me if I have any brothers and what are they called, and told me not to worry, you will go back to Mama and to your brothers. ‘I don’t know how to get back there.’ ‘With my horse’, said St. George. ‘I’m scared, I don’t know how to drive the horse.’ ‘Don’t worry, I will drive you.’ M. is near us, a strong child as he was before, and every day we glorify God, Panagia and all the Saints who gave him back to us.”

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2014/11/i-went-to-christouli-and-panagitsa-high.html

Lay not up Treasures on Earth, but in Heaven where Nothing is Lost ( St. John Maximovich )

The Lord speaks to all people of all times and races, and tells them something clear and well-known. Today a person is alive, but tomorrow he dies and everything that he has is lost to him. But the soul, which moves the body, continues to live and it is either comforted and happy, or sad and burdened. Man is created thus; the body must live as the soul desires. At the moment of death the soul continues to live without the body. Everything will perish except that which the soul has gathered through love and prayer. Everything virtuous done by a man is written in the soul and will not be taken from him. While a person is alive, he finds himself paying attention to many things: clothing, health, his job, studies. There are times when he is concerned only with the thought of war or a failed harvest - of everything that is necessary for life on earth.

So, too, in spiritual life there are times of special attention to what is needful for the soul. Such is Great Lent - a time of special attention, examination, of the freeing of spiritual forces. Fasting is established by the Holy Spirit. Righteous men, striving towards God, through life experience came to know the meaning of fasting and bear witness that without fasting there can be no spiritual life. All the various attacks of the devil, all his temptations, everything concerning the diabolic world, is cast aside -becomes powerless and is shamed-when a person firmly follows the words of the Saviour Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ: " .. . This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21).

Now is a time of fasting, a suitable time for cleansing the soul. This is the most important thing, for a soul to be able to accept the grace of God, so that those treasures will be stored up in the soul, which will not be taken from it. And then the path of its life will be straight; in the soul there will be peace and joy.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

St. John Maximovich

Path to Heaven ( Saint Innocent Bishop of Alaska )

The following are excerpts from an article by Saint Innocent Bishop of Alaska, The Way into the Kingdom of Heaven.
The road into the Kingdom of Heaven was made by the Lord Jesus Christ, and He was the first one who travelled it. The Bible teaches that only he who follows Jesus can reach His Kingdom. But how can one follow Him? Hear what our Savior says about this: Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Mark 8:34).

1. First of all, a Christian must thoroughly study the foundations of the Christian faith.

2. When you become convinced that our Orthodox faith is based on Holy Scriptures and is not invented by people and that the Holy Scriptures contain the true word of God, revealed by the Holy Spirit through prophets and apostles — accept it with all your trusting heart.

3. Finally, try to nourish a diligence in yourself to follow that which is taught by the Holy Scriptures.
To reach the Kingdom of Heaven, we should determine which path leads to it, how not to falter, what we must beware of, etc. Our map is the Holy Scriptures and other Orthodox books; the rangers are the pastors of the Church, whose duty it is to help the faithful on their way toward Paradise. The provisions are the Mysteries (Sacraments) of the Church, which reinforce our spiritual strength. Sometimes the path leading to Paradise may become narrow, steep and overgrown with bushes, whereas other paths may seem wider and easier to travel. It is very important not to stray from the correct path. The Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles repeatedly warned that there is but one path that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven, the one given in the Gospel. All others, especially the wide and comfortable ones, lead to perdition.

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/04/path-to-heaven.html