Saint Paisios of Mount Athos Answers
the Questions of his Young Visitor
The young man then asked the saint:
“The Lord taught us to pray to God the Father. The Orthodox Church, however,
also prays to the All Holy Theotokos and the saints who were simple human
beings. Is this the right thing to do?”
The saint responded: “ All of the
prayers go to our God. When we pray to the All Holy Theotokos and the saints we
ask them to pray for us to our Lord and their prayers have great power.”
The young man at that point
interrupted Saint Paisios and said: ” Yes, but the All Holy Theotokos and the
saints were people who died. They can’t hear us and they are not omnipresent.
Does God become angry and irritated when we pray to them?”
(of note the young man later
explained that the minute he uttered the words “Yes, but..” he felt a divine power
sharpening all of his senses and enabling him “absorb” everything the holy
elder had to say)
My child, the Saint answered, the
reality is that none of us die, we are all alive in the eyes of our God. When
someone dies, they die for us; those who have stayed behind on Earth. He did
not die in the eyes of our God. And if the departed person has become close to
God and interacts with Him, he learns from Christ that we have asked the
departed person to pray on our behalf and so he prays, and Christ listens to
his mediation and is delighted. The prayer of a righteous person has great
power.
From the article “A conversation with Saint Paisios” published in the
journal “Osios Gregorios” a publication of the Holy Monastery of Osios
Gregorios of Mount Athos
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