"The knees of Mary have withered from praying for all of you."

 

 

The Most-Holy Theotokos praying for the world  

 

 

"Once, when St. Iakovos [of Evia] was casting out demons from a wretched demoniac, his ears heard: 'Hey Iakovos, you should know! The knees of Mary have withered from praying for all of you.'

 

What are we doing? Are we worthy of these prayers or do we fall and get carried away from our passions and fall into sin? And if we fall, do we go afterwards to kneel under the stole of a spiritual father, that our sins might be washed away? Because, we will have to give an account for our deeds, our desires, our thoughts...so while there is still time, let us repent! Let us change our way of thinking and our way of life, to enter into the space of our Church. She is the ark of our salvation, that we might partake of the Spotless Mysteries, in Confession and Divine Communion, and when we commune, we become even more closely related to our Panagia, because our Panagia hosted within her womb the Son of God and her Son, and when we commune, we host, we give a dwelling-place within us, within our body, to God, like our Panagia."

 

-Quote from a sermon of Elder Gabriel of St. David's Monastery in Evia on the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos