MT. ATHOS ISN'T ABOUT GEOGRAPHY-IT'S ABOUT A STATE OF HEART

 

MT. ATHOS ISN’T ABOUT GEOGRAPHY—IT’S ABOUT A STATE OF HEART

The following are discussions about Holy Mount Athos, its spirit, principles, and daily routine, by several Greek archpastors who received spiritual nourishment in this monastic republic, and an Athonite who prefers not to leave Mt. Athos at all. They are convinced that no matter where one might be, everyone can find himself in this garden of the Most Holy Theotokos in the spirit.

Holy Mount Athos

 

It’s not a matter of Mt. Athos, but of Christ and our obedience

 

Metropolitan Athanasios (Nikolaou) of Limassol, the Orthodox Church of Cyprus:

I discovered Mt. Athos through contacts with people. At the age of eighteen I enrolled in the Department of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki, and at the same time by the grace of God I met Elder Paisios (now canonized by the Church) on Mt. Athos. When I first saw Elder Paisios, he turned out to be so simple and humble. And in his simplicity and humility was hidden his great treasure of the Holy Spirit. The elder said:

 

“You guys are young. So make prostrations—many prostrations.”

 

I was very perplexed:

 

“Father, how many prostrations a day should I make?”

“You are young, make a lot of prostrations,” he replied.

 

Suddenly, in some miraculous way, everything around us began to smell sweet: rocks, stones, trees, the wind—all the nature of Mt. Athos was suddenly transformed. My fellow-student and I felt this change. Then the elder hastily closed the door behind us and quickly returned to his cell. A feeling of deep joy began to reign in our hearts. We set off at a brisk pace, heading for Karyes without stopping for rest from the joy that had overwhelmed us. The fragrance accompanied us. We were going step by step and wondering: “What does all this mean?!”

 

For some time I had the opportunity to observe the life of Elder Paisios and I saw miracles. Since then I have gained confidence in the reality of the Gospel, in the fact that everything that Christ said really can be put into practice.

 

Then, in 1976, Elder Paisios (who did not accept novices) in response to my question, “To whom then should I submit myself in obedience?” sent me to Elder Joseph of Vatopedi.

 

“Does Elder Joseph know how to perform the prayer of the heart?” I asked, as he slightly pushed me in the back.

 

“If other fathers are teachers of this prayer, then Elder Joseph is a professor,” Elder Paisios laughed at my indecisiveness. And he blessed me to become a novice of Elder Joseph.

 

Thus I became one of the spiritual children of Elder Joseph. I joined him, dreaming of learning how to pray. Elder Joseph was a true hesychast. He did not follow the daily routine of the brotherhood; he had his own hesychast rule, which was radically different from our rule adapted for weak brothers. But a brotherhood didn’t gather around him until later, and when I came to him I was his only novice.

 

I hoped that my monastic life would become exclusively a school of prayer, that the elder would immediately put me in a cell, give me a huge prayer rope and make sure that I prayed ceaselessly. And instead of that he gave me a bucket and a mop and sent me to clean the floor. And I dared not object and say: “I’m here to pray and not to mop the floor!” Otherwise I would have been shown the door at once as Elder Joseph was very strict. Elder Joseph told me just a few simple words about prayer: “Take a prayer rope, constantly pray with humility, and enclose your mind in the words of prayer.”

 

Soon I came to Elder Paisios with a question:

 

“I’ve been on Mt. Athos for about three years now. I try my best to pray, but I see no result.”

 

“What kind of result do you want?” He asked me.

 

“The kind we read about in books.”

 

“My cat is dead. Go and resurrect it!” he suggested to me and, seeing my confusion, added, “What do you want? To perform miracles?”

 

But I remembered that fragrance spread throughout the nature of Mt. Athos...

 

It is not a matter of Mt. Athos, but of Christ and our obedience.

 

Then I was told by one Athonite schemamonk how one day a young novice from his brotherhood was drafted into the army. If he were to be in an army barrack with its brash spirit and obscenities, he would have been lost for monastic life. His elder was very worried. And then this schemamonk went to the elder and said that he wanted to be sent to the army instead of that brother.

 

“Can you handle it?” The elder asked him.

 

“Yes, I’m ready. Even now.”

 

He immediately took off his cassock, shaved off his beard and hair, went with the police who had arrived to join the army and passed himself off as that youth. He and those who accompanied him spent a night at a hotel in Ierissos, with songs, laughter and shouts in the neighborhood. But, as that schemamonk who was older than me later told me that even without his cassock and hair he was in Paradise all that night. He never (neither before, nor afterwards) felt such abundant grace as that night again.

“The Lord will not leave the one who sacrifices himself,” Elder Paisios told us. The next day, a telegram was sent from the military unit notifying the novice that it was not necessary to go to the army, and the schemamonk returned to Mt. Athos. Later he even felt sad and told me: “I have lost such grace! Because after returning here I again began to do my own will.”

 

                                                                                                                                                                                      Prepared by Olga Orlova

Translated from the Russian version by Dmitry Lapa Pravoslavie.ru

 

7/19/2021