Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,
As the theme of this month is “stories,” I would like to share one with you which I recently read in the book, The Spiritual Meadow by John Moschos, a monk of the sixth and seventh century. Moschos was a man who travelled the Middle East, visiting pilgrimage sites, speaking with monastics and hearing stories from them, eventually becoming a monk himself. He relates many, but the one below was a personal favorite of mine:
“The fathers told us that in those days, a Christ-loving woman of the district of Apamea dug a well. She spent a great deal of money on the project and dug very deep, but she found no water…Then one day, she had a vision of somebody saying to her: ‘Send for and bring a picture of Abba [Father] Theodosios of Skopelos and by that means God will give you water.’ The woman sent two men at once. They took the icon of the saint and let it down into the well and immediately water began to flow; it filled the well-shaft up to the halfway point. The men who drew the icon up out of the water brought us some of it; we drank of it and all gave thanks to God.”
Our Church, following the example of Christ Himself, uses stories in Her teachings. Stories have a marvelous way of making simple, even complicated truths about our faith easier to understand. They inspire, teach, and entertain, another major plus!
I am sure that each of us have a story or two to tell about our own experiences with faith, or certainly stories which have been told to us. If you do, please share your story with us! We can use such stories in our weekly wisdoms, a future bulletin, or in a sermon in church! These would be great blessings for all of us.
As I’ve heard it expressed: “He takes your story, and my story, and all stories, and makes HIStory.” May we remember this always! Amen!
With love in Christ,
Father Niko Bekris
Proistamenos
