Gero-Arsenios was always agreeable and gave out blessings very easily. One time, however, he strangely became so strict and unyielding that he upset one of the fathers. Afterwards, when he was asked why he had been so harsh with him, he answered: “Yesterday Geronda came and told me: Be careful, Arsenios; don’t take the responsibility for other people’s burdens. Father so-and-so will come tomorrow. Don’t give him a blessing for what he wants.’” Even though it was a dream, Gero-Arsenios still had the experience and the grace to realize which dreams were from God, which were natural, and which were from the demons.

Another time, when Gero-Arsenios woke up at night, he saw Geronda as if he was alive. Geronda embraced him and said to him: “How long will we live apart? Come; I am waiting for you.” And Gero-Arsenios, with his typical simplicity replied, “It’s not like it’s up to me!”

Just before Papa-Haralambos became the abbot of Dionysiou Monastery, Geronda appeared to Gero-Arsenios in his sleep and told him what would happen.

Papa-Ephraim also saw Elder Joseph repeatedly. He said: coming, one by one. I couldn t see the rest of them because they were farther away. Geronda was so happy that he was shining for joy. This all took place in a very sacred atmosphere.

When I came to my senses, I felt as if I had been with Christ. This image has stayed with me all my life exactly as I saw it. Even though it was a mystery and can’t be grasped, God made me realize that Geronda has great boldness before Him. That is the kind of boldness that only a saint can have. In our days, it is no small feat to become a saint, but then again, all the ascesis Geronda did was no small feat, either. He did the kind of ascesis that we could never even dream of doing.

Source: pemptousia.com

 

 

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OCN has partnered with Pemptousia. A Contemporary post-modern man does not understand what man is.  Through its presence in the internet world, Pemptousia, with its spirit of respect for beauty that characterizes it, wishes to contribute to the presentation of a better meaning of life for man, to the search for the ontological dimension of man, and to the awareness of the unfathomable mystery of man who is always in Christ in the process of becoming, of man who is in the image of divine beauty. And the beauty of man springs from the beauty of the Triune God. In the end, “beauty will save the world”.


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Pemptousia Partnership

Pemptousia and OCN have entered a strategic partnership to bring Orthodoxy Worldwide. Greek philosophers from Ionia considered held that there were four elements or essences (ousies) in nature: earth, water, fire and air. Aristotle added ether to this foursome, which would make it the fifth (pempto) essence, pemptousia, or quintessence. The incarnation of God the Word found fertile ground in man’s proclivity to beauty, to goodness, to truth and to the eternal. Orthodoxy has not functioned as some religion or sect. It was not the movement of the human spirit towards God but the revelation of the true God, Jesus Christ, to man. A basic precept of Orthodoxy is that of the person ­– the personhood of God and of man. Orthodoxy is not a religious philosophy or way of thinking but revelation and life standing on the foundations of divine experience; it is the transcendence of the created and the intimacy of the Uncreated. Orthodox theology is drawn to genuine beauty; it is the theology of the One “fairer than the sons of men”. So in "Pemptousia", we just want to declare this "fifth essence", the divine beaut in our life. Please note, not all Pemptousia articles have bylines. If the author is known, he or she is listed in the article above.

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