MCMLXIX - MMIX

HIS FATHER’S WITNESS

1969 GREAT METEORA1974 S IMONOS PETRA

PETRA 2009

After His Tonsure to the Great Schema, October 3, 1977Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra, Holy Mountain of Athos

THE VERY REVEREND ARCHIMANDRITE AEMILIANOS

ΙΕΡΑ ΜΟΝΗ ΠΕΤΡΑΣ ΚΑΤΑΦΥΓΙΟΝ ΚΑΡΔΙΤΣΗΣΗoly Monastery of Petra Gr 431 00 Karditsa*

Tel.: 697.8118604 Fax: 244.1080716 E-mail: MoniPetras@fhc.org Web Site: www.MoniPetras.org* * **

Reg. No. 59July 22, 2009

I N V I T A T I O NThe Monastic Path and Fruition of

Elder DionysiosAbbot of the Holy Monastery of Petra

1969-2009

The Elders’ Council of the Holy Monastery of Petra has the honor of asking Your prayers and the blessings of Your heart upon the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Monastic Tonsure at Great Meteoron, and the 35th anniversary of the Ordination to the Priesthood at Simonos Petras, of our very reverend Elder Archimandrite DIONYSIOS, on Monday, August 17th, 2009, 7:00-10:00 a.m., at our Holy Monastery.

Your presence, involvement, and cross-reference is significant, definitive in the life of our Reverend Geronta and all of us.

Always we await Your testimony concerning Geronta, anticipating Your unique personal witness.

With honor and gratitude in the Lord.

FOR THE HOLY MONASTERY OF PETRA, KATAPHYGION

THE ELDERS’ COUNCIL

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THE VERY REVEREND ARCHIMANDRITE DIONYSIOS

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HOMILYOF THE VERY REVEREND ARCHIMANDRITE

AEMILIANOSABBOT, SACRED MONASTERY OF SIMONOS PETRAS

HOLY MOUNTAIN OF ATHOSUPON THE TONSURE TO THE GREAT SCHEMA

OF THE SIMONOPETRITE HIEROMONK DIONYSIOS

+ St. Dionysios the Areopagite3 October 1977

I open my eyes, my beloved child, in order to trace out something of those things that are hidden within your mind and your heart. But how is it

possible for me to succeed in this, since I can’t follow even the flight of an arrow in the material heights, nor measure the depth of the mortal earth upon which I tread?

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H ow can I check the interior chambers of your soul? Neither are you yourself in the position to

comprehend them; all are mystically hidden. As a father, I rejoice. The lips of all these around you, your brothers, rest upon yours; a mystical embrace now unites all of us; an intangible mystical thrill passes through us all.

W hat can we say, my child, about the angelic watchman who brought you here? What can we

say about the fatherly embrace which hastens to open and encompass you, in order that you also be a jar bearing manna1 on high, at that throne of the Triune God which has been prepared, and before this Royal Door, which the Cherubim always guard, why? Why especially today? Because today, God’s hand will consitute you a crowned king, a son of lightning2, a perfect vision! Is this supposedly the first time that you go through this Door? I seek to comprehend the mystery. I want gradually to touch this.

I n order to see ... I will look first at myself. I myself, what am I looking for here and now? It seems to me

that something is drawing me. A sensation sweeter to the throat than honey3. For the reason is worthy of God, and the commandment is royal4, the superior mouth of the holy Father would say. And what is there greater than such an event? All these things are for God, he says. God knows, God ordered, and who can stand against Him?5

T herefore, you, too, I surmise, ran unhindered; that is why you, too, fully conscious, apprehended

the Master’s voice. So, you tell me; I ask you with the

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very words of Holy Scripture: What do you keep, my child? What are you doing, child of my own womb? What is happening to you? What are you suffering, child of my blessings?6 How is that you stopped, bound and motionless? You appear as a conquered lion. Weren’t you running wherever you wanted? Leave now, if you can!

A ll day you were raising your glance up, to find where God is, as if you were saying to Him: “I am Thy

servant, Thou art my God.7 I am Thy slave. Thou art my Lord.” And this caused you to divide up and distribute yourself, to melt yourself, to disappear, becoming all things to all men.8

W eren’t you the couch to which everyone resorted and found repose? Wasn’t it you to whom everyone

ran for whatever they needed? Weren’t you the one from whom they asked whatever they wanted? Most especially, certainly, your Elder could bear witness that constantly you belonged to him, constantly you gave yourself to him, for him you were like his slave, totally his, you became his own flesh.

A nd now? Now we all lose you? Oh, no. You were conceived as a wild animal. And now you surely

resemble an angel-formed victim. Didn’t you seek the wholly unspeakable, untold lightning flashes of the divine beauty?9 Weren’t you imitating the words that Basil the Great was always saying, in his life, asking to look at nothing else?

B ut, what else could give you the right to live in this Monastery? What does the brother of that

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ΛΟΓΟΣΠΑΝΟΣΙΟΛΟΓΙΩΤΑΤΟΥ ΑΡΧΙΜΑΝΔΡΙΤΟΥ

ΚΟΥ Α ΙΜ ΙΛ ΙΑΝΟΥΚΑΘΗΓΟΥΜΕΝΟΥ ΙΕΡΑΣ ΜΟΝΗΣ ΣΙΜΩΝΟΣ ΠΕΤΡΑΣ

ΑΓΙΟΥ ΟΡΟΥΣ ΑΘΩΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΣΧΗΜΙΑΝ

ΤΟΥ ΣΙΜΩΝΟΠΕΤΡΙΤΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΟΝΑΧΟΥΚΟΥ ΔΙΟΝΥΣ ΙΟΥ

+ Μνήμη Ἁγίου Διονυσίου Ἀρεοπαγίτου

γ΄. ι΄. ́ αϠοζ΄

α νοίγω τά μάτια μου, ἀγαπητό μου παιδί, γιά νά ἐξιχνιάσω κἄτι ἀπό ’κεῖνα πού κρύπτονται μέσα στήν σκέψι σου καί στήν καρδιά σου. Μά πῶς εἶναι

δυνατόν νά τό ἐπιτύχω, ἀφοῦ δέν ἠμπορῶ οὔτε κἄν νά παρακολουθήσω τό πέταμα ἑνός βέλους στά ὕψη τά αἰσθητά, οὔτε τό βάθος νά μετρήσω τοῦ θνητοῦ χώματος εἰς τό ὁποῖον πατῶ.

Π ῶς θά ἐλέγξω τά ἐσώτερα δώματα τῆς ψυχῆς σου; Οὔτε καί σύ δέν εἶσαι εἰς θέσιν νά τά κατανοήσῃς.

ὅλα εἶναι κρύφια καί μυστικά. Εὐφραίνομαι ἐγώ ὡς πατήρ. Τά χείλη των ὅλοι τοῦτοι ποὖναι τριγύρω σου ἀκουμβοῦν εἰς τά ἰδικά σου, ὡς ἀδελφοί. ἕνα ἀγκάλιασμα μυστικό ἑνώνει τώρα ὅλους μας, σάν ἕνα ῥῖγος μᾶς διαπερνᾷ τούτη ἡ ἀψηλάφητη μυστική στιγμή.

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great father, God’s mystic of things veiled, have to say? “Whoever revels in the vision and yearning for God, is trained by Him”, he says; “By Him he is strengthened and made greater than himself, returning to his kin, communicating the miracles to them.”10

S uch a one becomes simple. The monk understands all space. He becomes a catholic person, belonging to

God and all the saints; he becomes a participant with all of them in the divine goods. Our struggle in the Church is, really, a common theophany.

T herefore, my brother, the holy Church grants you today the fullness of the Monastic Schema, desiring

to see you now and henceforth “wholly compounded with the Divinity”11, as that excellent paradigm of the monastic politic, Gregory the Theologian, would express it.

A nd now, behold! The Church wants you always to be united with the entire Divinity. Because then

you will be a churchman. Then you will belong truly and dynamically to the community of the one Body. Then you will be, O treasure of my field, a treasure-house given for the sustenance of the saints, the Church, which is nothing other than the very body of Christ, of which He is the head. Your Jesus, Who is my Jesus, too; our Jesus, the God of us all.

N ow do you understand what you are doing today? I shall remind you of the verses that belong to the Saint

we are celebrating, the foundation of monastic theology: “Severing your head, how awesome, O Dionysios, and taking it up, you run.”12

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Τ ί νά ποῦμε ἐμεῖς, παιδί μου, γιά τήν ἀγγελική σκοπιά πού σέ ἔφερε ἐδῶ; Διά τάς πατρικάς ἀγκάλας πού

βιάζονται γιά νά ἀνοίξουν καί νά σέ περιβάλλουν, γιά νἆσαι καί σύ μία στάμνα μάννα φέρουσα1 ἐπάνω στόν ἡτοιμασμένον ἐκεῖνον θρόνον τοῦ Τριαδικοῦ Θεοῦ. Καί μπροστά στήν Ὡραίαν αὐτήν Πύλην, πού πάντοτε τήν φυλάττουν τά Χερουβίμ, γιατί; σήμερα ἰδιαίτερα; Γιατί σήμερα, ἡ χείρ τοῦ Θεοῦ θά σέ καταστήσῃ βασιλέα ἐστεμμένον, υἱόν ἀστραπῆς2, ὅραμα τέλειον! Μήπως εἶναι τάχα ἡ πρώτη φορά πού τήν περνᾷς; Ζητῶ νά ἐννοήσω τό μυστήριον. Θέλω νά τό ἐγγίσω σιγά-σιγά.

Γ ιά νά ἰδῶ. ... θά κυττάξω πρῶτα-πρῶτα τόν ἑαυτόν μου. Ἐγώ, τί ζητῶ τώρα ἐδῶ; Μοῦ φαίνεται, κἄτι μέ

τραβάει. Μία αἴσθησις μοῦ γλυκαίνει ὑπέρ μέλι τόν λάρυγγα3. Θεοπρεπής γάρ ὁ λόγος καί βασιλικόν τό κέλευσμα4, θά ἔλεγε τό ὑψηλόν στόμα τοῦ ἁγίου Πατρός. Καί τί μεῖζον ἑνός τοιούτου γεγονότος; Γιά τόν Θεόν, λέγει, ὅλα αὐτά. Ὁ Θεός γνωρίζει, ὁ Θεός διέταξε, καί τίς δύναται ἀντιστῆναι Αὐτῷ5;

Γ ι’ αὐτό, λοιπόν, καί σύ, εἰκάζω, ἀκωλύτως ἔτρεξες. γι’ αὐτό καί σύ τήν δεσποτικήν φωνήν ἔνοιωσες ἐπιγινώσκων.

Πές μου, λοιπόν. σέ ἐρωτῶ, μέ τά λόγια τά ἴδια τῆς Γραφῆς: “Τί, τέκνον, τηρήσεις; Τί, τέκνον ἐμῆς κοιλίας”, κάμνεις; Τί σοῦ συμβαίνει; “Τί, τέκνον ἐμῶν εὐχῶν”6, πάσχεις; Πῶς ἔτσι δεμένος σταμάτησες καί ἀκίνητος! Λιοντάρι νικημένο φαίνεσαι. Δέν ἔτρεχες ὅπου ἤθελες; Φῦγε τώρα, ἄν ’μπορῇς.

Ὅ λη τήν ἡμέρα σήκωνες τό βλέμμα σου ψηλά, γιά νά βρίσκῃς ποῦ εἶναι ὁ Θεός, σάν νά Τοῦ ἔλεγες: “Σός

ἐγώ λάτρης, Σύ μου Θεός7. Ὑπηρέτης Σου εἶμαι ἐγώ. Σύ

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G reat and awesome, he says: you cut off your head, Dionysios, and holding it in your hands, of your own

free will, you place it in the hands of your Brotherhood, which is our Church gathered together. Exactly as that Areopagite and martyr, holding his own head, walked two miles, until he found that woman and placed his head in her hands13, in order that it become a unique possession, God-given and God-delivered, that is, a chalice dripping with God.

A nd you also walked so many years, in order to arrive at this moment, in which you would be

capable of carrying your head in your hands. Our beloved Dionysios: from the time that you were a small child, God was pleased to call you, to make Himself known to you, that you might love Him. You didn’t need to weep for any former life, passed in vanities, and to say, “Alas! the time that I didn’t love You!”14 You always loved Him. He Who is the expectation of the nations, was ever the expectation of your own heart. “Keep thyself, therefore, for Christ”.15 The Lord’s word ordered His angels to guard you as a sheep for Him, for this hour. So the prophet says, and really, he speaks the truth. Therefore bow this head of yours, struggle in a way worthy of God, become a faithful martyr of the Lord God, rejoice you father’s heart, fill your brothers with gladness.

W hy did you approach, brother, casting yourself down before this holy Altar...

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εἶσαι ὁ Κύριός μου”. Κι’ αὐτό, σέ ἔκανε νά κομματιάζεσαι, νά μοιράζεσαι, νά λοιώνῃς, νά ἐξαφανίζεσαι, γινόμενος τά πάντα τοῖς πᾶσι8.

Δ έν ἤσουν ἡ κλίνη ὅπου κατέφευγαν καί ἀνεπαύοντο ὅλοι; Ὅ,τι ἐχρειάζοντο δέν ἔτρεχαν σέ ’σένα; Ὅ,τι

ἤθελον δέν τό ζητοῦσαν ἀπό ’σένα; Ἰδιαιτέρως, βεβαίως, θά ’μποροῦσε ὁ Γέροντάς σου νά μαρτυρήσῃ, ὅτι διαρκῶς τοῦ ἀνῆκες, τοῦ ἐδίδεσο, σκλάβος του τοῦ ἤσουν, ὅλος ἰδικός του, σάρκα του εἶχες γίνει.

Κ αί τώρα; Σέ χάνομε πλέον ὅλοι; Ἔ! Ὄχι. Συνελήφθης ἀγρίμι. Καί ὁμοιάζεις, βέβαια, μέ ἕνα ἀγγελόμορφο

θῦμα. Δέν ἐπιζητοῦσες τάς ἀῤῥήτους παντελῶς καί ἀνεκδιηγήτους τοῦ θείου κάλλους τάς ἀστραπάς9; Δέν ἐμιμεῖσο τά λόγια πού ἔλεγε πάντοτε ὁ Μέγας Βασίλειος εἰς τήν ζωή σου, πού ζητάει νά μή κυττάζῃ κανείς τίποτε ἄλλο;

Ἀ λλά, ἀλλά τί ἄλλο θά σοῦ ἔδιδε δικαιώματα νά ζῇς στό Μοναστήρι αὐτό; Τί λέγει καί ὁ ἀδελφός τοῦ

μεγάλου αὐτοῦ πατρός, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκεῖνος κρυφιομύστης; «Ὅποιος ἐντρυφᾷ εἰς τήν θεωρίαν καί τόν πόθον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐκπαιδεύεται, λέγει, ἀπό Αὐτόν, δυναμοῦται καί μείζων ἑαυτοῦ καταστάς δι’ Αὐτοῦ, πρός τό ὁμόφυλον κάτεισι, κοινωνήσων αὐτοῖς τῶν θαυμάτων»10.

Ἁ πλοῦται αὐτός, καταλαμβάνει ὅλον τόν χῶρον ὁ μοναχός, γίνεται καθολικός ἄνθρωπος, ἀνήκων τῷ

Θεῷ καί πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις∙ συμμέτοχος μέ ὅλους γίνεται τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν. Ὁ ἀγῶνάς μας μέσα στήν Ἐκκλησία εἶναι, πραγματικά, μία κοινή θεοφανία.

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REFERENCES

1 Heb9:4“thegoldenpotthathadmanna”.

2 Mark3:17“andHesurnamedthemBoanerges,whichis,theSonsofThunder”.

3 Psalm118:103“Howsweetarethywordsuntomytaste!yea,sweeterthanhoneytomymouth!”.

4 SaintCyrilofAlexandria,CommentaryontheGospelaccordingtoJohn,2.290.4,“ForthewordisworthyofGodandroyalisthecommand,whichcontainstherelease from death and the overthrow of corruption, and proof of the energy,whichsurpassesexpression”.

5 Job9:19“WhocanstandagainstHisjudgements?”.

6 Proverbs31:2“Whatwiltthoukeep,myson,what?thewordsofGod.Myfirstbornson,Ispeaktothee:what?sonofmywomb?what?sonofmyvows?”.

7 Psalm115:7 “OLord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the sonofthinehandmaid”.

8 1Corinthians9:22“Ihavebecomeallthingstoallmen,thatImaybyallmeanssavesome”.

9 SaintBasiltheGreat,PrefacetotheProphetIsaiah,5.175.21,“Thereforehewhodoesnotreceivetheflashesofthedivinebeautywithhisowneye,thesamesaysthatgoodisevil”.

10 SaintGregoryofNyssa,OntheLifeofMoses,1.56.6.

11 Saint Gregory the Theologian, On Himself, 1017.4, “From henceforth it isnecessaryforyou,whohavepenetratedintothewholeofthedivinity,overcomewithjoytopraisewithincessanthymns”.

12 DistichoftheSynaxarionofOctober3rd.

13 The Great Synaxarion of October 3rd, “A miracle both strange and excellenthappenedtoDionysiostheGreat.When,thatis,theSaintwasbeheaded,receivinghisholyheadinhishands,hewalkedtwomilesanddidnotleavehisheadbehind,untilhemetacertainvirtuouswoman,whosenamewasKatoula,and,bydivineprovidence,standing,heplacedhisheadasatreasureintoherhands”.

14 SaintAugustine,Confessions,book10,chapter27,“LatehaveIlovedThee”.

15 SaintCyrilofAlexandria,Commentaryon theTwelveProphets,2.463.24, “fortheCanaanites,hesays,willknowthesheepthatareguarded,foritisthewordoftheLord.ForhecallstheCanaanites“nations,”butitshouldbeunderstoodthatthesamearethesheepthatareguarded.FortheyarekeptforChrist,forHeistheexpectationofthenations”.

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Μετέωρον, Πάσχα 1970

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Meteoron, Pascha 1970

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SECOND HOMILYOF THE VERY REVEREND ARCHIMANDRITE

AEMILIANOSABBOT, SACRED MONASTERY OF SIMONOS PETRAS

HOLY MOUNTAIN OF ATHOSUPON THE TONSURE TO THE GREAT SCHEMA

OF THE SIMONOPETRITE HIEROMONK DIONYSIOS

+ St. Dionysios the Areopagite3 October 1977

I t was only the day before yesterday morning that God counted us worthy to celebrate the tonsure of a chosen brother from our monastery, who is

also one of the most recent of the brotherhood. In a few days, we shall tonsure yet another elect man, this one being much younger, although the well-being and the love that he manifests in the difficulties, temptations and

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illnesses, shows that God has chosen him for this path. While today, we celebrated the tonsure of one of the very first men who loved Meteora, who ascended its heights, and who continued their lives upon this Rock of Saint Simon.

F or me, this event is not an ordinary occurrence, but something which fills my heart with emotion, and

tells me a great many things that are, however, impossible for me to express. There are some things which a person can only live, and when he tries to externalize them, he realizes that all that beauty that he had in his soul is thereby lost. At such times, it is better to keep silent.

N evertheless, there are two or three very simple things that I cannot conceal, about which this tonsure gives

me occasion to think. I said that he is from among the first, or rather the last, to take the Great Schema from among those who first ascended the Rock of Saint Athanasios of Meteora. And in continuation, we all arrived up here, a second monastery was established, and then a third, and most of us are now gathered here, united as one true family, having been unified by our common, shall we say, journey, which began about the time that Father Dionysios came up to the monastery.

S eeing these families of ours and how their path, as I said, seems to complete its first phase with the

tonsure of Father Dionysios, how is it possible for us not to realize that it is God himself who governs our history, our family; that God is the One governing our hearts and leading all things, not to some earthly end, but ultimately to the Kingdom of the Heavens. because,

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without a doubt, God works all things. Who brought us to the Mount called Holy? Who is it that initiates us into the hidden mysteries of God? Who is it that places us within the beauties of the spiritual life? Who guides us unto the Eternal Kingdom? Undoubtedly, it is God alone.

I t is God, indeed, whom one can truly see in the life of Father Dionysios, as well as in the life of our entire

family. How beautifully the service of the Great Schema puts it, when it says that it is “God Who leads the way in your spiritual life.”1 It is the life of the Spirit, the life of God. It is not our life – it is His life, of which He makes us partakers. And He alone can lead us up to this place, with respect to which we ourselves can do absolutely nothing. Whatever we might do could not possibly guide us there, if He Himself did not open the door for us, because, in the end, He himself is this life.

A ll of us speak about the spiritual life, but what else can it be, and what else can we think about it, if

not God alone, who opens this door, who opens His very heart to us, his paternal embrace itself, and receives us. How many times have we failed to feel this, and precisely because of this, how much we have failed to love God, to what extent are our souls devoid of trust, love, hope, and admiration. For all things are in His hands, and all the things of God are open.

A nd, again, how beautifully the service says, “Lead your servant into your spiritual courtyard.”2 And

this courtyard into which He leads him, this Kingdom, this monastery, is His par excellence. As a result, only He

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can accomplish anything. Our own sweat and perspiration would bring us to a halt at the first threshold of our earthly steps, but could never bring us anywhere near up there.

T oday especially, therefore, I feel the presence of the Holy God, and His bending over the life of

our family, which undertakes its struggles on the Holy Mountain, so that this “royal court” might become more and more manifest to the men of our age.

T he second thought which comes to mind is this. The monastic tonsure is never a reward. It is never a

recompense. On the contrary, the monastic tonsure is the grace which is granted to the man who has sinned, who falls, who has become equivalent with the dust, with the mud; and God, in order to reveal this love of His and this forbearance of His, graces us with the Great Schema.

H ow different and how worldly is the perception of many people, who think that monks are a kind of

aristocracy, and that only such persons, aristocrats, can become monks. Anything but. It is precisely when a person has this inner sense of his inferiority, that he can receive from God the Great Schema.

A nd it was this which Father Dionysios felt within his aristocratic nature, in his height, and in his

struggles, and it seems that for this reason God has blessed him.

A s imposing as are the appearance of his gaze and his body, so bowed down was his life and of his

heart before God, and this is why God bent down and

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helped him, granting him this thing. It is the response of God to his toils, the response of God to the fact that he loved so greatly even the last brother of our monastery, and we are all witnesses of this love of his and of his vigils on behalf of all flesh, we would say.

G od also recompensed the love of all the brethren, who many times felt our brother as burdensome;

but afterwards they discovered that it was he who was bearing all the weight of the brotherhood. Of course he bore the burdens together with others, but he carried so much upon his shoulders. Consequently, God bent down in all these things and graced him with the Schema. He has been central to all the affairs of the brotherhood; and God clothed him with this angelic apparel, to which nothing in the whole world can be compared.

A third thing that I am thinking about is that which Father Dionysios exhibits generally by his demeanor.

With his glance, his manner, with his words, he shows us that which the holy Schema says, namely, an episode in our journey up till this point, and the starting point of a new course, which is nothing other than a mystical experience. How many “unspoken sighs,”3 as the service says, must he have poured forth? No one knows, only he and God alone.

T hose sighs of longing for Some One, for the presence of God, is that which make Father Dionysios an

adornment of our monastery, and which make him entirely ours, but also make God entirely his. He is certainly not the only one who thinks this way. His reception today of the Great Schema shows us that this is the concept, this

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is the mentality, this is the perception and the life of the brotherhood. That is how I think about the monastery. Thus, in this way, it makes the Schema, in the effort to “hood” the person, let’s say, with the grace of God and with all the life experiences that God can give.

S aint Maximus says somewhere: “Was it necessary for the Ascension to take place and for Christ to leave

and go far away from us? Couldn’t Christ have remained here on earth?” And he says, “Yes, but the angels and the angelic powers also had need of his presence, they too desired to see him. And because they could not have seen him with interior eyes, but only with their own, face to face, it was therefore necessary that he ascend to the Heavens.”

J ust consider how beautiful it would have been for Christ to have remained here – and yet how much

more important it is for us to know that, if the angelic powers themselves had need of Christ, how is it possible for us not to have need of the sight of him, of his presence; and how can we live for anything else, except for that one event? Let us continually implore God, asking that we might have Him for our very own, in our daily life, in our days and in our nights.

A nd there is one final thing that I have been thinking about throughout our tonsure today. I said that he

is one of the first monks of our family and yet the last from among them to become a [Great-schema] monk. This is because God does not know “before” and “after”. But it shows forth the simplicity, naturalness, the humility within the brotherhood, the true mindset, according to

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which no one desires to be first, no one desires to be last, no one has first turn, no one has rights. Each one is abandoned to God’s plan, and each one waits for when Christ will look at him. No one thinks that he has soemthing, or that he is justified in something. He, the first one, now becomes the last, but last within the same font, within the same royal court, within the same, as we said, spiritual life.

I t is right for all of us to give thanks to God. However, let me say that what I feel today is just how much I

myself must thank God for the fact that he counted me worthy to be mixed up, so to say, in the history that we are living, in this drama that we play in human life, in this phase of the divine dispensation, which the Lord is actively bringing about in our monasteries. How is it that God has made me worthy and I, too, am here, and have served and dipped my little finger in, in case something might be brought about?

I remember when I was young, still a pupil, and every day they made me ponder the words of one of the ancients,

that every day we must examine ourselves, asking: “What did you desire, what did you enact, what did you do, that is, what should you have done that you neglected?” And this made me think about the criterion by which to discern what I did - what my actions were, finally. And then, reading Saint Gregory, whom they had given me when just a small child, I found that passage where he says, “Toward You I have enacted nothing worthy, my God; I have done nothing worthy.” Here again there is the miracle of divine election. We are able to do nothing worthy for God, and yet, He makes us partakers of his own magnificence.

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S urely I can say that I have loved all of you, from the first to the last, and I have been present beside

you through both good moments and bad; I have felt all the anxieties and all the upheavals of your souls. Let me put it better, with a Biblical phrase: “I loved my field, I loved my pasture, which God had for me and has given me”. And as it says, when you love your field, then he gives you lambs, then God gives you sheep, because you cultivate it, you make it a meadow, and the sheep love to come into that meadow.

I t seems that God has seen this love also. And this is why I feel that at this hour I am experiencing something

of that beauty, about which the prophet says: “I slept, I awoke, I slept again and I awoke again, so many times, sometimes receiving oracles from God, at other times prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, and still other times the resurrection of Israel out of all his enemies; but always coming into communication with God Himself.” And he says that: “I slept, I awoke, and I felt how sweet to me sleep was.”5

I f this day, if the whole of this life, is but one night with respect to the light of the heavenly life, then I

awake in the midst of this night, and my life is so sweet. And if this day, if this life, is day until this very day6, as long as it is called day, as the Scripture says somewhere else7, then perhaps the night will come, a night which is beginning to come into view; from then on, if the life in which one does not see with eyes that are corruptible is called night, then I must say, “I awoke, I slept, and the dream in which I experience in the midst of this night, is so sweet, so very beautiful.”

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M y beloved children, this is because all of you are present in this dream. All of you are mixed up with

me and I with you. No one can separate us; no one can say that one of us would be what he is without the other. For example, let us take Father Dionysios, who stands before us. I am in his life. But maybe the holy Elder of Xenophontos is in his life even more; it seems to me that he was the first to be observing him, even until this latest moment. How much each one of us owes to the other! And so our life - concluding now, let us say, that first beginning stage that we had initiated - how beautiful it appears, the way God made it. If God saw the flowers, and the thorns, and the birds, and the buzzards, the vultures, and all things, and behold, they were wonderful, and all were “exceedingly good”8, how exceedingly good is this beauty, which God has granted us?

L et us wish, therefore, to our beloved Father Dionysios, as well as the other of the same name who is here,

Father Dionysios of Xenophontos, that God might make them worthy to live forever within this beauty of virginity, that is to say, of the divine and incorruptible life, and that we may all be within this sweetness of the spiritual throat.

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REFERENCES

1 TheGreatPrayerBook,ServiceoftheGreatSchema,AsterPublishingCo.,1992,p.215.

Op.cited,p.216.

3 Op.cited,p.211;Romans8:26.

4 SaintGregorytheTheologian,ToHimself,1001.6“ForIhaveneverthoughtanythingthatisworthyofthedivine”.

5 Jeremiah38:26“forthisreasonIaroseandsaw,andmysleepbecamesweettome”.

6 Hebrews3:13“butcomfortoneanothereveryday,whileitisstillcalledtoday”.

7 John9:4“Imustworktheworksofhimthatsentme,whileitisday:thenightcometh,whennomancanwork”.

8 Genesis1:31“andGodsaweverything,whichHecreated,andbeholdtheywereexceedinglygood”.

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Simonos Petra, Bright Monday, 1986

Ι ΕΡΑ ΜΟΝΗ

ΣΙΜΩΝΟΣ ΠΕΤΡΑΣ

ΑΓΙΟΝ ΟΡΟΣ . ΑΘΩ

In H. M. S. P. Nov. 1, 1990 To the Most Honorable Mr. George Ventouris Peireaus

My dear Mr. Ventouris.

I have your letters of Mar. 30 and Aug. 27, 1990, as well as the enclosed check written out for ... million drachmae.

Now that, with joy, I have seen dear Fr. Dionyios for quite some days, after our conversations with him, I am answering, inasmuch as it is possible for me, and likewise, I will make use of the check. I am very grateful to you for the money order which, surely, will have an effect. The delay did not mean rejection; however, I wanted to be honest with you, as with your dearly-beloved spiritual father.

The relationship of a spiritual father and son is between themselves. Consequently, I understand your “confession of your complaint”, but this is between us and your spiritual father.

With great joy I thanked God for your marriage. May your years be blessed and happy together with dear Hara and little Costas. But I think that some misunderstanding must have happened such that we did not meet again. I can tell you this in person.

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In every case, you will not have peace, if you do not have certainty and a feeling of security toward your spiritual father. Yet you love him filially and trust him. Why have questions? You will listen to him and he will listen to God. But remember: between your spiritual father and his own father, exists a great mystery, sacred and unspoken.

I think that it is not necessary for me to reveal to you my humble love, but you are to be revealing to our God and father, your confidence, love and expectation of His presence in the yearning of your heart and in good works.

With thanks and fatherly blessings I greet you in Christ Jesus.

The Abbot of S. P. Monastery.

Archimandrite Aemilianos

Sacred Monastery of the Holy Cross, Jerusalem, 1995

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Reception of

OUR REVEREND ELDER

VERY REVEREND ARCHIMANDRITE

A E M I L I A N O S

ABBOT OF THE HOLY MONASTERY OF SIMONOS PETRA,

HOLY MOUNTAIN OF ATHOS

In our Sacred Monastery of the Holy Cross, JerusalemMay 23, 1995

A Portion of His Address.His Last Word.

I know, I understand, that you love me very much. This is certain. And I believe that, every day, every night, you enter into my heart, and leaving there, you enter into the hearts of all those people who love. And we rejoice; we love each other. We enter into our hearts, and you into your own heart. But yours is greater, greater.

For this is what God wants from us - this heart. What is there? The Holy Spirit. This is the most beautiful thing, such that we know that I live, you live, I will, you rejoice.

To my beloved, my beloved, with this joy, that we give you, you also give much more than we do.

Archimandrite DIONYSIOS: «Thine own of thine own», my Geronta.

Archimandrite AEMILIANOS: I believe it, because you believe, and you want it.

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Holy Monastery of St. George “Karaiskake”, Sunday of St. Thomas 2009

Reg. No. 70

August 17, 2009

CELEBRATION XVII. VIII. MCMLXIX - XVII. VIII. MMIX

40th Anniversary of the Tonsure in Great Meteora &

35th Anniversary of the Ordination in Simonos Petra, Holy Mountain of Athos

of the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Petrathe Venerable Elder

Archimandrite DIONYSIOS

07.00: Matins, Divine Liturgy.11.00: Lunch.17.00: Vespers, at the Holy Monastery of Saint George “Karaiskake”.18.00: Dinner.19.00: Assembly. Apolytikia: a. Transfiguration, b. Dormition, c. Holy Cross, d. Holy Apostles,

e. Saint George. 1. His Eminence CYRIL II, Metropolitan of Thessaliotis & Phanariophersala. 2. Homily of the Elder AEMILIANOS, Great Meteoron, August 17, 1969. 3. Homily of the Metropolitan of Trikke & Stagon DIONYSIOS, Great Meteoron, August

17, 1969. 4. Very Reverend Fr. AGAPION Petrite: “How I got to know Geronta at Great Meteoron”. 5. Archimandrite DAVID Glossiotes: “Fr. Dionysios as Monk and Hieromonk,

Meteoron - Simonos Petra, Holy Mountain of Athos”. 6. Archimandrite GEORGE Makrynores: “Word of God in the Holy Mountain & the

Holy Land”. 7. Very Reverend Fr. CHRYSOSTOM Petrite: “Geronta in America”. Hymns: a. Hebrew, b. “At the Tomb she sought You”, c. Georgian “It is Truly Meet”. 8. Gerontissa DIODORA: “Geronta, Sculptor of Souls”. 9. Gerontissa IERONYME: “Geronta’s sister Maria”. 10. Mr. PHILIP Demakes: “My Friend”. 11. Mr. CHRISTOPHER Warren, III, President of FHC: “My path to Geronta”. 12. Mr. GEORGE Ventouris: “My Geronta”. 13. Mrs. APHRODITE Tsakalakou: “And yet ... he opened the latch of the door of our hearts.” 14. Miss MARIANNA Kollia, Junior High Pupil: “Geronta, our family”. 15. Mr. LASHA Zhvania, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Georgia: “Geronta’s Cross”. 16. The ELDER’s Conclusion. Hymns: a. “My Saint George, Skyriane”, b. “What shall we return to Thee?”.22.00: GOD GRANT YOU MANY YEARS.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

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ΙΕΡΑ ΜΟΝΗ ΠΕΤΡΑΣ ΚΑΤΑΦΥΓΙΟΝ ΚΑΡΔΙΤΣΗΣΗoly Monastery of Petra Gr 431 00 Karditsa*

Tel.: 697.8118604 Fax: 244.1080716 E-mail: MoniPetras@fhc.org Web Site: www.MoniPetras.org

© Holy Monastery of Petra, 2009GR 431 00 Kataphygion, Karditsa, GreeceTel.: +30.697.8118604 Fax: +30.244.1080716

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