6. A heavenly family
With the sheep in the fold
Today was a sunny day and
mum Sophia took her two little children,
Joseph and Angela,
for a walk in the forest.
Angela wanted
to gather beautiful flowers with her
brother to give them to their
daddy, when he returned home in the afternoon.
Before reaching
the forest, a little surprise
on the road made the children excited. They met their
friend, the shepherd Mr. Pantelis, with his
sheep.
He was holding a lamb on his shoulder and all the other sheep
were following.
He was taking them to graze on the grassy plains behind the small forest.
Mr. Pantelis was very glad
to see them and greeted them with much kindness. Mum Sophia
responded in the same way reciprocating the
greeting, while the children ran
quickly to him to see the lamb which he held in his arms. Angela’s joy was indescribable when the shepherd let
her to caress the lamb. It enjoyed
Angela’s pettings and sometimes bleated joyfully from its little girlfriend’s kisses.
-Mr. Pantelis,
where is its mum?
Angela asked.
-This lamb is an orphan, my little one. Its
mum was sick and two days after giving
birth she died.
-Oh the
poor thing! And now what does it do without its mother?
-I'm its
mum now and I
care for it like my child. I am feeding it
with a bottle until it learns to eat grass by itself and I almost always have it with me, because it cries when I leave it
alone.
-What do you call it Mr. Pantelis?
-I haven’t given it a name yet, although it seems to me that I should give it one now.
-What name will you give it?
- I am thinking of calling it Snowy, because as
you see, it is pure
white as snow.
-I really like this name. So, from now on we will call it Snowy. How I wish I could have such a
beautiful lamb Mr. Pantelis!
-If you
like our Snowy so much, then, if
your mum agrees, I would give it to you
with pleasure.
-Mummy, my
sweet mum, our
little Angela shouted excitedly: Can I accept Mr. Pantelis’ nice gift?
-Of course, my Angela, if Mr. Pantelis wishes it.
Angela’s joy was indescribable. She took the lamb
in her arms and covered
it with caresses and kisses. She felt
like a mummy to
the small orphan lamb, but it also felt the
great love of its
new mummy and accepted the
adoption with some cheerful bleats. Happiness
flooded our little Angela and the good
shepherd seemed to enjoy the pleasure of his little friend. The shepherd gave
valuable advice to mum Sophia, how
best to feed and take
care of the lamb, Snowy.
In the chapel of St. George
Mum Sophia
and the children, after thanking Mr. Pantelis once again
for the nice gift, continued their walk in
the beautiful forest. Snowy was running
joyfully behind Angela
and she kept kissing and petting it.
Soon they
reached the middle of the forest,
where there was a beautiful chapel dedicated
to St George and beside
it an old spring was flowing continually so passers-by could quench their thirst. Around the chapel a lot of
white flowers and anemones adorned the area like a
colourful carpet. Countless birds
on the branches of the trees glorified God with
their melodic twittering.
It was a
little paradise on earth.
Mum Sophia opened the door of the chapel and
they went in to
say a little prayer to God their King. The lamb
followed its young mum, our Angela, and entered the chapel too.
It may have been a small and very
old chapel, but it was a real architectural
gem, with a large dome in the middle and
many beautiful wall paintings everywhere.
Mum Sophia
loved that chapel very
much and she was going there
frequently to pray.
A large icon of St. George, in a
special alcove on the right
side of the chapel, was showing to everyone that the chapel was dedicated to the great martyr of our Lord Jesus
Christ, St George.
After the
beautiful icon of St. George, our little Angela paid close attention to the magnificent iconography of almighty
Christ, which was displayed on the dome of the chapel.
Christ was painted
among a crowd of angels at the center of the
dome. Below, around
the dome, were all the prophets who had foretold the coming of
the Son of God as
man on earth. And
just below, where the dome joins the base of the building and four triangles
are formed, the four evangelists were painted.
Apart from the dome, all the rest of the church was painted
with icons of the saints. In the upper
parts of the temple there were
scenes from the life of Christ and
the various miracles He performed.
Just below, a large crowd of saints with their holy forms completed the ecclesiastical hagiographic cycle.
Among the angels
Mum Sophia
considered that it was the right time to
explain to her little daughter the deeper theological
meaning of the various ecclesiastic scenes.
-Angela, do
you see high up on the dome our
Almighty Lord who is amongst
the angels?
-Yes, mummy, He is so handsome among
the angels!
-There, in the middle of the dome, which looks
like heaven, there is the holy painting of our good God to remind
us that He is the king of heaven, earth and
all the angels. And as all the angels of heaven are around Him, so He wants one day all people to be close to Him like angels.
-Mum, how can we become like
angels, so we can always be close to Him?
-When we
desire it very much, then He,
Almighty as He is, can help us to become like the
angels.
-Mummy, I
really want to become a little angel and be always
close to Him, but I don’t know what I should do to achieve it.
-For someone to become an angel in his soul, he must first love our
good God as
all the angels in heaven do. But he has to prove his love by his actions and the way he
lives.
-What do I have to do to prove to our good God that I love Him very much and I want to be an angel?
-First, call Him "Daddy" and
tell Him that you
love Him very much. Second, trust our good God, as you trust me,
your mummy, and
always do with pleasure what “your good heavenly Daddy" would want you to do.
Before you
do something, think about whether it is good, and if He would like it. If you apply this action, you will see how much
joy and serenity
you will have in your heart!
-Yes, my
mummy, I will always
remember these three things and apply
them in my whole life. I will love our sweet Father and
God with all my soul,
I will trust Him as
I trust you and my
good dad and I will always obey whatever
He wants me to do in my life!
-Well done, my sweet angel! When
each man applies these three things simply in
his life, he has already reached
God’s embrace. Then he needs to struggle to get into His divine heart.
-What else
does man have to know to get into
the heart of our good God, mum?
-He has to learn how sweet,
tender, merciful and infinitely good our God
is, to be able to become one with
Him, such is His
fatherly desire. If
you didn’t know how much I love and adore
you as well as your
good dad, could you love us so much at the present time and trust
us with all your
heart?
-I understood, my sweet mummy!
It is not enough to love and obey our good God, because
He wants it, but we
also need to know Him and to learn how much
He loves and adores us as our "heavenly Mummy and Daddy."
-That is exactly the secret my treasure; to believe that He loves us like the
sweetest mum of the
whole world and He covers and protects us
like the sweetest daddy of all the earth. He wants, my treasure,
all His children here on earth to learn, that He doesn’t just love us, but He is divinely in love
with us, like every mummy with
her baby. Tell me, can I be happy without you and
your siblings?
-No, my mummy!
-So it is exactly the same with our good God; He is not happy
without all of us in His arms. He cannot be happy when He knows that
some of His children are tangled in the
satanic nets of
Lucifer and they are far away
from the serenity
of His divine heart.
-And what
does He do then to bring them
close to Him, mummy?
-I will explain
to you, my Angela. Look again high up to our
Almighty God and
tell me what icons do you see
next?
-The icons of the holy prophets mum.
The prophets of joy
-When, my
child, the first created people made
that great mistake and God was forced to send them out
of Paradise, not to be infected
by satanic meanness and cunning, the whole world began suffering from the
disastrous consequences of original sin. People were driven by various sins more and more and every kind of meanness began
to prevail among them. Wars among people were becoming
more frequent and love which brings joy and
happiness began to disappear. Peace and
serenity were hard to find, and you could see pain,
misery and anxiety
everywhere. Everyone was expecting something from our good God to console them.
Everyone was asking for a
sign, a voice from heaven saying that God hadn’t abandoned
them and He will find
a way to save them.
-And how
did God speak to them, mummy?
How did He console them?
-He sent, my Angela, some wise and
holy men, the prophets, to tell all the people
that at the right time He will
send His "Messiah"
to save them. So many
years ago all these prophets
started prophesying about the coming of
the Son of God and
what He was going to suffer in
order to release people from Satan’s claws and bring back to them happiness and
joy. They also prophesied about the
heavenly law of love that the
Saviour "Messiah" will bring and because of it countless souls who will believe and
follow Him, will enter into the heavenly Kingdom of God.
Because of their great prophetic work foretelling that our
Lord Jesus Christ is the expected "Messiah", their holy
forms are painted just after the Almighty God and
His angels. Do
you understand, my Angela?
The evangelists
-I understood now, my mummy. And
who are those four saints
who are painted on the four triangles, at the
end of the dome?
-They are the four evangelists;
Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John, who
wrote the holy Gospel and we were able to learn what our Christ said and
taught. Due to them we learned
how we should live according to God’s will. Due to them we know what we should do to become like the angels of heaven.
-So, mummy,
I who want to be
an angel, as
our good God wants, should read the holy Gospel to
learn how my heavenly "Daddy" wants me to live?
-Yes, my baby, from today
on you should start reading the holy
Gospel, in order to become an angel of our good God.
Without it no one can know God’s
will, or how to walk the
virtuous way.
-Then this book is the most important of all the
books which exist on earth, since it is telling us how we should live in order to become like the angels of heaven!
-That’s right, my little girl, therefore when we return home,
I will give you a valuable gift.
-What kind of gift, mum?
-A New
Testament. In this you will find
what the holy Evangelists
wrote about the life, the miracles and
teaching of our beloved
Christ. So, you
will have the opportunity to know
the One better, Whom
we love with all our heart and
He is the King of
our souls!
-Wow, my sweet mummy, you make me so happy!
-I want you, my sweet little girl,
to always be happy, therefore you need to know and learn how sweet and
tender our heavenly Father is. As
the more you will know our heavenly Father, so the grace of the Holy Spirit will flood your innocent heart with joy
and peace. Happiness
in life doesn’t come by obtaining
various material goods but by feeling how much our sweet good God loves and adores you.
-I am also happy, my mummy, not
for the goods that you and dad offer me, but because both of you love me so much!
Our heavenly Father
Little Angela’s last words really touched mum Sophia so much, that
she embraced her tightly and covered her with many motherly
kisses.
-Whatever material things we might obtain here on earth, my
daughter, give us joy for a very short time. But those
feelings that flood our hearts for someone we
love and adore with all the power of
our soul are the only ones which give us real joy and happiness.
You may rejoice every
time we give you a precious gift, but
you're happy because
we love and adore
you as the most valuable treasure of our lives.
-Mummy, I also want to love our good God,
not so much for the nice gifts He gives us, but
because He is my heavenly
"Daddy" whom I love with all my heart.
-He also, my little girl, loves
and adores you more
than me and He wants
to live in your childish sweet heart like the king of your life. His
greatest joy is
for you to feel how much He loves
you and that you are everything to Him, as you are indeed for me.
-Wow mummy! I cannot imagine how much He loves me! How I
would like to know and love Him
as you do!
-When you know, my little girl,
how much He loved all people, even the worst ones with the greatest mistakes and
sins, then you
will see what a sweet, tender
and infinitely merciful
heavenly Father you have!
-Are all those things in the holy gospel, which was written by
the four Evangelists?
-Yes, my
little girl, there you will read and learn
what a unique and tender Father He is for all people. All the miracles
He performed made known loudly every time in it; how sweet a Father and
God He is for everyone,
righteous or sinners.
He easily forgives every sinner like a sweet mummy and
encourages him lovingly to raise himself
from his mistakes and start a
new life with good deeds of love. That's why in every byzantine
church, beyond the
four evangelists, are always
painted scenes from
the life and miracles of our beloved God Jesus, emphasizing
how much He loves and adores us as Father of
our souls.
-Mummy, can I tell Him to enclose me tightly in His arms, as
you and dad do?
-Of course, my little girl. This
will be His greatest joy! As I'm happy every time when I hold you with adoration in my embrace and I cover you with my motherly kisses, so He
is also happy every
time His little girl enters into
His divine embrace and curls up in His
divine heart like a baby!
Those who loved Him
-Mum...I want to tell you something.
-Go ahead, my little girl.
-Well, when I see Christ as a little baby in the
manger, I want to hold Him in my
own arms like a mummy and cover Him
with many kisses, but when I see Him in
the icon, as a teacher and Messiah of the
world, then I want to hide myself in
his own fatherly embrace,
like a baby!
- All
our saints, who lived with great divine love in their soul for their beloved
Saviour, were feeling the same thing. Do
you see, my Angela, all these saints who are
painted around the walls, below the scenes
of the life and miracles of our
Christ?
-Yes, mummy.
-All these
saints loved our
Lord as one of their own as His
holy mother, our good
Mary did, but at
the same time, as the King and
God of their soul. Our Lord Jesus was for all the saints the only one sweet, tender, heavenly
Father that no one wanted to renounce. My little girl, could you disown me and tell
everyone that I'm not your mum?
-Never, my
mummy. I cannot live without you and my sweet dad, because I love you
so much, with all my heart!
-That’s exactly how all the saints were feeling for our good heavenly
King, my Angela. They loved Him so much that they could never renounce Him. Even when
they were threatened with death, they courageously confessed the divine love that they
had in their hearts for our
Christ. Therefore, many of the saints you see
in the paintings were suffering terrible
tortures by Christ’s enemies before they were killed. None of them wanted to renounce his Father and God. However, due to their sacrificial love they had for our
sweet Jesus, God
glorified them very
much and allowed them to perform many miracles, even to heal illnesses whenever they were asked.
-Mummy, I see here little children
too!
-Those children you see are the three daughters of a holy
mother, Sophia; Faith,
Hope and Love, who
suffered many tortures for the love of their heavenly
King.
-How old
were they when they were martyred?
-Faith was
12 years old, Hope 11 and their little sister,
Love was just 9 years old.
-My mother,
how could they bear all these
tortures, since they were such young children?
-When our Christ
saw the divine
love of His little girls and the courage of
their soul not to
renounce Him in front of the kings of that time, He sent angels to protect
their bodies from the various terrible tortures
and He gave them courage
and strength Himself. While no
one else was able to see Him, those
little girls were not only seeing Him, but were also
embraced in His divine embrace, like little babies
in the arms of their mother.
-Mum, weren’t the others able to understand what was happening so that they would leave them alone?
-No, my
little girl, on the contrary, all the pagans
(idol worshippers) were wondering from where the martyrs found strength to bear all
these awful tortures. They could not understand the flame of divine love
which was burning in the Christians’
hearts! The first Christians, my
Angela, didn’t just
love our good God
as they loved each
creation. Their heart was a volcano
and their love for
Him was like hot lava which erupted from the volcano of their hearts. Every minute
of their existence was dedicated to
their beloved God the Father. They could not imagine themselves
without thinking of their beloved God. Their mind, heart and soul were a lighted
candle of love and
praise to our Lord.
Heavenly siblings
-Wow, my
mummy, how jealous I am of them! How I would like also to love my sweet "Brother" and God as they did! Could I ever love Him like them one day?
-Of course, my little girl you should beg all the holy
martyrs, who adored Him so much and sacrificed
even their own life for His sake,
to give you their own sacrificial love.
-Tell me more, my mummy, about
the holy martyrs, because I want to be like them and to love
our good God
as they did.
-I also want to talk to you about them, my Angela, because God wants
us to love them as our siblings and
to consider them all as role
models. Moreover, most
of the martyrs were young
children, boys and girls. Look at this
wall where the saints are painted;
George, Dimitrios, Catherine,
Marina, Irene, Christina, Marcella, Barbara and
Kyriaki. All these martyrs were young, like your
sister Christina. Those holy boys, like
George and Dimitrios,
were not more than 25 years old. You can love
all of them not only as saints
of God but also as your own siblings.
-Really, mummy?
Can I love them as I love Christina and
our little Joseph?
-Of course, my sweet love! They
also love you, like their little sister!
-How do the Prophets and Evangelists love me?
-Like their own little girl, my baby!
-Mum, who are those saints who are
painted on the other walls?
-They are our holy fathers, the Great Anthony, Savvas the
Sanctified and other
great ascetics of the desert.
On the next wall
great miracle-worker hierarchs of our Church are painted, who preached the word
of God by their words and their lives, such
as John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and the hierarchs
Nicholas and Spyridon.
-Do they also love me like their own little girl, my mummy?
-Yes, my
Angela. All of
them want
to be your heavenly family who will love and protect
you, like me and your dad, who are your earthly
family. But to be your heavenly family you
have also to want it and then write in your heart the names
of all those saints whom you will remember daily.
-Mummy, what should I do to make my heavenly
family happy?
-The more you will love our heavenly "Dad", the happier everyone will be with you. Every time you think about our good
God and will talk
to Him through your prayer, they will kneel in
front of our heavenly Father and
will beg Him to
make you His little
sweet angel here
on earth.
-Mummy, when I will have a problem and I need
their help, would
they be able to help me?
-When you have a problem, my Angela, and ask us or your sister Christina
for help, we help you, don’t we?
-Yes, mum!
-Exactly the same thing happens with your heavenly family. Whenever
you will call
them, they will come to help you;
of course as long as it will be allowed by
God our Father.
-How are they going to help me, my mummy?
-In many ways, my Angela. First of all
they will cover you with the power of their presence
and will not easily allow the evil demons
to approach you and bother you. Then, they will
help you by the grace of the Holy Spirit
to understand the
cunning ways of the demons, who want to infect your
soul and they will whisper to you
through your conscience and tell you what you should do to avoid them. They will help you to
understand right from wrong, but they will
let you decide which of these two you will choose.
-Mummy, why do I have to decide by
myself what is the right thing to
do?
-Because, my child, whatever we
do in our lives only has value if it is done according to our will and not because someone makes us do it. That's why our heavenly
family can inspire us to do good and right things, but
is not permitted by
God to intervene in our decisions
and change our will.
Therefore, our every decision has a great value
before God.
-Mummy, what should I ask from my holy heavenly
siblings?
-You should ask them, my sweet
girl, to help you
in your spiritual struggle in
order to live here on earth as our good God wants us to and most essentially to help you to love Him with all the
power of your soul, as they did.
