34. Make
your heavenly family
protectors of your souls.
(Sermon for the celebration of Saint Markella
and Saint Maria Magdalene)
Introduction
Saint Markella of Chios celebrates today!
Today Saint Isidoros, patron of your village, celebrates as well since Saint
Markella is his sister. Both, as you
know, come from Chios. The saints are like us.
-Yes.
-When a friend,
relative or fellow villager happens to be celebrating, don’t we go to greet him?
-Yes. We celebrate all together.
The same occurs in
heaven. In heaven, all the saints are
one family. Each one loves the
other. It is not like here on earth
where one person may hate the other. In
heaven they are all one family.
«God asks us to build our heavenly family»
This is why God wants us to emulate our
heavenly family. And today Isidoros
rejoices because his sister celebrates.
He is not only Saint Isidoros. He
is our brother Isidoros. Our friend Isidoros.
A part of our life.
-Imagine you are a
family and one of your children has become a saint and gone to heaven. What would you call him? My saint? Or my son/my daughter?
-My son!
Well, we are the same as the saints. It upsets God to see us glorify them as
saints and not as our brothers, friends and children.
Yesterday, I was
invited for a meal. This family had a
little girl called Anna. At some point,
I asked her:
-How old are you, my
little one?
-I am ten years old.
Ten years old I
thought to myself and was touched.
-Do you know why?
Because my Saint,
whose name I have, my Saint Elpida (Hope), was ten years old, like this small
girl. I took her in my arms and hugged
her.
How could this little
girl, and everyone present there, know the joy I felt at that moment because I
thought that in this world, I had found my saint.
-What should I call
her?
-My Saint Elpida? But she is only 10.
-What do you call a
ten year old child?
-Don’t you call her
my little girl, my child?
The saints are the
same. This is what they want us to call
them and are glad. They are glad because
those in heaven want to be loved as we on earth love each other, because they
came from earth. Suppose a small child became a saint and its mother calls it
my little girl/my son.
-What will it call
her from heaven? Won’t it call her
“Mother”?
Our relationships
with heaven must be family relationships.
Beloved family members. So, don’t
love, respect and glorify Saint Isidoros only as a saint, but as your
brother. The same also applies to Saint
George. Not only as Saint George, but as
our brother. Saint Dimitrios too. Not only as Saint Dimitrios, but as our
brother. Love all the saints as our
brothers, friends and beloved people.
-Do you understand?
-Yes.
The Saints don’t want only your
glorification. They want to live in
your heart. They want to live in your
life.
Once, I went to a
place where a little girl was acting crazily.
At one point I asked:
-What is wrong with
this child?
-She is possessed by
demons, they told me.
-What did this child
have inside her?
-She had demons.
-What are demons?
-Bad spirits, satanic
spirits.
-What did they do to
the child?
-They hurt her, caused
her pain, made her talk nonsense and made her want to hit out.
-Do you see what bad
spirits do? This is exactly it.
Along with these
demon-possessed people, who’s to say there aren’t angel-possessed people?
God, according to the
love you have for a saint, allows them to enter your heart and protect your
soul, like angels. Is there anyone who
loves only one saint?
One will say, but I
love Saint Nektarios, I love Saint Marina, I love Saint Katerina. If you love them and call them to you, into
your heart, then these spirits of our great saints will also be in your soul.
-And do you know what
they will do?
They will
protect your soul along with your guardian angel. Like angels, they will guard you.
«God is our Mother and Father»
-What does God ask for?
He asks that we build
our heavenly family. As on earth, where
we have our family of father, mother and siblings, God wants you to make your
heavenly family. He doesn’t want us to
be defenseless. He wants us to feel God
Himself as our father and our mother.
-Do you know how God
wants us to love Him?
-In a home, what are
the needs of a child?
-Is his Father’s love
enough?
-Of course not. It needs his mother’s absolute love,
too.
So, it needs both
its father for protection and its mother for tenderness and support.
-So, is only a mother necessary?
-No, a father is also
necessary.
This is our God, both
Mother and Father. Like a mother,
hugging with tender support, and like a father, protecting and guarding. Don’t forget this. I will say it again.
-How does God want us
to love Him?
-As our parent, like a mother and like a
father. He is our Mother and our Father.
This secret, that God
loves us in this way, like a Mother and a Father, is the biggest secret in the
world. Do you know why? Because when a person loves God like a Mother
and a Father, the demons disappear, they can’t withstand this. This fire, this passion, this love, the
respect a child has for his mother and father are so mighty that the demons
cannot come near. For this reason, happy
is the person who kneels and says:
«Father, you are my Mother, in whose hands I
leave my soul. Heavenly Father, embrace
me».
-What is that tender
moment like when a child opens its arms and hugs his mother around the neck?
-How does his mother
feel?
-She is overwhelmed
with joy. This is the truth.
Mother and father are
overwhelmed with joy when their child hugs them around the neck. It’s the most sacred and strongest moment
because the child actually hangs from the neck of his father. He hangs from his father’s love. The moment he hugs him with his two arms, a
miracle happens. The father’s heart is
next to his child’s heart and both beat within their chests. The paternal and maternal support of the
father is joined with the adoration and love of his child. This is exactly what God wants from us.
«I give you my Saints as your most precious siblings»
-What else does our Holy Father ask of us?
“Since you call Me your Father and your Mother, I will give you the most precious helpers, your most precious siblings.
-Do you know who
these are?
All those who love Me
on earth. All those who adore Me. All those who have fallen in love with Me.
-Do you want to learn
who they are?
They are here, all the Saints who are depicted
in the icons of your church as well as your numerous Saints, girls, boys and
grandparents”.
Sometimes I walk
past the church
of Saint Anna in
Kalavarda. In the past, as I walked by I
said: “My Saint Anna, I ask you for your blessing”
-Now when I walk
past, do you know what I say?
“Grandmother Anna, I
ask for your blessing.”
-Do you know why?
When a small child
says “my grandfather”, as soon as he says this word, his grandfather is
overwhelmed with joy!
“Grandmother” says
the grandchild and immediately what does the grandmother do? She is overwhelmed with joy. All she wants is to embrace her grandchild
and live this sweet, tender, affectionate love that a grandparent shares with
their grandchild.
-So, why not say “Grandfather
Zachariah”, “Grandfather Joachim”, “Grandmother Anna” and “Grandmother
Elizabeth?”
This is how we must
learn to speak to our saints. Call Dimitrios
and George, “my brother”. Feel them near
us, they are our friends. They will take
you on their horses and ride far away from temptation. They will raise their spear and strike Satan.
-Who will fight Satan?
-Do we see Satan?
-No. And yet he battles us in secret.
-Have you ever seen
him?
-No. And yet, don’t you feel him fighting us?
Yes. This is exactly what happens. The secret demons which, so as not to
frighten us, God does not allow us to see, are seen by those in our heavenly
family, our siblings in heaven, George, Dimitrios, Markella, Magdalene and all
the Saints. These are our heavenly
family. We just call out to them and
they help us: “Please, come near me and
help me.” And they come. Just ask for
their help.
-If you don’t ask for
help, does anyone come?
-No.
-When does someone come
to help?
When you call out and
say: “Please, help me now”.
“Make the Archangel Michael your spiritual godfather”
So today we have one more chance to build our heavenly family. I have done the same. When I received the message from heaven, I made my family.-And do you know who I included first?
The Archangel
Michael. I told him: “You won’t simply be in my family; you will
be my spiritual godfather. You will
guide me. You will hold my hand”.
Everyone will have
The Archangel Michael as their godfather. Put him beside us. Continuously call out to him: “You will be the protector of our souls”. He will then send his angels to stand by us,
to protect our homes. When he feels our
love, he will never leave us; his angels will always guard us.
-Isn’t this a great
thing?
-Yes. For this reason, we will have the Archangel
Michael as our godfather. Make him the
backbone of your heavenly family.
“Make the Holy Mary your Mother”
-Who else could you put in your heavenly family?-The Mother of God, our Holy Mary (Panagia).
-If you don’t include your mother in your family, who will you include? Who will protect you?
When Holy Mary feels that you love her like your mother, that you are her little girl, her little boy and you ask her “My Mother, help me” do you know what she will do? She will never remove her hands from you. This is what we must do; make Holy Mary our mother.
“Make your beloved Saints your siblings and copy their divine love”
Next, gather your heavenly siblings. They are all very
strong. They make the demons tremble with
fear. See what Marina did, a young girl only sixteen years
old. The devil thought it would be easy
to destroy her. First, he appeared
before her as a fierce dragon. Fire and
flames came from his mouth and eyes to frighten her. He tried to frighten her in her prison cell. The
Saint immediately started praying to God.
Her divine love was great. Then the large dragon was transformed into a
black dog. When Saint Marina saw this, she
understood that it was the devil and immediately grabbed the dog by its fur
and, with a hammer which she found on the ground, hit the dog on the back and
neck until it was humbled and useless.
What I want to point
out is that Saint Marina didn’t manage to destroy the demon only through her
prayer, but with her divine love. Prayer
isn’t enough. It isn’t enough to be close to someone you love. You must show him with your love. Faith alone isn’t enough. I tell you again: Faith is the strength, the base. It’s the
foundation upon which a house is built.
But, if the floors aren’t built, what can you do with the base alone?
- Do you want to stay
at the base?
-No. You must build the floors, the next level.
See what happened to
Peter the Apostle:
-Wasn’t he faithful
to Christ? Didn’t he believe in Him?
-But was his faith
strong enough so that he wouldn’t deny Him?
Did his faith help him not to deny Him?
-No. Why?
He simply needed to
add something. Faith without divine love
is nothing.
A simple example:
A woman believes and
says “This is my husband”.
A man believes and
says “Yes, this is my wife”.
They both say it
through faith. But if they aren’t in
love, what’s it worth?
-So, what is
needed?
We must dress our
faith in Christ with divine love. We
must be in love with Christ. He must be
our love, our life! Our being! He must
be everything to us! This is what makes
a child stand in prayer, raise his arms to heaven and make heaven and Him lean
down towards him.
-Do you know
why? Because wherever there is divine
love and heart-throbbing sweetness, fragrance evolves! Spiritual fire! And all the saints in heaven understand this.
-Do you know why? Because all the saints didn’t become
sanctified because they were martyrs, but because they had divine love! Do you believe they would have had the
courage to be martyred if they weren’t in love with Christ? There is no sacrifice without love. Love for God is what brings about
martyrdom. Love for God is what makes
man not care about anything, to strongly confess his love for Christ, to be martyred
for Him.
And this is what will
happen in the extreme years to come, which are too close for you to
imagine. When the false prophet and the
antichrist come to put their mark on man, who do you think will resist being
marked?
-All Christians?
I regret to tell you
this but many will submit.
-Do you know who will
deny the mark?
Only those whose
hearts beat with love in the name of Christ.
For this reason, from now on you must prepare
yourselves, to live the only worthy love on earth, the love for Jesus Christ.
Many loves exist on earth, such as the love of money.
-What is a miser?
His love is money.
“Motherly love is the strongest love of all”
-What is a miser?
His love is money.
-What is a
sensualist?
His love is the flesh. These are all dangerous
loves because they lead to loss and destruction.
Only one love is
worthy on earth. Only one, which I wish
we could understand. It’s a love you’ve
all experienced without knowing it. It’s
a love so divine, so superior which you all lived through but didn’t hold on
to. It’s a love which those who have experienced it don’t want to explain it because
it is personal.
-What is this great
love?
- Isn’t it motherly
love?
-Wasn’t the best
moment when you became mothers?
-Wasn’t it when you
held your infant in your arms? Wasn’t it
when you hugged it sweetly and said: “This
is my treasure, my child, my pride, my love”?
Isn’t this the love
which as a father you said: “This is my
son and my daughter”?
Didn’t you struggle for
this love all your life? Didn’t you
fight for this love, to raise it, educate it, and see it happy? Don’t you spill your blood and your sweat for
this love, to see your child happy?
Isn’t your child your love? And it always will be because this is
unaltered love. This is why as
grandparents we are doubly in love with our love, our child.
“Our Divine father is in love with us for we are His offspring”
I am telling you this,
the biggest truth. That our Divine
Father, as an affectionate mother, is in love with us because we are His child,
His little boy, His little girl. He’s in
love with our souls because we are His offspring. He’s in love with us for we are His joy. He is in love with us because for us, His
children, He made His paradise.
-Why does He need
paradise without His children? Why do
you need your homes without your children?
-What would you do
with them without the love of your children?
-What would God do
with paradise and heaven if we don’t love Him?
For this reason, His
heart leaps with longing when we love Him tenderly and affectionately from the
depths of our hearts.
There are many
prayers but none more beautiful, stronger, sweeter prayer than one which rises
to heaven opening the doors of paradise not only to God but to the entire
heavenly world. Angels and Saints are
seen descending.
Hear what is this most beautiful and sweetest
prayer from the mouth of an Angel:
“Only in one instance does the glorification of
heaven stop. As you know, the angels
continuously chant to God. Only in one instance
do they all stop.
-When is this? Do you know?
When on earth a man,
a creature of God, an offspring of God kneels, opens his heart and lets his
love ascend, like a prayer, a fragrance to heaven above. Then, all the prayers in heaven stop. So strong is this fragrant love of man to
God”.
This is why I ask you to start today. Create God’s throne in your homes. Put Christ’s icon there. Also put His cross in your icon shrine. And tell Him:
“You are my love”.
“Make Saint Markella part of your heavenly family”
This is what Saint Markella, who celebrates today, said. This small girl, Markella, was orphaned nearly at birth. Her respectful, Christian mother died young and left her alone with her pagan/heathen father. When this father learned that his daughter had become a Christian, he became a monster instead of a father. You see, only 2 letters differentiate pateras (father) from teras (monster). He chased her in order to commit lewd acts upon this small girl, his daughter! She was so beautiful, so sweet and so innocent, that she burned demons through her prayers. When this little girl knelt to pray, her tears flowed for the love of Christ and heaven was touched. But, she made the devils afraid. Do you know what they did? They entered her father, making him Lucifer’s tool, who chased her intending to disgrace her. The Saint abandoned her home, went to the mountain and hid in some bushes. Her father, after being directed by a shepherd, found her there. He lit a fire to force her out of the bushes.
The Saint ran towards
the sea in an attempt to save herself.
Her father then grabbed a bow and shot her with an arrow. Bleeding, the girl continued running towards
the sea. Seeing her strength abandoning
her and the danger of being disgraced by her father, she spent her last moments
of life praying to the Lord:
“Christ, my body and
soul belong to you, my beloved bridegroom.
Open a rock so that I may hide within”.
Truly, at that moment
a rock opened and enclosed the Saint’s body except her head and chest. Her father, after unsuccessfully trying to
remove her from the stone, first cut off her breasts and then her head. Her blood flowed upon the stones. To this day, the stones there are coloured
blood red from the blood of her holy head.
-What did her father
get from her?
Her breasts and her
head.
-What did heaven
gain? A great Angel!
-What did we the
people gain?
An angel on earth to
protect us.
How many miracles has
Saint Markella performed until today and continues to perform?
-Isn’t it worth the
effort to include this girl, Markella, in our heavenly family, to help us?
-Isn’t it worth
calling to her and saying: “Markella, my
sweet girl, sweet angel of heaven, help us with our battles against Satan, especially
the battles of the flesh? Help us and
release us with your supplication”. Put
Markella in your heavenly family.
“Include Saint Mary Magdalene in your heavenly family”
Don’t forget the other, older, beautiful daughter for your heavenly family. This daughter, who when born on earth was so beautiful, so sweet, so affectionate, so tender, so compassionate, so giving, so divine. When she raised her hands to speak to heaven, her heart beat so tenderly, so sweetly. She called out to her Father not only with words but with her heart. When she said “My Father”, her heart echoed. Satan was terrified of this daughter, who was born in Magdala in Gallilea from which she was named.
I believe you understand of whom I speak:
Maria Magdalene! For this sweet, wonderful daughter, this
incredible angel whom Lucifer thought could give birth to the Messiah. He couldn’t stand her love of God, her
generosity, her divine love for her Father in heaven. He couldn’t stand her virtues. Then, do you know what he did?
Lucifer himself sent
7 cunning demons to force the 7 graces of the Holy Spirit to torment her,
believing in this way she couldn’t give birth to the Messiah.
Imagine the worth of this girl before God! What power she had! What spiritual fire within her! Satan felt all this and sent 7 demons to
torment her. You can conceive the girl’s
sadness and pain when she saw her heart flood with the cunning demons of
selfishness, Lucifer himself. Her heart
was flooded with the demons of deceit, unfaithfulness, blasphemy, immorality
and ruthlessness. Her pain was so great
that she couldn’t bear to kneel in prayer and her hot tears flowed to the
ground. Her pain and tears could pierce
and burn marble. She called out to her heavenly
Father: “Father, save me”.
And He saw her struggle and finally put this
information in her heart:
“Your love for Me, my
daughter, is like light, like fire.
Thus, I will allow you to serve the light itself, the fire itself”.
How could the girl
understand all this then?
Until the blessed day
that the true light, Jesus, came to the suburbs of Magdala. She was informed by the heavenly Father that
she was finally sent her angel, whom she would love as her light, her
life. She awaited him impatiently and
with great desire.
There she met with
Christ. She falls to His feet. He knows from His Father who this girl
is. He Himself as God knows this
girl. And the first thing he does is to
set her free of the 7 demons.
-Do you know how He
freed her of them?
He didn’t need to
tell them to leave. When Lucifer saw
Maria Magdalene approach with the fire of her love, Christ-the true light, the
demons couldn’t stand the blinding light seen only by them, but hidden to
man. The presence of God glowed like
light. His presence was so great that the demons couldn’t bear it and abandoned
Maria Magdalene.
Thus, the scripture says that since then she remained
near him and Holy Mary (Panagia). She
was the first one that Holy Mary loved as a daughter. And she loved Holy Mary as her mother. She knelt at Christ’s feet and thought He was
her brother, her friend, her beloved Father.
But, listen
carefully to what I say, that she loved Him as her son! All the saints loved God as their God, their
King, their Master. But, she loved him
as Holy Mary did, as her son. In her
heart she loved Him as her God and served Him as her son.
-For this reason, do
you know how Jesus loved her?
Like His motherly
daughter because he felt the adoring mother within this daughter.
She was the first motherly daughter who adored
Jesus. She
was the daughter who loved him with a mother’s love. That’s why she never abandoned Him. Wherever Holy Mary went, she was beside her. Beneath the cross with her; at the grave with
her. Fearlessly, she is the first to
leave at night to find her Beloved, as we hear in the hymns. She can’t bear to be far from her beloved
King, her God, her Son. From Him who she
loved like a daughter and like a child mother.
Sometimes, when girls are small, we buy them
dolls. And we see the little girl play
with the doll as if she is a mother.
Well, Maria Magdalene was really a mother as well as a motherly daughter
to Jesus. She adored Jesus very much.
-Women, how can you
not put this daughter in your heavenly family?
Put Markella, Magdalene,
Katerina, Paraskevi, Barbara, George, Dimitrios… Put the saints you love into your heavenly
family. This will be your heavenly family,
your girls and boys in heaven. Your girl
saints, your boy saints. Make them your
children, your friends. Don’t love them
only as saints but adore them as your own children, who will always be near
you, supporting you.
“Start loving your Heavenly Father today, as your mother and father. The Saints as your siblings, your friends, your children”
-What do you say? Shall we start?
Let’s start. I’m talking too much and can go on all night
talking about the heavenly family. Know
one thing, everybody talks about and lives for what he has set as a goal. When you set a goal, you achieve it.
It’s like a young
girl in love. I remember calling a young
girl several times and her phone was always busy. Then I asked her:
- I called you in the
morning, the phone was busy. I called
you in the afternoon, busy again. I
called at night, needing to speak with your mother, and again your phone was
busy. What do you do all day?
-Why father?
I’m not doing anything bad. I’m
speaking with my boyfriend, she said.
Rightly said, giving me a lesson.
You, for an earthly boy, an earthly love, talk from morning till
night. And I, for my heavenly love,
forgetfully speak endless hours of the day.
That’s why we’ll do what this girl did. We’ll take heaven’s phone, a prayer, and
talk. Not just pray, but talk! Heaven wants us to speak with Him, as if he
is our own, to lift us to heaven.
-What do you
say?
-Shall we start
today?
Let’s start today to
love our Father in heaven like our mother and father. To love the Saints as our siblings, brothers
of our hearts. Our friends. Our children.
-What will I call my
Saint Elpida (Hope)?
She was 10 years
old. Won’t I call her my little
girl? I will call her my beloved
princess. This is what I call her and her
sisters as well.
Saint Sofia had 3 girls: Pisti (Faith) who was 12, Elpida (Hope) who
was 10, and little Agapi (Love) who was 9.
-Well, how will I
love these girls?
I’m 60.
How will I love them? Won’t I see
them as my little girls? I call them
my princesses in the morning when I wake and I tell them: “My Princesses, don’t forget him who loves
and adores you”. And I feel as if they
are always near me. Because as we call out
to them, so heaven calls to us. I call
them “My Princesses”. They call me “My
Prince”.
So you will do the
same. Call George, who is the rose of
the east, your star.
-Do you know what
heaven calls Dimitrios?
Aromatically anointed
Jasmine!
Once I said: “If only I knew, my Saint Dimitrios, what
heaven calls you”. And in my mind came the words “Aromatically anointed
Jasmine”.
This is what you will
call them and they will come near you.
-Do you promise me?
Epilogue
I tell you again: Today’s Liturgy is dedicated to your being enlightened by God to love Him like our mother and our father. We will dedicate this Liturgy to bring down all our siblings from heaven to earth and to enter our hearts.
Let the satanic
people have the spirits of demons within them.
-But what will we as
Christians have?
The spirits of the
Saints within us. Our Saints to live in
our lives. They will guide us, help us,
enlighten us, take us by the hand and lift us to heaven. This is the most beautiful moment!
If you apply this,
know that when the time comes for your soul to fly to heaven at the time of
your death, you will not only see your Angel, who adores you, but also many
heavenly children, all those children who you loved, will come and take you to
their Kingdom, Jesus Christ. This is the
beauty!
We will dedicate this liturgy today to our
heavenly family. Pray for the duration
of the liturgy, see which saints you love and tell them: “I want you, and you, and you and you, my
Saint, to be in my heavenly family”.
Every day you will pray for their memory and love them. Let them feel your love, your adoration. Let our heavenly Father feel your desire, your
heartbeat, your love and be sure that you will never be without heavenly help.
God bless you all! Amen.
(A sermon of Fr Elpidios Vagianakis preached in St Isidoros' church - Rhodes, Greece, 2012)
