Athonite Elder Gabriel. Several stories from the life of Afonites

Athonite Elder Gabriel. Several stories from the life of Afonites

They are completely immersed in the Internet and have already tried a lot in life. Often drugs, alcohol, and fornication. And almost all of them were disobedient to their parents and considered this normal. And if you put such a young novice in the usual framework, then it will be impossible for him to bear it. Such people, who are sick in the depths of their souls, can only be gradually and gradually drawn into real monastic life. It can often take many years before they can come to true obedience.

There is a tradition on Athos that leaving Athos is equated to the loss of chastity. But many saints left, and even many times, from Holy Mount Athos. We don’t know how the Lord arranges human life. Remember what the Monk Nicodemus the Svyatogorets writes in his service to the Athonite saints.

Many people came to labor in the lot of the Mother of God. Why? Because they believed the words of the Most Holy Theotokos: whoever stays on the Holy Mountain and does not come out from here, to him I Myself will remain the Nourisher, and the Protector, and the Lady, and the Abbess. Such a person will have everything here. And then he will be honored with the Kingdom of Heaven. And at the hour of judgment, I Myself will stand for him, so that his sins will be forgiven.

Here is a look at the monastic life of Athos.

The Monk Paisius the Svyatogorets moved many times: both around the Holy Mountain, and went to Sinai, and to other places. God's providence led him in his own special ways. Although we even have this parable on Mount Athos: you can move as much as you want from one place to another, but just don’t leave the Holy Mountain. And finally, in the monastery, when a monk is tonsured into the great schema, the priest asks him: are you ready to die at the place of your tonsure? And the person being tonsured must take an oath that he is ready.

But ascetics and saints often traveled. And Paisius the Holy Mountain, and Gerasim of Cephalonia, and many others. There is a special providence of God here. In such cases, the saints always have a direction from God that they need to move to some place. These are not unauthorized movements, these are not travels.

You should always welcome strangers and beggars. We even have an old Greek song: joy to the home that always welcomes strangers and the needy. Because the moment will definitely come when he will accept either the Mother of God or Christ like this.

Our elders told us this story. In one place, completely devoid of consolation, one old man labored. He ate only the fruits of a tree that grew nearby. One day this simple old man heard that some monks in the world performed miracles. Then he said to himself: “I have been asceticizing here for so many years and have nothing! And in the world, fathers work miracles. Let me go into the world too.”

He took his things and went out into the world. He followed the mountain path from Agios Annas. But God decided to stop him and sent an Angel to meet him. The angel, seeing the monk, approached him and asked: “Geronda, where are you going?” The elder replied: “I am going into the world. I want to see miracles too.” Then the Angel answered him: “Mad! What greater miracle do you want to see from God? At a time when the world is going crazy, you live here in a secluded place, among nature, and you have everything. Food falls on top of you. And do you want to find a greater miracle by going to people exhausted by worries and the race for wealth? Return to the place of your exploits!”

Here's another case. One monk, whom you all know, went to the skete of Agio Anna to the elder Pope Janis. He said to the elder: “Geronda, I decided to leave the Holy Mountain. I see too much deceit here.” Papa Janis asked him: “Do you want to know my opinion or know the will of God?” The monk said, “I want God’s answer.”

Elder Janis prayed and said to him: “This is God’s will for you. You can do whatever you want on the Holy Mountain. If you want, you can have no rules at all. Do only one thing - so that your feet never leave the Holy Mountain.”

This incident gives us an image of patience and prayer - two pillars of the life of a monk. And as much as we can, we must invest here.

Based on materials from the Information Portal of Holy Mount Athos

Yulia Voznesenskaya: the tools of our ministry are the word and the heart

Every year on September 10, the World Health Organization (WHO), with the support of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, celebrates World Suicide Prevention Day . The purpose of this day is to encourage suicide prevention efforts around the world. Today, on the day of the fight against suicide, the famous writer Yulia Voznesenskaya , one of the moderators of the suicide prevention website “Pobedish.ru” (https://www.pobedish.ru/), spoke about this little-known side of her work.

– YULIA NIKOLAEVNA, TODAY, ON THE DAY OF THE FIGHT AGAINST SUICIDE IN THE WORLD, YOU KINDLY AGREED TO TALK ABOUT THIS EXTREMELY SERIOUS TOPIC. HOWEVER, MOST OF YOUR READERS AND ADORS DO NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR SERVICE IN THIS FIELD.

– Thank you very much, Irina, for this word – SERVICE. In terms of literature, I would be embarrassed to try it on, but in terms of the anti-suicide forum “You Will Win,” I try it on and accept it. Volunteer work on the forum is precisely service.

Do you remember how J. Salinger's character Holden Caulfield defined his calling in the novel The Catcher in the Rye? The teenager says to his little sister: “You see, I imagined how little children play in the evening in a huge field, in the rye. Thousands of kids and around - not a soul, not a single adult except me. And I’m standing on the very edge of the cliff above the abyss, you know? And my job is to catch the kids so they don’t fall into the abyss.” Only we don’t have an abyss, but a terrible marshy swamp and our “children”, and most of the site’s visitors are young people, have already stepped into this swamp and are already beginning to drown in it. And we have no lifebuoys, no ropes, no rafts, no hooks - just one word with which you need to immediately go to the person who contacted the site, to his “guest room” (this is something like a reception area, where you can post your request for help) or on the forum. Well, and the heart, of course, without a heart there is nothing to do on our site. Yes, that’s how I would define the tools of this ministry – “the word and the heart.”

– PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR TEAM AND HOW THIS MINISTRY APPEARED, WHAT IT IS CONNECTED WITH?

– The anti-suicide website “Pobedish.ru” is part of the Internet project “Perejit.ru” (https://www.perejit.ru/), founded in 2006 by Dmitry Gennadievich Semenik, which answers the question “How to survive the passing of a loved one?” The Pobedish.ru website was opened two years later, in 2008, because the number of potential suicides who turned to Perezhit.ru for help was terrifyingly high. Isn’t it scary that the site traffic is about 6,500 people a day? I consider it a credit to our team of volunteers (among the 50 people there are psychologists, psychiatrists, and priests) that more than 20 thousand people said that the site saved them from suicide. The site contains tens of thousands of positive reviews about his work. Three books have been published based on the site’s materials - these are the only anti-suicide books that actually exist and help in Russia, addressed to suicides (and not, excuse me, rubbish written by pseudo-specialists for psychologists). By the way, representatives of the site are among the Rospotrebnadzor experts who analyze sites for suicide risk. Project activists taught suicide prevention to university teachers in Belarus and officers in Russia.

– HOW DID YOU BE AMONG THE VOLUNTEERS OF AN ANTI-SUICIDE SITE?

– It all started when we met in Moscow “Dr. Mishenka” - psychologist Mikhail Igorevich Khasminsky - and his colleague Dr. Inna Mirzoeva. He worked as a psychologist at the Oncological Center. Blokhin and hospice for children with cancer. They asked me to write “a few books” for children with cancer. Naturally, I couldn’t refuse. We met at a float restaurant on the shore of the Dzhamgarovsky pond, and my dear doctors put two plastic bags of my books in front of me: “Here, write them down!” Of course, it would probably be possible to just write to everyone, but Dr. Mishenka immediately started talking about sick children, and I began to write to everyone individually, setting out to please and cheer up each sick child. I don’t remember how long we did this, but it was a long time. I wrote, my psychologists read and suggested. Here Dr. Mishenka stated that these inscriptions, like books, would have a “therapeutic effect.” “These are health pills!” – he said and immediately invited me to work as a volunteer on the website project “Survive. ru”, recently founded by Dmitry Semenik to help people experiencing a mental crisis. The same project also includes the website “Pobedish.ru”, which was later spun off from it as a purely anti-suicidal site.

– HAVE YOU PERSONALLY OR ANY OF YOUR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS HAVE EVER HAD THOUGHTS ABOUT SUICIDE?

- Thank God no. I’ve never even heard of one of my distant relatives or ancestors ending up on this terrible edge of life. But, excluding a small number of liberal atheists, all relatives and ancestors were Orthodox, and it is well known that among believers the percentage of suicides is extremely low . You could even say that these are mentally ill people, and not just people experiencing some kind of mental crisis.

– WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK THE STATE, CHURCH AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS CAN DO IN ADDITION TO THE SERVICE THAT YOU AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS DO ON THE WEBSITE “POBEDISH.RU”?

– First of all, I think it is necessary to openly and clearly identify the problem, and not hush it up according to the old Soviet habit . Moreover, one should not fight against a single site of such a scale that exposes the painful problem of suicide. And this happens: from time to time someone “at the top” suddenly discovers a site that fights suicidal tendencies in society, primarily among young people, and by some strange tendency tries to eliminate not evil, but those who fight against it evil. It's as if the question will disappear if you close it! Don't flatter yourself, it won't disappear. No one should “fight” evil by eliminating active and dedicated volunteers who fight it. We must frankly admit that suicide exists in our country, that it is a great social evil and we need to fight it all together and at all levels.

– WHAT ARE THE DISADVANTAGES OF THIS SITE?

- Honestly? I don't see any disadvantages. We have practically no failures in our work. Of course, there are difficulties, and first of all this is the constant shortage of volunteers . You must understand, Irina, that working on the site is very difficult, many people work literally to the point of exhaustion, “to burn out,” in the professional language of psychologists. From time to time you have to take time off to recover. Well, it’s become easier for me lately: I get sick and from time to time I go to the hospital - there I rest. And many do the same. After all, we have people with disabilities and simply very sick people, including cancer patients. And some can’t stand it and leave the “distance” of volunteer help. Well, this is in the order of things, and thanks to them for what they managed to do.

– DOES YOUR WEBSITE HAVE POTENTIAL?

– As for the potential, the site is constantly developing and changing; it is a very lively and creative process. Again, “honestly, honestly,” I admit to you that I consider my work for “Pobedish” to be almost more important than my creativity. In any case, the advice does not gnaw at me if, for health reasons or mood, I do not work on books. But I probably just can’t afford to miss a day and not go to the site. Conscience does not dictate. I’m sick, and I need to hurry to do good.

Interviewed by Irina Akhundova

Reference

According to WHO, the total number of deaths from suicide is now approaching one million per year. The trends are such that by 2021 the number of suicides may increase by one and a half times. Suicide is a global and tragic global health problem. According to statistics, half of the violent deaths in the world are due to suicide, which kills as many people in the world as from wars and violent murders combined.

Pravoslavie.ru

Literature

• Vashchenko Vs., “Skete of St. prophet Elijah", Orthodox.
  way , George, 1961, p. 167-168.
• Vashchenko Vs., “Holy Athos”, Stuttgart, 1962, p. 34-36.
• Canonization of Odessa saints
  , Od., 1995, p. 5-51.
• Basin I., “Canonization of saints in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Churches of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1993-1996,” Vestn.
  RHD , 1997, v. 176, no. 2/3, p. 222-223.
• "Life", Rus.
  pilgrim , 2001, no. 23, p. 5-13.
• Lives of Odessa Saints
  , M., 2002, p. 238-256.

Special vision

Photo: Elitsy.ru
Athos Monastery is one of the holiest places on earth. Only men serve there, not allowing women as parishioners. To get answers to spiritual questions, pilgrims submit notes, to which they receive answers. It is believed that there are a lot of elders on Mount Athos, endowed with the gift of foresight, who help many people make the right decisions, so many confessors and ordinary people listen to their words and advice.

Long before the pandemic, Elder Gabriel spoke about the closure of churches and the fall of bishops. Gabriel talked about a vision that Pope Dionysius saw: he saw Satan himself with many bridles that were laid out in different places. The devil said that some are intended for patriarchs and bishops, others for spiritual fathers and abbots. When the elder asked whether they would be for the laity, the evil spirit answered him: “Why are they needed? The laity will already follow their confessors, bishops, and pastors.”

Many associate this vision with the fact that the end times are coming, the closure of churches, which is related to the pandemic. Even bridles are considered by many to be prototypes of masks that ordinary people use to protect themselves and loved ones from coronavirus infection. In addition, Elder Gabriel called not to do any vaccinations, since he does not trust the authorities, government decisions, or doctors. Many associate the prophecy with coronavirus infection and view it as a harbinger of the end times. Some authors believe that the hysteria associated with the pandemic is considered a preparation for the chipping of the population and the beginning of the end times.

Prayers

Troparion, tone 6

Having departed from the vain and rebellious world, / you flowed to the unflickering light of Mount Athos, / with purity and fasting, / with prayers and labor, you glorified God. / Orthodox churches in the glory You have erected the Trisagion in His name,/ most blessed Gabriel,/ but we are your holy relics we celebrate the acquisition, / with faith and love we cry: / pray to Christ God, // that he may create us conquerors of sin and temples of the Holy Spirit.

Kontakion, tone 1

You have acquired a peaceful spirit in your life, / you have lived by the Divine desire and the love of your Lord, / Most Blessed Gabriel, / from Him you received a crown, / and stood before Christ with the angels ́// pray for us to be saved.