Patience is a great skill, my children, a great virtue!
About twenty, twenty-five years ago, in a city here in the north, there was a young married Muslim couple. The man, at one point, was illuminated by the Lord and became a Christian. His wife was desperate… She went to the Imam and asked him what to do.
And he told her, “Stop cooking and every night, when you see him praying, go and fill a bucket of cold water and throw it on him!”
So, she did. She never cooked again for her husband, and every night, when she saw him kneeling down, she doused him with the bucket.
Yet he remained unruffled! He never said anything to her, he never complained to her! Nor did he leave the house!
He continued praying, and as soon as he finished, he would go and take off his soaked clothes and then wore dry ones, that he had already prepared, in silence.
Do you know how long this ordeal last? Two whole years!
And one evening, during the prayer, his wife goes and kneels beside him in tears, and tells him, “I want to become a Christian. Whatever you believe in, it gives you so much patience and so much Love, that I want to embrace it too!”
So, she became a Christian too, and they had three boys. The first was named Arsenios, since he was baptized by Elder Paisios. The father used to go with his sons to Panaghuda, where the Saint still was, and the elder admired the purity of the children. On one of their visits, he told them: “Get a treat, you blessed children!”
And the older child replied: “First we will pay our respects, and then we will have the treat, Elder!”
“No one had ever answered me something like that!” the Saint said.
