It was the venerable’s love and interest in young people that led to his cell thousands of children, to whom he addressed in a simple but highly instructive way.
To those who spoke negatively about “today’s youth” he said:
“Today’s youth resembles the calf that is tied in a meadow and kicks. It stretches the rope, pulls out the stake, but it gets entangled in something, stumbles badly and in the end it gets killed by the wild beasts.”
I’ll cut your heads off
Speaking of miracles, the elder often spoke of a meeting he had with a group of students from Ioannina who had visited him in his cell “Panagouda”:
“Once upon a time about a dozen of students had come here and asked me to perform a miracle for them. They were very persistent. I thought about how to bring these kids to their senses. Maybe it’s okay… So, I told them to line up, so I would cut off their heads, and then, by performing a miracle, I would stick them back to them. ‘Are you ready to see the miracle?’ The youth reacted immediately: ‘No, not us, Elder,’ they said with one voice.”
No to easy praise
Responding to the ease with which praise is given, he explained in a humorous way: “Be humble and know yourselves well. Let me give you an example: when I carve a figure of a Saint on the wood and I finish, I think it is good. I look again after a while and I see that there are mistakes. If I put the lens on, I’ll see that it’s nothing great. The same goes for our hands too. We see that they are clean. But if we use a lens, we will see that there is dirt and other germs. The same thing happens when we look at ourselves carefully. We see that we are nothing, no matter what the world says.”
The war of the senses
There are a lot of stimuli and negative images for young people, and not only for them. To address this issue, he responded by giving a simple illustration: “If we catch a lit charcoal and keep it in our hand, it is likely that it will burn us. But if we shake our hand – for a while of course- it won’t burn us. The same applies to the ugly images; when the eyes are moving fast, they won’t hold them, they will simply catch them and won’t burn the soul.”
On responsibility
He addresses the issue of “bad thoughts” with simple thoughts: “Where I live, airplanes pass above me. I can’t block the airplanes. I’m not responsible for that. But if I decided to build an airport, then I would be responsible.”
On cups, honours and football
Distinctions, as he said, must be essential. “Everyone talks about matches. Others play and compete in the stadiums, in the sports fields and kick a ball and get cups, empty ones of course. Each of us must fill his cup with virtue and good deeds and always be ready to offer it to God.”
Source: ikivotos.gr
