Elder Joseph (1898-1959) was a highly regarded, seasoned monk of Mount Athos. In writing about him, one of his monastic disciples offered this extensive quote, reflective of the holy monk's teaching.
Someone may well come to the last line and say, "Oh, I don't believe that!" But I'd say, "What a strange and lost people we are—accepting as gospel the bold, even outrageous claims of politicians, stock market indicators, military leaders and advertisers, and we don't believe an elder monk."
Someone may well come to the last line and say, "Oh, I don't believe that!" But I'd say, "What a strange and lost people we are—accepting as gospel the bold, even outrageous claims of politicians, stock market indicators, military leaders and advertisers, and we don't believe an elder monk."
The Elder used to tell us that the experience of love for one's neighbor is revealed to him who prays in truth; and more specifically, "When grace is operative in the soul of someone who is praying, then he is flooded with the love of God, so that he can no longer bear what he experiences. Afterwards, this love turns towards the world and man, whom he comes to love so much that he seeks to take upon himself the whole of human pain and misfortune so that everyone else might be freed from it. In general, he suffers with every grief and misery, and even for animals, so that he weeps when he thinks that they are suffering. These are properties of love, but it is prayer that activates them and calls them forth. This is why those who are advanced in prayer do not cease to pray for the world. To them belongs even the continuation of life, however strange and audacious this may seem. And you should know that, if such people disappear, then the end of this world will come."
