And
you can always tell who they [the apostates-W.G.] are by their refusal to
venerate the saints. Just as they despised St Seraphim of Sarov, ‘a dirty
peasant’, and persecuted and exiled St Nectarios of Egina (so loved by St John
of Shanghai), who should have been Patriarch of Alexandria but consorted with
Non-Greek ‘blacks’ whom he wanted to bring to Christ, so in the old Soviet
Union they refused to canonise the New Martyrs and Confessors. And so it is
today. The compromised hate the saints because the saints are not of this world
– whereas they are of this world. The world hates the spiritual. Our Lord told
the disciples this: as it hated Him, so it would hate them too. Our attitude to
the saints is the touchstone of whether we belong to the Church or not.--Fr Andrew Phillips, http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/questions-and-answers-from-correspondence-december-2019-february-2020/
Since
its colonization by Europe, North America has been a land that has mainly
exported darkness to the rest of the world:
king-hating revolutions, the destruction of tradition and hierarchy,
immoral entertainment, false Christian sects, and so on. Roman Catholics and Protestants make some
fussy noises now and then about ‘restoring traditions’, ‘revivals’, or things
of that sort, but this amounts to ‘the blind leading the blind’: Since they have only pieces of the True
Christian Tradition, they will find themselves lying in a ditch eventually.
Thus,
it falls to the relatively small Orthodox Church in North America to leaven the
lump of this continent, to illumine her with the True Light of the Gospel. There have been some wonderful saints who
have shone here: from St Herman of
Alaska to Saint John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco to St Jose of
Jordanville, the Chosen One of the Mother of God (https://eadiocese.org/josemuozcortes).
But
now we dwell on a new light of the Orthodox Church in North America, Elder
Ephraim of Arizona, who reposed in the Lord on 7 Dec. 2019, for as others have
seen, he is an Apostle of these latter times to the peoples here:
Bishop Athanasios of
Lemesou, before his most recent trip to America, had a dream. He saw Elder
Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona passing away and going towards Paradise, and
being crowned with three crowns: one of Martyrdom, one of Righteousness, and
one of an Apostle. When he awoke, he called an Athonite Father to tell him of
this, and he told him that he had seen the exact same dream.
Who
was Elder Ephraim? A short account of
his life is as follows:
Elder
Ephraim was born Ioannis
Moraitis in Volos, Greece on June 24, 1927. He is known throughout the world
and widely considered to have been a bearer and transmitter of the
Patristic-hesychastic Tradition of the Orthodox faith, though the strict
Athonite flavor of his monasteries has also proven controversial in America.
Elder Ephraim traveled to the Holy Mountain
on September 26, 1947, at the age of 20, where he was met by Geronda Arsenios
who announced that “The Honorable Forerunner appeared to Elder Joseph last
night and said to him, ‘I am bringing you a little lamb. Put it in your
sheepfold.’”
He remained under the obedience of Elder
Joseph the Hesychast from that day until the elder’s repose in 1959, from whom
he learned the art of salvation. Elder Ephraim then became the head of a group
of 8 monks, which grew to 40 in less than a decade. In 1973, the Holy Community
of Mt. Athos petitioned him to move his brotherhood to Philotheou Monastery to
repopulate the struggling habitation. He later also repopulated the
Xeropotamou, Konstamonitou, and Karakallou monasteries. He was also asked to
repopulate the Great Lavra, though he declined. He remains the spiritual father
of these four Athonite monasteries.
He stepped down as abbot of Philotheou in
1990 and moved to America, where he quickly founded an entire network of
monasteries by the request of the faithful and invitation of the local
hierarchs.
As Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos says,
Elder Ephraim “received fire, and ... has imparted this fire ... to the Church
in America that has great need of it.”
A
longer life is here:
Through
his mighty Apostolic labors and his holy life while yet in the flesh, and now through
his prayers for North America before the throne of God, St Ephraim is guiding
this continent into the haven of the Orthodox Church, warming her with the Fire
of the Holy Ghost, filling her with the Light of the Logos, rescuing her from
the snares of the devil:
A peaceful, spiritual
conqueror of America, and even a Christ-bearer, a new Christopher* Columbus,
Elder Ephraim of Arizona. Thus he began the "annexation" of America
to Orthodoxy. And yes, once again the Hellenism of the mighty Romiosine will once again conquer its conquerors! At a time when American
civilization has conquered the world. Even our land [Greece]. But
this vacuousness does not give rest, does not console, does not
embrace...
It covers the inner emptiness of men by
placing garbage below the rug, if not showing trying to show the garbage as
treasure!
How beautiful is the video that I had seen
before, which showed Elder Ephraim loading food to hasten to feed the poor,
homeless and drenched people, to offer to them from the overflowing of his
heart.
And behold, once again, the unity of
Hesychasm with action. Our Elders and Hesychasts have a burning heart for all
of creation, and thus find the way to benefit and multiply for their fellow men
even material gifts, not just those spiritual!
And the little Johnny from Volos, the
Athonite Elder, Hieromonk Father Ephraim of Arizona and all America, and the
former Abbot of the Monastery of Philotheou, he appears to spread out and
unfolded Orthodox spirituality in the epicenter of the modern world in the USA.
And thus, the Athonite huts have "conquered" the world, offering
indelibly the Light of Christ, Who shines upon all!
May we have his blessing!
--Stelios Koukos, https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-reflection-of-joy-making-sorrow-at.html
Today,
in the non-Orthodox congregations of North America, many evils are pouring in:
But
for those with humility, for those who are willing to repent and return to
Christ’s One True Body, the Orthodox Church, there are extraordinary friends,
beacons of Light – yes, actual holy saints like St Ephraim of Arizona, who will
embrace us with the full Love of God and lift us out of the mire and darkness
into which much of North America has sunk.
That is the only way she will know true life; any other alternative
(socialism, nationalism, States’ Rights, libertarianism, Gaia worship,
technophilia, etc.) is deceptive and leads only to death.
Wherefore,
let us not be like the apostates, but instead cry with all our heart:
‘Holy
Father Ephraim, pray for us sinners at the South and for all of North America!’
***
For
those who want to draw closer to the Saint, here a few links that may help:
Some
his teachings and a bit more history about him are here:
This
short video describes how Elder Ephraim was miraculously led to establish the
monastery of St Anthony the Great in the middle of the Arizona desert in 1995,
where he spent much of his later years:
--Picture of St Ephraim
from https://orthodoxwiki.org/Ephraim_(Moraitis)_of_Philotheou
--
Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England,
South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð,
unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
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