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Listen here to a message of Fr. George Kapsanis, former abbot of Gregoriou Monastery of Mount Athos, as we enter into the New Year. He talks about time and preparation for our final destination of this earthly journey, that is the Kingdom of God.
Fr. George Kapsanis:
”Stepping into the new year gives us the opportunity to think about time.
We all feel how fast time passes, or rather, how fast we pass through time. We feel like floating, sailing on the endless sea of time.
Blessed are those who, on this journey, have with them on board the Captain Christ.
Blessed are those who know that the final destination of their journey is the Kingdom of God.
Those having Christ with them, not only head to the Kingdom, but also have a foretaste of the Kingdom’s joy!
Therefore, the time (chronos) can not, as another Chronos (god of time), neither to neutralize nor to consume them.
Being in communion with the Eternal and Not Made One, they transcend time and transform it.
How different are the things for those who travel in time without Christ and without the sight of the Kingdom… Time becomes their prison, or even their hell…
But we too, those who have Christ as Commander, we are in danger of forgetfulness, of acedia, of spiritual laziness, by which, we do not deny Christ, but we interrupt the living communion with Him. Then we travel without a guide. We miss the target of our journey.
That is what the enemy of our salvation is waiting for, and the world without Christ, to weaken us.
As long as the Apostle Peter had unshaken faith and unity with Christ, he was walking on water… As soon as he became careless and weakened in faith, he began to sink.
O Lord, save us from acedia (dejection) and indifference!
Help us to always have the a living connection and communion with You, and always direct our steps towards Your Kingdom!
Help us to not forget the remembrance of You and the remembrance of death, through which we are aware of the approaching end of our earthly journey.
Forgetting Your name is our enemy, and Your remembrance is our benefactor.
Help us, O Lord, that by calling Your Holy Name, by keeping Your holy commandments, by our obedience, by our partake in the Holy Mysteries, to continually have Your remembrance and Your grace!
Thank you, Lord, that in the short or long time of our earthly journey, we can, by Your grace, gain the endless journey into Your unbounded, eternal and uncreated Kingdom, together with all the Saints, among whom shines the one which we celebrate today, Basil the Great, to whom we ask for grace and blessing for all the fathers and brethren of our holy monastery, and for the godly worshipers who came here this day to celebrate with us.
May all of us have a blessed New Year, into the goodness of the Lord, fruitful, peaceful and holy!”
