Finding the Phone Number of God (Met. Neophytos of Morphou)

Once, Father Phoibos from Akaki—who had an operation recently, may God strengthen him—I had said to him when he was a deacon, “Phoibos, as you are a young man, why not pass by a cafeteria and say hi to the young people there in Akaki?” I don’t mean that you should often be going to cafeterias and become a regular. Just pass by and say hi to the young people. Let them know you are there [for them].

He went. Father Phoibos is brilliant but he is very simple too. Simplicity is a great virtue, really great! He calls me, “Your Eminence, I’m at the cafeteria.” I say, “I’m at the offices of the Metropolis, Phoibos.” “[Are you calling] to get me a coffee, a frappé or something?” “No, it’s just that the young men asked me a question which I can’t answer.” And I said to them, “Wait and I’ll call the bishop, he must know.”

“Tell me, son, what did the young men ask you?” The young men asked a very simple question: “Why do I have to go to the Liturgy on Sunday, Father? Since I stay up late on Saturday nights, I can’t wake up and go to the Liturgy.” I said, “Tell them to go on a Saturday.” You know, today people need to hear practical answers. Both young and old ones. There are Liturgies every Saturday in many villages of our Metropolis. Why not go on a Saturday? On weekdays [there are Liturgies] too.

“Father, do you want to hear the truth? We find the Liturgy boring… We do believe in God but we find the Liturgy boring.” “Do you think God will punish us for this?” [Fr. Phoibos]: What do I tell them, Your Eminence? Ask them if they have a mobile phone. “I beg your pardon?” Ask them if they have a mobile phone. “The bishop is asking if you have a mobile phone.” “We do, what’s his deal?”

Is your phone working more than two days unless you charge it? Does it pick up a signal? No, you need to put it on a charger after a day or two in order to get a signal. The Divine Liturgy is the charger. Without the Divine Liturgy, your soul will not be receiving a signal. Nor will your body. There will come a time when suddenly you’ll need to call Him and you won’t even be able to find His number. Nor His frequency…

Then you’ll run to your uneducated grandma and say, “Granny, please pray for me.” This shows humbleness, you know, and it works too. When you feel your prayers aren’t heard, go to a person of prayer. This is why I say, “If there’s only one person of prayer inside a home in a generation, he is most precious.” Most precious.

In our home, we had my grandmother, Myrofora. When she passed, we had my mother, Milia. And you know something? People of prayer never die. If they are strong enough up above, they’ll continue to illumine you even after their passing. I experience this a lot with my mother. A lot! I can hear her voice within me; sometimes she makes remarks. She never praises me. She never did when she was alive either.

What does this mean? This means that she is alive, not dead. The question is: Do I cleanse my heart so as to listen to her? For I can’t hear her always. This means that the frequency of my heart is out of order sometimes. This is why I’m telling you, “Do not expect to go to the Liturgy so as to become a person of prayer.” You will learn how to be a prayer person at home.

In your cell, in your room, and especially at night. Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra said, “You should have a nightlife.” Do not waste these peaceful night hours on the internet, TV, watching series, sending messages, SMS, and so on. But when will we learn Christ’s SMS? When will we?

I’m going to finish by saying, “The same way our body needs food, our soul needs food too.” And our soul is suffering from atrophy, and when a coronavirus comes suddenly, or an earthquake, or a war, or a divorce, and we don’t know how to cope. A disease comes, and we don’t know how to cope with it.

Whereas, if we did this work [prayer] in our peaceful nights and thus fed our soul so that our soul learned the frequency of the heavens, how nice this would be! Then, when hard times come, we would have our Father, the Son of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, “our cleanser” [i.e. Who cleanses us], our Holy Theotokos, and the saints by our side.

I pray for you; please pray for us too.