Hesychastic Testimonies 1
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I remember, when I was nineteen years old, when I set off on the road to the Garden of the Most Holy Mother of God, Holy Mountain (Mount Athos). The path to my monastic life was shown to me by my virtuous and monk-loving mother – now nun Theofana.
In the first years of the tragedy from the Occupation, when I stopped my tertiary education (High School) in order to work, in one of the two churches of the “Old Calendar” believers in Volos, a hieromonk, a man from the Holy Mountain, came as a priest. He was the monk of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, as he called him. This hieromonk of Mount Athos became for me, at that time, a valuable advisor and helper in my spiritual journey. He became my Spiritual Father and through his stories and advice I soon began to feel the distancing of my heart from the world and its attachment to the Holy Mountain. Especially when he was telling me about the life of Elder Joseph, something was burning inside me, my prayer became fiery, so that, a yearning was born in me to meet him.
When the hour finally came – in the morning of the twenty-sixth of September 1947 – a boat was slowly taking us from the world to the Holy Mountain; in other words, from the shore of the temporary to the other side of the eternity.
An Honourable Elder, named Arsenios, was waiting at the port of the Skete of St. Anne.
– Aren’t you Janaki from Volos? – he asked me.
– Yes, Geronda (Elder), I tell him, but how do you know me?
– And, he tells me, Elder Joseph knows that from the Honourable Forerunner of Christ (St. John the Baptist). He appeared to him last night and said, “I bring you a lamb, put him in your flock.”
I stuck my thought to the Honourable Forerunner, my protector, on whose day I was born. I felt very grateful for his care of me.
“Okay, Janaki, let’s go,” Elder Arsenios told me, because the Elder (Joseph) is waiting for us. We climbed the hill. What a feelings! Whatsoever power one might possess, those feelings cannot be described.
That night, inside the small church of the Honourable Forerunner of Christ, carved into a cave, I laid down my prostration of obedience (I became a novice). In there, in the dim light, my soul recognized, in its special way, the bright face of my holy Elder.
I was the youngest in the Council, according to my physical and spiritual age. And Elder Joseph was one of the greatest spiritual colossi of our time in the Holy Mountain. I stayed with him for twelve years, as much as he lived after my arrival, learning at his feet. God has made me worthy to serve him until his last holy breath. And he was worthy of all service; in spite of his many spiritual efforts, and holy prayers, which he left us as a precious spiritual heritage. I got to know him as a true God-bearer. An outstanding spiritual guide on the road of salvation. Most experienced in the fight against passions and demons. It was not possible for a man to come to him, no matter how much he would have been obsessed with the passions, without being healed. It was enough just to fulfil his commands in obedience.
Addressing the monks, he placed “Christ’s like obedience” above everything else.
For the people living in the world, he allowed mind prayer (Prayer of the mind in the heart: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner), but always under the spiritual guidance of experienced spiritual leaders. Because he witnessed many delusions among the people.
– If you notice a person not counselling or not following the instructions of the spiritual fathers, in a short time expect to see him deluded. He would often say this to us.
Hesychastic Testimonies – Elder Joseph
(Excerpt – 06 / 11 / 2021)
