Evil and the specter of war are an ever-increasing presence. The Athonite monk Pimen Vlad offers us a simple recipe, accessible to everyone, to ward off the spirit of evil and, in addition, to place our lives on the strongest foundation – Christ.
Enjoy!
Cristian Bumbenici: Dear friends, we are again with Father Pimen, the abbot of the cell of the Entrance of the Virgin Mary into the Church in the Romanian hermitage Lacu, obviously, Holy Mount Athos. I make this presentation of my interlocutor every time, because there are always new people, new viewers, who do not know us and it is normal to make this presentation. Father, I will ask you to comment on some topics of the moment. There are some topics that we are already living and we will start with an event that is ongoing, it causes emotions, not just us, it causes emotions throughout Europe and in many other countries in the world. I am referring to that conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
We are particularly interested in what happens to us, what we need to understand from this whole story, because beyond the interests of other great powers, we have this unwanted deployment at the gate or near our fence. I’d like you to comment a little bit on some things that happened recently, let’s say this fall, this summer, and I’m referring here to the warnings – maybe I’m exaggerating or forcing this term a little bit by using it, “warning”, it could probably be translated differently and I’m going to ask you to do this – these signals that somehow God is trying to give us through fires (there have been fires in the country as well, there were fires in Greece and other bordering countries) and prolonged drought.
Here we have a summer that not only does not end in terms of climate, but simply as if someone turned off the tap. All these things that we consider to be unnatural, abnormal, we do not want to associate with what we may be doing wrong at this moment.
Father Pimen: First, welcome back to Our Lady’s garden! Our Lady holds us all. Those she receives, we also welcome them with good heart. Let’s get into what you mentioned a bit. God says He does not want the death of the sinner, but wants to return and be alive. That is, God tries in every way to draw us closer to Him or to make us understand that we are not on the right track. You take a road and He says: “There’s a chasm at that end!” and gets out all sorts of things in your way to keep you from getting there. And you bump in, you shake your head, you push them aside, that you want to get there.
So really, as I said, if we think a little bit about the events that happened in the last two years, all this hype in the world, in one form or another, needs to be understood. All over the world there are profiteers who live off all this and who will answer to God in due time, because nothing escapes there. As they say: no period, no comma escapes God, how you worked, this is how you receive. God, while we are on earth, is merciful, but in judgment He will be just. And there it is clear, each how he worked, no matter what functions he had, whether he was small or big, from “the shoe to the king”, everyone is accountable to God how they worked.
Again I remember the Roman Empire. When did the fall of the Roman Empire begin? When all plagues were legalized! I mean, they’re all sins and you make them normal, you legalize them. You draw God’s wrath upon you! The moment the Romans legalized all this and could do anything, at that moment the decay of the Empire began, until the dust settled.
We have been seeing for several years now that the legalization of abortion has begun in our country. As soon as we entered so-called freedom, the first law was to legalize abortion. And so we have yet another country killed. And not by anyone! Not by any criminal, but by those who were supposed to protect! The mother, who was supposed to protect her child, killed him. We’re talking about the biggest crime, there’s none bigger than that. And all of this was legalized.
After that, all the plagues of sin, everything that can be said, the things for which in ancient times God brought fire down from heaven, all this began to become legalized, you have no right to say anything against them, because you have problems if you say anything. So everything became fine. This has spread to more and more countries. And many others, which I no longer remember.
Moral decay has begun! It has come to the point that children in school are indoctrinated. From an early age, to spoil the innocence of the child who needs to grow up. Why was it said that until he was 18 he was under the guardianship of his parents? Because it’s his training: at home, at school… Beautifully formed, to grow a man properly, just like a tree to which at first you put a wood next to it, to grow straight, you clean it, you take care of it until it hardens and then you leave it free. So does the child, he needs this. But here they took advantage: during this period, while the child is in formation, to be struck from all sides with everything.
They come up with ideas: “You can decide for yourself whatever you want, we are at your disposal!”, knowing that the child has a still developing mind, so he does not have the ability to make a decision on his own. That’s why it is said: until he was 18 he can’t go anywhere without being accompanied by his parents, without his parents’ approval. It’s medically clear: the mind is developing. The child makes decisions as it comes, according to his condition, his immediate state, in one direction or another, he is changeable, he has not reached maturity. And then they use this weakness (it reaches the level of states) to destroy the younger generation.
All this, if we look at it in the end, is against God’s commandments! So there they all go! And then, we understand who hates God more. We know that the devil, because he permanently, since his fall (before he was one of the greatest archangels, he was called the Star) has somehow come to have a hatred of God and a desire for vengeance in this decay. God loves man the most and the devil decided to take revenge through man.
For this, what must man do? To do things that are against God, and in this way the devil uses weak people. It does not matter what function and what material goods they have. What matters is that they are spiritually weak, fallen, immoral, those who have tasted all these plagues because they could afford it because of money. The devil is using these people to destroy the younger generation. The other, older generation is slowly gone, and this young one is rising. And if a young generation has risen that is compromised, destroyed, no longer knows, has no benchmarks, does not know in which direction to take it, can do what it wants with it, does what it wants with it, that is, manipulates it as it wants. That’s what the devil wants, to raise up a generation of this.
However, it is not according to his will. I see, young people and children pass through here. You wonder what clean children, what good children come from this world full of all plagues. They manage to stay on their line, they fight. And that’s because they had parents who helped them, started from home well and maintain themselves. They themselves said: “Father, at school we are considered strange, that we do not do what others do: we do not smoke, we do not drink, we do not take drugs. We are few, I mean in a class, let’s say 25, if there are 5 of us who keep on the line, 20 are on the other side and they consider us 5 freaks because we don’t do like them.
“God, seeing all this, this decay, that we were speeding downhill, began to give us certain signs. He allowed for two years all madness in this world, whether it was human or whether it came from somewhere else, it was allowed by God. They did their own thing, others got rich… we see that God has allowed it.
About those two months locked in the house: many people complained to me that they did not have time for children, they did not have time for wives (men come here more), they work long hours. God, seeing so many complaints, what did He say? “Get everyone in the house, family to family, mistress at her house, lover at his house, just family! The family locked in the house was not allowed to go anywhere. Here you have time for what you were complaining about, because you don’t have time! Not one day, one week, but two months, to figure it out, you bang your head against the walls to get to know each other!” They had been married for years, but they didn’t know each other, and that’s when they found out who they were married to and what children they had.
When they stayed in the house together for two months, it was seen then that everything was a fake, that they said they did not have time, but that was not it, but the flight from responsibility. They preferred to work more, to go with friends, to get home later and stay at home as little as possible. At home, they would come quickly because it was the match or something else, they would give the child the tablet, the wife was on soap operas and the job was done. So this was no longer family. God said, “Let’s clear this up too! I give you, who are family, two months to be family, who go crazy, in the wrong directions, go!” He gathered everyone in the house and that’s when it showed.
Someone who deals with all kinds of this paper said to me: “Father, I was scared! The divorce rate has increased at least 20-fold during the pandemic.” It was crazy with divorces because they started getting to know each other, staying in the house. And then they woke up: “How, this is my man?!”, “Is this my wife?!”. Until then, they were guests at home.
Similarly in the case of children, misunderstandings began, because we lied nicely to each other: “I don’t have time, that I would do everything, I would take care of the children, my wife, but I don’t have time because of work!”. Here’s time! Who understood the given time, spent it very nicely and bonded them more. Who doesn’t, dust settled! Even though he used these people, God won his share.
After all this, there had to be a way to calm down and this madness. That this madness would have continued, don’t think it would have stopped at two years! That a lot could be done from the pen.
Then, this war was allowed. And suddenly all the disease disappeared. That’s it, no more! That there is another case of cold, it is no longer that disease. Until now you could get pricked in one leg and it was that disease. That’s it, so there’s nothing else. Now, all of a sudden everything has changed. Now all attention is on this war, but we have to look at the spiritual side. That there is 100% manipulation there, we are presented only with what we need to know, we are shown the enemy in the direction they want. So it doesn’t matter, that’s their job, we have to look at the other side. Now, to all this craziness that’s being done, have we gotten anything right? Because they say war is coming, we’re going to die, that’s it, one is with a suitcase, another I don’t know what else he’s doing.
So they’re doing this to keep us panicking, because that’s also a well-studied strategy. If you keep a person in a panic, he doesn’t think, he doesn’t pray, he’s no longer good for anything, and you take him in the direction you want, like sheep: you hit the stick in that part, they all go in that direction, because that’s what you put in front of them.
But we should take from this the share of spiritual gain. We’re told all day long that we’re going to die soon, but if we’re going to see it for what it is, if our country got involved in this game altogether, the dust would settle. Let us be clear! Not to go with gloves, because I don’t know who will defend us. If God doesn’t protect us, we will be the chessboard where all the madness will unfold. So our country, as Father Cleopas said, you will go from one end to the other to find a man, because the dust is settled! They say to see, that there will be… Not! It’s clear, if we get involved in someone else`s business!
And then God wants to tell us: “You see, for so many months I’ve been keeping all this madness on track! What do you do? Because you’re threatened every day that everything will turn to dust. What do you guys do? Have you changed anything in your life?” As I said during the pandemic: “Boys, when you get out of here to break down the doors of churches! Let the world not fit, let all the priests sit and confess all day!” That didn’t happen! Tomorrow-the day after tomorrow God allows and all this madness spreads and may even become global. But, our preparation? Do you think you still have time to go: “Father, confess me!”? It’s over! So this must be prepared from now on: first of all, confession – this is the first step that man must take! Confession and there he is loosed.
God allows, through the confessor. To share and start changing something in his life, because it may be the last day. And he goes to meet Christ! What answer to give Him? How did you work? You had the time to prepare! We have been under threat for about 2 years now. It was a continuous threat on all levels, on all channels, everywhere: “You’re going to die!” – that’s what he said. Nothing else was said. It has always been said that we are all on the brink of death. If we are on the brink of death, that is, officially said, from the leadership to the doctor – maybe you don’t believe in God, let’s say, but officially, politicians have told you that you are on the brink of death – you must also solve your spiritual affairs.
Atheist, if you are, take a look at yourself: does it all end if you die? Ask yourself: “Wait, man, a minute. Is that what we are? Animals that went into the ground? Yet we have so many miracles, so many icons springing myrrh, so many people healing. Wait a minute! It means there is something beyond all this madness! Is that all? I mean, you’re an animal, you’re eating, drinking, sleeping, waking up and it’s all over?” It really is crazy!
Recently I saw an interview somewhere: a pastor, I don’t know what religion he was discussing these topics from. He was asked questions from Holy Scripture. At some point I hear this one (I thought he had more of a mind, he was also about 60 years old): “Let’s face it, when some say that after death the soul goes out and goes… Nonsense! What do you mean to see a disembodied soul? That’s nonsense, it’s not true!”
Then what do you believe in if you no longer believe there is anything after death? He was a pastor, Pentecostal or of these sects, and he said he didn’t believe that. The soul is together with the body, when it is over, ready, there is nothing, it is over. The soul is a spark that returns to God and there is nothing else. Well, you’ve gotten worse than the old philosophers! Everything is here on earth: eat, sleep, drink, and it’s over, there’s nothing left.
So let’s not get to this stuff. Let us be clear, we have too many testimonies, even starting from Holy Scripture: as we see in Abraham and poor Lazarus. The rich and the poor died, and the poor man went into Abraham’s womb. The poor man, the one who was suffering, as it says in the Gospel, who struggled and begged from the master’s table – crumbs fell under the table and ate them from the floor, together with the dogs. And the rich man stuffed himself with everything. The rich man died and went to hell. Before there was no Heaven as now, until the Savior times, then there was a place called “Abraham’s bosom”, where good people went, but it was not Heaven itself, it was a good place. When the rich man died, he went to Hell and from there, while he was struggling, he saw Lazarus.
So, there are testimonies, these and others. In everything it is seen that there is justice after death and God decides: how you worked, so you receive.
Now, God has given us the chance, He has given us time for freedom, to go to any church, wherever we want, to pray, to confess, to take the Communion, you can get baptized, to wed. But let’s see how long this will be! Let’s admit that the situation heats up and you go under military dictatorship and you are not allowed to leave the house. To see you then how much you would like to go to confession, to communion, that if you leave the house, they will shoot you, because there will be strict rules if you enter into direct conflict. Let’s see how you do then! “Alas, I didn’t get to confess!” “You didn’t get it, but you had so much free time!”
We have this time, we still have it! Let’s take advantage of it, prepare and not leave it to the last minute. Everything is like a boiling pot that God keeps under control. It hasn’t exploded yet. And then he gives us this time: “Hey, wake up, get ready because look what it is!”
Because the struggle is at all levels. We see even now, against the church they try to denigrate in all ways, to anyone. Because the devil sees: people still trust the church, the priest, because they see that it helps them – if a person reaches a state of despair, he confesses and recovers. Or he goes and makes him Holy Unction and gets healthy where the doctors told him he has no cure! There are many things that show that God is working.
And then what does the devil say? If it doesn’t work any other way, let’s denigrate the church, hit priests, we put them in charge of whatever we can, just to break people’s trust. Someone asked me why some people who came to church go to sectarians, go elsewhere. Those are people who have never tasted faith, that is, God, God’s grace, there are people who went to church because it looked good, or they met friends there or presented fashion at church. Those people didn’t live the faith, they didn’t taste God’s grace.
Those people did not truly repent, did not confess, did not live and did not enjoy the faith, the connection with Christ, with the Mother of God. For those who have not felt this, immediately someone comes, offers them money or other things and tells them which direction to go. The man who has not lived the faith deviates very easily. The believer does not go. Why is it said that heaven was filled with martyrs? They had tasted God’s grace, and no matter what came—the sword around their necks, torments—they did not lose contact with God, they did not deny themselves, but glorified God.
God has given us time now to prepare.
Cristian Bumbenici: Also in this regard, I would like you to clarify, explain one thing, and consequently address a message in two directions: a message to those who have received this gift from God, namely to have the ability to lead people, so our leaders, our politicians, and a message to the people. When I say people, I mean all of us. It seems (I use this slightly evasive expression, so as not to sound categorical, but the information is already very well known) that there is a fairly consistent group of our leaders, who at this moment are effectively negotiating the interests of this nation, this people, putting the country on the negotiating table without our will, as a potential theater of war. Our Romania is offered as an alternative, as a bargaining chip, to become one of the places where it will be able to strike one of the countries that are now in conflict.
We are not consulted, we are not asked. Those who seem to do this are doing so only to secure some privileges, some security positions. On the one hand, then, basically, they are trying to sell what is not theirs and turn this country into a place of war.We do not want to, but perhaps more responsible are we, who form the people. Why? Because many, many of us hide behind this idea that goes something like this: “What can I do? Can I influence these people who make decisions?”
We have also discussed more than once how great is the importance and how colossal is the strength of one man who has taken seriously his relationship with God and is doing what he has to do. In this beautiful conversation with the Creator, he places his life both his own and his family’s. This man, multiplied in society – we are talking about a typology – manages to give God the motivation to intervene, which you also remembered very well. But we need to give him motivation. Please comment.
Father Pimen: In every position you have a responsibility. I remember how he says in the Holy Gospel: the soldiers also came to the Savior and said, “Lord, what about us?” (and here I am referring to police, soldiers, gendarmes, as it is in our times) “You shall be content with your pay and do not injustice anyone!” That is, to be content with your salary and not to injustice anyone, not to break the law, not to take bribes, not to give fines just to show how strong you are. Recently there was a policeman here and he was telling me that, during this pandemic period, when laws were passed with the fines, he had colleagues in the police who every day came with the maximum fines and said “I burned 10 more today!”. So, for them it was a pride that they caught another old woman who was late in getting a loaf of bread and gave her the maximum fine.
That the order was to issue as many fines as possible to increase income. There were some who took this to an extreme and were proud too! The policeman who came to me said: “I didn’t give any fine!”, and his colleagues asked him if he had not encountered any case worth this and he replied that they were poor people, everyone had a situation, so we would have come to persecute each other, to harm each other for someone’s interests. And then I sat and thought: “Let me see you when it is your turn to go to God and God comes with the maximum punishment, because that’s how you worked. How you worked, that’s how you get. But I’ll say something else: you brought fines for giving you another rank or adding something to your salary.
God says that when you give alms, He gives you a hundredfold back or a thousandfold. But when you injustice someone, it takes you a hundredfold or thousandth. And these people were wronging someone. Let’s admit that the man who issued the fines also took an extra hundred or two lei. But let him count thousandfold when God takes them away and he will wake up that he has a debt in the bank and the bank comes to take his house. But let’s say your child gets cancer and I’ll see you in all the hospitals, spend everything you have and the child won’t heal. To see what it means, how many people you have wronged with those fines, maybe they have to pay their pension for a year, to pay a fine they received without doing anything, they went out to get a loaf of bread and they didn’t meet the time.
There was a case in the country, in a family I knew, the husband was a judge and he died. The wife told me that half of the people who came to the funeral were gypsies. And she wondered what they were doing there, that they were not relatives. Not only did they come to the funeral, but they were crying. She asked them who they were, and they replied that he had locked them all up as a judge. They took their hats off and said they had great honor for the judge because he always gave them the lowest sentence. If he was between 2 and 10 years old, he would give them 2 years. They said he locked them up because they deserved it, but never with the maximum penalty, always with the lowest. They had respect for him because he always worked wisely, mercifully, as God says.
We want God to work with mercy with us, let us work with mercy! Whether you’re in office, you have to punish, you have to make a decision, but don’t reach for the maximum punishment just to show them who you are! Work with mercy, put mercy forward, put the law, but also put mercy, because then God will work with mercy with us. If we think we are great and we do and fix because we have a position or we have our interests, we destroy others, we trample on others to get us to a position, someone applauds us from I don’t know where…
We, as a country, have come to beg for mercy, because if they pay attention to us, I don’t know what country, he comes to our country I don’t know what president, he gives you another emblem, a badge in your chest, you already think you are the navel of the earth. All this is dust, those who gave you the badge die, you will die and you will give an account of how you worked not only for yourself in your position, but also in your responsibility to the people, to the nation. Everyone answers, we will be judged with what we contributed to our nation, not only with personal ones. If you have been given a position, you answer how you work.
If you have a responsibility for your country to remain in peace, without getting it into a war that brings thousands and hundreds of thousands of deaths, your hands will be smeared with their blood, because your signature got the country into war, and all this turns against you. Do you still have a peaceful sleep when you know that so many died because of you, because you wanted to hang a diploma or something around your neck and you get the country into war, you brought chaos into the country that was pointless
What did I do? I just talked before, right at the beginning, in the first days when the war started, Romania should not get into this game. I call it a political game, because it’s a political game for different interests. Romania had to mind its own business, as it always did. She stood quietly within her boundaries and defended her rights. We have always been a country of balance in Europe. We are of the oldest peoples. We don’t have to go anywhere, defend what we have, and be respectful of everyone.
Look, just yesterday I saw an interview – with one of these people who goes all over the world – with a Canadian who came to Romania in 1990. He settled in Romania, fell in love with a girl and stayed in Romania. He didn’t know a grain of Romanian language. In Romania, at that time, there was chaos, poverty, but everywhere on the streets there were policemen with machine guns. Still, he said he had never seen a more hospitable people. As a foreigner, he had nowhere to sleep and was received for free by several families. He had no money and could not return to his country. He stayed in Romania for several years, during which time he lived with several people.
Our country has always had this side of hospitality. After the Revolution, people were poor, but from their little they also gave to the foreigner. So, this is what Romania has in its nature people are hospitable, they feel sorry for others, they want to give from their piece.
And it’s been seen now, with this history with refugees. People brought out the best in front.
As a people, we have this share of goodness, of having mercy on those who are suffering, that’s why God keeps us, because He says: ”Mercy you give, mercy you receive” God still keeps us under all this madness, He still holds our ranks tight. We, as a country, have pushed ourselves the hardest in this conflict, we are a chessboard ready open, as if we are shouting ”But you don’t hit us anymore, to show that we are strong?!” that is, we are constantly provoking. So it’s something that’s not in our nature, it’s clear that the people don’t want that, but there are a few up there who do foreign interests, they have no business with our people.
Cristian Bumbenici: Here let’s make a slight dissociation, because, as you have painted, this is reality. There are a very small number of people who, to their misfortune, do not take spiritual matters seriously, do not try to understand the fact that at some point they will leave here and will not go to a privileged place and will go exactly to the same place where the last Romanian will go.
Father Pimen: I want to interrupt you for a moment, because I remembered something. I had read somewhere what the Turks were doing: whenever they saw that they could not conquer a country, a fortress, as it was before, they fought in all ways to find a traitor in that fortress. They sent their spies, they looked for all ways to find a traitor so that they could enter the city without a fight, so that their soldiers would not die. After they conquered the city, the first thing they did was kill the traitor. They said this: if you have betrayed your people, at the first opportunity you will betray us, the foreigners. Do you think it’s different now?! They will work the same way now: the world’s greatest use a few people and then take them out of the game because they get in their way.
Cristian Bumbenici: They sacrifice them, but the people suffer. However, we can prevent it, because we don’t talk too much spiritually about these people, because they don’t even want to understand, they don’t care. But we, the rest of 22 million Romanians, believe that we are first and foremost unwilling of conflict, suffering and all that war can bring. Perhaps not all of us are in a serious relationship with God, but we keep a potential for good, we do not deny God’s presence, we want good, but we adopt the most inappropriate strategy, namely we take “What should I do?!” in our arms or “What power do I have?!”. Please tell yourself once again, what power a multiplied individual has when he takes his relationship with God seriously.
Father Pimen: Look, I’m saying only one thing – apart from what I said: if everyone went and confessed, it would mean a reconciliation with God. The moment you confessed, your sins were erased, that is, you repented for them (because you confessed), you loosed yourself and you were reconciled to God. Consider that 5 million people go to confession. And then they start every night to do no more than three prayers, but three large, forehead to the ground – which anyone can do, from a child to a 90-year-old man – and say a little prayer: “Lord, have mercy on us!” Only that. Or: “Mother of God, help us!”
Who can do more, make three prayers with “Lord, have mercy on us!” and three with “Mother of God, help us!”. So make six prayers. The elderly, and those who cannot, make only three. Get 5 million people doing this every night! Do you know what that means?! Let 5 million people bow to the ground at the same time at nine o’clock in the evening! And leave everything else. Everything trembles, because there are so many who shout at once, gather like a torch, which goes to heaven and God can calm everything down.
So there are millions of ways to solve problems. That it gives trouble to the older ones, gives them a disease, gives them something, that they don’t need anything anymore! God gives them something, a worry of their own, that they don’t need anything anymore. But God wants some reasons, and we must give them to Him, correcting something in our lives.
For example, you struggle with the sin of drinking. Now begins the fast of the Nativity, the fast of joy! He gets to give up drinking, who is a smoker, give up cigarettes, fight with himself: “That’s it, grit my teeth and give up this!” Let everyone do something in this fast, make something right, draw near to God, cry out to God! See how many miracles would be done! Miracles in the sense that everything is balanced, God can calm the minds of the dark ones who make wrong decisions, God can bring rain on time, He can quiet the waters in all directions, gently, like a fire that goes out. God can do these things, but He is waiting for some reasons because He respects our freedom, and if we go crazy and don’t cry out to Him to help us, He respects our freedom, He stays away. The moment we cry out to Him, He has reason to intervene, to calm things down. So every man has his responsibility.
That’s why I say – as it says in Scripture – “Enough of her wickedness for the day!” Let’s not add anymore! Every person who does evil in a day, adds a drop to the scales and maybe the last drop you add, flips the scales. Why not put in the other pan a drop of good, an extra prayer, an almsgiving, an extra good deed, to balance the scales?! Now I’m back, 5 million people, each with a prayer, suddenly balance the scales. They all give up something bad, they balance the scales again.
We can change a lot of things, each of us, personally. To Elder Paisios came a man who had debts to banks, problems, misunderstandings at home and asked what to do. Father told him to go home, confess, receive communion, go to Mass every Sunday, and put a little order in his life.
“Father, what do I say and what do you say to me, old one?! I told you I had problems and debts to banks.” And the man left grumbling.
Another man, a Christian who was there, caught up with him and asked:
Do you have any other options besides what your parent told you?
“Well, I don’t.
“Then what do you have to lose?” If Father has given you a way, take it and do these things.
And slowly he convinced him. After a few months, the two meet again.
– How’s everything going?
– Father was right, everything was solved for me! An inheritance came and I paid off my debts to the bank, problems calmed down in the family and peace came.
What did he do? He didn’t chase money, he didn’t do anything else, he just put his life in order through: confession, communion, liturgy and all problems were solved.
We have lost touch with God, and where there is no God, there is chaos. So, the moment we reconnect with God, cry out to God, reconcile with God, ask God for help and thank God, see how everything works out, it calms down!
Cristian Bumbenici: As I listened to you, I was trying to find—perhaps you succeed— an even more concrete exhortation. You can say, “Hey, folks, make this program short, like you said, three prayers, six!” I would like you to summarize this invitation in a word that can create that program to be followed by three, five, seven, as many millions of people as they want, starting from this moment, since they listen to you, and follow what happens in a day, two, or three in their lives and in the lives of all of us. Because never, no matter how insistent, how cunning some of the leaders are, will they be able to override the will of God, who, seeing that He has the motivation we offer Him, will do something completely different, or will bring other plans for those who manifest normality.
Father Pimen: If everyone did at least that: in the morning, when they woke up, they would make three crosses and say, “Glory to You, Lord, glory to You! Glory to You, Lord, glory to You! Glory to You, Lord, glory to You!” At least that’s what those who do nothing should do. Those who can do more, do more! Then, when you leave the house, you kiss the icon – let everyone have an icon in the house with the Mother of God with the Savior in her arms, that you are not a Christian if you do not have an icon – and you say: “Mother of God, help me!”, then you go to your own business.
Let them all do this! You can also pray throughout the day, you can also say “Lord, help me!”, “Mother of God, help me!”. This, each according to his strength. Then, in the evening, when you return home, you say, “Thank you, Lord, thank you, Mother of God, for helping me get home today!” That so many things could happen and you wouldn’t get home.
At 9 p.m., let everyone try— speaking of which, let’s say everyone prays for an hour, from 9 to 10 p.m.—to make three or six prayers, but at least three to anyone, and say, “Lord, have mercy on us!”
Who can, let him make three to the Savior and three to the Mother of God: “Mother of God, help us!” Besides, who else has the power, to stand in front of the icon of the Mother of God and ask for her help with his words, as he knows, to speak directly, just as you say to a mother: “Mother, it hurts here, mother I suffer from this!”. These things to say to the Mother of God. Say: “Please help me as you know!” or “Help us in this country, see what it is, protect us!”
So let every man bind this bond with the Mother of God, and the more there are, the more grace the Mother of God will pour out upon the land and cover it. This thing, if every Christian does it as I said, you will see the change happen! Apart from confession, communion, everyone should get in touch with God in this way, and then we will really see that God and the Mother of God are working.
Cristian Bumbenici: Simpler than that I don’t know what could be said. We are already living events, we are no longer talking in the future tense about what could happen, they are already happening. God is trying, after showing us more than two yellow cards, to tell us in every way to wake up from this self-anesthesia. You and other parents – who have received this gift from God, to transmit some things to us and explain some things – talk to us, further I think that at some point you will exhaust all arguments and…
Father Pimen: … at the mercy of the Lord! If we do not understand willingly, God resorts to other means.
Cristian Bumbenici: But even I don’t think God’s mercy will be sufficient in the situation of people who have their backs to Him.
Father Pimen: As I said, God does not enter by force, He does not enter man’s soul with boots. If man does not want to and goes to the abyss, God lets him go there, if he has chosen this path. God lets us decide, but there are consequences to all our actions, here is the whole problem, that there are consequences here on earth, and we give answers beyond. It’s all up to us.
Cristian Bumbenici: Even if I repeat myself, I ask you again to help some of us have a clear opinion. Do leaders, leaders, politicians, parliamentarians, all the decorated people of our society go to a place of their own where they will be welcomed with the red carpet, with fruit baskets, or will they receive the standard treatment?
Father Pimen: We also see here, on earth, after a man dies, that he is the last poor man or that he is president or emperor, after 3 years if you dig him up, there is no difference between them, bare bones to one and the other. So it is clear that everything else remains here on earth. So does the soul: it goes to God. Of course, they will have certain things according to the function they had, according to the responsibility they had: if they worked badly, they will be bigger boilers, with a temperature a few thousand degrees higher, according to due honor. Now I was joking.
So, you had the chance to bring peace to a country and preferred war. Then you must bear the consequences of your actions and answer for all those who have died, and not just for a day or a month, because this is how you worked, but for eternity, that is, it never ends. That is, you have to be very careful, each in his position, because he will answer plenty: if he was given great office, he had great responsibility. Mayor, parliamentarian, minister, president, everyone is responsible for what they have been given. No one lives forever here on earth.
Many times glory catches us, we are strong, but around us we see every day that people leave. That’s how those in charge will leave and go away with everything they’ve done. Everything remains on earth: wealth, glory. Beyond that, you leave with only your deeds, good or bad, for which you are responsible.
Cristian Bumbenici: Thank you very much, Father!
Father Pimen: May the Mother of God help us, enlighten us, make us wise to make the right decisions and to correct something in our lives, that this is the only salvation. God help us!
Pomelnice online și donații
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