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PH:

Christ is in our midst!!

None of this is to say that my and your human heart is not moved to sorrow, watching one we love suffer and possibly die. It is part of our human condition. But we are called to remember that our life here is not what we were created to live forever. This is a pilgrimage--it has a beginning and an end, like every pilgrimage.

Think of this--

St. Paul writes, in one of his Epistles, (Colossians 1:24) of "completing that which is lacking in the suffering of Christ." But the sacred Passion of Christ is perfect and complete. So what is he saying or hinting at?

Jesus, in His immeasurable generosity has left space--for lack of a better word--in His Passion on the Cross for us and for our suffering. Through the Mystery of our being "plunged" into Him in Baptism, we are plunged into all He is and has experienced. Our suffering has, by anticipation, already been given eternal value over 2000 years ago when He went to the Cross. Our suffering and all the suffering that His believing people experience has already been nailed to the Cross--He has taken it with Him. So while suffering may seem useless to the person focused on this world, we know better. And while we do not go out and seek suffering, we do accept it from the Hand of a loving God as His gift to us.. Suffering purifies. It gets our attention. It lets us know that all the baggage we haul around is nothing when we are faced with a breakdown in our health and the possibility that we could be translated out of here.

I have watched my own mother suffer tremendously in the past eight months. She has been close to her translation so many times it has taken my breath away many times. But she is still with me and has just celebrated her 90th birthday last Saturday--may the Lord be praised. What she has endured and why I don't know. What I do know is that each time she has had trouble breathing--she has congestive heart failure and a 15% heart function left--she is just like Our Lord Who suffered the suffocation associated with crucifixion. It does not help watching her gasping for breath and struggling in and our of the hospital and nursing home. But she struggles on. When I am up close, I don't remember what I just wrote to you because I am too close to the suffering of one I love. But when I get back home and can get back to my peace and my prayer time, I can remember what this is all about and the fact that this has value.

Does this help?

Bob

Suffering is part of the pathway of our Theosis because it is only by through sufferings of Christ that Theosis is possible.

We who are creatures of sin dare not expect less than what was endured by Him Who is without sin.

can any one tell me if this has any meaning ive been praying to saint nectarios n tonight half our ago i was in my kitchen as my mom is in the hospital i smelled charcoal as if there was some one there lighint it to put livani has any one ever exprianced something like this or dose any one what it could mean

father i smell charcoal like some one is preparing to light livani as i have been praying asking nectarios savvas n ephraim n theotokos to heal my mom of cancer to night ive smelled it in the kitchen n other times n ive smelled church candels in hospital elevator when im alone is this some kind of sign what i dose it mean

Hi, PH!

There is no way of knowing for sure.

Your experience could simply be a coincidence.

Or it could be symbol of comfort from the Lord, His Mother, or the Saints.

Or perhaps a call to prayer.

It would be OK to understand it as a sign from the Lord that He is with your mother and you during a difficult time.

It would not be OK to see it as anything more.

Prayers,

John

well ive been smelling this for a while now the char coal n evry time my mom is in the hospital i smell the greek church candles ocasionoly i smell a flowry fregrant smell to in the house but useualy i smell candles in the hospital followed by charcoal in the house

this all started when i put saint ephraim of nea makris oil my aunt gave me when my mom went to hospital to get her chemo port scaned it started in the taxi then its allways in hospital n house

hi again yesterday it happended again church candel smell with a breeze in back of me while waiting for the elevator a gust of wind to blew in back of me its been going on this smell for over 5 months now

hello last night i herd three knocks in my troom it was three n then agein another three thought it was at my window nothing loooked all over no one