Scene from recent walk – ship sailing through diamonds.
When the night is dark
the stars shine brighter
here and ev’rywhere
The dawning Dayspring
connects all His Creation
through the Created
Flora, fauna, earth,
air, water – in us, in them –
a sacred kinship
What a beautiful day the Lord has provided!
May His glorious, Gladsome Light beam on you…
And through you…
Reflecting all the way…
To the other side of this amazing world!
With love in Christ.
Mother Gavrilia (Gabriela) Public Domain Photo from OrthodoxWiki
It gave me the greatest joy to learn yesterday (October 3, 2023), that Eldress (Gerontissa) Mother Gavrilia was canonized a saint!
Her Feast Day is the date of her Heavenly Birthday, March 28th.
Our Venerable and God-bearing Mother Gavrilia the New Ascetic of Love has been added to the Synaxarion.
While it’s “official” now… I’m thrilled, as she has helped me and so many others “unofficially” – for quite some time.
Her inspiring, joyful quotes are salt and peppered throughout Blisswood, flavouring the various postings. (View by the “Gerontissa Gavrilia quote” tag in other posts)
Although this amazing, inspiring, book is currently and sadly out of print, I highly recommended it at a recent parish sisterhood meeting.
Given that Mother Gavrilia was just canonized, God-Willing, there may well be new publication(s) of this book!
Added new note November 29, 2023: Yes you may order the new editions here through Not of This World Icons and Books at Holy Dormition Orthodox Church!
It was a delight reading this conglomerate of practical, encouraging letters to laypeople and friends over the decades, including priceless, pearls of wisdom to her fellow nuns, when she later became a monastic in her 60’s.
Mother Gavrilia saw Christ in everyone, and was imbued with sincere, simple, Christian love… a verdant, precious example to other Orthodox Christians and to those of different faiths.
She LIVED her Faith in Pure Love.
Now the worker of love the revered ascetic Gabriela, who is our aid in misfortune and succour in mortal hardship, the missionary of Christ, let us be wakeful in offering her impressionable hymns, that she may entreat the Creator on our behalf who bless her. ~ Apolytikion in Plagal of the Fifth Tone
Fervent love joined with humility, you lived in the world but lived outside the world, praying and offering herself as a sacrifice to Christ, to her we ardently sing hymns, the divinely luminous Gabriela, the ascetic, crying out with longing: Rejoice, mother inspired by God. ~ Kontakion in Plagal of the Fourth Tone
A bright lamp and ray of missionaries, a new boast of ascetics, for your fiery love towards your neighbour, we cry out to you with longing, Gabriela. ~ Megalynarion
She is now closer than ever!
Reach out to her and she will come quickly and lovingly to your aid… leaving the Peace from Above and Joy in her wake.
Through the holy intercessions of our Venerable and God-bearing Mother Gavrilia the New Ascetic of Love, O Christ our God, have mercy on us, and save us!
Amen.
Feature photo from yesterday’s beautiful Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos (September 21/8). Such a Light and Happy Celebration! Even the bright church flowers seem to point joyfully to the Altar’s Angel Doors.
Liturgically, everything’s connected, and I love how the day after the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, we also remember her parents, Sts. Joachim and Anna (September 22/9). St. Anna (Ann or Anne, from Hebrew Hannah – meaning favour or grace) is descended from the lineage of King David, and the mother of the Virgin Mary, and grandmother of Jesus Christ.
Congratulations on your Saint’s Day today, goddaughter Anna! God grant you many years!
So many blessings! Each church also has its own Guardian Angel that always remains in the Altar. After a service, when the candles are snuffed and the congregation has left for home… if one sits quietly with their physical eyes closed, the eyes of the soul may catch a glimpse of comprehension – regarding that profound, peaceful silence steeped in holiness.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4: 7
After the Divine Liturgy we should linger in church as long as we can. For the Angels. …If we are interrupted while speaking, we must not continue. It means that what we were about to say should not be heard. The Angels do this. …Talk with your Guardian Angel all the time, about everything. Especially when you are in trouble and when you cannot get along with other people. He always helps. … In my evening prayer I tell my Angel: “Take my soul this evening too and place her by the feet of Christ, to be perfected all night through, so that I may find her improved in the morning!” ~ Gerontissa Gavrilia
Memory Eternal Grandma Faith!
With love in Christ.
Image by garten-gg Pixabay
Birds form a circle around the earth. Wherever we go, they remind us of the same things. The cuckoo cries: Wake up… wake up… to remind us of saying our morning prayer. The turtle-dove coos: We’re pilgrims… We’re pilgrims… for us to remember that we are just passing pilgrims on His Earth. And the crow crows: Pray… Pray… to remind us of praying all the time. ~Gerontissa Gavrilia
The Lord gave us as an example of unconcern – the birds of the sky – not humans… When the twig on which it is perching breaks, the little bird, without being alarmed, opens its wings and flies away. Likewise, when the support of our feet collapses, Faith and Hope in God give us the strength and joy to fly away. ~Gerontissa Gavrilia
We should follow the example of the birds. They’re always joyful, whereas we’re always bothered by something. ~Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
Image by Jon Pauling from Pixabay
Sunrise on the Reef ~ Kauai 2023
Thank you God, for giving me this morning!
Sing unto the Lord a new song and His praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea and all that is therein… ~ Isaiah 42:10
Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever… ~ Psalm 146:6
Every morning open a new page and put your signature on the blank. Whatever God wants, let Him write. ~ Gerontissa Gavrilia
May we grant Jesus – the Author of Life, to direct our day.
Let us Focus Forward!
Fragrant, plumeria blossom falls to rest on neighbouring Heliconia Rostrata leaf (Hanging Lobster Claw Flower) ~ Kauai 2023
Every flower is fragrant through the power of the Holy Spirit, in a delicate flow of aroma and tenderness of colour; the beauty of the Great contained in what is small. ~Akathist Glory to God for All Things, Kontakion 3
Without winter there would be no spring, and without spring there would be no summer. So it is also in the spiritual life: a little consolation, and then a little grief-and thus little by little we work out our salvation. Let us accept everything from the hand of God. ~St. Joseph the Hesychast
Everything that God has created is beautiful!
Even the flowers are full of grace!
Like so many places all over the world that are special to each one of us – to me, Hawaii is the Living Epitome of Heavenly Fragrance. It still contains the Sweet Essence of Eden with: Aromatic maile (MY-lee) leaves from the rainforest… Divinely fragrant, mangoes that hang as luscious, topaz jewels… Delightfully perfumed blooms of pikake, jasmine, lilies, and plumeria…
All of these and more, help awaken the numinous senses with Awe in Nature’s Mysterious Beauty of the Great.
When we perceive God’s Gift of Nature, how can we not admire it?
How can we not be grateful for consoling glimpses and reminders that Paradisiacal Eden – once our Original Home – is never very far away from us?
May we take time today to observe, touch and smell one flower!
May we listen to the still, small, voice of flowers that continue to magnify our Creator!
May we actively allow our day to be filled with the Sweet Essence of Eden and the Divine Fragrance of Christ!
Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees in Lihu’e-Koloa’a Forest Reserve ~ Kauai 2023
Happy Saint’s Day matushka Nataliya! Congratulations, and may God grant you many years!
Casually, one day, she told us that every morning she was having a “little chat with her young tree”. Another time she said that if we got tired walking, we could stop near a tree and touch its trunk: “It will gladly give you some of the strength God gives it”… ~ Gerontissa Gavrilia
After many years I returned to Kauai, and stood once again in a wondrous, tropical Blisswood grove!
Stunning eucalyptus trees thrive in the Lihu’e Koloa’a Forest Reserve… and here, one may curiously discover how refreshing it is to touch those resplendent rainbow trunks.
As my gaze travelled skyward to the tree’s crowning branches, they seemed as graceful arms raised aloft in praise to Creation’s Planter.
Antiphonal Birdsong echoed throughout the forest arboretum. Delicate leaves attached to the trees’ twiggy fingers whispered to each other in the warm trade winds.
Some leaves were loosened, and as if seeming to accept that this was their time, fluttered down trustingly to the ground. A breeze quickly stirred them up again, and with apparent joyful abandon they tumbled away, end-over-end, deeper into the forest… a dance of affirmation and benediction.
I hope to carry this beautiful memory of God’s Creation in my soul, for a long, long, time.
These trees gladdened my heart. They gifted me anew with a peaceful, vibrant jewel of strength, to which I must carefully string yet one more gem of gratitude to the growing strand of a personal, noetic necklace which I sometimes forget to wear… or appreciate.
May we live in more awareness of the Divine Moment and Nature’s Numinous Wisdom – proving His Glorious Presence.
Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, let all the trees clap their hands. ~ Sunday of the Cross
With Love in Christ.
Coconut Sunrise beach photo shared by Owen ~ Kauai 2023
Behave with people as you would if Christ were present. And so, you will never have regrets for anything or anyone. ~ Gerontissa Gavrilia
I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.
But, sitting in the front row of an airport shuttle bus, I couldn’t help but overhear another passenger’s glum observation (directed to the driver), on the difficulty of a certain situation.
The shuttle driver paused a moment to consider the remark, then sincerely and somewhat amusedly said…
“Well, like I tell my kids – Nothing’s hard – unless you think it’s hard!
Exotic Heliconia Rostrata, the Hanging Lobster Claw Flower ~ Kauai 2023
Greetings on the Holy Mandylion Feast Day!
If you do not shatter and empty your Ego, how will you make room for God?… God’s gifts to us blossom only if watered with the water of Love… Those who love can do only beautiful things. ~ Gerontissa Gavrilia
Let us unfurl our thirsty roots and drink deeply from Holy Wisdom’s salvific Springs of Living Water.
May our hearts Blossom Forth choosing happy, beautiful, Songs of Joy and gladness today!
Icon of Great Martyr Barbara ~ shared by Anastasia
Congratulations, and Happy Feast on your Name’s Day… Samuel! God grant you many years!
There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. ~ 1 Samuel 2:2
When the twig on which it is perching breaks, the little bird, without being alarmed, opens its wings and flies away. Likewise, when the support under our feet collapses, Faith and Hope in God give us the strength and joy to fly away ~ Gerontissa (Elder) Gavrilia
Illness always brings spiritual experiences to the person who is ready to grasp their meaning. ~ Gerontissa Gavrilia
Once my mind “un-fuzzed” enough from COVID last month, I recuperated outside under the glorious sunshine amid fragrant patio flowers… and re-read this amazing book.
If you have an opportunity to borrow or buy The Ascetic of Love, DO! It’s such an uplifting, and spiritually practical book, by Nun Gavrilia.
I highly recommend it!!! Yes. Three exclamation marks! (But, if looking to buy online, the book is out of print, and may be super-expensive)
The Holy Prophet Samuel says… there is no other rock than our God. Indeed. So, when those other twigs in our life bend and snap (as they do and will)… May we be mindful enough to immediately embrace the Divine Action Plan, and joyfully fly away (unalarmed)… laying all our cares and burdens directly at the dear Lord’s Feet!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
With love and gratitude in Christ.
