Page 129 - Prayer Book

Ι Heard You…
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you lend, the first thing you should think is that it won’t be
returned to you!”
However, of all the people he loved, he loved his ene-
mies the most! He believed that sincere love for one’s en-
emy is the most perfect, the most genuine, purest, and
most undefiled form of true love! He would say: “The
crown of our love for our friends has foreign elements—
calculation, reciprocity, vanity, emotional weakness, pas-
sionate sympathy—while the crown of our love for our
enemies is pure!”
This was his selfless, spotless, fatherly, and brotherly,
genuine love for people!
This love was a reflection and imitation of Christ’s love
for him, a love of true sacrifice—a crucifixion and burial of
the “self ” and a resurrection with the love of Christ and the
gift of the Holy Spirit!
But no matter how much we say about Saint Porphy-
rios, it will never be enough!
Here, I will add a personal experience of mine from his
gift of discernment, which was also born from his great
love for Christ and humanity, and with that, we will close
this chapter on the Saint.
The Gift of Discernment
In September 1986, newly ordained as a priest at just
twenty-six years of age, I left with my wife Christina and
our three children, Myrto, Yannis, and Porphyrios, for
Rome, where I would pursue my postgraduate studies and
doctoral degree. At the same time, I would serve as a priest
at the Orthodox Church of Saint Andrew, a chapel of the
Greek Embassy.