Holy Elder Iakovos of Evia reposed in the Lord on the Feast of Hesychasm in the Entrance of the Theotokos on November 21, 1991
Elder Iakovos Tsalikis said: People are blind and don’t see what takes place in church during the Divine Liturgy.Once I was serving and I couldn’t make the Great Entrance because of what I saw. I suddenly felt someone pushing me by my shoulder and guiding me toward the holy prothesis.
I thought it was the chanter, and said to myself: “The blessed one, such irreverence? He entered through the Beautiful Gate and is pushing me?”
I turned around and saw a huge wing that the archangel had laid on my shoulder, and that he was guiding me to make the Great Entrance.
What amazing things take place in the altar during the Divine Liturgy!
“Today that you have communed,” he said to one of his spiritual children, “do you see how you feel? This is how I always feel. Christ is always in me.”
“When I commune people,” Elder Iakovos would say, “I never look at their face. Sometimes however my thoughts tell me to look at them. Then I see some faces having the form of a dog, a monkey or another animal. Their form is frightening. But I also see some who are glad and cheerful who after Divine Communion shine like the sun.“
Saint John of Kronstadt said:There is nothing upon earth holier, higher, grander, more solemn, more life-giving than the Liturgy. The temple, at this particular time, becomes an earthly heaven; those who officiate represent Christ Himself, the angels, the cherubim, seraphim and apostles.
Elder Sophrony said:Our greatest missionary work in life takes place in the Divine Liturgy. The Fathers of the Church would always build an Altar of Sacrifice in whatever country or city they traveled to. And this is so, because when the heart is sweetened by the Divine Liturgy, it then seeks God. It then desires to live an Orthodox ecclesiastical life, the heart of which is the Holy Eucharist.
I told the brotherhood that it should always be a priority for it to perform the Divine Liturgy in the Monastery. The prayers of the Divine Liturgy should not be intoned for personal gratification because at that moment the priests are expressing the prayers of all those praying in Church. And for this reason the priests should not be praying with self-centered feelings. We do not celebrate as individuals.
Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) the spiritual son of Saint Silouan the Athonite
Blessed St. Fr. Iakovos of Evia pray to God for us! May each of us learn humility and charity, and live as beacons of Christ’s light to the world.
Apolytikion St.Elder Iakovos of Evia in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
In thee the image was preserved with exactness, O Father; for taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to overlook the flesh, for it passeth away, but to attend to the soul since it is immortal. Wherefore, O righteous Iakovus, thy spirit rejoiceth with the Angels.
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