Feast Day: March 28th
and July 18th (the translation of her Holy Relics)
The Life of Saint Gavrilia: When she departed for India, she excelled as a missionary to the nations, tending the blind and lepers and seeking for the lost sheep…
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Prayers
Apolytikion: Now the worker of love the revered Ascetic Gavrilia, 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.
Kontakion: 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.
Megalynarion: 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, Gavrilia.
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Icons
Holy Quotes by Saint Gabriela
“When the doors of Heaven are open, so the doors on Earth are also open.”
“When it is in God’s programme for you to go somewhere, you will go. That is why I am generally quiet in life. I have observed that even if a person does not want to, God moves him.”
“When one is alone with God, the time passes unimaginably quickly. More quickly than when you have companionship… And yet even within the world one can remain united with God. How? When whatever he is doing he directs his thoughts to Him… when whatever good comes his way he gives Him Glory… and whatever testing he meets, he gives Him thanks.”
“You must not talk about persons who are absent.”
“If coal is not “beaten”, can it become diamond?”
“Someone said that a Christian is he who purifies love and sanctifies work.”
“He who loves is not aware of it, as he is not aware of his own breathing.”
“To reach the state of non-existence, love and love and love until you identify yourself completely with the Other One, whoever this may be at the time. Then, at the end of the day you may ask yourself: Is there anything I want? No. Is there anything I wish ‘No. Is there anything I lack’ No… So, that’s it!””
“True inner progress begins only when a person stops reading anything but the Gospel. It is only then that, united with God through the Jesus Prayer, he can hear God’s Will.”
“A wise man said: If you are to live only for yourself, it would have been better if you had not been born.”
“No one should become the servant of another man. We are only servants of God. ‘For ye are bought with a price’, says the Apostle (1Cor.6:20). Therefore, there should be no servility in human relations.”
“Only when you are perfected in Love can you reach the state of dispassion.”
“Only those who act without true love face adversities.”
“The faculty of judgment comes naturally to man. Criticism and reproval spring from malice. Discernment is a gift from God and we should Pray for it. It is essential to our protection and progress.”
“The life of the Church extends beyond moral discipline and religious duty. It is the transcendence of Morality to Spirituality.”
“An irresolute person does not participate in life.”
“To speak in the presence of beauty is superfluous. It disturbs its harmony.”
“Correspondence is the only way that combines solitude and company.”
“If we meet with an adversity, let us not ask who is to blame. Because the blame is only ours. We shall find the reason if we ask for it in our Prayer: perhaps we have not loved enough, or we have disobeyed another Commandment, or we have mishandled the situation, or we have moved faster than we should, or we have relied on the wrong person.”
“Love is only on the Cross.”
“You must not get upset, because a restless heart drives away all help.”
“Sometimes people ask for your advice or instruction, so that they may put the “blame” on you afterwards if things go wrong. Quite probably though, whatever you say will be ignored, in which case it will all be a waste of trouble.”
“Only when we are still, do we give the Angels an opportunity to do something.”
“How beautiful is the ‘Mystery’, the ‘Sacrament’ of Tomorrow!”
“The Lord said: Whoever wants something, believing, he will receive – As long as the request is in accordance with God’s Commandments, that is to say, with Love.”
“Love alone is enough to make a miracle happen. Neither Prayer nor the Komboskini (Prayer rope) have such power.”
“We are useful only when we do not exist for ourselves. And vice versa.”
“Woe to me if I do not love.”
“The fasting of a diet is so easy when one wants to slim. And so difficult is the Wednesday and Friday fast when the Church wants it.”
“In the Church we should always sit in the same place, for the Angels.”
“After the Liturgy, we should sit in the Church so long as we can, for the Angels”
“When we pray we should lock our door.”
“Be still and know… There is no greater school than this kind of stillness of the mind.”
“The more closed is the door of our cell, the more open the gate of Heaven.”
“When somebody sets out to spoil our joy, we should remember within ourselves that God loves us.”
“God our Father Himself takes us by the hand and takes us to testing. For our purification and perfection. That is why God the Son has taught us to pray to Him, “and lead us not into temptation”.”
“If you love the Lord, then you have patience towards His Will.”
“Our Lord gave as an example of freedom from care, not people but the birds of heaven.”
“We need patience under the darts of the evil one, persistence in the breaking of our ego, and submission to the Holy Will of God. Only with these can we progress.”
“Never take part in a discussion where someone is being condemned or even simply gossiped about.”
“Often His Will does not seem to us either just, or convenient or pleasant. But when we see that behind this is a mountain, the mountain of His love, then we see that things could only have been thus; harmonized in God.”
“What makes us upset is the sense of wrong that we have when we think we have been wronged. But what we see as wrong, God regards as the greatest school for the progress of our Souls.”
“Never rely on something somebody tells you. Find out for yourself.”
“We must know when to be quiet, and when to leave where we are.”
“The more we discuss something that happens, the more it stays in our lives, whereas in the normal course of events it would leave at the right time.”
“When we say that somebody is “sensitive”, this means he suffers because his ego is hurt and because he is proud. The same happens with children, who as soon as somebody scolds them or opposes them, immediately start crying. This is not permissible for a person of God. The Saints didn’t have pride, and whatever people did to them they accepted it because they had humility and meekness. In this case the Soul is not “sensitive”, is not offended; it has love, dispassion…”
“When I am united with Christ, who will separate me? Is there another person? Only somebody outside of here… in which case let him stay where he is!”
“We all think that we are right. That is why we think that all our deeds are rightly done. But unfortunately, just as the Truth is One, so also the Right is One… but we are not in a position to discern.”
“If we don’t stumble, we don’t progress. We should thank God that we don’t break an arm or a leg into the bargain.”
“We should every day be spectators of the Miracles of God.”
“When you spontaneously say something about God, this is from God. On the other hand when it becomes “preaching”, then it is the ego leading the way. In the first case the seed catches, in the second it does not.”
“Where there is no respect for the person, there is none for God either. And the other way round.”
“If people had two things, readiness for change and “yes” to that spiritual person who loves them and who they trust, then the blessing of God would come upon them. This is why wherever there is obedience, God’s blessing comes and the Miracle happens.”
“The most powerful prayer is the Epiclesis (Invocation) of the Holy Liturgy.”
“We cannot have one foot here and the other there. God wants us whole. So when we say that we belong to God and that we love Him, how can we and how dare we not be a hundred per cent His?”
“He who does not lose, does not find.”
“We should always say “Thank God for our existence.” Thank God for the existence of the other. This is the true thanksgiving God wants.”
“We must guard against the feeling of ownership.”
“Even if personally we have no sorrow of our own, we see the sorrow in the world and sorrow over it. But if people do not have faith we cannot do anything.”
“God put the senses in the head. Why? Do you know? So that we can not see ourselves. Yes! So that we see only the other and love only the other. And so that we see ourselves only in the eyes of the other.”
“Saint Paul himself says, “After one or two admonitions, give up.” Finish! You have said what you ought, you have helped the person as much as you have been able. From that point on, you Pray for him and sit quietly and look at your own wretchedness.”
“Don’t forget at the “Dynamis” in the Divine Liturgy to cross your head and your whole body… whatever you ask at that moment is heard. It is a very powerful moment.”
“”Bad temper” is egoism.”
“Hour after hour I think my heart is going to break from love.”
“True fasting is to cease from all badmouthing, self-interest, seeing the mote in the eye of our brother, judging another’s servant…”
“When one is alone with God, the time passes unimaginably quickly. More quickly than when you have companionship… And yet even within the world one can remain united with God. How? When whatever he is doing he directs his thoughts to Him… when whatever good comes his way he gives Him Glory… and whatever testing he meets, he gives Him thanks.”
“If someone really believes, he can never take part in the vices or illegal things that we see every day. For anybody who does them, has not believed in God, has not lived Him in their souls. But as soon as they believe in Him, they will watch his Miracles every day.”
“Be careful of people who want to upset you and then to ask forgiveness. They take double satisfaction. They have upset you, and you have forgiven them.”
“That which the world calls co-incidences, I call meetings.”
“Here you have an Earthly father and mother and you feel so beautiful. How much more when you know that the Omnipotent is protecting you!”
“All those who research and “see” the future, see everything badly, coldly and upside down. That is to say, can’t they see anything good? Nothing? Well, then of course they suffer evil, They attract evil by their thought.”
“Never accept anything from a rich person. From someone who struggles to make a living or a poor person yes, with much gratitude.”
“The truth is One and that is Christ.”
“Many Troparia describe the Nativity of Christ in such a way that we could forget that the Virgin conceived supernaturally. How I like the Nativity in the Perivleptos Monastery in Mystras and the painting of Gyzis…”
“You should think about and see only the light. Everything else is just parentheses, which should not leave so much as a trace on you.”
“We often hear, “I met this man, or this woman, and my life changed”… and we see that in the end nothing has changed. No life. Why?”
“I have simply been something for your preparatory steps. If you do not stick fast to Christ and the Church, then you will be lost, even if in your minds you think of a person. Woe betide him who instead of going to Christ goes to a person.”
“I like it when we say “Bless the Lord my Soul” and then afterwards the Beatitudes, instead of “Through the intercessions” and “Save us”. That is how it used to be in Constantinople.”
“Those who see people in the world do not cease to be human. They keep their humanity…”
“You can not avoid pointless “chats” unless your thought is elsewhere. But this takes a lot of practice. Especially when the surroundings are friendly and dear to you.”
“When it is in God’s programme for you to go somewhere, you will go. That is why I am generally quiet in life. I have observed that even if a person does not want to, God moves him.”
“A woman who had been widowed said to me, “Why would God take away from me my family?” And I said to her, “Why don’t you ask why He left him to you for so long?” “Well OK, but there are so many who live.” “But also, how many who die as soon as they get married. Have you ever asked that question? You should give yourself to some kind of work now, to forget.””
“True Prayer always reaches Heaven. The Angels carry it to the right place and the answer comes. Its basis is Truth, and “Not My will, but that of the Father Who sent me.””
“Love is not taught. It is given from above when we ask with recognition of our egoism, which we want to shatter.”
“Do you want everything to happen as you want it? Accept everything and everybody either as His Will, or as His concession.”
“And so the passer-by and traveller that the love of God has granted me to be, continues on the way towards what is unknown to people but known to the Lord…”
To a novice: “Be simple. Talk to everybody. Let your spirituality be seen in your simplicity.”
“No Saint ever knew that he was a Saint.”
“The gifts of the Spirit are not of course individual achievements…”
“What we don’t see, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. And what we don’t hear, doesn’t mean that it does not speak.”
“Truth and light are synonymous.”
“The sermon on the mount and the epistle of Saint James. Every day! What a pity that we do not hear them more often…”
“I am under obedience to Him. I live and exist for Him.”
“Mildness and meekness are the weapons and the marks of a Spiritually strong person. He “understands” everything and forgives everything.”
“We should not become Judases, nor give the Holy Things to the dogs… I mean the supernatural Mysteries that happen within the Sanctuary. It says in the hymn, “Not to your enemies…””
“The Angels always come.”
“When we are passing through a dark tunnel, we never imagine that the other end will take us to the light. We fall into despair, and see everything black and dark. The same in life. The light of Christ is waiting for us at the other end. And saying to us, as He said to Saint Peter, “You of little faith, why are you fainthearted?””
“However much one works in a spiritual way, one’s body cannot get tired. Tiredness only comes when the spirit gets involved. When the spirit is continually at its “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us”, no amount of work can easily make us tired.”
“Day and night let us bless God for the gifts He gives us.”
“Few words, much love. To all. No matter who they are.”
“Joy, calm, love, the wish we give to everybody, if they are not accepted come back to us and to the Lord. In other words, just as we breathe, as our heart beats, without any act of will on our part and without us being able to stop it; in the same way rivers of love, of which He is the source, should flow out of us day and night and always… regardless of where they go. That is His concern.”
“So many years now the Lord has granted me to keep the first three days of Lent without opening my mouth for food or water. I have been able to do this because at the same time I also keep silence.”
“Just as I cannot stand Praying out loud, so I cannot stand monologue, only dialogue.”
“At “Christ is risen” we leave futility behind with Him and pass, thanks to His love, into Eternity.”
“There is something which is often called “spiritual pride”. But where there is pride, there is no Spirit, in which case all that is left is a nothing – pride.”
“To a novice: Be careful about two things. Love, without discrimination, without condemnation… and humility, as if you are the slave of everybody.”
“Never expect anybody to understand you. Only God.”
“Forgive everybody and see only the Light of Christ, which one day, by the Prayer of the Mother of God and all the Saints, we will encounter ourselves.”
“The ministry of service should be constant. We should continually be “forgetting” ourselves. It is not a momentary action, it is life. It is the sign of the presence of Christ.”
“A person lives only when he loves. Otherwise he is a lifeless creature, with only organic powers.”
“The love which binds people together, is the greatest Divine Gift.”
“The life in God consists in “You, follow Me.” Together, you continually feel a joy, a joy, with certainty of love and an equally continual “Thank you” for everything, day and night.”
“Peace to all – in this way the spirit is at rest, the heart loves, the soul becomes calm, the world of the Earth becomes a paradise. The Kingdom of God inside us, and we inside His Kingdom.”
“Blessed are those who begin to feel that they have become a “shadow”. This is the beginning of “non-existence”.”
“Changes, great changes, inner journeys must continue. Woe betide him who stays still like stagnant water.”
“Heaven is the Monastery of the Angels and Earth their priory (outpost).”
“What a beautiful song life is! And what blessing when after a journey of many years, I can say from 1937 to today, the invisible face of God has never departed from beside me and inside me.”
“Few words, much love… The powers of darkness are waiting for an opportunity. Let us not talk, so that we do not regret it.”
“Even in this life, Christ raised us too from the dead.”
“The resurrection of Lazarus is the symbol of the resurrection of our Soul in the world.”
“If we do not have boldness when the Lord calls us, we are lost.”
“Where there is attunement to the Will of God, there there is Prayer.”
“Don’t let anything upset you; neither people, nor reverses, nor obstacles. Christ says to us once in a while, “I received this command from My Father,” and proceeds with the certainty that He is fulfilling the Eill of His Father, however difficult and tough, and however much hatred He encounters.”
“Children are not black or white or red or yellow in the eyes of God. They are Souls which God produced through His heart like drops of blood. Who can say which drop is worth the most?”
“When we want to help someone, half of ourself must be assimilated to them. The other half, even in the face of objections, will be able to find the right solution.”
“God works in Eternity. Not in the hurry of our temporary life. Everything will happen as and when He wants.”
“Love of neighbour according to God, joy, and calm, are acquired by continuous Prayer.”
“What these days we call “down”, does not happen to a person who is called faithful. Because he is united with the love of God.”
“Don’t listen to what they say. Look at what they do.”
“At the end of the day, ask your Guardian Angel to take from your thought everybody you have seen, but also you from everybody’s thoughts. Otherwise you cannot Pray correctly. Say to him, “My Guardian Angel, bless them all and remove their thoughts from mine.”
“When we are conversing with a person, we are conversing with our Guardian Angel at the same time, and the silent and invisible listener is Christ. Never forget it.”
“Only when an Abbot or Abbess is at rest in their Souls, can those under obedience find rest.”
“The greatest Christmas present we can give to Christ is ourselves.”
“How valuable are little and simple things.”
“The birds make a chain round the whole Earth. Wherever you go, they remind you of the same things. The cuckoo shouts to you, “Get up, get up!” The peacock reminds us, “Pilgrims, pilgrims”, so that we don’t forget that we are just passing pilgrims on His Earth. And the rook cries, “Pray, pray!”.”
“The God-sent Mother of the Apostles, true Mother of God we magnify You.”
“Somebody said, “When you are conformed to the world, you are deformed. Only when you meet God are you transformed.””
“Just imagine if “volunteer” Angels are hidden within incurable psychopathic patients… just to test our love…”
“You cannot be a Christian without loving everybody the same. Both those of your own and other faiths. Both of your own and other religions, and nationalities. We are not responsible for where we are born…”
“All this “mine” is for this world. In the other one there is only “Yours”. “You, Lord”, “You, All-good one”, “You, Compassionate one”, “You, Miracle-worker”, “You, the Guide of our lives”.”
“Christ is the Original.”
“The years go by, we too go by, and only a pure Soul can remain in the hands of the Angels who He will send to receive it.”
“Don’t be concerned what people will say to you or do to you.”
“The sacrament of Marriage is a Sacrament like Baptism. If you are not “born again” within the other’s heart, and the other in your heart, it is as if God is absent. Of course He is present, but he sees you and sorrows. He cannot help you, because you have shut Him out, without knowing it.”
“But above all I thank Him that He directs everything, guides everything, loves everybody and everything and has sent into my life only Angels…”
“Forget everything. Be united with Him in Prayer. And then, you will be get messages and will know the way…”
“God does not want us split. Either we love Him, or the “world”. We cannot have one foot in the “world” and the other in the Church.”
“When our health gives us a knock, it is a message that we should stop something.”
“Beware of fame. It is not what God wants.”
“When it comes to health, a saying goes, “One doctor is advice, two doctors are confusion. Three doctors are… a graveyard.” The same holds for Spiritual matters. One Spiritual Father is from God. A second is confusion. A third, the loss of your Soul!”
“Just as the law of nature cannot endure a vacuum, so when we empty ourselves completely, the Holy Spirit rushes inside us, like a hurricane.”
“Don’t associate with company among which you would not like God to see you.”
“Love the other without judging him, just as He presents him and as He loves him. Then God will help you and will overlook your own transgressions.”
To a woman in mourning: “Above all, give up all “material” recollections and expectations.”
“For somebody to love really and deeply, he must not allow his body to interfere. Love is never forgotten when it is elevated to that level.”
“Follow your path and don’t let anything bother you. Keep your ears open and don’t be impatient. Many years must pass and we must be tested before we can acquire patience.”
“God is free, and love dwells within freedom.”
“Love of money leads to hell, because the man who loves money steals.”
“He who loves can only do beautiful things.”
“I do not have to know you. I have to love you.”
“I am not “intellectual”. I am simply happy to be alive and to love Him and everybody.”
“Do not ever get tied to anybody anywhere except Christ alone, and go wherever the Holy Spirit leads you, bringing His love to all, beyond frontiers and discrimination. Your destination is to love! That is what I was once told by my Abbot Fr Lev, and that is what I say to you.”
“Indulgence during Lent causes illness, and illness brings sluggishness.”
“Always forwards. Even at a tortoise pace.”
“Love does acrobatics in people’s hearts.”
“It is pain that allows freedom.”
“Come – be silent.”
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And the Mother said . . .
Now, if they said, “And who are you? Why should we lose what we have? Why should we lose our profit? Where will you take us? What will you do with us?”–if they had said that, what would have happened? They would have remained in darkness.
They said Yes to some Unknown who came and said, “Throw all that away!” Why? Because they believed in God, and they waited for the One who would say to them, “Come!” And that was the beginning.
Because if we say No, what will happen? . . . One or the other: If you believe, you will walk on the water like St. Peter. If you are scared–Bloop! Nothing else.
Through all my life it has been like that. They called me to the strangest and most distant place in India. One night they sent me a message: “Come and see someone who is sick.” We started out in an ox cart driven by some shepherd boy. And as we were going up the mountain in the forest, what do I see above us? Two eyes shining, a tiger. What do you say then? “Lord have mercy on me, and may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
So I closed my eyes and saw that written within me. Because He said to us, “Why do you worry? Why do you worry? Even the hairs of your head are numbered!” Why worry? Faith is lacking. May we have faith.
