June: Day 14: Holy Prophet Elisha

June: Day 14:
Holy Prophet Elisha
 
(The Reasons Why Elders Should Be Respected)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. One day the Prophet Elisha, whose feast day is celebrated today, entered the city of Bethel, whose inhabitants were drowning in wickedness. Their wickedness had reached such a point that fathers did not teach their children piety. A crowd of children met the venerable elder and began to laugh at his external shortcomings, and at the fact that he had no hair on his head. The children shouted after him: "Go away, bald one!" The Prophet Elisha looked at them with sadness and saw that there was nothing good in their hearts; he condemned their deed, and God confirmed the judgment of His Prophet. Two she-bears came out of the forest and tore the children to pieces. Forty-two of them perished.

The Chapel of the Prophet Elisha in Athens: A Monument of True and Unadulterated Orthodoxy

A Monument of Orthodox Spirituality

By Kostis Bastias

The Church of the Prophet Elisha (Elissaios) was built on the way towards Aerides near the old Stratona, on a private plot of land. It is a small chapel. A few years ago there were many small private churches both in Athens and in the rest of Greece. Simple and pious people lived at that time, who turned their excess and more often their deficiency into praise and glorification to their Creator, honoring one of His saints. Today, however, even if a pious person wants to build a chapel and honor a saint, he cannot. A thousand laws prevent him. They need special permits that no one gives them, they need approval of plans and a bunch of other difficulties that frustrate even the most zealous. Quite a few of the restrictions, to be fair, had as an occasion the private exploitation they made with these private chapels. Some of them had turned it into businesses that didn't pay much, and that once made for a dangerous retaliation to the parish churches. However, this is one thing, for which there are a thousand ways to deal with it, and the abolition of memory is another.