Elder Porphyrios told me...

Shortly after he was appointed chaplain to the Church of St. Gerasimos in the Athens Polyclinic, by Omonia Square, he had a problem at the time of the Liturgy. Directly across the street from the Church was a store that sold gramophones and records. The shopkeeper played records on the gramophone in order to attract customers. He played them so loudly, however, that Elder Porphyrios could not bear it. He had reached the point where he thought of resigning even though he wanted the post very much.

In this situation, as throughout his whole life, Elder Porphyrios did not put his own wants first, but with much prayer and humbleness, asked God to show him what he should do.

Therefore, following three days of fasting and prayer he found a notebook that belonged to the son of a Church council member, in the corner of the Church. He was a student at the University. It was a physics notebook, -Lord, we always marvel at your works- which gave Elder Porphyrios the solution to his problem.

Leafing through the pages, he found some notes that referred to acoustic waves. Studying it, he had a thought. If you throw a pebble into a lake, the water is disturbed and circles form. If, on the other hand, you threw a rock into another section of the lake, new bigger circles are created which neutralize the first circles.

This was the answer from God that Elder Porphyrios was waiting for. The next day, he tried to concentrate all his spiritual and mental powers into the prayers and the acts of the Divine Liturgy. Thus, on the basis of the reasoning he had done about the lake, he formed circles in his mind and his heart that canceled out the circles that were formed by the gramophone. It no longer disturbed nor distracted him from the Divine Liturgy.

There was a priest who struggled to overcome the smoking habit. When he was just about to give up, temptation would defeat him and he was overcome again. He had tried to give up smoking often, using different methods. Each time he failed.

This continued until he visited Elder Porphyrios one day. They talked about different subjects. When they began talking about priest's family situation and about certain differences that he had with his wife. Elder Porphyrios told him that the real reason for the friction was the fact that, without the priest himself realizing it, he smoked.

"When you give up smoking," the Elder said to him, "you will see that your wife will love you more, your differences will end, and everything will be as you wish in your house. I'll pray for you and you won't smoke again. Now throw that pack of cigarettes you're holding out of the window immediately."

The priest was obedient. He threw away his cigarettes and did not smoke again. Even though he had been trying to give up smoking for years and always failed, this time he encountered no difficulties in the realization of his decision.

When he finished telling the story, Elder Porphyrios called one of the nuns to his room and asked her to bring in a priest who was outside with his wife. It was the priest about whom we were talking. There we heard the priest and his wife telling us how much suffering this habit had caused to their personal relationship. It was through Elder's intervention that everything changed and they both became different people.

Then Elder Porphyrios explained to us that in another situation he showed a spiritual child of his yet another method to stop smoking. You cannot suddenly give up smoking from one moment to the next, (as in the case of the priest who he advised to throw away the pack of cigarettes immediately). This new method was in stages. The specific advice in this case was to lessen the number of cigarettes by one every three days.

When we asked him why in one instance he suggested one way and in the other instance another way, he answered that for each person different things apply. One person can bear one thing and another person something else.