Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith… (Hebrews 13:7)
We often hear saints referred to as “new martyr,” by way of indicating that they bore the same witness to Christ that those of the first centuries did. In the same way, it is fitting to refer to Saint Joseph as the “new ascetic.” His remarkable life effectively nullifies the contemporary excuse that “people of our times are too weak to follow the spiritual practices of the Fathers of old.” After he finished his earthly course in 1959, his influence, through his disciples with whom we lived and labored, initiated a tsunami of spiritual rejuvenation on Athos and throughout the world. And how did he accomplish this? What was the secret behind his miraculous life? No secret–he simply wanted God that much more than we do.
The chapel of Saint John the Forerunner near Little Saint Anne's Skete on Mount Athos, Greece
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