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“He was... the feet of the lame man” (Job 29:15). One of the nobles, by the name of Pensky, from the Bragin region, had a wife, Anna. For several years she had severe pain in her legs, she had to be carried, and could not take a single step on her own. The doctors who treated the incurable disease were already exhausted. That man heard about the miraculous image of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Elias Monastery, and he brought his wife there. They carried her into the church, and here, praying warmly with tears, she received a speedy healing: at the same hour she stood on her feet. Just like the lame man in Jerusalem described in Acts (Acts 3:3), so this woman’s feet and legs were strengthened, and she jumped up, praising God and the Mother of God. And everyone was filled with great surprise at the miracle that happened to her. Let us ask the lame man in Jerusalem who was carried: where did he find his legs? He will say: “At the doors of the church, which are called Red” (Acts 3:2). Blessed are you, lame man, for you have chosen a good place for yourself, the red church doors, and with them your legs were straightened. But the most blessed are those who cling to the Most Pure Virgin and have chosen a place for themselves with Her, for She is a much more beautiful Door, a Church and a Gate! With them, not only physical (like that Anna), but also mental lameness is healed. Chroma was an Egyptian sinner with spiritual feet, so lame that she could not cross the church threshold: “When,” she said, “my wretched feet touched the threshold, the church accepted everyone and did not forbid anyone, but I, the accursed one, did not accept me: as if many soldiers were appointed to close the entrance, so the power of God forbade me” (see Life of Mary of Egypt). Look how her legs were established at the image of the Mother of God: not only did she enter the church to venerate the Honest Tree, but she also ran into the desert, walked across the waters and through the air. So these mental Gates are strong for healing the legs, both physical, I say, and spiritual. The poor usually ask for alms at the gates, and where can anyone receive better alms if not from the Blessed Virgin? The words confused me: “This gate will be shut, it will not open” (Ezek. 44:2). I was afraid that I would leave empty, unheard and ashamed when I ran to them and knocked. For how can my hands receive anything through doors that are closed and never open? But when I heard him sing: “No one who comes to You is put to shame, comes from You, Most Holy Theotokos, but asks for grace and accepts the gift” (Paraklis to the Mother of God), I received hope and dare, although unworthy, to run to You, O Heavenly Gates! You are closed to asking: “How did you remain a Virgin, and were you able to give birth?” (Akathist, ikos 9). There is no one who enters through these doors: “Rejoice, you who gave birth to the ineffable Light; Rejoice, you who have taught not a single person” (Akathist, Ikos 2). But You are not closed to giving alms, You are open to everyone; everyone who wants Your mercy will “go in and out and find pasture” through these doors (John 10:9). I passed through the gates of the nobles of this world and saw many obstacles. There are guards standing there at the gate, who either hold you back or ask why you are coming and where you are coming from, or don’t let you in at all, or they will let some in and turn others away. I also saw various heraldic seals: on some of them gates are depicted, closed or open, but not entrance, for either animals or warriors with naked weapons stand near them - who can enter them? When I come to Your gates, O Queen Almighty, I find nothing of the kind: the guards will not push me away, the animals will not frighten me, the warriors will not drive me away, no one will ask why I am going. But I enter without restraint, and stand before You, and talk with You, even though I am unworthy. You see me, listen to me, have mercy and submit me to a useful petition. From the doors of many nobles I often saw leaving and crying - unheard, unpardoned, even more insulted. Who ever came out of Your doors offended? As soon as he approaches Your door, he immediately forgets crying. For you cannot stand, O Mother, to see Your children offended and inconsolable. All who turn aside from the right path and do not keep the covenant of the Lord are lame. They have turned aside “from their paths,” says the psalmist (Ps. 17:46). There are two types of chrome: on one leg and on both legs. Those who are lame with one leg are those who either stand up straight or bow to the ground. So, they either turn to virtue, then return to anger; Then they get up, then they fall again and seem to walk in two ways. Sirach speaks about such people: “Woe to the sinner who walks in two paths” (Sir. 2:12). Those who, having once fallen, do not want to get up, are limping on both legs, but, stuck in the swampy depths and despairing of their salvation, as if without legs on the earth, they are in a vanity of vanities, crawling: their soul has turned to dust, their womb is clinging to the earth. Or they are carried, as if by some violent sinful custom, not where they would like, but where their sinful passion captivates them: what they want, they do not do, and what they do not want, they do - not they, but the sin living in them (see Rom. 7: 19-20). The prophet Elijah appeals to such lame people: “How long will you be lame on both knees?” (1 Kings 18:21). For such people, in order for their feet to stand in the right, they must relentlessly hold on to the church doors of repentance. For just as one enters the church through the doors, so through holy repentance one enters church fellowship, corrects one’s life, receives God’s mercy and forgives sins and enters the heavenly abodes. Through these doors the thief, the publican, the harlot and the prodigal son entered. Let us also move forward to enter through the narrow gates of penitential labors while we have time, for many will later want to enter and will not be able to. Now let us knock on these doors, calling: “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver!” (Stichera for Lenten). Now let us listen to the apostle teaching us: “Strengthen your drooping hands and weakened knees, and walk straight with your feet, so that what is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be made straight” (Heb. 12:12-13). The sinner who washed the sick nose hears from above: your many sins are forgiven. A certain eminent woman, after the death of her husband, having collected all her sins in her thoughts and remembering the hour of death and the Last Judgment, went to blessed Neophytos and, bowing to him, said: “By faith I came to your shrine, honorable father, to confess all my sins.” The same one did not want to listen to her: “It is impossible for me, child, to listen to the actions of women.” But she did not retreat: “Holy Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, in our image, did not reject the harlot who came to Him, kissing His honest feet with tears and confessing her sins to Him, but you drive away me, who wants to repent and confess.” Hearing this, the elder said to her: “If you say so to me, child, and by faith you have come to my unworthiness, let’s go to church and speak with a contrite heart to the merciful God of mankind about your deeds. I, thin old man, will listen to them too.” Having come to church with the elder, having prayed and bowed to him, the woman stood in silence. The elder urged her, saying: “What does this mean, child? Since early morning you asked my humility to accept you, and now you don’t say a word?” She answered: “I do not dare to speak, honest father, for an inappropriate thought torments me.” The elder then says: “Write, so that I will read that charter before the Lord God, who forgives our sins because of His many mercy.” The wife answered: “And I cannot do that because of my many iniquities.” Then the elder said: “If you cannot do this, I will do this: I will remember for you the sins that are committed in human life, one by one: did you do this or something else?” Having listened to what the elder listed, the woman says to him: “For the sake of God’s grace and your holy prayers, I did not do anything like that, but my other sins.” “If they are different,” he answered, “then I am not a reader of the heart, I do not know the secrets of men.” She said: “Pray for me,” and left. Walking down the street, she sees a certain monk - old, paralyzed, lying on the ground, abandoned by everyone - and says to him: “Do you want me to take you to my house, I will give you rest, and you will beg God about my unworthiness?” He answered: “Yes, I want you, madam, to show mercy on me, the accursed one.” And she, going to her house, prepared a bed, sent to buy monastic vestments and ordered the slaves to carry the paralytic monk to the bathhouse, wash him, dress him in new clothes, bring him and put him on the bed prepared for him. All this was done, and she began to minister to him, anointing and healing his sores. Time passed, Maundy Thursday arrived, the saving Passion arrived. That woman said to the elder: “I want to do something for you, Father, but be patient and don’t say anything.” - “As you command, my lady, so I will do.” The hour of Divine service has arrived. The priest was serving the Divine Liturgy in the church of her house, and when he began to read the Gospel: “When Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster vessel of precious ointment and poured it on His head as he reclined” (Matthew 26:6-7), - that woman took the vessel of myrrh, approached the monk and, pouring myrrh on his feet, kissed them and poured them tears and wiped it with her hair, confessing her sins. And as soon as she did this, a terrible earthquake began, but not in the whole city, but only in her house. After the earthquake there was a voice: “Your sins are forgiven you.” With that Divine voice coming, the monk arose healthy, no longer having a single scab, not a single ulcer on his body, and he glorified our Lord Jesus Christ, who works great and terrible miracles. And the blessed woman, having accepted the forgiveness of her sins from the unsearchable and ineffable mercy of God and having lived the remaining years of her life in repentance, reposed to God, leaving an example to all who want to come to repentance. You might be interested in: