My Great-Grandmother Kalliope

In 1998, at the age of 101 my great-grandmother Kalliope passed away. She was a very, very special woman. She lost her husband at a very young age and immediately moved in with my grandparents and spent the remainder of her days tending to her children, grandchildren and eventually great-grandchildren and serving the Church with all of her heart.This photograph is from New Years Day in 1983. Luckily for me, we remained this close until her death. Now she remains in my prayers.I'll never forget when I was about a sophomore or junior in high school she fell and broke her hip. She told us the devil kept teasing her and he told her that he put out her kandili (vigil lamp). So she climbed out of bed and walked down the dark hallway, one she'd walked a million times before, and when she reached to turn on the light she fell and broke her hip. My grandparents called the ambulance, but she wouldn't leave until someone re-lit the kandili, which had indeed gone out.Now, I'll be honest. At that point in my life my concerns rarely stretched beyond what I was going to wear the next day. I loved my family dearly and my mother made sure we attended Divine Liturgy every Sunday and all of that but I have to confess to knowing the bare minimum of our Faith. So, these 'conversations' with the devil were nothing more than old yiayia tales or superstitions to me.Whenever I spent the night there she would make sure we said our prayers in front of the iconostasi and when we laid down to sleep she would come tuck us in and make the sign of the cross over our pillows. It was all comforting and gave me, as a young girl, a feeling of security. I can remember awaking the next morning only to be reminded to wash my face and say morning prayers before coming into the kitchen. By the time I was finished she was usually sitting in her little armchair by the front window, reading. She tried very hard to get me to read the Bible in Greek with her and to learn different prayers. I did manage to write one or two of them down, thanks to my constant journal keeping, but sadly enough most of them have been forgotten.Yesterday I was going through one of my journals where I keep different prayers, psalms, quotes, etc that I especially like when I found a piece of paper with a prayer printed on it that my dear friend Joanna had given me. It felt so familiar to me. Initially I thought it was simply because I'd read it before but that just didn't settle it. As I flipped through my other journals where I have prayers and different things written, including the two prayers from my great-grandmother, I found it. I read them both line by line to make sure. And sure enough it was one of the prayers she tried, unsuccessfully until now, to teach me. I can remember her coming into my grandmother's living room where I layed on the floor watching Nickelodeon and making me repeat line after line of this prayer.She kept telling me in Greek, "Don't forget Sevasti, you're going to need this, your children are going to need this. Don't forget."She did many things like this so I didn't take any special notice of this prayer-until now.Right before she fell asleep in 1998, literally months, through the Grace of God I had finally taken a keen interest in the Orthodox Faith. Niko and I had started dating and suddenly my life had taken a different path. We began attending the monasteries that had recently opened a few hours from us and I was just amazed by the books and materials available. I had never seen or heard of so many saints. I devoured those books like a starving child.A few days before her death she kept telling us that she saw the devil again. This time I paid attention. She said he kept dancing around in front of her, sticking his tongue out at her and telling her to break her fast. He'd said, "C'mon, Christ isn't going to punish you! You've fasted your whole life and you're old and dying now!" Even the priest had told her to eat whatever she felt she needed but she wouldn't.I called my spritual father and told him what was going on. He told me that many times before a person dies, especially if they led a Christian life, the devil will try everything in his power to tempt them and make them lose faith.I planned on visiting her again, which I did almost everyday but Niko was planning on coming that day to meet her for the first time.I always loved sitting beside her, laying in her lap or watching her crochet afghan after afghan but I had something else in mind now. I wanted to know everything she knew about or faith. I knew a few things, like how she confessed to St. Savva of Kalymnos and how her mother had a visit from Archangel Michael asking her to build a Church to him in a certain location and some other special things but I wanted to know more.I can't remember what happened exactly that day but Niko ran late at work and couldn't make it. I remember leaving her room and telling her, "I love you Yiayia. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?" and she just nodded. She died that night. Niko never got to meet her. And I was so devastated that I couldn't bare making the trip to Ohio for her funeral and to watch her be placed in the ground next to my great-grandfather, a place I visited with her often. I deeply regret not attending the funeral now but at the time I couldn't bear the thought.I think back now and I cannot even explain how much I yearn for her, for her words, her knowledge, her example. There are so many things now, as a grown woman, a wife, a mother that I want to ask her. How did she deal with certain things, as an Orthodox woman?Instead of crying my days away though, I take advantage of what she left behind. Namely, my grandmother, whose name I took (though I wish I took her manner and way of thinking too). She always offers the best advice. I know that no matter what situation I'm in I can call her for honest, unbiased, Orthodox Christian advice. She never fails me. I feel sooo blessed to have her in my life and I pray that I have her for a very long time.Anyways, I wanted to share that prayer with you. This post wasn't originally supposed to go into all of this but it did. This is the original English translation.

A Prayer for Orthodox Christians of the Latter Times

Deliver me, O Lord, from the deceptions of the God-hating and evil anti-Christ, whose coming is at hand, and shelter me from his snares in the secret desert of Thy salvation.Grant me, O Lord, strength and courage to firmly confess Thy Most Holy Name, that I may not abandon You because of the devil's fear and that I many not deny Thee, my Savior and Redeemer, nor Thy Holy Church.But Grant me, O Lord, cries and tears for my sins, and spare me, O Lord, in the hour of Thy dreaded Judgment. Amen.~St. Anatoly the New Martyr (+1922)