✨The Prophet Elijah with Saint Iakovos Tsalikis of Evia in Paradise

✨*“I desire Paradise—that is my destination: to find a little corner to rest, to escape the torment of that eternal fire of hell. I want nothing else.”*

✨*“One day, I read a little, I prayed, and I lay down, but I couldn’t sleep. Then I began to see these things. My soul began to ascend to the heavens in a noetic way, and I was seeing Paradise spiritually.”*

✨*“Suddenly, I see—not ghosts or anything demonic—I see myself somewhere. And I saw an old man, named Elijah, wearing a sheepskin mantle, and we were walking on a wide path, a road covered entirely with violets of every kind and blooming carnations, like fields of wheat. And I said to him:”*

✨– ‘Father, how shall we walk through all these flowers? Won’t we step on them?’

✨– ‘No, my father,’ he said, ‘this is our road. Walk, father, walk. These flowers will not be harmed.’

✨*“And as I turned my eyes to the right and left, trying not to step on the flowers, I saw some small white houses with beautiful blossoms around them.”*

✨– ‘I wonder, don’t these homes have any people in them?’ I asked.

✨– ‘Ah, my father,’ he said, ‘they belong to people. They are prepared by them while still on earth, in this life.’

✨*“I saw a wide earthen road and said to him:”*

✨– ‘But, father, if cars pass through here, won’t they ruin the flowers?’

✨– ‘No cars come through here, my father, nor any other people. Only those whom God has chosen to walk this road may pass.’

✨*“I will never forget those flowers, because that night I had been thinking and asking myself, ‘What must that world up there be like?’”*

✨*“The grace of God enlightens us so that we may see—not ghosts or demonic things—but, forgive me, as it is written: ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions.’ And every person prepares his own, according to his deeds here on earth.”*

—

📖 From the book: “Elder Iakovos (Stories – Counsels – Testimonies).”

Part A: Stories (excerpts). Published by Enomeni Romiosyni, 2016.