Some years ago, a lady sent a letter to the late elder Efraim Katounakiotis, in which she told him that she had the weight of the world on her shoulders and a great cross which she was unable to bear. Elder Efraim answered: ‘You write that you have many burdens. I say to you: “All the better for your soul”. God, who gives you these burdens knows that you’re bearing so much; he knows how much your soul can stand; that if he gives you more, you’ll fall; that if he gives you less he’s being unfair to you, reducing your eternal reward and eternal joy’. In one part of Athens, there was a cobbler, a very harsh man, who ...
