People are blind and don’t see what takes place in church during the Divine Liturgy. Once I was serving and I couldn’t make the Great Entrance because of what I saw. I suddenly felt someone pushing me by my shoulder and guiding me toward the holy prothesis. I thought it was the chanter, and said to myself: "The blessed one, such irreverence? He entered through the Beautiful Gate and is pushing me?" I turned around and saw a huge wing that the archangel had laid on my shoulder, and that he was guiding me to make the Great Entrance. What amazing things take place in the altar during the Divine Liturgy! Sometimes I can’t handle it, and so I pass out in a chair, and thus some concelebrators conclude that I’ve got something wrong with my health, but they don’t realize what I see and hear. What wings on those angels, my child!
- Elder Iakovos (Tsalikis) (1920-1991)
