With the Forty Martyrs We Also Have Forty Intercessors

By Elder Gabriel,
Abbot of the Monastery of the Venerable David in Evia

(Delivered during Great Vespers on March 8, 2021)

Forty are the Martyrs. Their intercessions are also forty now and we ask them with faith, with fervor, with humility, to beg the Lord on our behalf even in this period in which we live, with so many difficulties and so many trials, and for them to help us, in their turn and for their part, that we may be given faith, strength, patience and the determination that we each bear our own Cross, but also the general Cross that we all bear.

And if, with the Grace of God, we succeed then we too will each receive a place there in the Kingdom of God, when the time will come for each of us, and we pray this through the intercessions of our Panagia, our Saint David, our Saint Iakovos, the prayers of our Holy Elder Kyrillos, that all of you and all of us will succeed in this. Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.