Fr. Ghelasie talks about the importance of a spiritual father and tells us a real story from his monastery: "Look at this brother, he is crying, you hurt him!" Fr. Ghelasie Tepes is the abbot of Sighisoara Monastery in Transylvania, Romania and a disciple of Fr. Arsenie Boca. Conference organized by Liga Tinerilor Creștini Mureș…


Fr. Ghelasie talks about the importance of a spiritual father and tells us a real story from his monastery: “Look at this brother, he is crying, you hurt him!”
Fr. Ghelasie Tepes is the abbot of Sighisoara Monastery in Transylvania, Romania and a disciple of Fr. Arsenie Boca.

Conference organized by Liga Tinerilor Creștini Mureș
November 21, 2018, Targu-Mures, Romania
Video source: https://www.facebook.com/OrtodocsiDePretutindeni/videos/828511037552297/
Subtitles: English, Romanian

Fr. Ghelasie:
Father Teofil the blind rebuked a brother in the monastery [Sambata, Romania]… maybe that one did something wrong… and the Father rebuked him, was harsh with him…
Well, that brother was from Maramures [Northern Romania], Mihai was his name, and the he started crying…
And he said, “let me go to Father Seraphim (Seraphim was a very good man and the spiritual father of the monastery) to tell him how harsh you were to me!”
Fr. Teofil: “Go! Let’s see what Fr. Seraphim will do!”
He went there and cried, fell to his knees, shouting: “Reverend Father, I was wrong, I’m convinced that I was wrong, but why was he so harsh to me?”
Fr. Seraphim: “Did Father Teofil do this?”
“Yes!”
“Well, go and call him to come to me!”
He went to him, Fr. Seraphim was the spiritual father of Fr. Teofil as well…
He asks, “Teofil, is it true what this brother says?”
“Yes, it’s true!”
“Where did you learn these things? Have you ever seen this in me?”
“No!”
“So you haven’t seen… Have you ever heard this from me?”
“No, I haven’t heard!”
“Well, if you didn’t see me and you didn’t hear from me, where did you get them?” “And look at this brother, he is crying, you hurt him!” “Kneel down and ask for forgiveness!”
Well, Fr. Teofil immediately fell to his knees and asked for forgiveness.
Then Fr. Serafim said to him: “If you hadn’t done that, then I wouldn’t have received you to confession anymore! Because you didn’t learn these things from me!”
So, I gave you this example in order to see that each of us have our flaws, our outbursts, but we have a spiritual father!
Do you see? How important is to have a spiritual father!
How important is to have a someone to help you! Don’t you think?
You never know, maybe you are wrong sometimes… You break some rules, you outburst…