Paraklesis

Mm.

And it just so happened to be 2020 when COVID was really big, and St. Nikephoros, um, the Leper and Wonderworker, um, who's from Crete, our iconographer was from Crete, um, he, um, we began to ask a lot of prayers from him through his Paraklesis.

Um, there was a lot of miracles that happened during COVID where people would ask St. Nikephoros to heal them of COVID or to protect them- Mm ... and he would heal them or protect them.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

The Paraklesis service that in our church we sing every Wednesday, most Wednesdays, um, it has some of the darkest texts ever.

Mm-hmm.

When I went through a very dark phase in my life in my 20s-

Mm-hmm

...

the Paraklesis was what brought me out of it.

I've never been to a service before that had these incredibly dark, um, uh, depression-filled lines.

But the revolutionary part of this, first of all, it's in the age of print, so that this This New Testament has wide distribution, but also it inspires a whole generation of young scholars to take up the study of biblical languages, to take up the study of manuscripts, and to have It's a period of enormous optimism that we could have the best possible text of Scriptures, and that that is a work of the Holy Spirit that will lead to the renewal of the Church.

In Erasmus' introduction to his New Testament, the Paraklesis, He writes this famous idea of the philosophy of Christ, that Christian renewal is a return to the teaching of Christ, the imitation of Christ, living a life based on the gospel.

And, of course, it's read as a critique of the church and its teaching.

But it's hugely, hugely influential on people who will both become Protestants and others who stay within the Catholic Church.