There was once a simple man named Yannis who loved Jesus greatly. Because of his medical condition, however, he couldn’t do anything in order to find a job. Finally, an Elder took pity on him and brought him to his monastery.

After much trial and error, the Elder found him something he could do: the fathers gave him plates of food and he would take them and put one on each table in the refectory.

The Elder told him to pray, but he couldn’t read. Even the Jesus Prayer was too complicated for him to retain in his mind. Then the Elder said to him: ‘At least say “Hello” to Jesus as often as you can or whenever you remember’.

So, each time Yannis passed in front of the icon of Christ, he always said: ‘Hello, Christ, I’m Yannis’ Or ‘Hi, Jesus, Yannis here’, or ‘Hey, Jesus, it’s me, Yannis’. He spent his entire life carrying plates of food and saying ‘Hello, Jesus, it’s me, Yannis’

Not that he lived long.

He had a lot of medical problems and in a few years his health deteriorated to the point that everyone knew he was dying.

As, indeed, he did, after a while. When the fathers saw that he was dead, they had a faint hope that our merciful God would save his soul, even though he hadn’t managed to do much in his life. But when the monks laid him out in church for the burial service, a voice came from the icon of Christ above saying: ‘Hello Yannis! I am Jesus’.

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