HEAVENLY LITURGY

The whirlwinds and earthly rains had stopped; splendidly the Sun shone and bathed, with divine
light, the entirety of humankind. Angelic armies, sent by God Almighty, descended upon the
Earth and walked among humans but no one had seen them. They tried exceedingly hard, those
angels, at first by making miracles with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, to get people to
notice them. Wherever they would find ground suitable to lay upon, that ground would be fertile
and noble. If by chance, theyd decide to bathe in a river, that river would be clear and thriving
with fish. But, the people who had decided ages ago to blind their spiritual, saintly eyes with
the flames of sin as king Milutin Nemanjic attempted blinding his own son, Stefan of Decani,
for a meager few more years of earthly rulership and thus, those people didnt know and
couldnt know to appreciate Gods will and benevolence, blaspheming and mocking it.
O, thou Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou hast appreciated that divine boon!
And God, in his unlimited mercy, forgave in his perfect Heart forgave that imperfect flock.
Many years had passed and human thrivings for Heavens gates were much too faint and lowly
-for on the way towards Heaven knocked down were they by the winds of temptation forceful,
fearsome storms, capable of besting even the strongest; or sometimes since their eyes were
oh, so used to darkness, they were at once blinded and mesmerized by the fair light and virtue of
paradise. Rare, much too rare, were those who rose up to true heights and who had become like
towers and sentries of a chateau called Christianity; individuals who, alike to a lonesome
sunflower amidst a mire grew upwards, never despairing and always thriving for the Sun. And
thus, one day not the day of Genesis, not the day of Judgement, either God sent upon the
Earth the Victory of the People (Greek nike victory; laos people) hed sent it to a small
tribe, tortured by wars past, whose shots and cries still echoed through space and time.
O, thou Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou hast healed those wounds and those cries heard!
Thus, the divine winds brought a seed which like the germ of any other plant, thrown into dry
land suffered because of the lack of water; that seed had yearned to drink the water of the soul.
And that sort of water Godlike had been scarce in the crusty, dried out land it had been
sentenced to. Difficult very difficult, was the development of a child who had nothing to help it
grow and develop. Still, years have passed, and with faith in God His measureless love and
mercy, matured the Peoples Victory into a large tree with a wide, lush crown and fragrant,
delicious fruit. But, as it always turns out, parents instead of letting their children enjoy the
shade of the Tree (as Jesus had said Let the children come to me...) they envied the tree,
broke its boughs and branches and desecrated its bark and roots. This has angered God terribly;
yet again, the people had disappointed him, without even realizing what they are doing much
too thick was the shadow of their virtue for them to see; it had blurred their sight and tricked
their senses. Therefore, He, in his endless wisdom, through that noble tree spoke, warning them,
severely but justly of the consequences of such a misdeed.
O, though Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou hadst given that message unto your flock!

And thus, disregarding the dreadful warning, with time like a drop of rain, sliding across a wet
window and amassing volume for itself, thus hasting mindlessly towards the bottom amassed
the sins and evil acts of the people, and in the same manner, mindlessly hasting towards the
depths. But, still blew not the winds; rain hadnt flooded the flock no, it was fog that spread
across all of the world. That was a liturgy upon the Heavens, and the mist twas the smoke
from divine incense, which filled the lungs of every single child of God. But it reached not the
mind and the heart they were much too isolated by Satans walls. Namely, the people though
that the Emperor of Death would protect their wisdom and virtue when he sweet-talked them into
going astray distancing themselves from God like the tempting snake which persuaded Eve
to taste the forbidden fruit. And those walls surrounding their souls - bulwarks raised and built
with rock from Hades itself, let not through a single ray of the Divine Sun; not a single breath of
God passed through.
And in such custody the Spirit decayed; hearths of Gods home flickered away. Vanished was
now that flame kept alive by faith and hope; it faded away, extinguished by the poisoned water
of haughtiness and licentiousness. And the Peoples Victory was that flint and bellows and the
very first spark which will kindle the flames anew. There were also those who raised towers and
churches for the salvation of their soul (which is, by now, merely dark coal) but even they
dressed into monk mantles and cried O, Heavens, look upon my kindness!. And the Liturgy on
the Heavens lasted still but now rainstorm was falling from the sky, wondrous and terrifying.
Thunderbolts cracked and lightning blasted. God was now wrathful he was preparing his
eschatonic armies! And the heavy downpour those were the very tears of the Peaceful
Shepherd, Saint Sava. Salty and bitter, they dried out crops, they burned the skin of the people.
Floods also started; for rivers were overflowed by the saintly tears. Came a mighty crisis, that is,
a mighty judgement. And just then in the greatest plight, when not one earthly delight had
remained, when everything turned bitter and atrocious and abominable; when even the last drop
of wine turned to vinegar then the people beseeched and pleaded but it was much too late.
O, thou Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou hast been that Victory of the People those
bellows and lift for posterity!
And thus appeared Doubt a darkly word, darker yet thought, which amongst the people most
commonly shows in the form of a certain worm, brought by the fly of disbelieving, which feeds
upon spiritual food, leaving emptiness and spreading further, or occasionally, as an arrow whose
tip is made of Judas silver, poisoned with envy. But is there, oh, is there balm in Gilead for these
sufferers? Alas Gilead is too distant, but myrrh also flowed out of The Tree the Peoples
Victory. That tree was ages ago spat upon and desecrated by the people and resin came out of its
bark. But disappointment appeared among humans, and despair, when they saw the resin had
dried up and hardened becoming one with the tree anew. As they could not find relief of
sorrow, they scratched with their nails and licked the resin and prayed for more. But God had no
more patience long ago has every barrier been broken. And rushed the clouds and hail fell
down and every leaf and fruit upon the tree fell to the ground and rotted. The peoples faces
turned pallid, they shivered and trembled, falling to their knees. They knew, even though they
were weak of faith, that it certainly cannot be a good sign. But the wretched worm that fed on

their minds didnt let a single thought of possible salvation cross their minds for they did not
even try to think.
O, thou Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou hast been that punishment and judgement of the
people, severe and vehement, but still just for the hand of God leads you!
Some sort of burning disquiet chthonic, it seems impelled the humans away from God and let
them into a lee, where the cold winds of Gods reprimand and the Devilish hot winds collide.
Theyd found themselves just there, in the middle of a crossroads, on the fork between two
pathways Good and Evil. But the way of Good was teeming with traps and temptation; there
were many sideways its more likely to be a labyrinth. At least thats the way people described
it in their dirges. And thunderbolts never ceased to drum across the Heavens, like Bannermen of
an army marching to battle. Animals came flooding out of the sea and falling out of the Air and
onto the ground, falling gracefully right before humans; and the last word that their mouth would
utter in this world is Guilt. The trees suffered, blown by winds of loneliness winds most
fierce. And the leaves, carried around by those winds, spread the message the same old,
omnipresent message Guilt. Candles no longer shone upon graves. Who in the world needs
that faint, golden light?! Truly, all of the gold in the world belongs to us! every moment,
those truly lowly people told themselves that, not even realizing what happens when man
attempts to compensate his spiritual emptiness with wealth forgetting the fatal destiny of
Marcus Licinius Crassus, who was fed with gold, which he, oh, so terribly longed to eat and
thus he died solely because of his own greed.
O, thou Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou hast during the life of yours judged that great
guilt; the burden upon the back of humankind! Thou hast brought the Gods Judgement!
O, history, a cruel foster mother you are! Do you repeat yourself, as they say, or is it just the
people, in their boundless forgetfulness, that repeat themselves as the Sun every morning rises
and in the same manner shines upon the Earth? And the hills and mountains, gaunt and cold for
ages now, merely echoed, thus responding to the cries of the people with their own
whimpering, but more morose and quieter. Empty are the churches, as caverns abandoned;
empty are souls, so the churches are too. And the winds blew also through the windows of those
churches and the agony of solitude and lonesomeness and bore it directly into the face and
struck down with all their might, and the only response the only possibly response were the
shouts of regret and penance. They broke out and pierced through the dark of night and the owls
retorted with the same cries, while they chased lambs. And doves no longer sung from the skies,
and the fish no longer swam in the waters God created for them.
O, thou Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou art that historic stepmother; thou art that Sun
which shone upon the Earth! Thou art that echo of the hills and woods!
And thus came Death on its Pale Horse, in the company of Hades; and came Ishtar trotting with a
handful of sand from the East, came Belial with his flaming trident, Seth appeared from the
deserts and brought heat and drought. Misery and calamity possessed the people: the Seventh
Seal had opened, called the Seventh Horn and thus came the End. And Saint Sava watched
over the squalor, watched and wept! His saintly heart was breaking. With the deepest of sighs,

and his head looking downwards, he pleaded God for that one, last forgiveness. He begs God
for mercy. That is enough, God! Spare the remaining ones! God had thought for some time and
decided to listen to Sava, ordering his heavenly minions to stop.
And calmed the cherubims and seraphs; they descended from their winged horses. Stopped the
blaring and clanging of the storm all of the forces, heavenly and earthly, which rose against
what little remained upon the Earth, finally stopped and the weeping winds blew no longer for
thus was Gods will. And rains of anger, rainstorms and flooding ceased and a tear appeared in
Savas eye the last, most cheerful one. And through that drop of water reflected the light of
Paradise and the reflection made a miraculous rainbow and a white dove flew across the
firmament with an olive branch in its beak and all of it had happened during the dark of the
night, while the stars in the sky heavenly eyes watched as the Earthly gardens bloomed anew,
filled with healing springs sources of virtue, and simply wished to come down upon the Earth,
to celebrate together with humanity. Slowly, the Sun started rising, finally winning over the
darkness with lush, Godly red and shone over the blue oceans of humans.
O, thou Great Episcope, shepherd Nikolai, thou art and were and always shall be that crimson
morning, that Godly red which warmed even the coldest hearts!
And the sky blushed with the morning; the Sun made another full cycle, and the people the
people, weak in their knees, mesmerized, beholds the beauty of the daybreak beholds and
cheers! And once again, angels came down amongst the people and with their cresset spread the
heavenly bliss and benediction and the people yet again willingly anticipated the coming of the
Lord. The scent of incense and the echo of the bells spread across the entire Earth and now the
storms clanged on the Earth. Anew blew winds, which bore the message of cheer, hope, and
salvation, and not guilt, decay and bleakness. And now the entire human kind shouted solemnly,
uniquely, perfectly Hallelujah! So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in
them was completed. And God saw that it was good. Evening came and then morning. Day Seven.
And the episcope Nikolai smiled from the heavens to his people, for they finally lived in
accordance with Gods Law, for they finally abolished the stone of Hades which surrounded and
smothered their hearts and souls, for they finally of course entered the church; they yet again
lived in the home of God and the Holy Flames lit up anew in the hearth and in the eye and the
soul of humans. And that flame showed the way for the flock during their long, dreadful past. It
was capable of turning into a large, fearsome fire to scare away the Satanic forces from every
side of the world and release themselves from their shackles when the proper moment comes. At
last, they pushed away the worm from their minds and threw it far away, for it to return to the
deepest pits of Hell where it belongs. And all of it Nikolai watched, seeing in the flames the
hardships of his earthly people in the present and the future; he lead them through space and
through time, through rains of sorrow and misfortune, through storms and hurricanes of poverty
and coldness. And forever shall he, thus, from the skies dedicatedly and quietly watch over
and follow and pray for mercy from the Eternal God towards that sinful flock, his imperfect,
ephemeral flock. Amen, Nikolai, let it be so!