Elder Aimilianos: “Do you know why God put your eyes right there?”

Fr. Iakovos, a disciple of Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra (Mount Athos) remembers one of his encounters with his spiritual father.

 “‘Do you know why God put your eyes right there?’ I was speechless, I was thinking, I was asking: what does he want to hear, what is the answer? And all I could say to him was: ‘Geronda (which means Elder), you tell me!’ And so he looked at me and said: ‘so you can see what the other person needs, and not what you need!’ Because, in truth, if you wish to see what you need you have to go the mirror and look at yourself… And so then he says to me: ‘that is what a personal relationship is!’…”