Seconds and minutes were flying unmercifully fast when a well-trained Rescue team was running along the hospital corridor under the terrible sounds of a siren. The heart of a ten-year-old girl had stopped on the operating table and did not want to restart its pumping.

The team was working so quickly that you could hardly see the hands motions of the life savers. Short commands were followed by immediate response. The heart made 3-4 beats and stopped again. The orthopedic surgeon stepped out of the operating room, being deeply upset. The clinical death was recorded and it interfered with the life of his patient, as well as his work, diminishing the chances for the 3-rd spinal fusion to take place.

The excessive bleeding started unexpectedly in 20 minutes from the beginning of the surgery, causing the heart failure and complete stop of the heart. Two previous surgeries were successful and he was not ready to fail at the third one.

When the emergency siren rang, Tikhon mentioned to his wife,

"There is something wrong with our Tata."

He pronounced this and was sorry for it. His wife looked at him with eyes full of fear. Tikhon did not answer. Tammy got up and exited the Waiting room. She was staying on the second floor of a wonderful, recently built St. Christopher Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, looking helplessly at the people passing by.

Tikhon wanted to calm Tammy down and gently touched her elbow, saying,

"I could be wrong..."

She knew that he was not wrong. From the very beginning they were given one chance out of a hundred that she could survive the very first surgery. She was good with two. Tammy thought, "What had happened there?" At the present moment she wanted to be with her girl and cuddle her tiny body with multiple scars and new cuts. Tammy wandered along the endless corridor in the direction of the surgical block. She was bitterly crying and praying,

"Oh Lord! Save my child. She suffered terribly for eight years. Please, be merciful for my girl. Do not force her to suffer for the sins she had never made. Do not punish us with her death. We love our girl so much, that I cannot imagine our life without her. I am her mother, who is dying for her. Please do not take my kid away from me. If even You do not keep in Your plans her walking, I agree to carry her, but let my sweetheart be with us."

Tammy stopped for a moment, looked up at the painting, she was passing by and froze there. She knew the painting very well. It was a clown with white face, funny red nose and black oversized tuxedo. He carried a small girl on his left arm and a girl was pulling her bear.

On that day Tammy saw something different. She thought that tears affected her vision and came closer. It was a huge icon of Jesus Christ, who was looking judgmentally at poor mother.

She shuddered and exclaimed,

"My Lord, forgive me. I understood what You meant: Tata is not mine. She is Your child, as all of us. Take her, if You decide that it’s her time and she bore enough. Take her now and do not extend her suffering. My Lord, forgive me, I tried to be a good mother, protecting my child from everyone, everything and I did not let her go even to You. Every day I prayed to You, my Lord, asking for not taking my sweetheart from me. She was in endless suffering but I could not imagine losing her for one day. Forgive me, please. I do not want my poor child to suffer because of my selfish love. I let her go to You."

At that very moment Tammy heard as somebody called her, announcing,

"Your girl is back. She is all right now."

Tammy looked back for a moment and whispered,

"Thank you, my Lord!"

She looked at the painting again and smiled. A funny clown with a girl was smiling to her.

"Glory to Thee, O Lord, for Your miraculous teaching," Tammy thought and rushed after the nurse.

Angelic Tarasio,
Florida, USA.

*****

Very easy, you just need to survive. It’s a joke. I know for sure that all the survivers have to go through the most difficult phase in their life. Once you have survived, you are an expert. You see the whole world in a special way. Why? Since the moment of survival, you do not except anything for granted. You are re-born with the feeling of responsibility for the world. You love and value it much more and understand much better. I was blessed with the surviving and the Creator made me responsible for the support of others during their surviving process.

It happened with me at the end of November of 1997. My appointment at the doctor’s office was short. The results of all the tests and images were clear and conclusive. I felt myself exactly in accordance with the test results. I lost the last hope: the advanced stage of the disease was identified. It was too late to provide the surgical treatment because the spreads were in soft and bone tissues. The advice of a professional to look for something "alternative" that could be combined together with the aggressive chemo and radiation sounded scared. I asked,

"What can help in my case to survive and become healthy again?"

"A miracle. Next week we need to start with our protocol and find out what works better for you. At this point, nobody can promise you anything."

"Did you have anybody in such a condition who had been cured?"

"Not in my practice, but every case is different..."

The answer was unmerciful, though the doctor wanted me to preserve my hope. God bless my doctor for telling the truth. I left his office, experiencing shock, severe emotional pain and unjustness. When I got into my car I burst into crying. I was trying to start the engine, but being hysterical I could not find the key. I was at the end of my life at 45.

The self-pitying thoughts were climbing in my head, "Did I live? Not really. What did I go through? An unexpectedly rapid death of my father from cancer, who I missed all my life. If he was alive, maybe my life would not be so difficult. What else? I went through my husband’s car crash and his paralysis during a year. Then his rehabilitation and learning in Chinese monastery for nearly four years when I was staying alone with two kids, working full time. I underwent together with our small daughter nearly fatal vaccination that caused polio and total scoliosis. Since then I was taking care of her, as if I had a small child forever. She underwent seven surgeries and I was dying and arising together with her. I tried my best to substitute the lost abilities of my husband and child, sharing my strength with both of them."

There was no "whys" in my case. All the answers were given to me at the doctor’s office: stress, overwork with 12-16-hr daily shifts, unhealthy eating habits, absence of medical insurance for check-up appointments after the removal of the first formation three years ago, etc., brought me to the present condition.

When I parked the car in the garage I was sure, it was my time to leave this world and rest. I pronounced aloud,

"Alleluia."

When I entered our condo, my managerial nature was on. Thank God, I was not sorry about myself, self-pettiness evaporated. I was writing down the "to do" list. It was rather long, and most of the planned deals and deeds I had to do in the nearest period and some of them I was doing for the first time in my life:

1. An appointment with the family attorney with preparation of the Last Will;
2. Visit to the Holy Trinity monastery;
3. Visit to St. Elizabeth Community of nuns;
4. Purchase of the cemetery spot for future grave;
5. Make payments for Panikhida and all the rest Christian services, required upon the death;
6. Payments for people who would buy the products and prepare the Memorial dinner after funeral.

I started to pack, as somebody was pushing me out of my house. Maybe, I was in agony for a while and could hardly wait for my husband and children to come home. Then a wave of peace exchanged the anxiety. I remember I felt myself as a balloon that lost its air. I sat down in an armchair and felt unbelievable peace inside. The feeling was new and very pleasant.

I thought that everything was decided by the Universe and the Divinity gave me the permission to leave for another world. Then a new thought struck me, "What about my daughter, husband and son? How could I leave them? Who will help them? Who will run our family business?" I felt like somebody was pushing me to do something, but I could not pick up what exactly I had to do.

When my family came home, I was talking on two lines, making an appointment with an attorney to prepare the Will and reserving two rooms in the monastery Guest house.

I declared to my beloved,

"Whatever the Lord wants me to undergo, I am ready to follow it."

The trip to the monastery was difficult in my condition, but wonderful. Three days in a row, I confessed, making my priest crying together with me, and took the miraculous Communion. Everyone saw that I was out of strength to stay and allowed me to be seated during the services. One of the priests took me to the cemetery and showed the spot there. I liked it very much, if a living person could say so about such a place for the future grave.

When we left home I knew that the nuns of St. Elizabeth community and monks of the Holy Trinity Monastery would be praying for my health every day. My visit to the monastery was a real miracle.

The condition was not improved right away. The Lord kept me in accordance with His plans. In a week, I was not able to eat, walk and talk out load due to lost voice. I was whispering my morning, day and evening prayers. However, the next miracle happened: my pain was less. I still could not sleep at night, but I did not complain, reading Old and New Testament. I enjoyed my night readings. Thank God, I found there so many answers for disturbing questions! My life and work did not leave me time and possibility to read what I wanted to read and reading during my illness was blessed from Above.

Another miracle happened when I received a big yellow envelope from Greece. The monk, who I had not met in my life, sent me the icon of St. Antony from California and "Agreement prayer". I realized that somebody from the Holy Trinity Monastery let him know about me. As I found out later, he used to be a physician who left his practice and became a monk. He wrote a short note to me:

1. Forgive everyone in this world;
2. Ask the beloved and friends to pray for you the "Agreement prayer";
3. Ask the Lord to show you the reason for your God blessed illness;
4. Learn the reason to survive and ask for God’s blessing to serve Him and His people to the end of your life.

Was it easy? I’ll describe it in next book. "With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26) Thank the Lord, I am still alive and continue writing my books about God’s Miracles in the lives of regular people.

Angelic Tarasio,
Florida, USA.

*****

It was May 22 of 1967. I turned ten a few days ago. My mother decided to visit a Holy place of one of the Christian martyrs in Abkhazia and pray there to him, asking for his support, improvement of health and welfare of the family. She decided also to bring my sister and me to the Holy spring of St. Vasilisk. It was a year when our mother experienced frequent and severe heart pains and during my school studies I was several times at the hospital due to different reasons. An old nun from a tiny Ukrainian town Korets suggested my mother to go to the Holy spring for ablution in its miraculous water and praying to St. Vasilisk. She assured her with the words, "St. Vasilisk heals everyone who believes in God. Go, Maria and he will help you."

It was 5 a.m. when we left Sukhumi bus station. A small bus was moving slowly into the Caucuses mountains. It was stuffed with passengers and sometimes when it stopped, I had a strong desire to get out and walk instead of sitting on the very rare seat of the bus without fresh air to breath. My younger five-year-old sister was lucky, because she fell asleep at the time of departure, and I was also trying to do it but could not. Our seat on the bus did not allow me to see the beautiful panorama of the sunrise in Caucuses. I turned around and kneeled on my seat in order to see at least something in a small rear window.

In an hour or so the driver stopped and announced with a loud voice,

"Here is the spring of St. Vasilisk. Somebody wanted me to make a stop here."

My mother thanked him. I took our bag while my mother picked up my sister and we got out of the bus. The day promised to be beautiful. I was happy to be in the fresh and chilly air. I must say that the air in the Caucasus Mountains is special. It had been an unforgettable experience to be there and I remember it very well. It was pleasant to inhale the clean air. I was ten and my senses were opened to beauty, unknown before aromas, and pureness.

Our mother looked around and I realized that she did know exactly where to go. There was rather steep and dirt road down to the meadow, but she wanted to be sure that the road would take us in the right direction.

"Tikhon, it could be easier to go down, but then later we have to climb up, if it is a wrong direction. It would be hard for Nadia, she is small. Let us ask somebody."

We were staying on the side of the road for some time but nobody appeared there. Our mother decided to go down. It took about half an hour to reach a tiny pond there. There were several people near the pond. We came up to an elderly woman who stood in the water of the pond and asked her for the location of the Holy and healing spring of St. Vasilisk. I don’t know why but the woman sent us further and we left. While walking and looking for the Holy Spring I enjoyed the nature of the land at the wonderful moment of sunrise. Soon we met a group of local people. They were surprised to see people from the Ukraine and one of the men mentioned that we passed the spring and volunteered to show us its location.

We were walking back along the foot of the mountain and all of a sudden saw a small pond again, where the elderly woman was staying. Why did she send us further? We could not find an answer and our mother did not want us to concentrate our attention at that strange incident. It was nice to find a person who knew exactly where to go. There were already three or four groups of people of different nationalities and they were dressed in their national clothing. All of us arrived or came to the Holy Spring on the day when St. Martyr Vasilisk was executed. All of us were praying to the same God but in different ways. The group of monks from the neighbor monastery was the largest there.

The visitors knew that St. Vasilisk was executed in 308. His sufferings were described by St. Evsigny, the witness of Vasilisk’s torments and execution.

St. Vasilisk and his family were Christians but the emperor Maksimian Galeriya (305-311) was heathen or pagan. He persecuted the Christianity and executed many Christians, including Vasilisk’s uncle and brothers. Vasilisk was imprisoned in town of Komany. One night in the prison he saw a dream. In that dream the Lord visited him and predicted that Vasilisk would be executed soon for his faith. When Vasilisk woke up early in the morning, he asked the guards to let him go home and see his family for the last time. They trusted the decent person and allowed the visit home. The local authority found out that Vasilisk left home and was furious. He punished the guards and sent a military detachment to return Vasilisk to the prison. Vasilisk explained to his family that he came to see them for the last time, just to say good-bye. His only request to the family was to preserve their faith in Jesus Christ.

The military attachment met Vasilisk on his way back. They put him in heavy irons and on his bare feet they put copper boots with sharp nails in the soles. Vasilisk walked slowly without complains. His blood was dripping all the way along the road. When the military men became tired and hungry, they stopped in one of the villages in the house of a woman Trojana. She served them lunch and Vasilisk was waiting for them outside in the hot sun, being chained to a dry tree. He was praying all the time, and suddenly he heard God’s voice, "Don’t be afraid. I am with you." The Lord proved His presence when in a moment there was an earthquake and a strong spring of cold water came out from the depth of the earth through a huge stone.

The ruler wanted Vasilisk to sacrifice for the heathen idols but Vasilisk refused, saying, "Every moment I bring my sacrificing to God with praising Him in my prayers." Then they forced him to step into the pagan temple. The moment he entered the temple, the Lord sent the fire that came down from the sky and burned the temple. The local authority became infuriated and ordered to cut off the head of a stubborn prisoner. They threw his body into the river, but people found it and buried on the field. Later the church was built on the place where people buried the martyr and his relics were removed to the church.

When one of the nuns of the Korets convent was introducing us to a sad story of St. Vasilisk I listened to her attentively. To tell the truth, it sounded for me, a child, as a nice tale about a strong and brave hero, but not as a brilliant example of faith. The Holy spring was coming exactly from a huge stone with its strong flow, nourishing a small and shallow pond. I knew that we arrived there to pray, to wash us in the water of the Holy spring and to ask for God’s blessing for health and happiness. Our mother said that we were in need of God’s support.

My sister and I ate something, took off our shoes and stepped in cold water of the pond that reached me a little bit higher than knees. In a couple of minutes we got used to its chilly temperature and we kneeled, as our mother wanted and began to pray. My sister was the first who noticed that something strange was going on at the bottom of the pond. She pointed with her finger, attracting my attention,

"Tikhon, look! Open your eyes and look here!"

Then she turned to our mother, who stayed near the pond and shouted,

"Mama, look what we have here!"

Her excitement attracted the attention of other people around. They started to move closer and everyone was stunned for a moment, then kneeled and thanked Lord for the miracle they saw with their own eyes.

On the bottom of the pond there was a big icon of Holy Mary with baby Jesus and we were watching it at the moment of its creation. It looked as if it was made of bright, colorful mosaic. Every detail of the icon looked so real that being ten years of age I couldn’t doubt in its genuineness. My sister and I tried to pick up the beautiful stones from the bottom of the pond, but there was nothing in the hands except sand. Nobody moved away and in some time, we noticed that some changes were taking place in the middle of the icon. Invisible magician was creating something else. All of us saw it simultaneously - an ancient chariot was coming slowly. Mother of God with baby Jesus moved to the right and Jesus waved with his hand. I thought He blessed me personally, but everyone saw it, as well. I kneeled in water of the Holy spring again and thanked Him from the bottom of my heart.

Then the chariot stopped in the left part of the icon and we noticed a standing man on it. Everyone saw that the man was holding a sword, made of fire, directed into the ground. I thought that it was St. Vasilisk who struggled for Christian faith to the very last moment of his life.

The image of the icon in the pond was staying to the dusk. I was surprised how fast the people learned about this miracle. In the second half of the day more than five hundred people were feasting all together around the Holy spring. We were praying, praising God and celebrating a miracle that God blessed us to see. Real joy filed everyone who was there and nobody paid attention at the difference in nationalities and religions. We all were God’s children, as the priests, mullahs and ministers of other confessions said. People were friendly to each other and everyone wanted to meet my sister and me in order to ask how the miracle appeared there.

Late in the evening the rain started and the water in the pond turned white, as milk. The reporters arrived in the morning of the next day but the rain in the evening cleared the picture, leaving just some colorful pieces of mosaic. We stayed there for three days, praising the Divinity and rejoicing with people of faith. Since then I was blessed with devoted faith in Divinity. Could it be different?

Angelic Tarasio (Tikhon is my husband)
Florida, USA.

*****

I am a world author of a trilogy "God’s Miracles in Lives of Regular people", in which I describe how the main character Maria Kurbatov overcomes the dramatic events and survives the life-threatening situations thanks to her strong faith in the Divinity.

I am always opened to discuss the chain of Maria’s life occurrences and situations, author’s style of the description of these historical and personal events, as well as their resolutions, BUT the chain of events was not fictitiously created in my imagination, all of them took place in a true life of my mother-in-law Maria and were recorded by her in the personal journal.

The way this wonderful woman observes the world, her philosophical and spiritual understanding of hardships, and the tactic that helps her to survive her personal adversities are apparent and logical. Every modern person can survive much easier the global crises, learning from the immense experience of this extraordinary individual. Her human and spiritual example saved lives of many people. She transferred this understanding of life to her sons, granddaughter and me. We were blessed to survive our personal death perils and became grateful to the Creator for the hardships He sent to us, testing and strengthening our faith in Divinity.

As a writer, I was suggested by Media Interview Connection services to participate in shows on the topics they consider urgent at the present time. What are the major topics? Most of them are informative and connected with accounting standards affecting payments; real estate and how the real estate attorneys are dealing with skyrocketing vacancy rates and bad economy, workplace ethics, and how parents should explain their children what is going on with the economy and why one or both parents lost jobs or filed bankruptcy in 2008.

I agree with all these well-informing programs. Knowledge is always strength and stability in future when we attend schools. Many years of teaching and counseling made me expert in this topic. There is one thing that scares people and forces them to think about possible end of the world, when they are told that the whole world is already in a shaky boat in the middle of deep global crises. Everyone who has brains thinks, "Where are we going and when can we reach the firm land again?" All these thoughts, fears and concerns do not work for gaining inner peace, strength and creativity in order to make the right decisions.

Sorry to say, I doubt that the knowledge about dramatically increased number of closed businesses, unemployment, financiall unstable families, who applied for state support, transferring kids from private to public schools, broken marriages, abortions, and the worst - suicide will help today at least one family to get peace and wellbeing in the house foreclosure? Numbers, numbers and numbers.

What should we do with the increased and decreased numbers during the complicated period of life? How can knowledge alone prevent filing bankruptcy if there is no more business, as business? Where to look for job and how to find quickly the same managerial position in order to sustain mortgage and car payments? Even so, you try to get rid of the second car in the family at this hard time, who will take your leased car earlier than the term of your agreement?

I did not find in a list of suggested show topics a single one that can influence positively today or tomorrow the minds and hearts of people, bringing them in the state of a relative enlightenment. The political and economic experts give us different reasons why it has happened and even predict another difficult year. They sound well-acknowledged, but where were all these specialists two years ago?

Those readers who were patient enough to come to this paragraph will read some diverse or unusual interpretation of Global life deteriorating tendencies and loss of previous stability in vitally important spheres of human life - spirituality, financing, economy and political structure.

In which of named above spheres our modern society failed initially and seriously for the last twenty years? You are right - spirituality. I did not say that we stopped attending churches, synagogues or mosques. Why do we do this? What is the reason of going there? We like to see our friends weekly, to be present at service, to chat, while drinking coffee after it, and to go home. Isn’t it nice?

Do we do it for our soul, heart and mind? Do we go there for cleansing of all dust and dirt that was attracted and attached during a week? Do we enter the house of God to share with Him and Holy Spirit our happiness, success and concerns? Do we feel Him there, waiting for us to come? Do we repent from time to time in our sins? Many people follow some religious rules but have forgotten about heartfelt spirituality, when we could not start or finish our day without praising the Lord. The energetic vibration of a prayer is uprising along the invisible but ever existing soul cord to the Divinity. It is like the bell, we start praying and the Universe hears us; that’s why it is better to sound without deceit for receiving the blessed answer from Above that will attune our vitality. Without divine adjustment we cannot obtain our inner peace and real blessedness. Who of us experiences a state of bliss, at least once in a while? Are you familiar in general with it?

What do we think about most of the time? Our mind is processing the same thoughts - finances, business, leisure and shopping. We work for them and purchase everything for us, the dearest persons in our life? Am I right? Why do we need God, if all the desired things we have purchased already? Then why cannot we find inner peace and optimism after creating heaven on earth? I know well the subject I described. When we do not sustain our human connection with the Divinity, we lose inner peace, joy, happiness, realization of plans, health, and very often assets, investing them in a sinkhole.

God forbid, if this happens just with you and me, but if this has happened with nations, countries and whole world? Our patient Creator was watching us for a long time, waiting that we restore our human connection with the Divinity. It had not happened. Everything that we were blessed with in this life we took for granted and without any appreciation, being certain that it had occurred because we were so smart, well-educated and lucky. He gives us a chance to restore human spirituality and faith, putting all of us without discriminating of any nation or nationality into the same boat and exhort us to depart in a dangerous journey. He believes that under new circumstances people will make all the correct conclusions fast.

Stay always blessed,

Angelic Tarasio
Florida, USA.