Saint Gavrilia: God Loves Your Enemies
As Much as He Loves You
{ a little letterpress reminder … }
A simple smile changes your consciousness
Saint Gavrilia was like the Mother Teresa of Orthodoxy.
They were friends in India, where they both traveled widely, served lepers, and offered LOVE to everyone they met.
Mother Teresa, who said, “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”
A smile is a simple act, easy to do, and a great way to approach fellow humans. Have you ever noticed how offering a smile to someone who looks worried can instantly spread a little happiness across their face?
I think it’s a bit tribal … a way of confirming that we share something essential. A way to acknowledge that we are all ’Children of God, Beloved’, as this little letterpress card reminds us.
Nicholas Coles, Stanford research scientist has done studies on this. He says,
The stretch of a smile can make people feel happy and the furrowed brow can make people feel angry; thus, the conscious experience of emotion must be at least partially based on bodily sensations.1
The Mind-Body-Soul connection. It’s real.
The purpose of life
As Saint Gavrilia reminds us, in the ‘Ascetic of Love’,
The Lord does everything - provided we love the other person. …You know, the moment you love them something changes. I have told you before that love is like a bomb - it shatters all evil.2
For her, ‘to love’ is the answer to the fundamental question, what is the purpose of life?
Who is our neighbor?
I write about my time leading pilgrimages to venerate her relics on Leros on Axia Women’s excellent website, axiawomen.org. Axia lifts up the lives of today’s Orthodox Christian women in their ordinary days and lives, along with women saints from our shared community of lovers of God throughout the ages.
Clearly, the world is divided along many lines these days, and that ancient tribalism is still with us in ways that do not look like love. Yet as Christians, our faith still centers on the Greatest Commandment we’ve been given: Love God and love your neighbor. (Luke 10:27) Pretty simple.
This sentiment is found in many faiths and philosophies around the world. But Christ took it one step further when he said, But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)
In a way, we who share this life on earth are all neighbors. So let us pray for the ones we understand the least.
After all, our prayers, offered in the spirit of love, can only work toward the Good, right? Who could benefit more from God’s healing love than our ‘enemies’?
As Saint Gavrilia reminds us, “God loves your enemies as much as He loves you.”
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Q: What is the difference between an ‘enemy’ and a person you don’t understand?
Spark: Pray for 3 people that spring to mind who seem difficult to you.
Resources:
‘You are a child of God, Beloved’ letterpress prayer card available on my etsy store.
Coles, Nicholas. “Posing Smiles Can Brighten Our Mood.” Stanford Report, October 20, 2022. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2022/10/posing-smiles-can-brighten-mood.
Nun Gavrilia Georgiou, trans. Helen Anthony, Ascetic of Love: The Life and Teachings of Saint Gavrilia (Sea Salt Books, 2025), p. 123.