Let us now speak about all this on the example of the Way of the Cross in the life of the great universal teacher and St. Gregory the Theologian. And let us be attentive, my dear, for I am sure that the richness of the saint's life will grant each of us what he needs.

The future Saint Gregory was born in the year 328 in Greece in the family of a noble family: an Orthodox Christian, Nonna's mother, and a pagan, Father Gregory. The mother, deeply and sincerely devoted to the will of God, obediently going through the trial sent to her – the unbelief of her husband – combined a tense spiritual life with a practical, active life. Praying for her loved ones, she strengthened her prayer with the power of her mercy, and the result of her labors was not slow to appear.

The saint's father not only believed in Christ and accepted Holy Baptism, but soon became first a presbyter, and later a bishop of Nazian. And how many tears and labors such a transfiguration of her husband cost the righteous Nonna, only God knows.

Her son afterwards, remembering his mother with grateful love, wrote: "My mother, having inherited the holy faith from her fathers, put this golden chain on her children. In a woman's body, carrying a courageous heart, she only touched the ground ... so that through this life we may prepare for the heavenly life..." And the crown of Nonna's life is her husband, who became a bishop, her son Gregory, a great universal teacher, saint and theologian, and her son Caesarius, a physician who reached great heights in the art of medicine, but who considered it his highest happiness and blessing to be an Orthodox Christian; and Nonna's daughter Gorgonia repeated in many features the life of her pious mother. St. Nonna left nothing to the world except living monuments – her children, which she carried, and St. Gregory to this day brings to the world, her motherly labors, invisible to anyone.

And is it not to today's mothers that the example of the life of the God-loving St. Nonna is addressed, for the main task of a wife-mother, blessed by God by nature, is to be a true Christian mother, because in her children always lies the future of the world.

When Gregory learned to read, he received from his mother's hands a gift of the book of life – the Holy Scriptures. At the same time, the mother reveals to the child the secret of his birth and at the same time gives a parental will for life. "Fulfill my motherly desire," said Nonna, "remember that I begged you of the Lord, and now I pray that you may be perfect..."

Subsequently, Gregory was amazed at his election all his life. "Christ vouchsafed me the preeminent glory. At first He gave me as a gift to my mother, who prayed from the depths of her heart, and He Himself (the Lord) received me as a gift from my parents, and then by a night vision He instilled in me a love for a chaste life," wrote St. Gregory.

The mother carefully raised her son, and to help her labors, the miracle of God strengthened his soul.

A wondrous dream – a vision that struck his childish mind – remained in the consciousness of the saint as the first tangible touch to the holy object. In a deep dream, he imagined that two beautiful maidens in white robes were standing beside him. The boy immediately felt that they were not mere mortals, and to the question: "Who are they?" he received the answer: "One of us is purity, and the other is chastity. We stand before Christ the King. Son, unite your mind with our hearts, so that we may bring you to heaven and place you before the light of the Heavenly Trinity."

Purity and chastity are the path to the Heavenly Fatherland, the path to God.

And the boy enters adolescence, already knowing the true value of virtues. He knows that it is not gold and wealth, not the brilliance of learning and wisdom that constitute the true treasure of life, but purity of heart and mind, chastity of thoughts and body, only this must be guarded as the apple of the eye. Gregory accepted the covenant in his childhood, carried it, and kept it in his youth. It was by purity that Gregory was able to receive from God the gift of a servant of the Word.

But now let's return to our days, to us who want to be with God. Who today can boldly say that he himself has preserved these great treasures in the eyes of God – purity and chastity – and has given an understanding of them to his children? Well, if you have not preserved these virtues yourself and have not passed them on to your children, then only the publican's humility, the publican's voice of repentance, can cleanse the soul mired in impurity and wash the leprous body.

O God, be merciful to us sinners..

But let us turn for our edification to the next period in the life of the future saint. Grigory's home education ended early. The pious mother, seeing her son's firmness in piety, fearlessly lowers the nine-year-old boy into a distant country in order to give him a complete and versatile education.