Heaven's Antidote to Depression? The Christ's and Creation's beauty that is around us, and within us

In time it comes to us all: that depression, anxiety, and obsessive thought loops retirement, aging, and loneliness seem to bring.

But I was a bit surprised when my parish priest presented an icon to me recently, that it was of a saint well-acquainted with all of those things. 

Hmm. Perhaps Father Paul at Salt Lake City's Sts. Peter and Paul Antiochian Church had an inkling of who I might need for a special intercessor in our ancient faith?

St. Porphyrios suffered these dark odysseys of the mind and spirit for much of his life. It began not long after his birth in 1906, in Evia, a small Greek village. At 14, he ran away to a monastery on Mount Athos, later serving as priest blessed with (painfully learned) insights into the spiritual and mental struggles of those who sought his counsel as a confessor at an Athens hospital.

For him, it was more than compassion. By the time of his repose in 1991, his counsel was widely known as transformative. St. Porphrious' prayers and insights had become miraculous for those or burdened by despair, addictions, and mental illnesses -- and perplexed doctors and families seeking answers.

"Don't think about your passions and sins," he often said. "This about Christ, and he will set you free. When you are troubled by negative thoughts, don't fight them -- simply bring Christ into your heart."

How to do that?

Embrace that Beauty in Christ and within His Father's Creation.

We can find it flowing on the notes of sacred music, and in the tones and words of an ancient faith's prayers and chants of worship; we look our that window and see it in a sunrise or sunset; beauty shines in the smile of a child, and can warm us through encircling arms of a friend or loved one;  or it whispers to you on that meander through mountains, meadows, forests, and flowers, a journey capped by the splashes of water falls discovered just beyond a trail's next turn.

What we see, smell, hear, and touch in nature outside of ourselves also finds a home within lonely, stressed hearts and minds, where it is beckoned by that eternal love we were created to nourish deep within our beings.

Beauty, the antidote of the saints, was waiting for me and my wife of 53 years, Barbara, as we explored northern Utah's Wasatch Mountains Alpine Loop this week.

Thank you, St. Porphyrios, for your wisdom, insight, and prayers. 

Thank you, Our Heavenly King, Comforter and Spirit of Truth, for it all.