Mother Siluana on the Joy that will not be taken away from us
The Lord will teach us everything. And what peace, what joy, to feel yourself loved the way you are!
Excerpts from the book “Offering Ourselves, We Enter Into His Joy” by Mother Siluana Vlad (available on Amazon Kindle here):
I promised myself I won’t write to you because I suspect, I sense that you are overwhelmed by messages, but I can’t bear not to write to you. Forgive me!
God has always been close to me with His great love, His mercy, and His care…I have no words for this.
How can I thank Him for His presence close to me, even though I, a small, powerless being, have lived with sins, passions, and useless pride?
How can I set a new beginning for this new me who, by God’s mercy, is trying to come to light from somewhere inside me? And I don’t know how.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do. I read the answers you give to others, and I feel that they are for me too, and sometimes I cry.
I wish you good health and all the best!
Thank you!
Carmen
My dear Carmen,
The new beginning is the acceptance of the “old man” just as he is. Looking at him with the “spiritual realism” that Fr. Rafail Noica talks about!
Take everything that hurts in you and show it to the Lord, trusting that He is the Doctor. Take everything that the ones around you reproach you with and choose carefully what is real in that message, and show it to the Lord, asking Him to heal you!
Then, accept every little thread of pain as a thread of gold that leads you to the Lord! Your pain told to the Lord and not thrown out on others will teach you pure prayer and boldness before the Lord!
And learn to listen to the Lord’s love deep within your soul! Stop accusing, stop judging, stop comparing yourself with others, accept yourself as you are, show yourself to the Lord, and listen to how He loves you! Every one of your heartbeats is a declaration of love from Him!
Courage!
With love and great hope,
M. Siluana
Mother Siluana,
Is it enough to be aware of the “evil” in me, unmask it, accept it, and bless God? Every time I sense an evil thought or I become aware of something evil in me, I need to call on God to help me, right? Admitting that I can achieve nothing without Him. And with faith and patience that everything will happen according to His will. And as soon as some “garbage” comes out, to call on God to cleanse and bandage my wound, right?
M.
Yes, my dear child, yes!
It's just that this unmasking and naming of the evil in us is not a trifle! It is courage and honesty! It is the goal of the whole Orthodox askesis! And giving up on the effort of becoming good by ourselves is humility! Calling on God and blessing are the essence of obeying God, which alone can bring about real change in us - and we don't achieve this, He does. And you should know that our life's purpose is not to be good, but to be with God in us so that His Life can become our life too! We don't even know what "good" means! We only have "tastes" - and they are ever-changing!
But by being with the Lord, we will always learn the lesson for our life: the Joy which will not be taken away from us! He will teach us everything. And what peace, dear child, what joy, to feel yourself loved the way you are! And to receive the strength to love others without "pretensions." This kind of love gives life and makes everything new!
With much love and great hope,
M. Siluana
Grig, referring to the e-book, it seems like M. Siluana's last answer at the end of the first section ("Spiritual Unrest") is cut off. It goes: "My spiritual father used to say that the more we progress on the Way of Joy of being with and in the Lord,
With love and respect..."
Is there missing text here?
So much to comment on...
"It's just that this unmasking and naming of the evil in us is not a trifle! It is courage and honesty! It is the goal of the whole Orthodox askesis!"
It is difficult to unmask the evil done to us (abuses of all sorts) and even more difficult to unmask what we do to others, based on what we "learned' and inherited.
We need courageous people like m. Siluana to inspire us to take heart and step out of the fear of suffering.