Mother Siluana: Only God's grace can make us free
Without God’s grace, we remain under the laws of nature and of this world - laws which are monotonous, repetitive, based on cause and effect.
Excerpts from the book “Offering Ourselves, We Enter Into His Joy” by Mother Siluana Vlad (available on Amazon as paperback and ebook):
Dear Mother Siluana,
This is the truth: pride and stupidity prevent me from reaching God, and because of them, I go astray on strange paths. Your words are healing remedies for my sorely tried and overwrought soul. I have a question regarding our earthly existence: is there such a thing as fate? The choices we make in our lives - do they belong to us or are they part of a divine plan? I would very much like to know the opinion of the Church on this matter.
God bless, and thank you very much for everything!
With love and respect,
Daniela
My dear child, Daniela,
I thank God and you for the wonder that you were able to say what you said and agree to have it on the site. This is the beginning of the “writing” of your destiny foreknown in the divine plan! The two passions you mentioned (pride and stupidity) are mother and daughter, and they love each other very much. I know it from experience. And there is a saying: “A fool is not foolish enough unless he is also proud.”
You took the first big step on the Way! The second step is to “give up,” admit in front of God that all your attempts to be someone different than you really are have failed (to the point where you think this is your destiny), and give yourself into His hands. Let Him work His plan with you! The third step is to work with Him! Not against Him, and not all by yourself, and not to let only Him work! Imagine that you are dancing, and He is leading you! Then the choices you will make, the good and the bad ones, will be according to His will and will indeed enroll you in the divine plan, which is your sanctification - if only you want this!
If you don’t want this, you can freely choose the path of being enslaved to the world that “forms” us without God. You will then seek to satisfy the needs and desires of the fallen nature in any way you can, ignoring the longing of your heart entirely! This means adhering to a destiny that seems to be already written because of how foreseeable the possible events are. Without God’s grace, we remain under the laws of nature and of this world - laws which are monotonous, repetitive, based on cause and effect…Under these laws, you will resemble your father and your mother or those who “formed” you; you will consistently follow genetic accidents and social influences, you will submissively obey the laws of the psyche with its schemas of adaptation or maladaptation, and you will always react the same, you will always have the same type of encounters and the same type of pains!
Do you understand what I am saying? Am I saying it clearly?
Only God’s grace, our free work with Him, makes us free! And the “given” which enslaves us is transformed by grace into a gift, into a place where we can become ourselves freely!
It is similar to when we bring the Prosphora to the Divine Liturgy: if the priest doesn’t use it during the Proskomedia so that it becomes the Precious Gifts, over which the Holy Spirit will descend during Epiclesis to transform them into Holy Gifts, the Body and Blood of our Savior - then the Prosphora remains simple bread. So it is with our being: if we don’t offer it as a living sacrifice to the Lord so that He can send His Holy Spirit over it to sanctify it, then it will stay as it is, and it will be subject to the fixed laws of the fallen world!
And so, the choice is made between obeying or not obeying God’s will, His plan for us - and not between going to this or that college or marrying this or that man.
Courage!
May God enlighten you so you grow in His grace and so you write freely your destiny in His divine plan!
With much love,
M. Siluana