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Fr. Rafail, a disciple of Fr. Sophrony, talks about how to give ourselves humbly in love, to become recipients of love, as not to hurt the one who loves us… This is what Father Sophrony [Sakharov] did, he wasn’t hurting a single soul, he learned that the only way to win love is to give love…
God is Love (GL) Series – S01E02
This video is part of the speech of Fr. Rafail Noica given at the International Colloquium “Meeting with the spiritual father”, November 13-15, 2016, Iasi, Romania.
Fr. Rafail (transcript):
If you are giving yourself humbly in love… this world does not accept that love… Be attentive, Christian brothers and sisters! Let us become recipients of love! As not to hurt the one who loves us… maybe that one loves us in a foolish way, in ways that are not useful for us… Look, often Father Sophrony knew how to receive love that was expressed in very worldly, earthly ways… sometimes they gave us gifts that we didn’t know what to do with… but, as I have said about Saint Silouan, he [Fr. Sophrony] wasn’t hurting a single soul… And that brings me to another topic… we understand the love as something that we want to receive, and I have talked about how we should be in order to be able to receive it… but regarding the word “Love your neighbor as yourself” [Matthew 22:39], you thought that if you showed love toward your neighbor, then there would be nothing greater than to receive it back… when St. Paul said that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” [Acts 20:35], he was talking about love…
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I saw that if you want to win love, then you should give love, show love and you will receive enough and to spare… But again I say: do not worry and do not turn away when you see how little this love is understood and how little it is received in this world, in general, not only by the enemies, but often by the closest and most beloved ones… but we should not back away because we have the word of the Savior… we live in the world prophesied by Christ, who said that “because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” [Matthew 24:12]… Keep your mind in hell and despair not, because he says: “but he who endures to the end will be saved.” So the fight is not in vain… and I will quote a word that I heard once from the mouth of Fr. Sophrony: “If we take this fight to the finish (he said it in another context) it is impossible to not succeed!” Well, not ourselves, but the grace of God in us…
