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Saint Paisios the Athonite (✝ July 12th, 1994)
Question: How to show love?
Answer: I do not understand what this means. This is something false, hypocritical. To have love within us and for it to give us away, yes, this I understand. True love informs the other without outward displays. Love is to listen with pain to the worries of the other. Love is also a concerned, pained glance and a word spoken with pain for and to the other when he is facing hardships. Love is to participate in his sorrow, to comfort him in his trouble. Love is to bear the onerous thing another may say to you. All of these help far more than many words and any outward displays. When you are inwardly pained for the other person, God informs him of your love so that he perceives it without external displays from you. The same is true about our evil will; even if it is not evident and remains hidden within us, the other person can sense it. You see, the devil creates turmoil even when he appears as “an angel of light,” whereas a real Angel conveys a sense of delight, gentle and ineffable.
Saint Paisios, Spiritual counsels, V
