Română
Praise God during hard times
In this live stream video, Mother Siluana (Vlad) answers the question: “How can I thank God for hardships?” “With our mouth: ‘Lord, give me joy in this hardship!’ There really is this spiritual therapy: the acceptance of troubles with joy. What torments us, what makes us sick, is our own will. When we do what we want, even if it seems good to us, we hurt ourselves, because usually what we want is in contradiction with what someone else wants and conflict is born, conflict generates conflict-generating behaviors and so on…”
Mother Siluana reposed in the Lord on June 8th, 2021. Her ministry in the Romanian Orthodox Church is impressive. She was the abbess of the Convent of St. Silouan in Iasi, coordinator of the Training and Counseling Center “The Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel” and through her many conferences she created a bridge between the young generation and the Orthodox Church in Romania.
Video source: doxologia.ro Live stream 21.03.2020
Mother Silouana:
What should we do when we have troubles or problems in our life? How can we thank God for these too?
With our mouth, with our mouth… Because at first we cannot do it with the rest of our being, our heart tightens… With our mouth: “Lord, give me joy in this hardship!”
When I first said this, it was like I was torn in two parts, one part that went crazy and the other part that was still healthy. But there really is this spiritual therapy: the acceptance of troubles with joy.
What torments us, what makes us sick, is our own will.
When we do what we want, even if it seems good to us, we hurt ourselves, because usually what we want is in contradiction with what someone else wants and conflict is born, conflict generates conflict-generating behaviors and so on…
The moment I give up my will for love, for peace, for good, and sacrifice my will for good, then the grace of God penetrates deep into my heart and into my whole life and changes my life.
There are many who have advanced a lot in this direction, especially monastics, those who cut their own will with tenacity…
But when a hardship comes, which is not my will, things are much harder. Because I can do 1000 prostrations because I want to, I want to show You, God, that I love You and I like to pray… but when I have a sciatica attack, I don’t like it anymore, I don’t want to, it hurts, I can’t do prostrations… well, enduring back pain is more ascetic, more beneficial than (I want you to be able to do prostrations without pain)… It’s more useful… Why? Because I do what I don’t want and I love God when my will and my comfort are sacrificed.
Many of us are often sick because we are addicted to comfort. And then hardships show us that life is more than comfort, that the joy of life does not depend on comfort… this comfort made us vulnerable… “Woe is me, it’s 4 degrees less, 4 degrees more, I’m suffocating, I’m freezing…” All this came because we got too sensitive. […]
Be sure that God brings it to your door. I know people (and I know myself) who received food without preparation, without turning to anyone for help.
I was in Bucharest [Romania], after 3 days of hunger, a nun, but in a [difficult] situation, and while walking down the street, a woman selling seeds stopped me and said: “Hey, come here and I’ll give you one leu [Romanian money]”. And I took it, and I said: “Thank you!” And in my mind I said: “Okay, I’ll buy half a bread”. And she says: “Hey, wait, let me give you one more leu to buy a whole bread” and she gave me 2 lei. With 1 leu I bought half a bread and with the other leu I went to the street market to buy a tomato. And the seller, the woman who heard that I wanted to buy a tomato gave me 4 tomatoes. I had nothing to put them in, she also gave me a bag. Another one said to me: “Mother, don’t you want cucumbers?” And she also gave me cucumbers. “But don’t you want a watermelon?” And I went back to my place with two full bags. Do not think that I am a chosen one, no, I know people who have received food as a gift.
