We often feel helpless when we see someone we love—or even the world at large—suffering. In this video, Mother Silouana (Vlad) explains that even when we don’t have the “perfect” words to pray, the very fact that our heart aches for another person’s misery is, in itself, a powerful prayer.
Video source: ASCOR Cluj, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, May 10th, 2019
Watch the full lecture here: https://youtu.be/YbCMX1dPZfk (in Romanian)
Mother Silouana:
Saint Silouan was with someone at the seashore and they were watching; there was a storm and there were some fishermen in a boat and they were in peril, and the father who was with Saint Silouan said, “My heart aches for them when I see how they are struggling…” And he [St. Silouan] said: “This is already prayer; this helps them.” So, our sorrow for the sin of the other, for the wretchedness of the other, and prayer is a help beyond our imagination. Mankind would collapse under the amount of pain and affliction in the world, were it not for the prayer of the saints and our prayer, the prayer of sinners, one for another.
So this is it. And then, my child, joy is not “Ha ha, how glad I am that John is suffering.” Joy is not a mood, it is not a feeling of jubilation. Joy is the feeling that I am alive and I know Whose I am, and that everything has a purpose and has ended well.
So you look at the wretchedness of the world. I weep for the pain of the world, for the affliction of the world, but everything has ended well, children, good people, it has ended. The Savior has conquered. Wickedness is defeated. Now we too are working to conquer the wickedness within ourselves.
Attend to the wickedness within yourself. And this is like a nightmare. In fact, when we awaken, we will realize that it was a nightmare, but in our nightmares during sleep we release our psyche from those negative burdens that we carry. The sufferings we experience now are the sufferings of this nightmare. And to awaken safely from the nightmare and for this nightmare to be healing, we need to live it with God.
And living with God is repentance. For you saw in the Book of Revelation they constantly said, “afflictions came, they suffered, and they repented not.” Well, in the moment when the one who suffers does not repent, you must repent. “Lord forgive us. Lord, forgive them all. Lord…” Prayer for one’s enemies, prayer for those who do not know how to pray, however feeble it may be, this brings you joy, which is the joy of the presence of God.
God, the Lord, and all the angels rejoice when you pray for those who are in suffering. And this joy you also feel. We must put out of our minds the definition of joy as we normally experience it. “Lord, grant me to taste the joy of Your presence, of Your mercy, the true joy.”
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