St. Silouan: on Love

Another sunrise greets this day; another day greets the love awaiting to be born. It all seems so clear now: love, prayer, forgiveness, humility.

The Staretz spoke thoughts on love which benefit the Catholic hermit. They lull the nothing into love, and love has removed all enemies; love counters pride; love ensures humility.

St. Silouan, on love:

At all times I beseech the Lord who is merciful to grant that I may love my enemies; and by the grace of God I have experienced what the love of God is, and what it is to love my neighbour; and day and night I pray the Lord for love, adn the Lord gives me tears to weep for the whole world. But if I find fault with any man or look on him with an unkind eye my tears dry up and my soul sinks into despondency. Yet do I begin again to entreat forgiveness of the Lord, and the Lord in His mercy forgives me, a sinner....

In heaven there is one and the same love in the hearts of all, but on earth some there are that greatly love the Lord, others love Him in small degree, while still others love Him not at all.

The soul that is filled with love of God is forgetful both of heaven and earth. The spirit burns and invisibly beholds teh Desired One, and the soul sheds many sweet tears and is unable to forget the Lord for a single second, for the grace of God gives strength to love the Beloved.

Brethren, let us humble ourselves that we may be worthy of the love of God, that the Lord may adorn us with His lowliness of spirit and His humility, that we may become worthy of the heavenly mansions which the Lord has made ready for us.

The Lord loves all men but His love is greater for the man who seeks Him. 'I love them that love m,' said the Lord. 'And those that seek me shall find grace.' And with grace life is good, adn the soul rejoices and says: 'My Lord--I am Thy servant.'

If you would know the Lord, humble yourself to the utmost. Be obedient and sober in all things. Love truth. And the Lord of a surety will give you to know Him through the Holy Spirit; and then you will know by experience what love towards God is, and what love towards man. And the more perfect the love, the more perfect your knowledge. There is love in small measure; there is a means of love; and there is great love.

The man who fears sin loves God. the man with a tender heart loves Him more. Still greater is the love of the man in whose soul dwell light and joy. But the man with grace in soul and body has perfect love. This is the grace the Holy Spirit gave to the Martyrs, the grace that helped them to bear every suffering with fortitude....

Men's hearts have grown proud, and it is only through affliction and repentance that we arrive at salvation, while as for love--it is rarely attained.

If a man thinks kindly of his brother, deeming that the Lord loves him--and especially if he believes that the Holy Spirit dwells in his soul--that man is near to the love of God....

The soul should be filled with such insatiable love of God that the mind in all its strength dwells continually in God, captive only to Him....

If we wish to love God we must observe all that the Lord commanded us in the Gospels. Our hearts must brim with compassion and not only feel love for our fellow-men but pity for every creature--for every thing created of God.

That green leaf on the tree which you needlessly plucked: it was not wrong, only rather a pity for the little leaf. The heart that has learned to love feels sorry for every created thing. But man is a supreme creation, and therefore if you see that he has gone astray and is bringing destruction on himself, pray for him and weep for him i fyou are able, or at least sigh before God for him. And the soul that acts after this fashion is loved of the Lord, for she is like unto Him.

If you think evil of people, it means you have an evil spirit in you whispering evil thoughts about others. And if a man dies without repenting, without having forgiven his brother, his soul will go to the place where lives the evil spirit which possessed his soul.

This is the law we have: if you forgive others, it is a sign that the Lord has forgiven you. But if you refuse to forgive, then your own sin remains with you.

The Lord wants us to lvoe our fellow-man; and if you reflect that the Lord loves him, that is a sign of the Lord's love in you. And if you ocnsider how greatly the Lord loves His creature, and you yourself have compassion on all creation, and love your enemies, counting yourself the vilest of men, this is a sign of abundant grace of the Holy Spirit in you.

The man who has the Holy Spirit within him, in however slight a degree, sorrows day and night for all mankind. His heart is filled with pity for all God's creatures, and more especially for those who do not know God or who resist Him and therefore are boundf or the fire of torment. For them, more than for himself, he prays night and day, that all may repent and know the Lord.

Well, there is more. Perhaps the nothing will write more of St. Silouan's thoughts on love, on the victim soul blog. Yes, there is someone for whom the nothing prays very much, who might not like to read the rest of what the Staretz shares, but who would be helped much. But that one is unlikely to read any further for considers a different path.

How the nothing wonders that the Lord has removed the enemies, has removed the anger and frustrations the nothing had just last summer. Yes, the nothing had told the rector that it had surely been in the clutches of the devil then!

It is true that God bequeaths the peace of Christ; and the Holy Spirit enacts the will to love. Just asking, desiring, to love: and love grows within the soul. Suddenly, or perhaps slowly, one realizes how easy it is to love, simply, love.

Then one notices how strange it is when distractions come, when one is on the brink of hell (and that can be the hell of the world, and not some major mystical hell)--that one learns to recognize the difference between heaven and hell even in this lifetime. Then one desires to choose love, to seek humility, over hate and anger (the singe of pride).

To love: does this mean to eat bad food, listen to bad words, think bad thoughts, or view bad images? No. But it means to sorrow for the bad and to pray for the good to replace the bad. This is to keep one's body, mind, heart and soul trained on God, for God is love.