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How do we come to know God? If we don't know God, is there something different we can do that we haven't yet done? St. Silouan points us in the right direction.
Many may feel they have prayed and prayed and begged God to reveal Himself, yet He has not. In no way should anyone discount a man's genuine search and ignore his despair. Yet, what is more important in life than union with God? Seek God til your last breath. Never bury your conscience. Accept that the path to resurrection must come first by crucifixion. Despite the despair some feel, God will not forget those who seek Him and repent of their sins. "The Lord loves us as His own children," St. Silouan writes, "and His love is greater than a mother's love. For even a mother may forget her child, but the Lord is never forgetful of us."
St. Silouan the Athonite (+1938) has reached the hearts of many around the world, first through his prayer in his cell, and now through his writings and his heavenly intercession. A towering figure full of love, a great ascetic who by God’s grace mastered the passions, his witness is essential for the Orthodox Christian today. He is the spiritual father of St. Sophrony the Athonite. We commemorate St. Silouan on September 24.
This text comes from “St. Silouan the Athonite” by St. Sophrony the Athonite: www.holycross.org/products/sa...
This is an excerpt from "On the Knowledge of God - St. Silouan the Athonite"
• On the Knowledge of Go...
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St. Silouan writes:
We do not require wealth or learning in order to know the Lord - we must simply be obedient and sober, have a humble spirit and love our fellow-men. The Lord will love such a soul as this, of His own accord make Himself manifest to her and instruct her in love and humility, and give her all things needful for her to fund rest in God.
We may study as much as we will but we shall still not come to know the Lord unless we live according to His commandments, for the Lord is not made known through learning but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and scholars have arrived at a belief in the existence of God but they have not come to know God. And we monks apply ourselves day and night to the study of the Lord's command but not all of us by a long way have come to know the Lord, although we believe in Him. To believe that God exists is one thing, to know God another.
In the sweetness of the Holy Spirit the soul loses her fear of suffering.
The man who has no love for his enemies cannot come to know the lord who died on his cross for his enemies…
O ye peoples of the earth, fashioned by God, know your Creator and His love for us! Know the love of Christ, and live in peace and thereby rejoice the Lord, Who in His mercy waits for all men to come to Him.
O Lord, do Thou grant them to know Thee by Thy Holy Spirit. As Thou didst give the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and they knew Thee, so grant all peoples to know Thee, by the Holy Spirit.
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