Tag Archives: suffering

The answer to St. Sophrony’s prayer.

November 17, 2023quotes, saintscruelty, prayer, Saint Sophrony of Essex, salvation, suffering, The Cross, the soulGretchenJoanna

From a church bulletin:

“…in the early twenties—before my departure to Mt. Athos in 1925, I wept and prayed to God: ‘Find a way to save the world—to save all of us, we are all defiled and cruel.’

I would pray with particular fervor for the ‘little ones,’ the poor and oppressed.
Towards morning, with my strength waning, my prayer would be disturbed by the
thought that if I grieve for mankind with all my heart, how is it that God can look on indifferently at the pain and torment of millions of beings whom He Himself had created? Why does He allow the innumerable instances of brute force in the world?

And I would turn to Him with the insane challenge, ‘Where art Thou?’ And in my heart I heard: ‘Was it you who was crucified for them?’ …The gentle words uttered by the Spirit shook me to the core—He Who was crucified had answered me as God.”

—Saint Sophrony, reposed July 11th, 1993

Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

The kindness may be unpleasant.

November 17, 2023philosophy, quotesFr. Seraphim Rose, happiness, pleasure, sufferingGretchenJoanna

“Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world. I am at this moment in some pain, and I call on the Name of Jesus — not necessarily to relieve the pain, but that Jesus, in Whom alone we may transcend this world, may be with me during it, and His will be done in me.

“But in pleasure I do not call on Him; I am content then with what I have, and I think I need no more. And why is a philosophy of pleasure untenable? — because pleasure is impermanent and unreliable, and pain is inevitable. In pain and suffering Christ speaks to us, and thus God is kind to give them to us, yes, and evil too — for in all of these we glimpse something of what must lie beyond, if there really exists what our hearts most deeply desire.”

– Fr. Seraphim Rose

Even amid suffering, grace conquered.

October 25, 2023quotes, saintsgrace, St. Maximus the Confessor, suffering, teleologyGretchenJoanna

“For there is nothing in creation capable of impeding the advance of the grace proclaimed evangelically to the Gentiles: neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor danger, nor sword (Romans 8:35). On the contrary, grace was confirmed by these very circumstances, and subdued everything which arose against it. Even amid suffering, grace all the more conquered those who suffered, and turned our errant nature toward the true and living God.”