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When God Stays Silent: St. Silouan's Fifteen Years of Darkness and St. Sophrony's Three Seasons of Grace

When God Stays Silent: St. Silouan's Fifteen Years of Darkness and St. Sophrony's Three Seasons of Grace 20:19

What the video says

The video addresses the experience of losing the felt presence of God after a period of grace, using the teaching of Saint Sophrony of Essex and his disciple Father Zacharias. Sophrony taught that the Christian life passes through three seasons: grace given as a gift, grace withdrawn, and grace returning at a deeper level. The withdrawal is not punishment but a planned test that reveals whether a person loves God or the feeling of God.

The story of Saint Silouan the Athonite, who endured fifteen years of prayerful darkness after seeing the living Christ, anchors the teaching, along with his instruction to keep the mind in hell and despair not. The video closes with practical instructions for this season and the promise that God remains present even when he is not felt.

Key moments

  1. Many remember a first real encounter with God, at a liturgy, in prayer, or after confession, and then one year the same prayers and services feel empty and silent.
  2. People draw wrong conclusions from the silence: that God is angry, that they were never believers, or that it was just a phase, and the world offers vocabulary like burnout and deconstruction.
  3. Saint Sophrony of Essex wrote that no tribulation is harder to bear than the soul losing grace, and taught that the Christian life passes through three seasons: grace given as a gift, grace withdrawn, and grace returning at another level of being.
  4. The withdrawal is like a father letting go of his son's hands while teaching him to walk; it looks like abandonment but the father never stops watching.
  5. Sophrony himself was flooded with uncreated light on Holy Saturday 1924 in Paris, and the light left him as soon as he began to analyze the experience with his reason.
  6. The Lord withdraws only the perception of grace while communion with man continues unbroken; Sophrony saw this season as a privilege and an opportunity to manifest free will, echoed in Song of Songs 5:6.
  7. Silouan the Athonite saw the living Christ at vespers on Mount Athos, then endured fifteen years of darkness before receiving the answer: keep thy mind in hell and despair not.
  8. Sophrony gave three reasons for God's hiding: protection from pride, the revelation of true freedom and love, and Christ's own words in John 16:7 that his going away was for our good; the video ends with practical instructions, including keep praying, refuse the verdict of despair, tell your spiritual father, pray for others, and have a cup of tea.

The video takes up a familiar experience: a person once felt God's presence in prayer, at a liturgy, or after confession, and then one year the same prayers and services return nothing. People often draw wrong conclusions from that silence, deciding that God is angry, that they were never believers, or that it was only a phase, while the world offers its own vocabulary of burnout and deconstruction.

Against this, the video sets the teaching of St. Sophrony of Essex, who wrote that no tribulation is harder to bear than the soul losing grace. He taught that the Christian life passes through three seasons: grace given as a gift, grace withdrawn, and grace returning at another level of being. The withdrawal is not punishment but a planned test that shows whether a person loves God or the feeling of God.

Sophrony compares it to a father letting go of his son's hands while the boy learns to walk: it looks like abandonment, but the father never stops watching. The Lord withdraws only the perception of grace, while communion continues unbroken, and Sophrony called this season a privilege and a chance to manifest free will. The story of St. Silouan the Athonite anchors the teaching. Silouan saw the living Christ at vespers on Mount Athos a few months after arriving in 1892, then endured fifteen years of darkness he could only describe as demons, until he received the answer: keep thy mind in hell and despair not.

Sophrony himself was flooded with uncreated light on Holy Saturday 1924 in Paris, and the light left him as soon as he began to analyze the experience with his reason. Sophrony gave three reasons for God's hiding: protection from pride, the revelation of true freedom and love, and Christ's words in John 16:7 that his going away was for our good. The video closes with practical instructions for the season of silence.

Main points

  • St. Sophrony taught three seasons of the Christian life: grace given as a gift, grace withdrawn, and grace returning at another level of being.
  • The withdrawal tests whether a person loves God or the feeling of God; only the perception of grace is removed, while communion continues unbroken.
  • St. Silouan the Athonite saw the living Christ on Mount Athos in 1892, then prayed through fifteen years of darkness before hearing: keep thy mind in hell and despair not.
  • Sophrony lost the uncreated light he received on Holy Saturday 1924 in Paris as soon as he began analyzing it with his reason.
  • Practical counsel for the silent season: keep praying, refuse despair, tell your spiritual father, pray for others, and have a cup of tea.
6 opinions in the discussion 6 participants The opinion with the most support 1. Keep doing what grace taught you 2. Refuse to accept a verdict (silence will try to tell you what it means) 3. Look for pride, gently 4. Tell your spiritual father 5. Pray for someone else 6. Have a cup of tea Read the discussion
66 comments at the source 18K views Original on YouTube

Discussion · 6

Opinions are anonymous retellings of real comments from the original discussion. The same colour marks the same participant.

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  • opinion#590

    1. Keep doing what grace taught you 2. Refuse to accept a verdict (silence will try to tell you what it means) 3. Look for pride, gently 4. Tell your spiritual father 5. Pray for someone else 6. Have a cup of tea

  • opinion#593

    It's been six years for me. Six years mostly bedridden. Six years of pain, torment, loss, longing and heartache. None of it feels like it has a purpose anymore, and I don't even feel like a person anymore. I don't "live", I just exist to suffer more and more while watching God bless everyone else.

  • opinion#589

    Honestly, Brother, Christ is working through you. Just yesterday, and really the whole week before, I felt like Christ had abandoned me. The liturgy felt like a joke, like torture. That night I had to force myself to pray with a heart full of confusion. The confusion is still there, since God rarely hands out all the answers. But hearing this was very important for me, and very timely. So timely that you could almost call it a miracle. Thank you, and God bless you.

  • opinion#591

    I'm catholic, but now that God feels distant, even though back then I was so sure he was helping me and leading me somewhere better (he even gave me huge "boosts" I can't explain as mere willpower), now that he feels far away I realize I've been an extremely proud person, and I barely have any real deep love for myself or for others. I realized this a few minutes ago, right now. It hits hard. I did try to convert to orthodoxy, but here in Italy it's an ethnoreligious group where only Romanians can take part.

  • opinion#592

    * "Keep your mind in hell and despair not:" This is his most famous actual quote, given to him directly in a prayerful dialogue with Christ. It teaches that the way out of spiritual darkness and pride is to willingly descend into the radical humility of admitting our own brokenness, while fully trusting God's mercy. * The "Total Adam": Saint Silouan taught that humanity is ontologically one. He believed your neighbor is not a stranger but an extension of your own life. So carrying the pain of others is a natural movement of a soul filled with the Holy Spirit. * Love for Enemies: He strongly held that a person stuck in darkness or sin deserves pity, not hate. He wrote: "The more darkness someone is living in, the more the grace-filled person will pity him."

  • opinion#594

    5:30 .....he had stepped outside the gift and begun to study it......'The Light was given to a child, it was withdrawn from an observer...' reminds me of Peter walking on the sea...... and of the passage from Matthew 18,3 "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven....''