God, Where is the Wound?: Healing Remedies for Today's World

The book “God, Where is the Wound?” is the transcription of three conferences held in Germany in 2012, at the invitation of His Eminence Metropolitan Serafim of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Germany and Central and Northern Europe. This transcription was later augmented by Mother Siluana “for enrichment and explanation” of the text. And so, the book is an image of living faith, detailed, easy to understand and to be put into practice. It is very attractive by its clarifications of Christian anthropology and by its subtle descriptions of psychological experiences that readers are surprised to discover they are very familiar with. At the same time, the book shines a light upon living a correct Christian life as co-working with God. It shows surprising possibilities for living this life, possibilities which, however, fit perfectly in ancient Orthodox practices.Mother Siluana knew pain all her life. She didn’t run away from it, but she befriended it and always sought its meaning, which she understood especially after she had the experience of meeting God in her life. “Pain - the verb of individual life. Its field of action is the soul. Physical pain also reverberates in the soul…whatever you do, it is always there. Can it be that such an obvious permanence has no significance? Could I not find meaning in it?” - wrote Mother Siluana in her diary when she was 34 years old.Mother Siluana’s desire and yearning was for all to be healed, and this yearning is apparent in all her works and her monastic life - it is also the impulse that is woven as a thread through the ideas, words, and images she uses in these conferences for illustrating psychological states and methods of healing, for offering unexpected answers to our pain and suffering. She starts with a clear exposition of elements of Orthodox theology based on the notion of Truth (“the truth will set you free” - John 8:32) as the foundation for healing.Mother Siluana uses concepts from modern science to facilitate the understanding of common experiences that all readers can identify with. She clarifies the difference between life as survival – which we experience as a consequence of the Fall and for which we are conditioned by internal survival mechanisms – and Life as a gift from God, Life for which He created us, Life which becomes possible when we open ourselves up to God’s grace through prayer and the fulfillment of the commandments. Mother Siluana imparts these ideas in an accessible and energetic way, emphasizing their profound spiritual importance, despite the distorted meanings with which secular thinking imprints them.From the preface by Nun Efrema, St. Silouan the Athonite Monastery, Iasi, Romania Read more