Letters of Spiritual Direction to a Young Soul - Letter Twenty-seven Part II and Letter Twenty-eight Part I

Tonight we began by reading the remainder of letter 27. St. Theophan continues to describe the effects of God’s grace upon a person both spiritually and materially. One is transfigured by the grace of God much as Christ was transfigured on Mount Tabor. Theophan gives examples of saints whose visage was transformed when speaking about God or when praying.

At the end of the letter and in letter 28 Theophan moves to consider the effects of our negligence. Our failure to embrace the gift of God cannot be equated to our setting aside worldly gifts. To fail to embrace the grace of God is tantamount to sacrilege. We are abusing the gift of God and rejecting God himself. Too often we allow ourselves to marginalize the life of faith, to treat it with the lack of desire and interest and not consider the consequence. This is something Theophan is unwilling to do. He’s very clear with Anastasia that our eternal destiny is in question. Like the five foolish virgins in the parable we can neglect to stir the grace of God into flame and keep it alight. The bitterness that we will experience when we see that which is most precious and that which has eternal value slip through our fingers cannot be calculated. The voice of the Bridegroom will pierce our hearts with sorrow when we realize his words of greeting are not for us. As a good spiritual father Saint Theophan does everything in his power to speak to Anastasia about the value of this grace - a value that stands above all other things.