Saint John of Kronstadt: Do not let sorrow convince you that you are alone.

 

When the soul darkens, there are times when a person feels that everything around him has faded. The sky seems closed, people distant, and within him spreads a heavy silence, as if all light has been extinguished. At that moment, sorrow whispers in his ear: You are alone, no one understands you, not even God. This is the most dangerous moment of the soul, because sorrow, if it does not become prayer, turns into despair—and despair is the greatest lie of the enemy. Saint John of Kronstadt said that the devil tries to convince man that he is abandoned, while it is precisely then that God stands closer to him than ever. Sorrow, then, is not a sign that God has forgotten you—it is proof that He is instructing you. God does not send sorrow to crush you, but to soften your heart, to make it fertile, capable of receiving His grace. Just as hard soil must be broken for the seed to sprout, so too must the heart be cracked for life to enter into it.

God remains silent in order to teach us to listen to Him. Many say, “I pray, but God does not answer me.” And they forget that God's silence is also a word. It is not indifference, but a way for you to learn to hear Him not with your ears, but with your heart. Saint John of Kronstadt writes: “God answers the soul when it becomes still from its thoughts. When you stop expecting miracles, when you cease to demand explanations, then you will understand that He never departed.” Sorrow is often the tool God uses to purify the hearing of the soul. Only within the silence of tears is His voice heard. When everything around you collapses, that is when you learn who the foundation is. And that foundation is Christ. Do not think that He has abandoned you. God stands behind the curtain of trial and waits for you to call upon Him with a contrite heart—for contrition does not frighten Him; it draws Him near.

Loneliness is the delusion of the age. Today, more than ever, people feel alone. We live amid crowds, yet our soul is empty. The phone rings, social networks fill with faces, but no one touches our core. Saint John wrote: “Do not seek a comforter in the world. Neither man nor word can fill your heart as Christ does.” Loneliness is a spiritual illness that is healed only by grace. It does not go away because you filled your schedule, but because you opened your heart. When you feel alone, remember that Christ remained alone in the garden of Gethsemane. Yet He prayed for all. When you imitate Him in this, then loneliness is transformed into communion with God. True loneliness is not when you lack people, but when you lack an inner relationship with Christ—and when you find Him within you, then even in the desert you are not alone. For the desert becomes paradise.

God writes upon wounds. “No tear is ever wasted.” God forgets not even a single sigh.
Saint John said that the wound of the soul is the page upon which God writes His grace.
When you are in pain, do not merely try to forget the pain. Seek to find Him within it.
God writes His most sacred words not upon clean, flawless lives, but upon broken hearts—where tears become ink and repentance becomes paper. The wound of the soul is a holy place. If you offer it to God, He will make it a source of blessing. But if you keep it within you with grumbling, it will become poison. Saint Paisios said: “It is where we are wounded that God works for our salvation.” And this is the mystery of grace: when man is wounded, his prayer becomes true. It is no longer formal words, but a cry. Saint John said: “The sigh that comes from the heart of the one in pain rises like fragrant incense to heaven.” God loves sincerity more than rhetoric. When a person is wounded, and he says, “Lord, I cannot bear it,” God does not reject him—He embraces him, for He knows that this “I cannot bear it” is a deeper prayer than “a thousand thank-yous” said mechanically. Do not be afraid to weep before Him. Tears are the water that cleanses the soul, and many times God permits us to pass through afflictions solely in order to draw from within us the genuine cry that calls upon Him. When you have no words, simply say, “Lord, have mercy on me.” That is enough—for within that phrase is hidden all love, repentance, and faith. And when you say it with a contrite heart, then you are not alone. You have with you God Himself.

Strange, yet true. Joy is not found in the absence of pain, but in its transformation. God does not always take away sorrow—He sanctifies it. Just as the Cross did not vanish after the Resurrection, but shone. Saint John teaches us that each one’s cross becomes the bridge to heaven. Your cross—your illness, your loss, your disappointment—is not a curse, but a calling. God calls you to know Him through your pain. And then you see that sorrow was not punishment, but invitation—an invitation to love more deeply, to forgive, to trust. When you pass through the fire with faith, you come forth as gold. The joy of Christ is not a superficial feeling, but peace in the midst of the storm—like the heart of a child sleeping calmly in the arms of his father, even when it rains outside.

At some point, we will all feel abandonment—the friend who did not understand you, the family that did not support you, the society that forgot you. But at that moment you must remember: God never abandons. Christ said, “I am with you all the days.” He did not say only when all is well, but all the days—even the dark ones. Saint John emphasized that God is closest when all people have withdrawn. For only then do you leave space in your heart to feel Him. As long as we are filled with human comforts, we cannot perceive the Divine. God does not need crowds to support you; He needs only for you to say “Yes” to Him in your sorrow. And then you will discover that He was always beside you—He was simply waiting for you to see Him.

You may lose many things in life—money, health, people. But do not lose hope, for hope is the rope that keeps you tied to God. Saint John said that hope in God is the breath of the soul. As long as you hold on to it, you will not die spiritually. And hope is not a feeling—it is faith in His love. When you see no light, do not say it does not exist; say, “I do not see it yet,” for the light of God does not always come with brilliance, but with peace—and His peace can illuminate even the night of your sorrow. Do not let sorrow convince you that you are alone. Loneliness is an illusion.

God is always near to the one who calls upon Him. When you think that all have abandoned you, Saint John of Kronstadt himself—who deeply knew the power of pain and prayer—teaches us that sorrow is a path to grace, not a sign of absence. Learn, then, to see in trial the touch of God. To accept pain as an opportunity to know Him more personally. And then your soul, no matter how wounded, will become a place of Divine Writing. For where you have suffered, there God will sanctify you.

 

Greek source: https://entoytwnika1.blogspot.com/2025/10/blog-post_20.html