{"id":9610,"date":"2021-03-24T12:45:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T16:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=9610"},"modified":"2021-03-20T11:48:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T15:48:50","slug":"9610","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=9610","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Fighting Against Despair…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spiritual Strength Again Suicidal Thoughts (and Despair)\u2026Try to understand that God loves you, and that perhaps your\u00a0current disposition is a sign that He is waiting for you to turn to Him.\u00a0Do so, and you will feel real strength and security under the\u00a0protection of His love.<\/p>\n

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Go to church. Possibly, when you take that path, you will\u00a0encounter various temptations, and obstacles will stand in your way.\u00a0Overcome them. Turn in prayer to the Mother of God, who is our\u00a0merciful intercessor before her Divine Son. She always heeds the\u00a0prayers of those who are suffering, and quickly comes to their aid.\u00a0Pray to her not only in church, but anywhere you feel the need.\u00a0It is essential that you come to Confession, for already after\u00a0your first Confession, you may experience relief from your deep\u00a0sorrow. If relief does not come immediately, do not despair, for it\u00a0will surely come later.<\/p>\n

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Despair is nothing but a road to nowhere, and it is Satan that drives us to despair. Suicide is the direct and unambiguous path to\u00a0the abysses of Hell, to eternal torment, compared to which your\u00a0current state will seem to you as heavenly bliss. Believe me, that road\u00a0is not an option for you; you do not need to go there. Turn to God,\u00a0and you will begin to see the world in a different perspective. God is\u00a0waiting for you, and with Him joy in life awaits you.<\/p>\n

– \u2018Parish Life\u2019 of Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St John the Baptist<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiritual Strength Again Suicidal Thoughts (and Despair)\u2026Try to understand that God loves you, and that perhaps your\u00a0current disposition is a sign that He is waiting for you to turn to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modern-orthodox-elders","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9613,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9610\/revisions\/9613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}