God wants to save all people and in His kindness He calls the entire world to Him. God does not take the free will from people but by His grace He guides it towards good and draws it towards His Love.
When God wants to show His mercy to someone, then He instills in others the desire to pray for him and helps them in their prayer.
That is why it should be known that when it appears the wish to pray for someone, it is a sign that God Himself wants to save this soul and He listens mercifully to your prayers for him. But this desire to pray instilled by God should not be confused with the desire generated by the passionate bond with that person you pray for.
When the prayer springs out only from your grief for someone who is alive or dead, this prayer is free of any passionate bond. In this prayer the soul grieves for him and prays with all its power and this is a sign of God’s mercy.
Saint Silouan the Athonite
Excerpt from Between the Hell of Despair and the Hell of Humility, Deisis Publishing House, 1996, pages 197-198
Article taken from the portal ganduridinierusalim.com
