Soul Mates?

[ProScribe]

Is there anything in Orthodoxy and Catholicism about people finding their soul mate? Wondering. ~ Wesley

 

[jckstraw72]

i think its a crock of crap. marriage is not about finding someone else to "fulfill" you. Dr. Albert Rossi said the Orthodox equivalent of "soul mate" is "sand-paper." your mate is the person that is supposed to help you become smooth and perfected. any number of people can be your sand-paper.

 

[OuterWater]

Touchy feely garbage. Also fairly narcissistic in my opinion. I am happily married and adore my wife, but it is silly to think that if I had never met her, I couldn't have been happily married to one of the other billions of women on the planet.


I will say, that I believe that my wife could be called my soul mate to the extent that we are of one mind and one flesh in our marriage and that we will do all that we can for each other to help one another live Godly lives. But to say that there's only one person hand picked for everyone....touchy feely garbage I think.

 

[27B6]

Orthodoxy rejects the pagan notion of fate - that our lives are determined from the beginning or determined by outside forces (like the pagan Olympian gods). The idea of a soul mate is based on this notion and so is rejected. The romanticism of the soul mate idea is also quite damaging to real relationships, as it sets an unrealistic standard that cannot be met by ANY partner. Marriage should be grounded in the reality that both partners are fallen and must help one another in the working out of their salvation. Basically, if two people are to become real soul mates, it is something that happens over a long time in the context of a shared life, not something that is present from the beginning of the relationship. One can often see this real soul-mating in couples that have been together for a long time, generally more than four decades, and have been through the self-martyrdom that marriage entails.

 

[file13]

Is there anything in Orthodoxy and Catholicism about people finding their soul mate? Wondering. ~ Wesley

I can't speak for either church, but there is this:

the demon will smell it and flee, and will never be seen near her any more. Now when you are about to go to bed with her, both of you must first stand up and pray, imploring the Lord of heaven that mercy and safety may be granted to you. Do not be afraid, for she was set apart for you before the world was made. You will save her, and she will go with you. I presume that you will have children by her, and they will be as brothers to you. Now say no more!" When Tobias heard the words of Raphael and learned that she was his kinswoman, related through his father's lineage, he loved her very much, and his heart was drawn to her.
(Tobit 6:18 NRSV)
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[buzuxi02]

What exactly is a soulmate? It sounds to me that its something that would appeal to bisexuals. Ive heard many of them say they dont care about a persons looks or genders just their soul. Man is body and rational soul, so attraction plays a role as does the intellect. Of course looks are not static and people can change, yes it is shallow, but it also is the reality. Vo such thing as soulmate.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I heard someone reject the idea of soul mates, because it puts us as the standard for who we marry, rather than God.

 

[NyssaTheHobbit]

The other trouble with "soul mates" is that it leads to what I've heard called "evangelical divination": trying to hear God's will about who you are to marry. I did this, a friend of mine did this, I've read stories on the web of other people who did this--and the "impression" one supposedly gets from God, turns out to be wrong, something that came from your own heart. I spent far too much time waiting for "soul mates" to return to me because I thought God said we were meant to be together; we were not, and these people would not have made good husbands for me.

 

[neon_knights]

I think that if God knows who we are to marry before he creates us, so I guess in that way I believe in "soul mates". But Im not Orthodox...

 

[MKJ]

I think there are two issues.

One is the issue of God's foreknowledge, or what is often called providence. If we have a spouse in this life, God knows about it. I suppose it might even be possible he arranged circumstances to allow us to come into contact with that person in the right time and place. However, we are free and can decide what we do about such things. And we could still have an unhappy marriage with such a person.

The second thing I believe is this: there are any number of people one could have a successful marriage with, and it will be hard work in every case. There are some people who are probably not a good match for a spouse though.

 

[Knee V]

The passage from Tobit is a foreshadowing of Christ and the Church, and should not be taken as a norm for all cases, any more than one ought to suppose that fathers ought to bring their sons to the tops of mountains to slay them.

 

[Kristos]

The passage from Tobit is a foreshadowing of Christ and the Church, and should not be taken as a norm for all cases, any more than one ought to suppose that fathers ought to bring their sons to the tops of mountains to slay them.

Really? That seems like a bit of a stretch. Where did you find that comment?

Are we not called to have the faith of Abraham, such that we would sacrifice our son if God asked it? We know that He wouldn't, so it's really a condition of the heart.

 

[Knee V]

Really? That seems like a bit of a stretch. Where did you find that comment?

Are we not called to have the faith of Abraham, such that we would sacrifice our son if God asked it? We know that He wouldn't, so it's really a condition of the heart.

Maybe we're misunderstanding each other. My point was that God commanding Abraham to kill his son isn't something that God asks of all fathers. That was a one-time thing in order to foreshadow Christ carrying His own wood up a hill to be slain. I wasn't trying to say that God doesn't ask us to make sacrifices, and we may, at some point, have to sacrifice our families. But that particular story, like the one in Tobit, was a deliberate foreshadowing of something about Christ.

 

[Kristos]

Do you happen to have a reference for the Tobit typology? (general is fine - I can probably find it if you point me in the right direction) I would like to follow up on this for my own edification. Thanks!