Philokalia Ministries – Détails, épisodes et analyse

The very words of St. John Climacus seem to carry us up to heights hitherto unknown and unexpected. The experience of this ascent takes place as we feel our hearts begin to burn for love of God and the desire for him in prayer. 

St. John quickly moves us away from looking at prayer as a mere discipline and rather our being drawn into the depths of Mystery, the very Mystery of the Triune God.  The act of praying is a blessing in and of itself. To enter into this converse with God is also to experience the action of the Spirit within our hearts, the groans of Love that are beyond words.  

In all of this, St. John reshapes are understanding of the nature of prayer. It is not a discipline but an expression of our true nature in Christ. We are to become prayer, consumed by love for the Lord; anxious to show that love and treat it cheaply. 

Faith, St. John tells us, gives wings to prayer. Through it we see with clarity our hearts’ desire. An urgent longing takes hold of the heart that seeks quick satisfaction; that is, seeks to take hold of the Beloved without delay.

--- Text of chat during the group:   00:08:23 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 237, #26   00:12:17 iPhone: Thank you, Bob   00:12:37 Myles Davidson: Hi Father. Which edition of Isaac the Syrian’s AH will you be using?   00:13:38 iPhone: Beautiful book   00:13:51 Bob Cihak, AZ: Previous posts don't show for newcomers, so I repeat: P. 237, #26   00:14:02 Bob Cihak, AZ: Yes! “The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, revised 2nd Edition” published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/products_id/635 .   00:14:16 Cindy Moran: I just got mine in the mail---loving the glossary.   00:14:43 Cindy Moran: Excellent...yes!   00:26:15 Anthony: I think the focus on law and duty that we see in some Catholic subcultures damages our understanding of prayer in this mystical way. At least, I think it was not healthy for me, with efforts like "storm heaven with this novena."   00:27:53 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Yes! “The Ascetical ..." with ❤️   00:30:43 Anthony: Another thing about legalism is that it chokes faith.   00:34:13 Anthony: Like how God said His name was blasphemy among the nation's by bad behavior of the Chosen people.   00:35:35 Kate : I have had to undo a lot of this strict legalistic teaching over the years.  Sometimes I fall back into it, and I think it is actually easier for my mind to grasp this legalism rather than open myself and surrender myself to the Love of God.  His Love is almost incomprehensible sometimes, but wonderfully so!   00:35:42 iPhone: Glad you mentioned corporal punishment. When I was five or six, I realized how unjust this violence was and I saw that the nun hit us hard enough to make us cry. In my desire for Justice, I resolved not to cry and I didn’t. After that I was marked as a problem child and never got a break. So, yeah, learning to trust is big   00:36:49 iPhone: The nuns meant our best, I’m sure. But something was really off with Irish Catholicism at that time (early 60s)   00:37:13 Anthony: Replying to "The nuns meant our b..."     It's Jansenism   00:38:19 iPhone: I think Jansenism is applicable but not the whole story   00:39:21 iPhone: Oh this is Una. Forget to put in my name   00:55:33 Cindy Moran: It's a sort of Divine healing radiation   01:04:21 Erick Chastain: Sorry about that got in car mode   01:04:27 iPhone: Ignatius and remote preparation   01:06:53 Jeff O.: So it all starts with obedience….is this the general movement…recognizing that it’s not quite so linear? obedience —> humility —> discernment —> dispassion —> true prayer   01:12:22 Jacqulyn: Reacted to "Sorry about that got..." with 👍   01:13:34 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing   01:13:50 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:13:57 Cindy Moran: Thank you, Father! Will be in prayer for you!   01:13:58 Jacqulyn: God bless!   01:14:03 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂Have a good retreat!   01:14:05 Nypaver Clan: Is there a particular website we should check to get the next book?   01:14:06 Jeff O.: Thank you!   01:14:10 Art iPhone: Thank you, Father!   01:14:22 Joseph: Thank you, Father.   01:14:40 Nypaver Clan: Is the next book cheaper than $70 anywhere?   01:14:59 Maureen Cunningham: On line

 

Synopsis of tonight’s group on the Evergetinos- Hypothesis 18 Sections H and I:

 

This evening we concluded hypothesis 18 with the clarity that only St. John Cassian can bring. Cassian, though as western monk, spent many years in Egypt among the desert fathers and was able to distill their thought with great clarity for the western mind as well as the western monk. He shows us what the practice, or as he says, the vast experience of the monks over the course of time offers us. They show us that we are to avoid extremes. Fasting is not to be extended over the course of many days because the immoderate practice of fasting leads to the immoderate break of the fast and over-eating. Fasting is to be embraced, not as an end in itself, but as a means to bringing about both internal and external stability to a confused and unruly life. There is only one hard and fast rule and that is not to eat to the point of satiation. In fact, we must understand the uniqueness of each individual in regard to their experience in the ascetic life and the strength of their constitution. Not everybody can restrain the amount of food they eat to the same extent. Nor can everyone live a strictly vegan diet.

 

Cassian also notes that illness does not come into conflict with purity of heart. It may demand that we lighten our discipline for the sake of the health of the body. But even here we should eat in moderation and whatever the illness demands without making ourselves slaves to the assaults of evil desires. “The moderate and logical use of food ensures the health of the body; it does not detract from holiness.” Once again the fathers prove themselves to be both spiritually and psychologically astute as well as having a clear understanding of the physiological needs that we have as human beings.

 

Fasting in many way is starting point for us and not only serves us in the struggle for purity of heart by humbling the mind and the body, but it also reveals to us that the spiritual life must involve the whole person. We begin with the basics and our most fundamental need – the need for sustenance. A confused mind is born out of disorder, and this brings confusion to the soul, and from that purity slowly disappears. Much of the turmoil that we experience in our life arises out of the loss of peace that comes from a disordered life. However, when this order emerges within us and we begin to taste something of the peace of Christ, then something is born within the human heart. The Fathers tells us that from the light of peace a pure wind blows through the mind. To the extent that the heart can draw near to wisdom, it receives grace from God. Thus fasting may not seem to be necessary or important in our generation, but for the fathers it lays the very foundation of a life that is caught up in Christ and transformed by his grace.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:09:53 Nicole Dillon: Hello everyone. Happy to be able to join tonite. Thank you 🙏🏼 🥰🕊️   00:10:46 Ambrose Little, OP: St. John’s Conferences were one of the few books that St. Dominic kept and carried with him.   00:24:57 Wayne: Some may be Vegan?   00:25:26 Laura: Vegan - no animal products   00:25:34 Lilly (Toronto, CA): No animal products at all   00:25:50 Forrest Cavalier: There are also fruitarians.   00:25:57 Rebecca Thérèse: Vegans won't even eat honey   00:26:17 Lilly (Toronto, CA): I've been a nut for 12 years 😅   00:26:23 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "Vegans won't even ea..." with 🙄   00:26:43 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "There are also fruit..." with 🙄   00:29:14 Anthony: When the Mongols became Christian,  they had a meat and milk diet.  They were advised by the "nestorian" bishop to abstain from fermented mare's milk.   00:36:04 Lilly (Toronto, CA): I've always wondered if God's plan for Adam and Eve was for humanity to be vegan? Did original sin bring about the killing of animals and need for such products?   00:36:50 Anthony: Reacted to I've always wondered... with "👍"   00:41:43 Nypaver Clan: Can a disordered life cause mental disorder or does the mental disorder usually come first, then the disordered life?   00:51:42 Wayne: Replying to "I've always wondered..."   I don't have the  scriptural verse in Genuis that suggest we should not be eating animal products   00:56:29 Rebecca Thérèse: When I worked in mental health over a decade ago, professionals completely adopted the secularist notions towards sexuality and sexual behaviour without even any understanding of different values in this area. For example, stating that a Muslim man would have hang ups around sex because of his religion. Also, a colleague was refused a job because in an interview he said he would advise a Muslim with same sex attraction to speak to a Muslim religious leader. He was told he failed the diversity question as this was the wrong answer since religious leaders are the most conservative of people. It's considered bad for mental health to observe traditional sexual morality.   00:58:36 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "When I worked in men..." with 😢   00:58:55 Lilly (Toronto, CA): Is there an actual scriptural verse in Genesis that can clarify my previous question?   00:59:25 Forrest Cavalier: Replying to "Is there an actual s..."   Gen 9:3   01:02:44 iPhone: I’ve been called a bigot for believing that homosexuality activity is a sin and that the attraction is disordered, although I do not reject or condemn this man   01:05:36 Wayne: Replying to "Is there an actual s..."   yes that's it   01:06:41 Wayne: Replying to "Is there an actual s..."   I checked the foot notes on this verse and did not get clarity on it   01:07:27 Nicole Dillon: Thank you Father!   01:07:53 Laura: Reacted to "Thank you Father!" with 👍🏼   01:08:05 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you, FatherI keep you in  prayer for your retreat Blessing   01:08:13 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:08:17 Forrest Cavalier: So grateful!   01:08:21 iPhone: Thank you, Father   01:08:29 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father.   01:08:33 Cameron Jackson: Thank you.   01:08:38 iPhone: Bye bye

 

We picked up once again with the theme of “loving fasting.” The severity of the desert father’s practice of this discipline reveals that love. They discovered not only how essential the body is in the spiritual struggle to overcome attachment and the order of one’s desires towards God, but also that fasting brings a simplicity to one’s life. We begin to realize that we need much less than we imagine. We are often tempted to think that we need to pamper the body so as not to become sick or weak. It is the regular practice of fasting, we must keep in mind, that teaches us to see the intimate connection between eating and Christ. He is the bread of life and also he who gives us living water to drink in abundance. Therefore, we are to eat in a thoughtful and contemplative fashion, and to make an explicit connection between eating and the Eucharist. In fact fasting and the Eucharist shape the way that we eat. We must attend to the body, but we must also allow the body to serve us spiritually. We discipline ourselves not to punish the body as something evil but to allow everything to be directed toward what satisfies the deepest longing of the human heart. We are not promised happiness in this world, but rather the invincible, peace, joy, and love of the kingdom. Fasting is one element that helped the monks learn to hunger for what endures. --- Text of chat during the group:   00:07:29 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 127, # 8   00:43:17 Bob Cihak, AZ: Is the Elder hastening his own death excessively?   00:48:25 Susanna Joy: When I was a girl, we fasted on bread and water on Fridays, but after awhile stopped bc virtue is harder to practice ...making it pointless if no charity is left   00:48:53 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "When I was a girl, w..." with 😩   00:51:15 Susanna Joy: Right! The regular habit is important and the combination with prayer   00:51:57 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "Right! The regular h..." with 👍🏼   00:51:59 Maureen Cunningham: Holy Spirit will help   00:52:54 Forrest Cavalier: Is there a #16 that was skipped?   00:53:21 Cameron Jackson: Despondency. I can get how one can transcend Judas like despair. God is so good He can forgive all our sin but despair of life itself is another thing. I’m old, my money is running out, I can’t protect my family from ever present evil, etc. God doesn’t guarantee quality of life. How do you think this through? Life is suffering get used to it?!   00:56:40 Susanna Joy: Emerson   00:56:56 Susanna Joy: Most men lead lives of quiet desperation   00:58:33 David Fraley: I think that was Thoreau.   00:59:15 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "I think that was Tho..." with 👍🏼   01:01:28 Susanna Joy: Reacted to I think that was Tho... with "👍🏼"   01:08:10 Maureen Cunningham: How long did he live   01:14:54 Steve Yu: As a beginner, would one 16 hr fast a week be excessive?   01:15:00 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You , Blessing   01:15:31 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:15:35 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:35 Forrest Cavalier: Steve, start by skipping breakfast.   01:15:36 Lorraine Green: Thank you Father!   01:15:43 David Fraley: Thank you, Father.

 

We continued our discussion of the fathers’ love for abstinence and fasting. While their feats seem amazing to us as well as how little food they needed to sustain themselves, the importance is what this love of these disciplines show us. They were not embraced simply as forms of discipline or endurance, but rather that which humbled the mind and the body. It is counterintuitive for all of those who live in times of great abundance to imagine that radically limiting both the amount and type of food that we eat could have such great significance for the spiritual life. At one point, the practices are compared to David slaying a lion in the protection of his flock. Fasting allows us to put our trust in God, and so becomes a weapon capable of slaying a far more fierce enemy. Similarly, David rushed out to do battle with Goliath with nothing but a sling and a few stones. Likewise, we rush out in battle, unencumbered by the things of this world caring with us the humble weapons of fasting and constant prayer.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:09:22 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 124, #5   00:12:09 David Fraley: Hello Father!   00:22:14 Maureen Cunningham: What  page   00:22:33 Lilly: Pg 125 #8   00:23:01 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   00:32:04 Adam Paige: gyrovagues   00:38:26 Bob Cihak, AZ: Waste not, Want not, Skinny not.   00:44:24 Adam Paige: "Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer, almsgiving is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated." - St. Peter Chrysologus Sermo 43 (Office of Readings for Tuesday of the 3rd week of Lent)   00:47:54 Forrest Cavalier: In Hypothesis 16 there are stories of extreme fasting, some of which must be miraculous, but not without other imitations that are attested. There are several saints who lived multiple years only consuming Eucharist, including St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Joseph of Cupertino.   01:03:59 Rebecca Thérèse: Yes   01:14:53 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:14:57 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   01:15:33 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:15:55 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father.   01:15:56 David Fraley: Thank you, Father!   01:16:01 Jennifer Ahearn: 🙏 thank you.   01:16:08 Mark: thank you father

 

The fathers often draw us along this mysterious path, the narrow path, that leads to the kingdom. They lead us, as it were, “where angels fear to tread.”  They show us in an unvarnished fashion how the path to Godly love and virtue passes through affliction. 

Yet, even that is too simplistic. It is the suffering heart, the heart crushed by prayer and the desire for God, that gives birth to virtue. One cannot have God sorrow and suffering if he does not first cherish the causes of these. 

It is here that we must pray for the illumination that comes through faith. For we are told fear of God and the reproof of one’s conscience give birth to this godly sorrow. Abstinence and vigil keep company with a suffering heart and strengthen it to remain upon this path. Gluttony in all of its forms gives rise to the bad blood of the passions, and drives out the influx of the Spirit. 

Thus, while we are young, we must learn to delight in what comes from the labor of compunction. If we do not, we will simply provoke confusion and callousness in the heart. We will be frustrated and lose our desire for God. Knowledge of God and the things of God do not reside in the hedonist; and the one who loves his body will not acquire the grace of God. 

There is a plethora of ways that we idolize the body and its needs. It is for this reason that we are given multiple stories of elders crushing the demons by their asceticism. They starve the demons by not allowing them to feed upon the disordered and the unholy desires that often dwell within our hearts. If a man spends his life in fasting, then his adversaries, the passions and the demons flee, enfeebled, from his soul.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:37:43 Kate : I think sometimes we can hesitate in the ascetical life due to an exaggerated fear of suffering.  I know I have felt this myself.  But when we begin to engage in ascetical practices there is a sweetness and joy and peace in making our way towards God.  It is not a sensible sweetness, but a deep interior sweetness.   00:38:51 Adam Paige: At church and Catholic home meetings, I'm constantly being offered food.. it's not always clear whether to accept hospitality or decline sometimes large amounts of food   00:44:25 Fr Marty, AZ, 480-292-3381: Besides wine, it sounds like that satiating our longing for God or restlessness to do God's will by overdoing anything: food, lust, entertainment, news, even complaining, can numb our sensitivity to not just the Holy Spirit's guidance, but even our ability to just be at rest with life we've been given and be content during prayer.   00:44:45 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Besides wine, it sou..." with ❤️‍🔥   00:48:56 Forrest Cavalier: καὶ αὐτὸς. ποὺ ἀγαπᾷ τὸ σῶπα του   00:49:06 Forrest Cavalier: Agape love   00:53:21 Forrest Cavalier: It is the greek original of "he who loves his own body"   00:55:36 Anthony: I went to Italy and got some prayer cards from Naples and Calabria.  Some of them do not end prayer in "Amen" but "Cosi sià," which I take to mean "As He (the Lord) wills."   01:02:07 Fr Marty, AZ, 480-292-3381: Just as God wants us well fed in those things that keep us healthy, could it be that the devils have the strategy to starve us spiritually by glutting our appetites, and keep us from feeding on the Word of God or Body of Christ. It seems at times I've been starving on a full stomach. That even in great pleasure, I felt no love or joy..   01:05:52 Jennifer Ahearn: There is a term I just learned ‘simping’, in romantic relationships a male who is over attentive and submissive to a woman’s desire.  Only the blessings and God’s good pleasure to see his children fulfilled really satisfy the soul and strengthen the Sacrament.   01:06:14 Anthony: I'm preparing to move, and trying to follow St Charbel's advice, cutting out of my life books that I bought to be a somebody, a scholar, but really are so much extra weight - other than the one "jar" I should carry or am called to carry in life, for my vocation.   01:08:44 Ambrose Little, OP: Jim Gaffigan   01:08:51 Nypaver Clan: Jim Gaffigan?   01:09:12 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "Jim Gaffigan" with 👍🏼   01:14:08 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you 🙂Happy birthday🎂   01:14:14 Anthony: Auguri, Padre!   01:14:23 Adam Paige: Ad multos annos !   01:14:23 Steve Yu: Happy Birthday, Father!   01:14:24 Nypaver Clan: Birthday blessings   01:15:03 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father! Happy Birthday!   01:15:23 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father. Happy Birthday.

 

St. John Climacus once again gives us powerful images to help us understand the meaning of stillness and how it is to be protected. One such image is that of an eyelash that falls into the eye and creates irritation. The enemy of stillness is agitation; we are often driven to distraction by a concern for our physical and emotional well-being. Fear can create within us a kind of hypochondria. We become hypersensitive to our health and well-being. Unchecked, this fear can be become so excessive that it creates a massive neurosis that prevent us from trusting in the providence and promises of God. We no longer feel ourselves being drawn along by love or seeking to remain in that stillness in order that we might know intimacy with the beloved. Rather, we desperately push forward, driving ourselves to the point of exhaustion, seeking a worldly peace and security. 

However, in this we deprive ourselves of a childlike sense of wonder at the life and love the God has made possible for us. Therefore, as Christ tells us, we may not experience the kingdom even though it dwells within us because we are focused upon controlling our life and shaping our own identity. Once the simplicity is lost, it can lead to a kind of quiet desperation. Our hearts long for love from others and from God, but in the complexity that we have created and the thick hedge of responsibilities with which we surround ourselves, we lose faith and hope that such freedom can ever be ours again.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:03:18 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 228, #48   00:26:14 Anthony: Another issue is for one in involuntary solitude, having a desire for companionship goes out to fill the void   00:27:33 Anthony: This is a reason for excessive social media or tv or radio, and God's gifts are dissipated   00:30:57 Bob Cihak, AZ: The stutters are because you're reflecting as we go.   00:36:19 Anthony: Not to analyze the thoughts.  I've been surprised by horrid thoughts, and thereafter been so concerned about them, that concern brings them to mind.   00:47:15 Kate : It’s almost as if we don’t trust the grace of God.  We don’t trust the Providence of God and His Presence within the soul.   00:55:09 Susanna Joy: So true...believing the promise of God's everlasting goodness is key. Elizabeth said to Mary: Blessed is she who believed that the promise made by God would be fulfilled. And it is true for all of us.   00:57:32 Lilly (Toronto, CA): Covid was a curse *and* a blessing, it brought Fr Abernethy to my life...I am so grateful 🙏   00:57:51 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "Covid was a curse *a..." with 🥰   00:57:57 Lilly (Toronto, CA): Reacted to "Covid was a curse *a…" with 🥰   00:58:40 Kevin Burke: Reacted to "Covid was a curse *a…" with 👌   01:03:55 Susanna Joy: Yes...wonder!   01:04:13 Greg C: It was a blessing to me as I began to read scripture much more deeply, and understand the Divine Liturgy with so much more love.   01:04:26 Susanna Joy: Reacted to It was a blessing to... with "❤️"   01:04:36 Susanna Joy: Reacted to Covid was a curse *a... with "❤️"   01:04:46 Greg C: Reacted to "Covid was a curse *a..." with ❤️   01:16:49 Susanna Joy: Jesus did say, unless you become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of God.   01:19:21 Susanna Joy: Trust and Wonder.💗   01:19:58 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father!   01:20:08 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:21:08 Cindy Moran: My birthday is July 8...I will be thinking of you!   01:21:18 Sharon: Thank you!

 

What is it that we are hungry for in this world? So many of the writings of the fathers can be reduced to this very question. What is the deepest desire of our hearts? What have we been created for and what satisfies the sense of incompleteness or the strange feeling of nostalgia within us? 

Because we have been created for God and find in Him our truest identity, we are going to experience ourselves as strangers in a strange world. We are made like everyone else and experience internal and external pressures to pursue what the world deems legitimate and of value. In the process, any thought of the future or the remembrance of God slips out of our minds. We become slaves not only to our bellies but to everything that we consume in an unthinking fashion. 

Abstemiousness and simplicity are not about lack but rather fullness. We must attend to the very real needs of the flesh but only as much as is required - and sometimes less. When we lose sight of God, our internal world is driven by anxiety and fear. We seek for security and to protect ourselves from want. What we find in the fathers, however, is not a starving of themselves, but rather the starving of the demons and what they nourish themselves upon. We engage in the ascetic life in order not to keep feeding the appetites and the passions that tie us to the world. 

This is no easy task. Rationalization and the illusion of joy and freedom keep us moving forward. However, these things (very much like rights and happiness) are very fragile. We think they are the norm but this is perhaps the great deception of our times. 

Our life has been given to us for repentance and we must not waste it. Life is a relationship; a constant turning towards God and who is constantly seeking us. Let us not grieve the Holy Spirit by seeking to quench our thirst for life and hunger for love other than in God.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:11:09 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 118, para 2   00:17:20 Bob Cihak, AZ: Oops. P. 119, para 2   00:31:47 Cindy Moran: Usury   00:34:45 Cindy Moran: No cash allowed at Pirate game concessions   01:08:03 Jennifer Ahearn: Constant prayer, unceasing.  There is a Freedom for Excellence between deficit and excess   01:08:47 Jennifer Ahearn: FOMO😃   01:09:26 Jennifer Ahearn: Stay in the rhythm of The Church   01:10:56 Jennifer Ahearn: St. Philip Nero ‘if it is not leading to Christ, cut it out’.  Holy leisure is important.   01:11:24 Janine: You are 100% correct   01:12:01 Jennifer Ahearn: Neri   01:12:09 Paul G.: WE experience your teachings and get ntold blessings Father   01:12:24 Paul G.: Untold   01:12:39 Susanna Joy: Reacted to WE experience your t... with "❤️"   01:14:55 Lori Hatala: the things you share are shared with others and create a ripple effect of gratitude and thought provoking prayer.   01:15:00 Jennifer Ahearn: Constant prayer, unceasing.  There is a Freedom for Excellence between deficit and excess   01:16:40 Jennifer Ahearn: St Louis DeMontfort Consecration five years in a row in October changed my interior life and mind.   01:18:31 Forrest Cavalier: For me, reading https://archive.org/details/tolovefasting/ has been very eye opening that the practices noted in Evergetinos are not fantastical. He does write that those who live with others will need more nourishment. Monks less, Hermits even less.   01:19:51 Jennifer Ahearn: Yes!  Thank you so much, Fr. Charbel.  It is a constant reality ♥️🙏   01:20:13 Jennifer Ahearn: It is exciting ♥️🙏   01:21:14 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:21:16 Cameron Jackson: Thank you.   01:21:17 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:21:26 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father!   01:21:34 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father.   01:22:22 Lorraine Green: !Thank you Fr., good luck with the move

 

There is a beautiful movement created in the heart by St. John’s writing; it is almost a dance. We move back-and-forth with St. John by simultaneously reflecting upon the beauty of silence and stillness and the intimacy that we experience with God through it - while also being shown what the loss of the silence does to us.

The silence of which St. John speaks is not just the absence of noise, but rather the presence of a love and life that transcends our understanding. It can only be experienced. Therefore, St. John holds out before us the intimacy for which our our hearts long and that can be found in the silence while also warning us of the dangers and the pitfalls that allow this great gift to slip through our fingers.

The more we become attentive to the interior life, the more we realize how easily we can be distracted; how our thoughts and feelings can be manipulated either by our own appetites or by demonic provocation. It has been said that “Hurry destroys both poets and Saints“. The frenetic activity that surrounds us agitates and fragments the mind and the heart. To live in such a state for a long period of time dulls one’s sensibilities not only to the finer things of life but to God himself. 

Thus, the preliminary task John tell us is disengagement from all affairs, whether reasonable or senseless. Both can be equally distracting to us. In fact, it’s often easier for us to recognize the inane things to which we direct our attention then it is to see how the responsibilities and demands that we have set for ourselves places us on a never-ending treadmill of activity of mind and body. 

And so let us simplify our lives. It does not take long for us to realize the gains of doing so. We begin to taste, perhaps for the first time, the sweetness of those things that endure.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:04:54 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 227, #41   00:37:54 David: OBS software?   00:40:41 Leilani Nemeroff: True, I stopped watching tv. It’s amazing how annoying it is when you’re exposed.   00:41:22 Cindy Moran: Most major movie trailers will have a cut every second.   00:43:15 Callie Eisenbrandt: Father- sometimes I feel guilty turning to the Jesus prayer when I'm feeling distracted or off track, like my mind isn't where it needs to be to be saying the prayer   00:44:16 Leilani Nemeroff: Yes, pronounced correctly!   00:44:26 Cindy Moran: The term for what you describe is called "jump cut"   00:44:41 Dave Warner (AL): Reacted to "The term for what yo..." with 👍   00:45:28 David: Something interest on OBS. We do educational conferences and if more than 15 seconds of silence passes we loose 15-20% of attendants. AHAD apparently has become a norm   00:45:32 Rebecca Thérèse: People are advised that their film clips should be no longer than 3 seconds otherwise people lose attention   00:50:11 Anthony: There's an Orthodox priest, Fr. Barnabas Powell, who says "you are not your thoughts." That really good when thoughts waylay a person like hoodlums.   00:50:38 David: I was taught to see it as waves coming in from the shore for the Jesus Prayer which really helps. It does have a soothing repetition that is similiar.   00:55:35 Maureen Cunningham: Human doing not being   00:55:37 Lori Hatala: Sometimes when saying the Jesus prayer I must say it slowly and loudly when having distracting thoughts until they subside.   00:57:31 Dave Warner (AL): Silence is also the domain of software programmers.   00:58:23 Anthony: In Lercara Friddi, Sicily the town was so silent in siesta that I could hear the pigeons cooing.   01:05:34 Jennifer Ahearn: Ineffable ‘internal journey’   01:07:34 David: God calls us by name the devil by our sin. We are not defined by our faults   01:08:43 Cindy Moran: I wrote in my Bible when I was 15 yrs old: "Even in my biggest mistake, I am not a mistake"   01:12:28 Kate : I find that the time I am most vulnerable to distraction is after receiving Holy Communion.  Sometimes the Jesus Prayer is the only thing I can grasp hold of, so as not to be swept away by the distractions.  It is quite a battle sometimes.   01:18:59 Rebecca Thérèse: Sometimes the parking lot is more conducive to prayer after communion than the church   01:19:09 Jacqulyn: Wow! 15 minutes... bring it on! :-)   01:19:23 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing keep you in prayer Amen   01:19:37 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:19:38 Jennifer Ahearn: Thank you   01:19:38 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father very inspiring session!   01:19:41 David: Thank you father!   01:19:51 Leilani Nemeroff: Thank you   01:19:51 Dave Warner (AL): Thank you Father - what a Blessing!   01:19:54 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

 

Humility and affliction: Two words that often evoke within us intense fear and anxiety. We are formed by a kind of pathological self-love. The fathers understood our focus upon worldly things as a need to create a sense of security and identity. We desperately want to protect ourselves from hardship and from pain and so we surround ourselves as much as we can to distract ourselves from the reality of death or the presence of suffering in our lives and in the world.   It is not only external realities the drive us to this but also vainglory. In some sense our desperate need to protect our dignity and self-esteem can be greater than our bodily desires. We will fight desperately to keep ourselves from the experience of humiliation or to hold on to a position of emotional power in relationships. However, in all these things, we sacrifice true freedom, joy, and peace. For when we embrace our identity in Christ as sons and daughters of God, when we let go of our attachment to the things of this world, then we begin to experience a kind of invincible freedom and joy.   He who belongs to Christ has all; and whatever he loses within this world for the sake of Christ will be returned a hundredfold. What the fathers are trying to teach us is that while we suffer within this world we never suffer alone or in isolation. Our communion with Christ means that he is always present to us and that the crosses we bear only draw closer to him. The love of the kingdom is cruciform. Thus, to allow ourselves to be broken and poured out is to manifest that love in its perfection   ---   Text of chat during the group:   00:08:55 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 115, "F"   00:10:08 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Good evening everyone   00:11:53 Jessica Michel: Hello Father Charbel. Good Morning   01:10:05 Forrest Cavalier: I have read to 74 of “To Love Fasting” the point is very clear that gradually accepting discipline makes it easier to accept harder discipline. This can take years.   01:10:05 Lorraine Green: Thank you Father!   01:10:23 Forrest Cavalier: I meant page 74   01:14:40 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   01:15:10 Susanna Joy: Thank you, Father Charbel.   01:15:20 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:27 Erick Chastain: thank you father charbel   01:15:27 Jessica Michel: Thank you   01:15:31 Cameron Jackson: Thank you.   01:15:33 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father.

 

In pursuing life in Christ, the experience of reality is often turned on its head. Our perception of the world around us and the interior world is shaped and formed by so many forces and influences. In a counterintuitive fashion, we have to move in opposing directions to the things that satisfy our ego or the desires of the flesh. 

Needless to say this can be disconcerting. We may see ourselves as understanding the faith or as having grown in certain virtues only to have it dispersed in an instant by the light of God’s truth. Whether it is something small or great, we can see how far we are from the stillness of mind and body of which Saint John speaks. Indeed, St. John tells us that many of these things the common run of men will find quite alien to themselves.

We are often cast about on the sea of our emotions or blown like a reed in the wind. We struggle with a certain aberration of mind; that is, we are ever so inconstant and changeable in the way that we live our lives. If one does not acknowledge this and struggle throughout the years to purify the heart, then to enter into the life of solitude and stillness can only lead to derangement. 

If what guides us is not the humble love and desire to give ourselves over completely to Christ then we are going to be fragmented internally by the most fierce passions. Anger will increase and even the memories of past wounds within the mind can fuel our resentment and drive us to the brink of madness. The person who enters into stillness well is completely unruffled by the chaos that exist in our world and becomes abstracted from the things that take hold of other peoples imagination as having great value. For the hesychast, however, there is only Christ!

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Text of chat during the group:

00:06:08 Greg C: Father, is that still Step 27?  I missed last week.   00:06:16 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: page 226 paragraph 32   00:06:24 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: yes.  Step 27   00:06:33 Greg C: Thank you!   00:09:50 Bob Cihak, AZ: Will our next book be Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian, by Holy Transfiguration Monastery?   00:10:14 Adam Paige: Reacted to "                    …" with ☦️   00:25:08 Art: Where can a lay person obtain a basic rule to follow, to grow with, and progress in?   00:27:19 Adam Paige: https://store.melkite.org/product/publicans-prayer-book/   00:27:49 Art: Reacted to "https://store.melkit..." with 👍   00:40:04 Cindy Moran: also " to make sublime "   00:56:28 Fr Marty, AZ: Being with people who push my buttons, seems to me, to be one of God’s most common ways of showing me what He wants to heal in me. Metropolitan Vlachos, with his priests in mind, once wrote a book on the healing found in the Desert Fathers. He admitted that they had a good academic study of theology, but he lamented that they did not know how to lead their flocks into healing because they had not gone down the path to their own healing. His remark in the book was, “Theology…is the fruit of a man’s healing.”   01:01:20 Ren Witter: That day, I might have gotten a message from Fr. Charbel saying he was going into permanent seclusion 😂   01:01:57 Julie’s iPad: St Diadochos taught:  “ Just as, when the doors of the baths are left continually open,the heat inside is quickly driven out,so also the soul, when it wishes to say many things, even though everything that it says may be good, disperses its concentration through the door of the voice”.   01:12:45 David: 😀   01:13:00 Greg C: 😁   01:13:13 Fr Marty, AZ: :)   01:13:26 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father...excellent session.   01:13:27 Jeff O.: Thank you!   01:13:32 David: Thank you father!   01:13:33 Lorraine Green: Thank you   01:13:40 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂