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🙂

 

Only the most stalwart and patient of souls can follow along with this evening’s readings without being troubled. Once again it is repeated for us that our life is to be one of constant repentance; that is, turning toward God. Systematically the fathers break down every illusion that we might have about ourselves as having no need of such repentance. Even if we fulfill the work of the day, our response must be like the servants in the gospel: “we are unworthy and have only fulfilled what is our duty.” 

Our state of mind can only be that of gratitude for the gift of God’s mercy and grace. He has bestowed upon us an abundance of love despite the fact that we have often, as the scriptures tell us, treated him as “enemies”. Indeed our infidelity and the depths to which it reaches eludes are perception. 

Even our growth in virtue should instill within us a greater urgency for this repentance.  Growth shows previous inadequacy and negligence. We cannot be prideful or glorious about what we achieve; acknowledging that it is but a pale shadow of the love that God has bestowed upon us. 

Such an attitude also leads us to a deeper understanding of the need to embrace affliction. The gospel does not promise the security of this world or its comforts. In fact, just the opposite. To live for God, to embody the beatitudes is to find ourselves scorned and mocked by the world. The narrow way that leads to the kingdom passes inevitably through Calvary.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:06:45 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 112, 3rd paragraph   00:25:55 Lilly: What page are we on?   00:26:11 Lilly: Thank you   00:58:49 Kate : Father, I am thinking about the Sacrament of Penance.  My experience has been very legalistic and not really focused on this repentance, this turning towards of God that you are speaking about.  Do you have any recommendations on how to prepare for Confession that would be focused on this kind of repentance?   01:02:47 Lilly: I personally found the Eastern sacrament of penance humiliating-in a good way-as we are face to face with the priest, and depending on the father has us under his mantle and full body prostration   01:07:39 Forrest Cavalier: O Lord, I believe and profess that you are truly Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the first.   Accept me today as a partaker of your mystical supper, O Son of God, for I will not reveal your mystery to your enemies, nor will I give you a kiss as did Judas, but like the thief I profess you:             Remember me, O Lord, when you come in your kingdom.           Remember me, O Master, when you come in your kingdom.           Remember me, O Holy One, when you come in your kingdom.   01:07:50 Forrest Cavalier: May the partaking of your holy mysteries, O Lord, be not for my judgment or condemnation but for the healing of soul and body.     O Lord, I also believe and profess that this, which I am about to receive, is truly your most precious body and your life-giving blood, which, I pray, make me worthy to receive for the remission of all my sins and for life everlasting.  Amen.             O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.           O God, cleanse me of my sins and have mercy on me.           O Lord, forgive me for I have sinned without number.   01:08:25 Forrest Cavalier: From https://parma.org/prayer   01:15:32 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Father Blessing   01:15:44 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father   01:15:48 Cameron Jackson: Thank you   01:16:02 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

 

What possibly could hesychasm or the life of hesychasts - those who live in perpetual stillness and prayer -  mean for those who living in the world; for all of those surrounded by a constant stream of noise and distraction?The answer is everything! Though few are called to this manner of life, all are destined to experience the fullness of its joy and sweetness in Christ in the kingdom. We have been made sons and daughters of God and the very Spirit of Love dwells within our hearts. 

What moves us to emulate the fathers in their discipline, to seek what they seek, must be the same desire. Our experience of Christ, our drawing close to him through prayer, the sacraments, and the scriptures must kindle within us an urgent longing for what He alone can provide. 

Those who love the things of the world do not see the pursuit of them as being extreme. Why is it when it comes to seeking the One who offers us perfect Life and Love that we become self-conscious; that we begin to worry about what others may think of us or how they might treat us? Why is this true even though Christ tells us that we should expect to be hated all by all because of His name? The Hesychast becomes the image of one who adds fire to fire. Having tasted the sweetness of Divine Love, he is willing to sell all to possess it. Gradually he becomes prayer and his life - a sacrifice of praise. In this he becomes like unto the angels.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:29:15 Michael Hinckley: what you are talking about reminds me of St Thomas' straw comment.   00:32:04 Nick Bodmer: I believe it was Sartre   00:32:20 Michael Hinckley: "other people" came from that play no exxt?   00:32:25 Michael Hinckley: exit   00:32:32 Nick Bodmer: Yes, No Exit   00:32:47 Susan M: YES IT WAS SARTRE   00:32:56 Michael Hinckley: On the feast of St. Nicholas [in 1273, Aquinas] was celebrating Mass when he received a revelation that so affected him that he wrote and dictated no more, leaving his great work the Summa Theologiae unfinished. To Brother Reginald’s (his secretary and friend) expostulations he replied, “The end of my labors has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me.” When later asked by Reginald to return to writing, Aquinas said, “I can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings like straw.”   00:55:18 Rebecca Thérèse: It made a big difference to me when I was talking to a Catholic priest and I realised that he really believed what he was saying. That was one of the main things that informed my decision to become Catholic having previously been Anglican.   00:57:13 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "It made a big differ..." with 🥰   01:01:20 Michael Hinckley: need to drop This Holy Priest is living much of what is mentioned here. He is part time hermit and fun to watch https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIcePO_eJb28EWIw68kBQMew0vMZydwj1   01:07:28 Kate : It seems like he is giving us an examination of conscience when he lists the different places on the ladder.   01:08:11 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "It seems like he is ..." with 👍🏼   01:11:41 Andres Oropeza: What if you suffer from despondency but the common life isn’t an option and yet the battle rages around you, or even if you aren’t alone but the people with you can’t offer what’s needed? Should we not pursue stillness by cutting out distractions, focus on prayer and fasting etc. or temper it in some way?   01:19:58 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father!   01:20:05 Jeff O.: Thank you!! Great to be with you all.   01:20:09 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you

 

Joy! Suddenly, as we read through the Ladder of Dive Ascent every cross, every struggle in the spiritual life, while still present, begins to fade into the background. The costs involved in this struggle pales in comparison to the blessings and the fruits that God bestows upon us, especially prayer .

St. John places before us the essentials of prayer - as well as what can undermine it. We continue to struggle to confine our thoughts and then to completely still the mind and the heart. When this takes place, prayer becomes perfection and rapture in the Lord. 

This joy, however, especially among the anchorites is marked by humility. One does not expose the deepest elements of the most intimate relationship indiscriminately with others. In any case, it would be impossible to do so. As we are drawn along in faith, as we begin to encounter and experience God as he is in himself, words fail us.

What we must do is hold on to what is precious. Imperfections and anxieties can pull us away from God and our trust in his love. Furthermore the evil one is ever set on disrupting that relationship. Plotting and conniving as he is, he will stir an emotion within our heart; or influence another to engage us in such a way so as to agitate or distract. But we must keep our eyes upon the Beloved. 

St. John asks, “For what have I in heaven? Nothing. And what have I desired on earth beside Thee? Nothing, but to cling continually to Thee in prayer without distraction.”  Hearing these words, one can never look upon prayer simply as an activity or discipline. It is life. It is love. We are to become prayer.

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Text of chat during the group: 

00:06:52 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 235, # 19   00:11:46 Myles Davidson: Greetings from New Zealand! (my apologies for turning up at the end of the last session… got the time zone conversion wrong). Anyway, delighted to be here. These discussions have been an immeasurable blessing to this baby Catholic. Thanking you profusely Father, and God bless you and your ministry!!   00:20:15 Myles Davidson: Do you have any tips for developing watchfulness of thoughts. Is this just a constant practice of mindfulness of thought?   00:29:37 Kate : What about the publication of saints’ diaries or journals?  What would the Fathers say about this?   00:30:01 Anthony: Replying to "What about the publi..."     I love this question   00:30:36 iPhone: Can you explain vigils? Is it vespers and compline?   00:31:17 Rod Castillo: My Life in Christ by John of Kronstadt ????   00:32:42 Anthony: So the idea popular in "evangelicalism" (and now with Catholics and Orthodox) of a tell-all conversion story is not appropriate.   00:33:02 Jeff O.: Reacted to "So the idea popular ..." with 🎯   00:34:59 iPhone: This is a fascinating topic, this saying too much   Thank you   00:35:31 Rebecca Thérèse: Is there any evidence of changes in attitudes towards publishing personal spiritual journals since the advent of the printing press?   00:37:00 iPhone: Why is this tell-all trend happening? Because so many people have not read the Fathers?   00:37:23 iPhone: Blogs! Immodesty personified!   00:37:30 Myles Davidson: People aren’y going to confession perhaps?   00:56:33 Anthony: Wow.  So excessive chasing after goods and the obsession with trans- stuff us a war on prayer.   01:03:27 Rebecca Thérèse: There was a real antipathy towards ancestral religions by many of the founders of modern psychology and psychiatry including Freud. There are also nefarious financial and political interests in these areas   01:06:37 Bob Cihak, AZ: Too true. Too often, it's the easy way out, just prescribing drugs.   01:07:48 Nypaver Clan: An instructor I had at Duquesne U.  who was a therapist, often said that the majority of her clients would have best been served in the confessional.   01:13:01 Cameron Jackson: Thank you Father. A great blessing.   01:13:05 Leilani Nemeroff: Thank you, Father! This is a Blessing!   01:13:42 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father!   01:13:43 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:13:45 David: Thank you father!   01:13:47 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:13:51 Jeff O.: Thank you! Great to be with you all.

 

We picked up this evening with Hypothesis 13 on the subject of keeping Vigil and not giving oneself over to excessive sleep. However, as we immersed ourselves in the reading, we began to see the father guiding us into something much deeper.  The teaching on keeping vigil is a bridge to talking about Repentance. 

We were presented with the most beautiful understanding of the path the Christ guide us upon. There is a radical simplicity about it that is meant to cut through our tendency to turn the faith into something that is complex and impossible to understand. Repentance is not confined to particular times and deeds, but is put into practice to the extent that the commandments of Christ are fulfilled. The struggle for it is continuous until death. 

The kingdom of Heaven is at hand!  This is our path! It is the constant turning toward God that draws us forward, transforms us, and allows us to comprehend the things of the kingdom. This forsaking of self and sin is the oil of our lamps and each person will reveal who he is from this lamp. His own, not another’s!  It is filled and the light kindled by the practice of virtue. 

In fact, we are told that if we fail to live this and proclaim it to the world both in word and deed, we annul all that we do because we forget and do not take into account death. Our entire life is to be a striving to enter by the narrow gate, to walk the path of repentance - the dying to self and the rising to new life in Christ

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Text of chat during the group:

00:07:23 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Hypothesis XIII page 108   00:23:19 Lori Hatala: Like a soldier.   00:25:31 Adam Paige: To Love Fasting (pdf) https://archive.org/details/tolovefasting   00:26:22 Dave Warner (AL): Reacted to "To Love Fasting (pdf..." with 👍   00:30:55 Steve Yu: Reacted to "To Love Fasting (pdf…" with 👍   01:12:51 Lorraine Green: Thank you Fr.!   01:12:56 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father   01:13:02 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:13:04 Steve Yu: Thank you, Father!   01:13:25 Jessica Michel: Thank you Father   01:13:46 Lori Hatala: or a date   01:14:11 Rebecca Thérèse: Can you set it up so you have a choice of oldest first or most recent first? YouTube channels have this option for example   01:14:30 Cameron Jackson: Thank you.  Very grateful.

 

It’s hard to imagine ourselves as being nourished upon stillness and silence. Yet, this is exactly what the fathers and St. John Climacus seek to teach us. Stillness allows us to have an experiential knowledge of intimacy with God - an encounter with Mystery.  When we have shut the door to the senses, when we stilled our mouth from constant chatter and when we have shut the gate of the heart to demonic powers, it is then that we become prayer and gaze upon the Lord face-to-face. Our petitions, our needs and sorrows are written with love and zeal. 

We are to become an earthly image of an angel, whose prayer has not only been freed from sloth and negligence, but even from a kind of self-consciousness. The heart is ever ready for the Lord and His approach; and even if the body should sleep, the heart is awake and awaiting the beloved. 

Therefore, stillness is not only about being quiet, but rather it is a path to intimacy. The greater one’s love grows, the more passionate one becomes in their desire for God - everything on the periphery fades away and we see only our Lord.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:09:13 Fr. Charbel: page 223 no 11   00:24:18 Kate : “What more do you want, 0 soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom - your Beloved whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you.” St John of the Cross   00:30:42 Rebecca Thérèse: Can the Holy Spirit shine light on the soul directly, for example if there is no suitable spiritual director or if there are people actively trying to corrupt and mislead the soul?   00:39:08 Nypaver Clan: Is it healthy to have a spiritual director who becomes ones “best friend”?  Where are the boundaries to be set for a spiritual director?   00:41:54 Rachel: Yes, it jeopardizes their capacity to love, purely. As we cannot love purely with a gaze directed towards self or creatures   00:43:40 Rachel: it reduces the capacity to see God in the other and the only way a priest can help another or lay people help another is to first know God, to seek God and the ultimatele friendship in God, " I call you friends"   01:08:00 Fr Marty, AZ: I wanted to add to spiritual direction discussion. Everything that was said about spiritual directors is important. Boundaries and confidentiality are needful and we’re also meant to grow in detachment; that’s part of hesychasm. Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean without care and affection. I’ve been close to spiritual directors, especially after ten or fifteen years of direction. And I’ve also became good friends of their other spiritual children. In a detached way, we had joy, love, and openness, but still my spiritual directors were not friends.  And boundaries were still maintained. And when we’ve buried them, the other spiritual children fondly remembered their care for us. On the other hand, I once asked a friend who is an exceptional spiritual director to be mine but it didn’t work out.   01:10:09 Eric Ewanco: I observe that stillness and silence plays a central role in the desert fathers, but I don't recall it being discussed in Scripture. Is this based on experience and tradition, or is it rooted in something in Scripture?   01:13:31 Greg C: Thank you, Father!   01:13:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:13:44 Jennifer Ahearn: Thank you.   01:13:48 Lori Hatala: Happy Birthday   01:14:27 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father.   01:14:35 Jeff O.: Thank you! Great to be with you all.   01:14:38 Nypaver Clan: A blessed birthday, Mrs. A.!

 

We picked up this evening with Hypothesis 12. The subtitle is on avoiding idle talk. However, this does not do justice to what we are given in the text. It is revealed to us how we are to kindle within our hearts the fire of love for God that then gives rise to a holy sacrifice of praise. 

Thus, the greatest thing that we can give God is to emulate the angels who praise Him without ceasing. Our love for the Lord should give rise to an urgent longing within the heart to call out to Him constantly and without distraction. 

Likewise, when we pray in common, we are to be attentive to the fact that we are responsible for the attentiveness of those around us and seek to preserve their focus. We do not pray or chant in an individualistic fashion but again imitate the angels in crying out to the Lord with one voice of love. 

What a blessing monks are for the church. The fathers tell us that Christ perfects the praise of infants; that is, he prefects the prayer of the monk in his innocence and childlike simplicity. It is through this humble prayer and sacrifice of praise that the demons are conquered. What makes this even more powerful is that it is often done hidden from the eyes of the world. Such prayer is offered without pride or self-consciousness. Rather it rises unimpeded to the very throne of God on behalf of all.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:46:55 Forrest Cavalier: Since you mentioned the comment of the monk, I was thinking that every vocation is "impossible". Hence the need for grace.   01:06:33 Lorraine Green: Thank you!   01:07:05 Lisa Smith: Thank you Fr. And God bless you.🙏   01:07:26 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you

 

St. John Climacus brings us now to discuss the fruits of the ascetic life. We picked up this evening with Step 27 on “stillness of mind and body”. John is very hesitant to approach such a subject. He does not want to distract the warrior from the task at hand; that is, those who are engaged in the spiritual warfare against the passions and the provocations of the evil one.  He only relents because he understands how important it is to see the goal of the spiritual life so that it might increase our desire for God and our detachment from the things of the world. 

Holy stillness emerges when the Nous, the eye of the heart, has become impenetrable and undistracted by the noise of the world. The disordered passions have now become a purified and single passion or desire for God. The love of and immersion in silence deepens because it is there that God speaks a Word that is equal to Himself. The language of Love, beyond words, begins to well up from within - united to the Spirit that cries out with groans that are beyond our understanding. 

St. John acknowledges that many will not perceive or grasp the holy violence of the Hesychast; that is, the radical turning away from the things of the world in order to turn completely toward God. This turning toward God, however, does not limit our vision or comprehension as those who are worldly often believe. Rather, it opens us up to an experience of infinite mystery of God himself; everlasting Life and Love.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:06:16 FrDavid Abernethy: page 221   00:06:30 FrDavid Abernethy: Sept 27 On Holy Stillness   00:36:18 Anthony: How do we relate, then to people like I have met, pagan Hindus and a Muslim, who also appeared to me to have this spirit of peace?   00:41:16 Rachel: Yes!!   00:41:32 Rachel: Saint Charles de Foucald   00:41:55 Rachel: Algeria   00:42:05 Rachel: same as St. Charles De Foucald   00:43:55 David: O Gods and Men is the movie   00:44:25 David: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588337/   00:45:06 David: The original is French Des Hommes et des dieux   00:47:14 Jeff O.: When I was Nepal, the Christians would, instead of greeting with “namaste” greet with the phrase “J’amasee” - “I honor Christ (and his work) in you.” I thought that was a beautiful way to greet people with the honor and love of seeing Christ in the other…   00:49:17 Rachel: This happens in iconography as well/   00:49:31 Anthony: Reacted to This happens in icon... with "👍"   00:49:41 Rachel: Or I should say, sacred art as opposed to iconogrpahy   00:53:09 Rachel: I am not criticizing either but making a distinction when someone thinks that" abstraction" in iconography is simplified, yet, it is the overly realistic and naturalistic emphasis on every line that detracts from the mystery that is being revealed before us.   00:58:22 Rachel: Oh my goodness. That is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing.   01:00:03 Anthony: Reacted to When I was Nepal, th... with "👍"   01:01:09 Maureen Cunningham: Did Father Damion who lived among the leaders in Hawaii   01:01:27 Anthony: Replying to "I am not criticizing..."     Compare the "naive" ...   01:02:17 Maureen Cunningham: He would go on a boat to and yell his confessions. I was told   01:02:44 David: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165196/   01:11:26 David: Theology without practice is the theology of demons- Maximus the Confessor   01:14:34 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Father   01:15:02 David: Thank you father!   01:15:02 Jennifer Ahearn: Thank you   01:15:05 Rachel: Thank you   01:15:05 Jeff O.: thank you!   01:15:19 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank yu

 

As we conclude Hypothesis 11, we are given very solid food to nourish our understanding of the nature of prayer and our demeanor. How is it that we are called to worship God, to pray the psalms, and what is our demeanor to be following that worship? 

A kind of liturgical asceticism must guide and direct our prayer and piety. Even the way that we pray and celebrate the liturgy, and one might say especially here, must allow the grace of God to guide and direct us. As always, Christ is the standard and the model. It is his humility, silence, obedience to God that must form and shape the way that we approach the altar and the manner in which we listen to the word of God. 

We must pray in a manner fosters patience and that allows us to listen with the spirit of contrition. We gather before God not to alter our emotional state or to create an experience that simply elevates the mind. We come before God to offer him a sacrifice of praise and that sacrifice is the fullness of our self. We are to be completely given over to him in such way that we withhold nothing from Him and are capable of receiving everything He desires to give us. 

Very few in our day think of worship in this fashion. May God give us the grace to offer him all that we have and are; for in seeking what He desires, God bestows upon us more than the mind in the heart can imagine.

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00:21:49 susan: after MASS i have to go to my car to pray!   00:48:07 Carol Roper: it seems that the caution is against performing, vanity, pleasure seeking, even in liturgy. one's motivation must be examined carefully i imagine   00:52:59 Anthony: Let Us Build the City of God.....they still sing it.  Sigh.  Are you TRYING to get me to change rites?   01:02:16 Rebecca Thérèse: a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not quench   01:02:17 Carol Roper: oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb led to the shearers   01:04:52 Dave Warner (AL): A bruised reed He will not break - Isa 42:3   01:05:17 Rebecca Thérèse: Isaiah 42:3 Matthew 12:20   01:16:22 Lisa Smith: Thank you & God Bless you.   01:16:36 Cameron Jackson: Thank you   01:17:19 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:17:26 Dave Warner (AL): Thank you Father!   01:17:27 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father

 

We come to the end of Step 26 on Discernment and in doing so we begin to see, or at least get a glimpse of, its importance for the spiritual life. So often sin distorts are perception of reality. It prevents us from seeing with clarity both the dignity and the blessings that come from being a son or daughter of God, baptized into Christ - as well as preventing us from seeing the darkness of sin. 

Christ tells us in the gospel that when the eye has been darkened completely, how great is the darkness! When the eye of the heart, the eye of the soul is darkened by sin then all that we see is the world before us in its most basic form. We see it as an object of consumption or we covet the things that we do not possess. 

In this we can become more like beasts who walk on all fours with their eyes cast down to the earth. It is discernment that allows us to see the glory of God in Christ Jesus. In the end, discernment gives rise to the acquisition of love - that is to say, the perfect dwelling of God.

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00:13:56 David: Father Mike Schmidt and neuroplasticity as well say with defects to right out the story or triggers. What leads to what and one often fines one needs to focus on the triggers and write a different story.   00:16:18 David: Like a dog returning to vomit. Can't get that out of my head now   00:27:38 Wayne: Very timely as suicide is being offered as an option if one finds their suffering overwhelming.   00:29:07 David: In one of my darkest times and despair I realized I had belief but no faith which is tied with hope. Now I just think what am I to learn from this situation and it will pass.   00:34:33 Anthony: There is a particularly horrible thought: curse God and die   00:35:00 Anthony: That cuts at rather suffering soul's very hope   00:48:47 Anthony: Father, remember cooking and baking are arts, to be done well...like the Cathdral of Monreale.  😉  but yeah, I get you. 😀   00:52:27 Maureen Cunningham: Christ dwell with in us when we gather we bring  the body of Christ together   00:52:48 David: I think it got worse after COVID few shake hands and it seems there is little small talk.   00:57:58 Anthony: I've studied heresies and heretics for years. I observe that along with with religious differences  - maybe preceding them - is a break in communion or a lack of peace: nationalism or personal trauma   01:10:51 Susanna Joy: My heart is still back at the dog and the priest...   01:10:57 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:11:00 Andrew Adams: Great class tonight! Thank you, Father!   01:11:02 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   01:11:46 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father...excellent session!   01:11:48 David: God Bless thank you Father David!   01:11:49 Art: Thank you   01:11:50 Jeff O.: Thank you!!   01:11:58 Sheila Applegate: Thanks Father!

 

All that we do is to be touched by the grace of God, shaped by it, and perfected by it. This includes our virtues, and also the manner in which we pray. 

Psalmody has always been apart of the prayer tradition of the church and in particular of the monastics. The psalms capture within them both the adversities and the joys that we experience in this world. It is the most important thing that we can do as human beings; to seek to God and offer a sacrifice of praise. 

Therefore, the monks are very careful to allow their prayer to be guided by God. We can be willful even in the fashion that we pray and sing. This is also true in the times that we set for prayer for ourselves. For example, the monks prayed many times a day together; emphasizing that they are part of the body of Christ. We do not pray as individuals, but always aware of the radical communion that exists not only with God but with one another. 

Thus, we find among the fathers an emphasis upon praying and singing while remaining conscious of what is going on within their hearts. We do not want to fall into distraction or lead others into it. Simplicity and humility should be the mark of worship; that which guides us in order that what we sing and pray is reflective of the reality within our hearts and our desire for God. Once again, we are presented with a kind of liturgical asceticism. Liturgy shapes the interior life and the interior life shapes the way that we pray.

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00:42:45 Lori Hatala: I have heard psalms chanted in different melodies. Is the melody of the chant relevant?   00:54:21 Tracey Fredman: Agreed, even if you do not have the time for a whole weekend at a monastery, even a visit while monks are at prayer can be life-altering.   00:55:06 Tracey Fredman: It can alter our prayer life, is what I mean.   00:55:41 Susanna Joy: Beautifully said...discipline is a silent "word" back to God   01:11:07 Wayne: If you have the opportunity to attend Matins or Vespers in the Eastern churches, the changing can have a very positive affect on you.   01:13:40 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:13:48 Edgard Riba: Thank you!   01:13:50 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙏🙂   01:13:56 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father.

 

Every week it is as if we are diving into living waters that renew and refresh the soul. This is particularly true of step 26 on Discernment and St. John’s summary towards its conclusion. So often as is true with the Fathers, St. John makes use of concrete and colorful imagery to capture for us the nature of the spiritual life and in this case discernment. 

What one gathers in so many of the teachings is that Faith involves seeing; a pulling back of the veil that allows us to see with perfect clarity the love and the mercy of God. St. John describes the many things that hobble us in that regard: Avarice, pride, attachment to our appetites and desire for the things of this world. It also describes the things that sharpen that vision and open us up to receive the gift of faith. Our pursuit of the virtues, and of the truth in our life lays the foundation to receive the greater gift of eternal Truth. This kind of seeing is not passive but rather involves the whole self. The deepest part of ourselves, the Nous, must be purified by Grace and asceticism so no impediment prevents us from moving toward God. The Nous becomes the “helmsman” then to lead us through the rough waters of this world.

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00:12:54 FrDavid Abernethy: page 219 number 42   00:49:30 Lisa Smith: It reminds me of the verse where Christ asked if there would be faith in the end time.   00:51:43 Wayne: How do you respond to the remark I am spiritual but not religious?   00:58:48 Lisa Smith: Thoughts on church attendance? I'm struggling with this presently. I'm not Catholic, but I'm interested in this faith. Thank you Fr.   01:00:34 Lisa Smith: 🙏 Thank you   01:03:14 Cindy Moran: Teilhard de Chardin comes to my mind as an example.   01:03:40 Cindy Moran: Too complicated   01:15:07 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:10 sprou: did you see that a blind woman Dafne Gutierrez was healed by St Charbel?   01:15:12 Lisa Smith: God bless you Fr. Thanks for sharing   01:15:51 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:16:02 Jeff O.: Thank you! Great to be with you all.

 

The focus of the Evergetinos this evening was on praying the psalms. However, as always with the writings of the fathers, the focus isn’t simply on the external actions, but the meaning of them. How do we pray as members of the body of Christ? Is there a kind of liturgical asceticism that must match our bodily asceticism?  What is the measure of our prayer? In other words, as those who live in a spirit of repentance and seek purity of heart, how do these realities shape the way we pray. 

The fathers this understood very well our tendency to focus on externals and that we can fall back into a modern day Pharisaism. We can be satisfied with the appearance of religiosity while giving scant attention to what God has revealed to us and the life that he has called us to embrace. Whenever this happens, it not only weakens our capacity to bear witness to Christ but it can undermine the life of the Church as a whole. If our hearts are fragmented by our sin this will manifest itself or be mirrored in liturgy. And when this takes place the entire culture around us - as well as within the church - can collapse. 

It’s a sobering presentation, but something that afflicts the Church in every generation. If the Evil One is going to attack the Church, he is going to attack it at its heart; that is, how we pray.

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00:25:00 Kate : There’s also the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary which is very suitable for the laity.   00:25:13 Vanessa: Reacted to "There’s also the Lit..." with ❤️   00:25:22 Adam Paige: Reacted to "There’s also the Lit..." with ❤️   00:39:40 iPad (2): That is a wonderful book and he also has a podcast series on the book   00:50:47 Rod Castillo: The Endarkenment   00:54:30 Bob Cihak: Reacted to "The Endarkenment" with 👍   00:57:03 Maureen Cunningham: Oh no   00:57:07 Vanessa: Lol   01:04:40 Kate : Our family has witnessed many a liturgical battle which seemed good and urgent at the time, only to realize that God has been lost in the battle.  The battle took center stage, and striving for holiness took back stage.   01:14:53 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you It is wonderful .   01:15:48 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:54 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father.   01:16:22 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:17:13 Maureen Cunningham: Wonderful choice I trust. The lord is leading you as the Captain of the ship in the studies   01:17:26 Vanessa: Reacted to "Wonderful choice I t..." with 👍   01:17:47 Maureen Cunningham: Where would we find the book   01:17:54 Lorraine Green: Thank you, Father, God bless!  The Divine Office talks sound very good too.

 

As St. John draws us forward with these simple sayings about discernment and its fruit, we begin to see the immeasurable beauty of the ascetic life and the action of God’s grace. The life that God calls us to is not one of frenetic activity but rather the cultivation of purity of heart and humility in order that He might act within us. We do not seek simply freedom from sin but rather the life of the kingdom. It is the love, the virtue, the goodness of Christ that transforms the world. It is our entrance into the Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of the spiritual life (with and in Christ), that makes the love of the kingdom present to the world. 

The life of the hesychasts, the ascetics who set all aside for Christ, is at the very heart of the church. When we lose sight of their love and desire for God, the church grows cold.  It is in the spirituality of the desert that the church will find renewal; when the minds and the hearts of men and women are open to the beauty of the life that God has called us to by His Grace.

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00:37:24 Anthony: In a way, some of the response to church scandal has been like an ill- guided peasants crusade.   00:39:35 Anthony: The peasants crusade led to harm for thr peasants   00:54:23 sprou: does solitude equal spiritual warfare?   00:55:33 David: I liked what Bishop Barron said about love being willing the good of the other. (St. John Paul) but first one needs to know what the good is and what is truth.   00:56:03 Vanessa: Reacted to "I liked what Bishop ..." with 👍   00:56:58 Jeff O.: I’ve often wondered about the connection between the cultivation of hesychia and Paul’s admonition to stand in Ephesians 6…it seems there’s some sort of relationship there as it relates to warfare   00:57:01 David: This was in response to a lot of virtue signaling and some of the strange things in our culture.   01:04:43 Kate : A priest told me that hesychia is a form of quietism.  His comment confused me, and I did not know how to reply.   01:06:47 Anthony: Uh oh, Palmas vs Barlaam again..... 😉   01:08:39 David: In Latin America it is common with quasi liberation theology priest and lay people to call them navel gazers but this is just seeing the outside aspect not understanding what is being developed. I always call the fathers the intranauts boldly going to the root of our condition.   01:13:18 David: Holiness attracts and people seek what they feel and see in joy and peace of others. N   01:13:32 Vanessa: Reacted to "Holiness attracts an..." with ❤️   01:13:51 Vanessa: Really enjoying class tonight. Lots of good discussion.   01:14:25 Kate : Father, prior to listening to these classes and discovering the Fathers, my ladder was propped against the wrong wall for years…as you stated earlier.  These classes and the Fathers have so transformed my interior life.   I have only begun to understand the love of God.   01:15:04 Nick Bodmer: Jesus even rebuked Martha because she was discontent that Mary was not being "worldly enough" in her eyes.  The spiritual life was established even while Jesus was still with us.   01:21:40 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:21:51 cmoran: Thank you, Father!   01:21:53 Lisa Smith: Thank you God bless you   01:22:29 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father! Praying for you!   01:22:33 Jeff O.: Thank you! Blessing to be with you all.   01:22:41 David: Thank you father will pray for you!

 

 

No one is going to take up the practice of fasting or come to “love fasting” as we have often spoken of unless they are taught by those who have deep and long experience in the practice. As we have seen the desert was very much laboratory. Those who entered into it were driven by the desire for the Lord and to remove any impediment to that desire. 

Yet, we see in the writings of the Evergetinos a natural progression, an organic progression, in the practice. Their zeal for the Lord often led the monks to engage in the practice of fasting with great strictness and to radically humble the body. However, they quickly learned that to practice even that which is good in an imprudent and unmeasured fashion was dangerous. To fall into exhaustion from fasting too long could make it impossible for a person to remain awake to engage in the practice of prayer or, similarly, weaken their watchfulness of mind such that they become vulnerable to the provocation of sinful thoughts. 

The desert fathers also had to learn that fasting was but an implement. It is necessary for the cultivation of the heart, but it must be accompanied by constant prayer and bear the fruit of love for God and virtue. Therefore, the Evergetinos places us in a privileged position. We are able to sit at the feet of the great elders of old and to learn from the errors and the pitfalls that can cripple us in the spiritual life as well as to be inspired by the fathers’ great sanctity. The spiritual struggle is rarely neat and the path ahead is often hidden to us. The desert fathers are shining light in an age of spiritual darkness and lack of guidance. Thanks be to God for such a precious gift.

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00:30:18 Anthony: I feel targeted.... 😉   00:36:50 Una: Does that include Irish Coffees?   00:48:47 Anthony: It's a gift to be simple, it's a gift to be free   00:48:54 Forrest Cavalier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Gifts   00:49:21 Forrest Cavalier: Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained, To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.[5]   00:56:47 Anthony: Excessive sorrow also brings exhaustion.   01:07:30 Anthony: History also shows fixation on pornography is almost always present   01:17:26 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you   01:17:40 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:17:46 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:17:50 Kevin Burke: Thank you !   01:18:03 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father.

 

We continued with St. John’s summary of discernment and its particular fruit in the spiritual life. However, it does not read like a summary. Each saying opens us up to a divine reality and a participation in the life of Christ that comes to us by grace and the ascetic life. One cannot help but be captivated by the beauty of what St. John describes. It becomes evident that what we are being drawn into is the very beauty of Christ and that of the kingdom. Grace has the capacity to transform even the darkest of things within us and to illuminate the mind and the heart to see clearly what has eternal value. With the reading of each saying one begins to experience a holy desire growing within the heart. Thanks be to God!

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Text of chat during the group:

00:06:34 FrDavid Abernethy: page 217 page 14   00:25:57 Anthony: He says this while I'm making dinner....   00:31:19 David: Despair is suffering without meaning- Victor Frankl   00:49:34 Eric Ewanco: Reacted to "Κλίμαξ αγίου Ιωάννου.LadderClimatuspdf" with ❤️   00:49:43 Eric Ewanco: Reacted to "TheLadderofDivineAscent.pdf" with 👍   00:50:29 Lisa Smith: Reacted to "TheLadderofDivineAscent.pdf" with 🙏   00:57:24 David: The gate also opens like Grace and one needs to be drawn to the opening in the fence.   01:02:59 Anthony: If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts....   01:20:11 David: They are finding so much in neuroplasticity that the fathers described ages ago. One the pathways are established it becomes a cycle. Lots of talk about "rewiring the mind". I think fasting might actually help with rewiring because you are not rewarding a undesired behavior.   01:20:36 Rachel: That was in relation to the other discussion   01:21:56 David: No money in fasting   01:22:10 Rebecca Thérèse: Fasting literally rewires the brain because the body starts to generate new neurons after 48 hours of fasting.   01:22:24 Vanessa: Reacted to "Fasting literally re..." with 👍   01:22:30 David: Autophagy as well   01:23:28 Rebecca Thérèse: Reacted to "Autophagy as well" with 👍   01:25:14 Rebecca Thérèse: Autophagy is where the cells start to digest damaged parts of the body and damage interior to cells   01:26:04 Bob Cihak: Autophagy is also known as apoptosis. I call it cellular recycling.   01:26:32 Rebecca Thérèse: Fasting stimulates growth hormone which os useful in repairing damage and is also useful if you're a body builder   01:26:49 Susanna Joy: Love this clas🙏🏻💖   01:26:59 Lisa Smith: Too Fast. Thank you Fr   01:27:41 Sophia: God bless you fr.Abernethy!   01:27:42 Susanna Joy: Thank you, Father.   01:27:42 Art: Thank you Father!   01:27:43 Jeff O.: Thank you!   01:27:43 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father   01:27:43 David: Thank you father !   01:27:51 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

 

We continued our discussion of prayer and the things that often become an obstacle to it. Much of the discussion this evening focused upon the things that make us lazy or weary in prayer or lead us to drowsiness. One of the important things that the fathers teach us is that sleep is an appetite that is to be ordered like any other appetite. Our life has been given to us for repentance; that is, to turn toward God and to seek to love him with all of our heart. It is this reality that should shape the way that we look at prayer, the way that we discipline ourselves - and yes - even how we sleep.   Rising at night is one of the most wonderful times for prayer for a number of reasons. The mind and the body are humbled. The thoughts are often not moving so rapidly nor the world around us and its noises. Praying at night provides us with an opportunity to enter into deep silence, so as to listen to God and the word he wishes to utter in the depths of our hearts.   Therefore, there are times when we will have to force ourselves in order to strengthen our will to not only bring ourselves to prayer but to remain there. Whenever we experience drowsiness, we must resist it firmly. Often we will give up a discipline when we face difficulty. It is our love for the Lord, however, that must send us out at night seeking He alone who can satisfy the longings of our heart. --- Text of chat during the group:   00:02:04 FrDavid Abernethy: we can hear you   00:02:21 FrDavid Abernethy: page 89   00:21:49 Anthony: I did that. I'd go back. It drove me nuts, playing on scrupulous feelings   00:49:25 Ann Thelen: Quick question regarding food/fasting...how do we deal with the temptation to vanity when we are attempting to fast? We know fasting has wonderful health benefits. One of those benefits is that we look better and more healthy which can feed into vanity.   01:04:22 Anthony: Menaion?   01:17:14 Lisa Smith: Thank you & God bless   01:17:56 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:17:57 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:18:04 Nicole Dillon: Thank you ☺️   01:18:08 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father. Praying for you.   01:18:19 Ann Thelen: Thank you.   01:18:26 Cindy Moran: Thanks

 

As we come toward the end of Step 26 on Discernment, St. John begins to offer us a summary of all that we have considered in the previous pages. In doing this, he alters his typical way of writing. One may speculate that he does this because of the importance of the virtue of discernment; both in fostering it and in protecting it.  Using brief sayings, very much like those found in the Philokalia, St. John begins to lay out for us the path to perfecting this virtue as well as to speak of the fruits of it in our lives. 

Our capacity to see spiritual realities in an unimpeded fashion allows us to be attentive to all of the vices as well as the remedies that the fathers set before us for overcoming them. In summarizing the step in this fashion, St. John presents us with the truth very much in the way that we receive it from the gospel. It overturns the worldly way of viewing things. It allows us to experience the discomfort of having our sensibilities challenged in regards to our patterns of thought and our most basic desires. It compels us to ask ourselves, “For whom  do I live? Who do I love above all things?”

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00:02:46 FrDavid Abernethy: page 215   00:02:51 FrDavid Abernethy: number 85   00:03:29 FrDavid Abernethy: number 185   00:08:47 Tracey Fredman: Thank you, Fr. David for referencing the book "Toward God" by Michael Casey. It's amazing!   00:08:57 FrDavid Abernethy: great!!   00:09:11 FrDavid Abernethy: he’s a wonderful writer   00:09:40 Kate : I am reading it too!  It is wonderful.   Like nothing I have read before.   00:09:41 FrDavid Abernethy: his book on lectio divina called Sacred reading is great too   00:26:15 Anthony: Do you have any comments on discerning the origin of thoughts without playing with the thoughts?   00:43:12 Anthony: That makes sense since Eros is a seeking, inquisitive movement.   00:51:38 David Swiderski: Especially prayer with gratitude.   00:52:19 Andy Nguyen: Replying to "Especially prayer wi..."     Yup   00:52:21 Wayne: Reacted to "Especially prayer wi..." with 👍   00:58:03 Lisa Smith: I just read this today.   01:01:41 Andy Nguyen: Social media in general is an addiction   01:02:00 Rod Castillo: I go on to Facebook every day to see what you have posted, Father   01:02:36 Lee Graham: I go to X   01:03:05 Susanna Joy: Reacted to I go on to Facebook ... with "❤️"   01:03:35 Lisa Smith: Yeah, there was a time I would turn the internet off totally. It was easier to pray more fully then. I struggle with that these days.   01:03:44 Susanna Joy: Replying to "I go on to Facebook ..."     I do too...you often...   01:04:26 Lisa Smith: But on the flip side I discovered Eastern Christianity online.   01:04:40 Art iPhone: Reacted to "But on the flip side…" with 👌   01:04:46 Art iPhone: Reacted to "I go on to Facebook …" with 👌   01:05:45 Art iPhone: Your posts Have real value Father.   01:05:49 BRIAN L: Your posting of On the Passion of the Saviour became part of my daily Lenten prayer so thank you 😃   01:09:17 David Swiderski: I have read this before with the Fathers I think Issac and I don't understand the relation between deer and snakes. Deer seem like fragile creatures and I grew up always being close to them. Destroyers of roses and alfalfa yes.   01:11:14 Jeffrey Fitzgerald: Father, what is the next book after Climacus?   01:11:24 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Prayers, Father!   01:11:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂. Have a good retreat🙏   01:11:39 Jeff O.: Many blessings on your time there!!   01:11:49 Lori Hatala: and i will be guilty of jealousy   01:11:53 Susanna Joy: Praying for you.🙏🏻   01:11:55 Wayne: Replying to "Father, what is the ..."   good question   01:11:56 Art iPhone: Prayers!!   01:12:35 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father! Have a blessed retreat!!   01:12:37 David Swiderski: Safe travels and God Bless you father!   01:12:39 Jeff O.: Thank you Father!

 

Breaking the night for prayer!!  The very idea either never comes into the mind of modern Christians or it sends a shudder through the heart. The idea of limiting something like sleep for the sake of prayer, of humbling the mind and body in such a way on purpose and regularly seems to express a type of insanity. Would I not make myself sick or incapable of working the next day if such a practice were embraced in modern times.

Yet, it is a constant practice throughout the spiritual tradition; to sanctify time and foster an urgent longing within the heart for God that causes the soul to rise, even in the night, to seek him. Admittedly, this may require that we simplify our lives. There is already a frenetic pace in our day-to-day lives; a busyness that is almost suffocating. Such makes the idea of adding night prayer to that seem impossible and even frightening.

One can only come to know the fruit of this through experience. In the stillness of the night, impediments that often plague us throughout the course of the day fall away. Creation itself grows quiet and with it the human heart. Such a heart filled with urgent longing for the Lord will rise eagerly and with joy to taste the sweetness of his presence!

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Text of chat during the group:

00:59:01 Anthony: Perhaps a principle issue I'd reconciling the mind / interior thoughts with the heart / the noetic sentiment of affection for one's true calling.   01:02:04 Kate : Do the Fathers differentiate between vocal prayer and mental prayer, or is that a Western distinction?  Is there a recommendation to the kind of prayer that would take place during a night vigil?   01:02:34 Lisa Smith: I find the setting has a huge impact on prayer/ like a noisy city compared to the quiet woods. I find it easiest to pray in a rural solitary place. With minimal distractions   01:03:31 Ann Thelen: what is the best way to discern if waking in the night to prayer is something we are called to? or are we all called to this? Maybe I am overthinking this.   01:06:22 Ann Thelen: fear of failure in this resolve seems to be the thing that immediately presents itself when thinking about rising in the night for prayer.   01:08:42 Lisa Smith: Catherine Daughtery wrote a series called Poustina. I've been meaning to read that.   01:10:38 Wayne: Replying to "Catherine Daughtery ..."   I do have a copy of this book   01:10:58 Lisa Smith: Replying to "Catherine Daughtery ..."   🙏   01:10:59 Ambrose Little: I wouldn’t suggest that’s a healthy model! 😄   01:11:07 Rebecca Thérèse: Before the modern era it was common for the night to be divided into "two sleeps". It was really the industrial revolution that ended this practice.   01:11:50 Ambrose Little: Replying to "I wouldn’t suggest t..."   Saying that as one who’s helped his wife stay sane through 7 kiddos. It’s not a time we want to extend or further.   01:14:47 Anthony: Another ill effect of the "reformation," particularly the English variety.   01:16:37 Anthony: Yes   01:17:15 Ann Thelen: I appreciate the analogy of nursing the baby. We have five children and the youngest is 7 now. My excuse has been that I will be tired if i get in the night to pray. That analogy shed light on my excuse. It actually spoke to my heart saying "Ann, you've done this before. Don't be afraid of it"   01:20:00 Maureen Cunningham: Susan Wesley would put an apron over her head she 12 children everyone new she was in prayer   01:23:31 Lisa Smith: Thank you Fr. God bless you.🙏   01:23:32 Maureen Cunningham: Blessing Father   01:24:09 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:24:10 Ann Thelen: Thank you   01:24:11 Dave Warner (AL): Thank you Father!   01:24:20 Steve Yu: Thanks, Father!   01:24:22 Maureen Cunningham: You are to kind of   01:24:25 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:24:43 Leilani Nemeroff: Thanks

 

With each passing week, as we read St. John’s thoughts on discernment, we begin to see how it touches every aspect of our life. So often we confuse this gift with intellectually analyzing the circumstances around us or internal experiences and feelings or our perception of others’ actions. 

Yet discernment is not rooted in our private judgment. Rather, it arises out of union and communion with He who is Truth and Love. We engage in the ascetic life and seek purity of heart in order that we comprehend the truth unimpeded, to see things as God sees them and to see and respond to what he wants us to perceive.

Anything less than this leaves us completely vulnerable. St. John says, “let us watch and see which demon uplift us, which cast us down, which harden, which comfort, which darken, which pretend to communicate enlightenment to us, which make us slothful, which make us cunning, which make us sad, and which cheerful.”  It is only in Christ that we have the capacity to see these things. Strength and virtue of any kind comes not from climbing up a ladder of virtue on our own, but rather having Christ live within us. His virtue must become our virtue and his strength must becomes our strength. This is a difficult thing because it means letting go completely of the illusion that we can see the truth of the spiritual realities outside of our relationship with Him. It means being humble.

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00:02:32 FrDavid Abernethy: page 214 number 172   00:26:36 David Swiderski: I struggled with discernment most of my life and got far too intellectual analyizing everything. A  wise friend made a comment that helped me- you only need to think of two things- does this lead us closer to God or away from God.   00:27:10 Lisa Smith: Reacted to "I struggled with dis..." with 👍   00:30:31 David Swiderski: My grandfather always said wisdom is absorbed slowly over time while being intellectual is something to grasp.   00:32:37 Jeff O.: julian of norwich seems to say the same thing about affliction going so far as to say to actually pray for it as it is one of the greatest graces of God.   00:36:27 Lisa Smith: Sufficient is the evil of today, Is that what Christ said?   01:02:47 Johnny Ross: God forgives seven times seventy-so long as the will is there   01:03:12 Vanessa: Reacted to "God forgives seven t..." with ❤️   01:12:15 Kate : At what point and in what circumstances can we make a judgement about a situation?   01:14:50 David Swiderski: Everytime I see arguments on how to make the sign of the cross or taking communion in the hand or on the tongue I feel like both sides want to be right rather than acknowledge each is seeking to get close to God.   01:16:11 David Swiderski: The focus falls to Pride as you mentioned before.   01:19:11 Tracey Fredman: Most recently, Romans 15:1-6 has been quite helpful for me - it's not about pleasing myself, but for building up others and letting go of what I think they should do: St. Paul wrote "... let each of us please our neighbor for the good , for building up. For Christ did not please himself …"   01:23:55 Rebecca Thérèse: God is often presented to us by people who want to control us.   01:24:06 Ambrose Little: Avoid “Catholic” Twitter/X. Social media in general.   01:24:27 sheri: Thanks Father.  Gotta go...   01:24:52 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father!   01:25:30 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:25:36 Jeff O.: Thank you!!   01:25:36 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:25:43 David Swiderski: Thank you!

 

The fathers continue to speak to us about service and work and the disposition that we are to have in doing it. Our understanding must move from a functional understanding of labor; engaging in it in a way that is determined by private judgment or by the desire for worldly things. 

Everything that we do must be tied to our service of the providence of God. In other words, we are responding to the call of Love. The way that the Christian works and responds to the needs of others (as well as the one’s own needs) is tied to our relationship with the Lord. We are given the task of being the guardian of souls; our own and others’. We are to attend to our own needs, trusting that God will provide us with what is needed. We are to serve others without making excuses for our avoidance or negligence in doing so. 

We are to seek first the kingdom of heaven. This is what shapes everything for us. We always return to the nest of prayer, there to be nourished upon the love and the grace of God. And it is only from that nest that we step out in response to His call to love and serve others. 

So often we fill our life with needless tasks; more often than not to give us a sense of security and safety. Yet to do so draws us away from He who is the Lord of love and the Governor of history; the One who provides for every one of our needs.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:10:07 Ann Thelen: hello everyone. I've been listening to these podcasts for the last year or so. tonight is the first time i've been able to jump in live due to Easter Break. No children's activities. Happy and grateful to be joining you.   00:10:25 Adam Paige: Reacted to "hello everyone. I've..." with 👍   00:10:32 Ambrose Little: Southerner joining early…   00:10:37 FrDavid Abernethy: Reacted to "hello everyone. I've..." with 👍   00:10:41 Lori Hatala: Reacted to "hello everyone. I've..." with 👍   00:18:13 Dave Warner (AL): Reacted to "hello everyone. I've..." with 👍   00:22:01 Steve Yu: Social media has enhanced the spirit of rudeness. I think it has to do with interacting with others in a non physical manner.  We gain a certain “freedom” from politeness and respect, in my opinion.   00:22:15 David C: Reacted to "Social media has enh..." with 👍   00:23:54 Carol Roper: Reacted to "hello everyone. I've..." with 👍   00:24:23 Steve Yu: Cultural difference?   00:40:24 Nypaver Clan: Do you think St. Philip got that imagery from St. Isaac?   00:47:28 Susanna Joy: On the previous section: The bird has to hurry back to the nest because the egg needs warmth or the baby bird is hungry and waiting...what stuck with me from the nido image is taking what gleaned from the world and hurty back to care for this tender growing "baby" life within the love Divine...the goodness received from the sheltering nest of the hand of God...   00:51:34 David C: Reacted to "On the previous sect..." with 👍   00:55:23 Erick Chastain: where are we in the evergetinos?   00:55:41 Nypaver Clan: Top of 85   01:04:49 Ann Thelen: Is there a book or something of the sorts that gives a good recommendation for what the structure of what our daily prayer life should look like as someone who is married or taking care of family. Specifically, the amount of time spent in prayer that should be non negotiable.   01:10:48 Ann Thelen: haha   01:12:47 sharonfisher: Thank you — I needed this instruction and I need to heed it.   01:13:06 Lori Hatala: Reacted to "Thank you — I needed..." with ❤️   01:13:16 Kevin Burke: Me too.. “Prayer is a relationship”     01:13:46 Ann Thelen: Thank you. Thats very helpful   01:16:02 Kevin Burke: Thank you Father, very profound teaching tonight…   01:16:02 sharonfisher: And with your spirit!!   01:16:04 Susanna Joy: When my son was small I was at a retreat, and some were going to devotions while those of us with small ones to the children out on a hike. A community member remarked to me, too bad you cant be in worship...It occured to me that my life with my child is a devotion...   01:16:06 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:16:15 Troy Amaro: Thank You   01:16:20 Erick Chastain: have a good night father   01:16:31 Lisa Smith: God bless   01:16:33 David C: Thank you God Bless all   01:16:40 Susanna Joy: Thank you, Father

 

Discernment, St. John tells us, arises out of humility. It also allows us to see the value of humility in the spiritual life. It is the virtue above all virtues, that we must cling to in the spiritual battle. The enemy will seek to confuse us in one way or another; by flattery or by seemingly knowing our thoughts and placing ideas before us which then make us fear their control over us. However, discernment and humility, both protect our capacity to live in He who is the truth. 

It also allows us to see the truth about ourselves as human beings and our dignity. We are not created with the passions. They rise out of our sin and the distortion of the desire that God has placed in us naturally. It is desire that makes us long for him and the life of virtue and it is anger that allows us to fight the good fight of faith and strike down the evil one and the temptations that are placed before us.  

We also find, over the course of time, that discernment allows us to let go of our judgment and what gives us security in the spiritual life and to trust wholly in God. Therefore, when life seems to crumble around us and all seems to be wrapped in darkness, discernment allows us to step forward with trust in God and his love. While it keeps us from acting in rash way it also protects us from false prudence that hides cowardice and lack of courage. 

What we begin to see is that any struggle in the spiritual life to overcome the passions, any sacrifice that we make to follow the Lord, promises what is beyond imagination. Even to lose all in this world is to lose nothing if we have Christ.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:06:22 Rachel: Hello everyone   00:11:11 Rachel: lol   00:12:42 Rachel: No one will take me😭 I guess trying to convince people what sinners they are and so need to go to the Holy Annointing as well as drive me was not a good stategy   00:13:28 Rachel: I have been but I went to Mass at noon, and others have other obligations   00:13:42 Rachel: When Rory gets home, Ill try to convince him. LOL   00:14:08 Rachel: He will gladly go. He loves the Byzantine Liturgies   00:17:48 Ambrose Little: I resemble that.   00:31:21 David: Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife.-St. Leo the Great   00:33:09 David C: Reacted to "Virtue is nothing wi..." with ❤️   00:34:12 mhinckley: incisive anger: I always struggle with being just with it   00:34:36 David C: Reacted to "incisive anger: I al..." with 👍   00:34:39 mhinckley: not to mention charitable   00:40:01 mhinckley: I have always appreciated the use of "thorn" with sin. You never intentionally grasp for a thorn, only things that thorns surround.   00:40:51 David C: Reacted to "I have always apprec..." with 👍   00:42:58 Rachel: no. he is frozen   00:43:03 Lisa Smith: Same here.   00:43:04 Bob Cihak: Me too.   00:43:08 David C: Yeah he was frozen on my screen as well   00:43:29 Rachel: I only have Rens screen   00:43:38 Bob Cihak: Rising from the Frozen!   00:43:43 sprou: Reacted to "Rising from the Froz..." with 👍   00:43:46 David C: Reacted to "Rising from the Froz..." with 👍   00:47:29 David: I always try to remember what Mother Teresa said - I am a little pencil in the hand of God. At least when good flows through me however I often need frequent sharpening and a good eraser when I write :)   00:48:11 David C: Reacted to "I always try to reme..." with 👍   00:49:53 mhinckley: Reacted to "I always try to reme..." with 👍   00:53:40 Bob Cihak: What about St. Paul? "You have fought the good fight."   00:57:29 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Examples??   00:59:26 David: Would this be something like instead of dwelling on a temptation and agonizing vs. simply casting the thought from our minds in the beginning?   01:00:26 David: Evargius a good example   01:15:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:16:13 Bob Cihak: Blessings to you, Fr.   01:16:20 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:16:21 David: Thank your Father!   01:16:24 Rachel: thank y ou   01:16:25 Jeff O.: Thank you Father!   01:16:25 mhinckley: buona pasqua tutti!   01:16:31 Semai: Oh i joined late 😭   01:16:38 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Blessed Easter!   01:16:41 Mitch: Thanks!

 

What a beautiful group! Beauty, however, is not only found in the things that are attractive or appeal to our sensibilities. What is beautiful is found in the truth – the truth that speaks to the depths of our hearts and our religiosity. Once again, the fathers speak to us and present to us the gospel in unvarnished fashion. 

 

What is the disposition that we are to have in our service of God and others? If we give ourselves over to task with obedience, then we can be assured that God will provide all the grace that is necessary. If we do these tasks poorly, if we make mistakes, these do not diminish the value of our work. What gives shape to the work is the love and the humility of Christ. 

 

There are so many things that rush to our minds as to why we cannot bear something or why we cannot do a certain work. However, the fathers show us that so often such things are excuses; that is, plausible lies. They are reasonable because they are rooted in the reality of our own weaknesses. They are lies because they do not take into account the grace and the mercy of God. So often when we take up a task we engage in the labor abstracted from Christ. However, if we simply offer that labor to Christ, if we take it up by his grace and for his glory, then it has more value than we could ever imagine.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:03:54 FrDavid Abernethy: page 78   00:04:01 FrDavid Abernethy: New Hypothesis Tonight   00:06:45 Arthur Danzi: Hi Fr David   00:07:01 Arthur Danzi: I’m fine, how are you?   00:07:06 Arthur Danzi: My internet connection is poor…   00:29:12 Rachel: yes   00:40:27 sharonfisher: Thank you for the comment that even the monks struggle. My priest, after 2.5 or 3 years, revealed that he, too, sometimes struggles to keep the prayer rule. It was helpful to me to hear that.   00:54:21 Rachel: This is a magnificent passage. It needs to be read very slowly. Finding humility, doorkeeper, etc. This is so rich and multilayered. One can only understand through experience I am sure.   00:55:08 Rachel: No,but I think it needs to be unpacked   00:55:17 sharonfisher: 😂   00:55:29 Tracey Fredman: Experiential understanding is really hard to go through, though. This discussion is really helpful to me this evening.   00:55:49 Rachel: There is more to it..when one finds humility, one finds Christ, but what happens when we become the doorkeeper, or christ becomes the doorkeeper of our heart?   00:58:16 Rachel: He speaks about finding salvation by finding humility. Either way, we learn by experience whether we want to or not. But we may not experience what Our Lord desires that we experience. We may go kicking and screaming instead of finding the humility that the desert fathers speak of. He desire that we experience Himself   00:58:21 Liz D: It is consoling that you have shared this Father, about persecition with the Church, thank you. It can difficult to trust people in the Church when one experienced being persecured from within the Church. Also, to remember to go to Christ first-because sometimes I realize I go to God last for some areas of my life. As if in some things I subconsciously believe I am expected (by God) to go it alone--only turning to Jesus for help when things become nearly unbearable   00:58:39 sharonfisher: Reacted to "He speaks about find..." with ❤️   00:59:56 sharonfisher: Reacted to "It is consoling that..." with ❤️   01:00:06 Keith Abraham: Reacted to "It is consoling that…" with ❤️   01:00:56 Rachel: Oh we can trust them alright! trust them to be very human like ourselves lol   01:01:31 Lisa Smith: My favorite verse is where Christ speaks of faith as a grain of mustard seed.   01:01:56 Rachel: I'm too melancholic for my own good, sorry i will be quiet again.   01:02:13 Rachel: lol   01:04:11 Lisa Smith: lol Amen on the doorkeeper, Fr   01:04:23 Adam Paige: Saint Brother André was a porter   01:05:11 Lisa Smith: not for the socially anxious.   01:07:23 Steve Yu: I love the parable of the mustard seed because Jesus starts by comparing the Kingdom to someone who plants such a seed in a garden. The problem with that is someone would have to be crazy to do that. They grow enormous and quite ugly in my opinion. It would ruin a garden.     Isn’t that reflective of the spiritual life? We search for the beautiful garden not realizing that the ugly or inconvenient event may have Christ hidden within. I *think* this is attributable to humility. Christ has us see Him where we least expect Him.   01:09:07 Andrew Adams: Reacted to "I love the parable o..." with ❤️   01:12:48 Keith Abraham: “Domesticating” Christianity is one of the worst things we can do.   01:12:49 Steve Yu: That went by fast   01:12:56 Rebecca Thérèse: thank you🙂   01:13:37 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:13:42 sharonfisher: And with your spirit!!   01:13:43 Dave Warner (AL): Thank you   01:13:49 Troy Amaro: Thank You

 

Discernment is so much more than our analyzing the realities and circumstances around us by the use of intellect and reason. These faculties, as wonderful as they are, have inherent limitations. They are not infinite, nor can they speak of God as he is in himself. 

What God begins to show us in the spiritual life is that the more that we enter his love and truth, the more we are drawn into a mystery that is beyond us. Faith is described by many of the Saints as a “dark obscure knowing”. It is God‘s light, his divine light, that pierces through the darkness, and reveals to us the beauty of his love. It reveals (draws back the veil) and shows us that this love is worth everything to pursue and attain. “Love never ends”, the scriptures tell us. Discernment opens the door to that reality and allows us to step towards the beloved who desires to give us all. Our destiny is to move from glory to glory in the never-ending love of God.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:07:32 FrDavid Abernethy: page 209 para 139   00:40:44 Daniel Allen: Is the inverse then true?   00:42:28 Amale: What can the demons see or not see within us?   00:46:21 Rachel: The Elder would also know that in turn.. they could merit by true charity towards each other   00:47:33 Rachel: Where despite the feelings of animosity that arose, the monks would then more purely offer charity in the only way they can due to their limited capacity to love purely without unholy attachments   00:47:55 Maureen Cunningham: Father can demons reproduce? i was just wonderfing   00:48:00 Maureen Cunningham: Wondering   00:48:49 Kate : Can the demons hear our confessions to a priest within the context of the sacrament?   00:49:19 Maureen Cunningham: Best News   00:49:25 Jeff O.: Cassian seems to say in his conferences that they cannot reproduce   00:50:23 Amale: Do any souls who go to hell end up becoming demons? 00:51:10 Vanessa: Replying to "Do any souls who go ..."   I thought demons were the 1/3 of heavenly beings who went with Lucifer.   00:51:17 Jeff O.: He talks about it in the eighth conference on the principalities   00:51:24 David: In organization studies clicks can start which can create toxic results for teams.   00:51:53 Rachel: It is like the story of the Desert Father who, as soon as he instructed his Spiritual son would quickly leave him   00:52:39 David: We becomes us and them   00:52:51 Rachel: I suppose that was not for the community but purity of heart   01:00:58 David: I have heard a critism of the western church that we try to explain everything while the east embraces mysteries to be contemplated more. When I was younger I wanted the answers the older I get the more I love contemplating mysteries more.   01:01:15 Vanessa: Reacted to "I have heard a criti..." with ❤️   01:01:28 Jeff O.: Reacted to "I have heard a criti..." with 👍   01:01:57 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "I have heard a criti..." with ❤️   01:04:08 Daniel Allen: That’s an interesting comment (re poetry), because oftentimes poetry can calm my thoughts, and give me a jumping off point for prayer   01:04:42 Vanessa: Replying to "That’s an interestin..."   Psalms   01:05:30 David: The Syrian fathers write most things through poetry as well.   01:05:55 Cindy Moran: This relates to the need for formative spirituality.   01:06:20 Rachel: Gregory Narek   01:06:30 Daniel Allen: Reacted to "Gregory Narek" with ❤️   01:06:35 Rachel: Pope Francis   01:11:25 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you ☺️   01:11:40 Rachel: yes   01:11:41 Cindy Moran: Yes   01:11:46 Jacqulyn Dudasko: Thank you!   01:12:24 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:12:27 Rachel: thank you   01:12:29 Jeff O.: Thank you!!   01:12:29 Cindy Moran: Thank you   01:12:31 Arthur Danzi: Thank you Father   01:12:32 David: Thank you father! May God bless you

 

We are drawn ever deeper into the subtle manifestations of Avarice and how the demons make use of this passion to draw us into other sins. Indeed, it is a fearsome vice. The evil one can convince us that our identity is dependent on our having a certain objects or money and the security that it seems to offer us. Once we have given ourselves over to this thought, it gradually oppresses the mind and heart of the individual. Our incapacity to discern the truth of avarice’s grip upon us, we lose the ability can see what has enduring value. 

Such oppression undermines our commitment to God, others, and the pursuit of the path of sanctification he has set us upon. Suddenly we can no longer see what is good about a godly life and fidelity. We begin to see the weaknesses of others and the failure of a community to reach the ideal. We become hyper-critical. This the Evil One uses psychologically to make our exit from our vocation more acceptable to the mind. He first makes us despise what we once loved. What we once entered into with zeal, we now turn away from with cowardice. 

When given over to avarice we find ourselves falling under the control of the demons who continue to torment us; making us more vulnerable to the darkness of other passions. In this particular vice, we see the truth that “sin is its own punishment”. The more we grasp for the things of this world, the more we descend into darkness and ingratitude.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:12:18 FrDavid Abernethy: page 69   00:12:30 FrDavid Abernethy: midway down the page. second para   00:13:05 Keith Abraham: Thank you very much!   00:23:09 Anthony: This sounds like what happened in the hundred years prior to the reformation.  The vices preceded an explosion leaving the Church and the religious life.   00:46:23 Alexandra: Can avarice be wanting to have control. Control of Knowing everyone's business?   00:50:10 Anthony: This story is funny. Dragons are associated with the avaricious guarding of gold.  The serpent is like a mirror for his avaricious state.   01:24:31 Rachel: No career changes according to one's whims   01:30:40 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:30:42 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you 😊   01:30:44 Rachel: Thank you Father and everyone   01:30:51 Dave Warner (AL): Thank you!   01:30:57 Lisa Smith: Thank you Fr   01:30:57 Troy Amaro: Thank You   01:31:12 Kevin Burke: Thank you !

 

There are some things that cannot be learned from books – prayer most of all! However, St. John, as so many of the Saints speaks to us from long experience as one who truly has seen Christ, knows Christ and has conversed with him deeply. Whatever might be lacking in his thought it still stokes the fire of desire within any heart that longs for God. 

The desert fathers understood that God looks upon us as his sons and daughters his children, and the simplest word or groan from the heart is sufficient to express our need and love. Above all, we are to have gratitude and a spirit of compunction. With these then we approach the Lord with the intentions of our hearts. 

We should not fear our own weakness or the multiplicity of our thoughts that seem to overwhelm us. St. John reminds us that He who “sets the bounds to the sea of the mind will visit us, and during our prayer will say to the waves thus far shall you come and no further.” 

Prayer should be the simplest of things, but also what we hold to be most precious. We should come to see it as necessary as breathing but even more essential. The fathers tell us that we are to become prayer - our life is to be a sacrifice of praise. We are to be the very reflection of Christ. The kingdom is now, heaven is now and dwells within us. May our foolish hearts take hold of the gift that the Beloved offers us so freely.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:01:29 Bob Cihak, AZ: p. 234, # 1.5   00:05:18 Bob Cihak, AZ: We were half way thru #1.   00:05:53 Gregory Chura: Which step?   00:06:03 Gregory Chura: Thank you!   00:39:40 Anthony: So how to ignore the rational and irrational mind when praying? Just pray and eventually it happens?  Because my mind gets in the way.     00:40:42 susan: Jesus [rayer   00:45:37 David: Sometimes something tactile like a chotki, rosary or stone ( have one that fits my hand from a retreat center) can help one become grounded. Others a icon or image can help set the mind and still others a candle or breathing technique can quickly return us to a calm state.   00:51:37 Wayne: Doing some active physical activity can settle the mind down before prayer.   01:03:05 Jeff O.: proverbs 24   01:03:22 Jeff O.: verse 16   01:03:24 Nypaver Clan: Verse 16   01:14:56 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:14:59 Jeff O.: Thank you!   01:15:02 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:05 David: Thanks Father!   01:15:06 Gregory Chura: Thank you, Father!   01:15:11 Kevin Burke: Thank you Father!

 

This evening we continued our discussion of discernment; in particular, developing an awareness of the action of the demons and their attempts to lead us astray. However, John also seeks to make us aware of the fact that it is not only the demons that we have to be aware of but our human nature in its fallen state. We are often weak of will and changeable in our mind. We are filled with contradictions and will often choose that which offers nothing over the love and the mercy of God. We have within certain destructive tendencies that are beyond reason. St. John would not have us over analyze these things but be aware of them so to avoid them and turn more radically toward God when we see them arise within our hearts.

What is most striking in this section of the Ladder is that divine light shines through John‘s own words. The open up reality for us and we see on the horizon our dignity and destiny in Christ so brilliantly that one can only gasp. It creates within the heart an urgent longing to run to the Beloved. It reveals in a fraction of the moment the entire meaning of the ascetical life. It is not about self-perfection or endurance, but rather about Love. It is about acknowledging that what has been fashioned from clay has now been placed and seated upon the very throne of God. Joy!

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Text of chat during the group:

00:03:27 Carolus: Good evening Father.   00:03:34 FrDavid Abernethy: good evening   00:13:08 Genesius B: Father Michael of the Eparchy of Parma can only grow a goatee   00:13:36 Genesius B: we still love him though   00:19:18 David: Is this related to as one gets closer to God sometimes the attacks of the demons become stronger and often in different ways?   00:23:46 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: this translations says "greedy and grubby flesh" not corpulence   00:28:18 Genesius B: How can such inquisitiveness lead us to pride? Surely trying to understand Divine Providence can only reveal our own wretchedness? Is it that merely trying to understand is itself beyond us and thus an act of hubris?   00:28:25 Genesius B: and self assetion?   00:34:30 Genesius B: then when gifts are given should we seek to hide them, lest we become prideful in them. I see this in many saints but how does this not violate the Divine command to not hide our light?   00:35:58 Carolus B: Replying to "then when gifts are ..."   Or to not burry our talents.   00:55:58 Kate : St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, a French Carmelite saint, wrote, “Let yourself be loved by God.”  I often ponder this quote.  Why do I run from this love?  We do I not allow myself to be loved by God?   00:59:50 Ren Witter: I don’t think, though, that we run from the love of God when it feels like love. I can’t even imagine doing that, honestly.  I think we run from what we are taught is the mysterious love of God, because more often than not it feels like something terrifying, or threatening, or even wounding.   01:00:05 Ren Witter: We are told to trust that these things are manifestations of the love of God.   01:02:02 Daniel Allen: Christ says, “everyone when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.” Imitating Christ, and the saints in deed teaches us little by little until we our not like our fallen selves but like Christ.   01:03:41 David: When I used to teach catechism I heard many comments when discussing the saints saying they are not like that or it is not reachable from teens and even my sons. It seems helpful to discuss the whole lives of the saints like the difficulties and sinful past of St. Ignatius. Most writings seem to focus on them being perfect and so special rather than the journey.   01:06:55 Rebecca Thérèse: I find that reading what the saints wrote themselves is very helpful because they're very honest about their struggles and that makes them more relatable to me.   01:08:28 Rachel: Yes, this is true.We are all starving. For Christ.   01:12:55 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: One's image of God is so important - a distorted one gets in the way of living faith truly. This needs to be examined and renovated many times in one's life. Important to see self in God not outside of Trinity/grace.   01:14:30 Andrew Adams: Reacted to " One's image of God ..." with ❤️   01:16:11 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:16:11 Cindy Moran: Excellent session...thank you Father!   01:16:12 Jeff O.: Thank you Father!! Good to be with you all.   01:16:13 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:16:13 David: Thank you Father David!   01:16:14 sue and mark: good night

 

We take up this evening a new hypothesis (VI) dealing with the ownership of property. At the heart of it, however, is the temptation to avarice and the impact that it has upon the spiritual life and upon our commitments to God and others. 

 

The monks relinquishment of property, their embrace of a life of poverty and simplicity, highlights for us the subtle temptations that are involved in our attachment to the things of the world. Where lust and gluttony perhaps fail to satisfy - avarice often step in to test us. It can become something insatiable. The more we amass the more we desire. 

 

Our attachment to things can begin on a very small level. Yet unchecked, it can affect the way that we enter into our relationship with God. We slowly begin to seek our security and identity in things. This, in turn, can make us ever so vulnerable to the demons attack against our commitments. The possession of things can make it seem more plausible to change and alter our life; to pursue another path of salvation, for ourselves, that does not require hardship or that offers more satisfaction. It gives room for our internal instability to drive us away from what challenges us internally to overcome the ego. What begins with a small attachment eventually can develop to the point where a demon tells us that “if stay where we are we the place our salvation in jeopardy. It is better to take what we have, and to create something better in our own judgment.”  In this, we often place our own judgment above God’s. It creates an atmosphere of infidelity and strips us of long-suffering.

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Text of chat during the group:

 

00:11:21 FrDavid Abernethy: page 64   00:23:46 Eric Ewanco: 2nd maccabees   00:28:24 Eric Ewanco: Replying to "2nd maccabees"   12:39-45   00:41:56 Michael Hinckley: I know I’m that way about books. Desire for more   00:42:38 Eric Ewanco: Reacted to "I know I’m that way ..." with ❤️   00:48:28 Eric Ewanco: Replying to "I know I’m that way ..."   There is a Japanese term, "tsundoku" (積ん読). This word describes the habit of acquiring books and letting them pile up, without reading them.   00:52:21 John I.: Replying to "I know I’m that way ..."   I used to think that reading a lot of good Catholic books would make me very virtuous....   00:54:39 Eric Ewanco: I can see those worries about the future being very real   00:56:33 Lori Hatala: I have always feared thinking "I deserve".  I probably would not like getting what I deserve.   00:57:13 Kate : As an aside, we have a daughter who is a Carmelite nun.  When she received the holy habit, all of her hair was cut off.  We were given this hair to keep as a momento.  She had a beautiful head of hair, but she gave it up with great joy.  And now, I think there is more beauty in her Carmelite veil and all it signifies than in her hair.   00:57:21 Tracey Fredman: There's an emotional type of attachment to un-needful things - why is that? Not necessarily security - things like … I don't know, teacups - are hard to part with for some people. I'm very much aware of this in myself and I trying to declutter - it's really hard.   00:58:34 Vanessa: Reacted to "As an aside, we have..." with ❤️   00:58:51 Jacqulyn: Reacted to As an aside, we have... with "❤️"   01:00:42 Eric Ewanco: There is a tradition, I think in the Romanian churches maybe, at the wedding of the priest saying "You are now each other's crosses"   01:27:51 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you,🙂 sorry I was late. I'm in the UK and forgot about daylight saving time.   01:28:32 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:28:38 Sophia: 🙏   01:28:45 Kenneth: thank you Father

 

As we read St. John Climacus, we begin to see discernment as rooted in our relationship with God; a relationship that is founded upon the revelation of God‘s love and the desire that it stirs within the human heart to respond in kind. If we love God, then it is not going to seem to be a burden to us to take every thought captive and bring it before God for his blessing or judgment. Nor is waiting upon the Lord going to be a point of frustration. 

Rather, when we love God, we understand that he is going to desire what is best for us. This desire leads him to test our intentions so as to purify them. What God looks for is humility and a spirit of repentance. Faced with our own weakness, and the darkness that sin brings into our life and into the world, we must cling to God and allow him to guide us with his light.  Often only one step ahead is illuminated for us. We must be at peace with this if we have faith in him and trust in his love. 

Part of what this requires from us is an honest heart; one that avoids distractions and holds fast to innocence. Often our sensibilities can become hardened through our experience of the world, and we lose the capacity not only to be vulnerable to others but to God himself. It has been said that “haste destroys the poet and the saint”.  In the face of the frenetic pace of the world, let us hold on to simplicity and silence in order that we might hear the Beloved when he speaks to us.

---   Text of chat during the group:   00:08:06 FrDavid Abernethy: page 206 number 114   00:16:33 Susanna Joy: It can be years and years...   00:16:56 Susanna Joy: ...one must have the patience of Job.   00:27:28 Susanna Joy: I have a friend who says, "Set all your thoughts, words, and actions as flowers at the feet of the Lord."  Then whatever the result, the intention is right.   00:28:10 Paul G.: Reacted to "I have a friend who …" with ❤️   00:30:37 Rebecca Thérèse: Therese thought of herself as a plaything of the infant Jesus so sometimes he would discard her in order to play with something else.   00:32:09 Genesius B.: Would it be imprudent to treat everything as beyond us, or perhaps prudent so we might never overreach?   00:33:35 Susanna Joy: Replying to "Would it be impruden..."     There is the riddle ...   00:34:50 Susanna Joy: Replying to "Would it be impruden..."     ...we must do our be...   00:42:31 sharonfisher: But how do we deal with the ‘warped souls’ in life as we encounter them and recognize them as too familiar to our circumstances? It seems scary.   00:43:00 Kate : Father, Could you offer any guidance on finding the balance between overreaching in the spiritual life versus not pushing oneself enough?  I find it very hard to get the right balance.  It is a long, hard struggle.   00:46:23 Anthony: 1. Thanks for explaining the unforgivable sin.  2. No need to fall I to scrupulousity over this sin because concern about it indicates one has not confused good and evil. 3. I like a sentiment by St Paisios you shared on Facebook about keeping a calm soul so the devils can't cast their lines in our soul.   00:51:18 Susanna Joy: Replying to "1. Thanks for explai..."     That is such a great...   00:52:20 Susanna Joy: Replying to "1. Thanks for explai..."     Fish are tempted to ...   00:52:30 Susanna Joy: Reacted to 1. Thanks for explai... with "❤️"   00:53:10 Carolus B: Replying to "1. Thanks for explai..."   Should we avoid holding personal goals, instead endeavoring to only hold the single goal which is the desire of God, regardless of how we feel about the outcome?   00:53:52 Anthony: Hahaha. Yes he might   00:54:07 Paul G.: Reacted to "Hahaha. Yes he might" with 😇   00:54:16 sharonfisher: This is an aside that you may or may not want to read re: what we deign to touch or interact with. I was crossing, on foot, an intersection to the metro station and my luggage got all sideways. This homeless-type fellow ran out and collected my stuff for me and handed it to me on the other side. I gathered a few dollars to give him. I didn’t realize what I was doing when I went to grab the bag handles, but he did — he asked, pointedly, if I was afraid to touch his hand. Apparently, I had avoided contact with him, even after his assistance. I’m ashamed to this day. And I have another story equally shameful. Won’t bore you with it. Point, I think, is to be aware of our own actions, and how others perceive them.   00:55:14 Genesius B.: how do we discern when one malevolently disputes with us, vs one who disputes due to a misplaced but genuine and fervent care for the soul?   00:55:20 Carolus B: Should we avoid holding personal goals, instead endeavoring to only hold the single goal which is the desire of God, regardless of how we feel about the outcome?   01:07:33 Rebecca Thérèse: People admire athletes who train physically from dawn to dusk but if people want to "train" spiritually people think they're mentally disturbed!   01:07:37 sharonfisher: Not sure if Eastern Church recognizes Alfred and Briget and other English saints prior to Great Schism (other than Patrick, perhaps)?   01:07:38 David: I always loved a tradition in northern spain. They celebrate "Tu Santo" or saints day which often is more important or more celebrated than a birthday. These celebration's always explain about the life of the saint.   01:08:24 Art iPhone: Looking forward to the Frances Cabrini movie coming soon.   01:08:33 sharonfisher: Reacted to "People admire athlet..." with ❤️   01:09:03 Cindy Moran: Teresa of Avila & her young brother tried to run away from home to become martyrs.   01:09:13 sharonfisher: Reacted to "Looking forward to t..." with ❤️   01:09:18 Joseph Chiappetta: Reacted to "Teresa of Avila & he..." with ❤️   01:10:16 Carolus B: Replying to "Teresa of Avila & he..."   When asked by her parents why she ran away she answered: "I want to see God, and you have to die first."   01:10:38 Anthony: The serious troubles caused by religious nuts make us wary of asceticism   01:11:03 sharonfisher: Fasting could bring one to extremes.   01:11:04 Ren Witter: When I was little I heard the story of a martyr who died being boiled in oil. I used to pray that that would be the one way I wouldn’t be martyred.   01:11:07 Genesius B.: can we go back to 124 briefly   01:11:15 Rebecca Thérèse: A lot of trouble is caused by atheists!   01:11:43 Kate : Who was it who said “I could be a martyr if they kill me real quick?”   01:11:58 Anthony: Replying to "Who was it who said ..."     St Thomas more?   01:12:00 Genesius B.: Replying to "can we go back to 12..."   how do we ensure our kids have an appropriate upbringing which would best instill these virtues beyond the mere basics   01:14:22 Genesius B.: Replying to "can we go back to 12..."   i.e. how do we instill a proper spirit of mortification and humility in our children?   01:14:43 Alice Hirsch: By saying the 12 year St. Bridget prayers, a person can become martyr like.  The promise is stated as follows:  “The soul who prays them will be accepted among the Martyrs, as though he had spilled his blood for his faith.”   01:14:58 Genesius B.: Replying to "can we go back to 12..."   w/o simultaneously being too harsh   01:15:11 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:13 Lee Graham: This was a most informative and spiritually strengthening teaching. So glad I attended even though I was not well. Thank you and bless you.   01:15:21 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "By saying the 12 yea..." with 🥰   01:15:45 Lori Hatala: feel better Lee   01:16:20 sue and mark: Reacted to "feel better Lee" with 🙏   01:16:25 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:16:28 David: Thank you Father!   01:16:28 sue and mark: Reacted to "This was a most info..." with 🙏   01:16:28 Jeff O.: Thank you!!   01:16:31 sharonfisher: And with your spirt!!   01:16:31 Genesius B.: Thank you father   01:16:33 sue and mark: good night   01:16:38 Kevin Burke: Thanks you Father!   01:16:41 Cindy Moran: Thanks Father's

 

Sometimes in the simplest teachings is found the greatest wisdom. Such is true in tonight‘s readings from The Evergetinos. The focus is on work, how we engage in it and also how we engage others with whom we work.   What becomes evident is that the Christian works in a distinctive fashion. Above all charity is to guide the manner in which we work, our diligence, and also the way we treat others. Whether they are good workers or not, we do not compare ourselves to them or the quality of our labor. Nor do we hold up the weakness or defects of people for others to see and so diminish their character.   It is for this reason that our spiritual work must always take precedence over and shape the work that we do within the world. We take up all things from the hand of God. And in doing, so we keep before our eyes the dignity of the other. There is nothing that we could produce within this world and nothing that we could accomplish that has more value than our own soul or that of others. Love and humility in all things!   ---   Text of chat during the group:   00:06:16 Tracey Fredman: I've been thinking a lot about the question "How is your prayer life?" - what would be a proper response?   00:09:48 sharonfisher: I would respond that it’s in fits and starts — frequent during the day but not very structured. I need to do better.   00:25:39 Steve Yu: Is the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles another title for the Didache?   00:28:46 Anthony: I think the Constitutions are on librivox app   00:28:54 Steve Yu: Reacted to "I think the Constitu…" with 👍   00:29:00 Steve Yu: Replying to "I think the Constitu…" Thanks!   00:29:03 Adam Paige: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolic_Constitutions   00:29:09 Steve Yu: Reacted to "https://en.m.wikiped…" with 👍   00:29:10 Anthony: Also latin and slavonic   00:29:33 Steve Yu: Replying to "https://en.m.wikiped…" Thanks!   00:30:07 Kevin Burke: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1493752200?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details   00:36:50 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Thanks!" with 👍   00:37:26 Rachel: Whoah   00:37:49 Steve Yu: Reacted to "https://www.amazon.c…" with 👍   00:38:01 Steve Yu: Replying to "https://www.amazon.c…" Thanks much!   00:39:00 Rachel: So, I would have trouble having a poker face in that situation. I love the grace I have seen in others who handle these things, even great things in stride. The humility it takes to cover anothers faults and mistakes   00:46:22 Rachel: I do lol   00:52:28 Anthony: These men have complete freedom but choose to discipline their lives for the vision of something better than a "Batchelor life."   00:52:45 Vanessa: Reacted to "These men have compl..." with 👍   01:00:55 Anthony: An interesting book: "Catholicism, Protestantism and Capitalism" by Amintore Fanfani   01:01:29 Rachel: Some nuns who gave a talk to a prayer group a talk spoke about guarding oneself from touching in a layperson's life as well. It seems strange on the surface to the world. There are naturally affectionate people who want always to hug others. As an introvert I have admires the way in which the nuns held themselves. When we are not intruding on another's space, in charity or not, it is a way in which we can respect the image of God in the other. In the context of the talk, which was given about friendships and the life of prayer, I could see how there are many behaviors that on the surface seem charitable but are subtly self serving.  The actions lack true humility and charity.   01:04:10 Liz D: Are there any prerequisites to praying the Prayer of the Heart, also known as the "Jesus Prayer.” mentioned as a way to pray in the morning? Also, can we pray this way during work times? I  read an admonition from one of the Fathers that it can be ill-advised to pray this prayer if one is not ready for it. Perhaps it had to do with certain breathing while praying. I’m sorry I don’t recall the exact quote or admonition. How may I discern if ready to try this prayer as a non-monastic Catholic? I’d like to pray the "Jesus Prayer" in the morning as discussed in the previous hypothesis discussion.  I apologize if this question is from the prior chapters or was covered previously.   01:12:35 Liz D: Thank you, Father.   01:12:45 Rebecca Thérèse: Such a priest probably doesn't understand it or finds it offensive and doesn't want his parishioners asking him awkward questions or judging him harshly   01:12:47 FrDavid Abernethy: Reacted to "These men have compl..." with 👍   01:13:41 Rachel: My comment was Irrelevant, we had moved on  =)   01:14:47 Maureen Cunningham: Thank. You   01:14:49 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:14:52 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:15:07 sue and mark: good night   01:15:36 Rachel: Thank you

 

Discernment, as we have said, is the fruit of humility. Having removed the impediment of pride and having purified the heart of the passions, one comes to comprehend the things of the kingdom and the will of God. St. John gives us one example after another of how discernment helps us to perceive the things that lead us to God and that teach us to embrace that which endures.   As one progresses in the spiritual life, however, discernment is not simply the ability to know God‘s will, but rather also the ability to fulfill it in the way that God desires. In this, a soul can begin to trust in the action of the Spirit within the mind and heart. Therefore, although spiritual guides may be lacking one is not abandoned by God. Rather, God makes all things work for the good of those who love him.   In fact, the more one lays side ones will and turns to God in prayer and fasting, the more one lets go of the need to be driven by creativity, productivity, and one’s own intentions as a whole. The deeper the communion becomes with God, the more one finds joy in being drawn along whatever path He desires.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:08:12 FrDavid Abernethy: page 204 number 105   00:46:02 Rebecca Thérèse: I think Teresa preferred the priest to be learned rather than just intelligent because she thought that even holy priests could be misled. A learned priest wuld be better able to communicate the infallible teaching of the Church, in her view.   00:50:33 Michael Hinckley: Re: lack of elders… we miss not having enough monks & nuns available in communities.   01:00:37 Susanna Joy: This is so similar to a practice I learned from muslim friends, where one fasts and prays 3 days begore taking decision, that God may clarify what action one should take...The fast is called istakharra...means the right path. :)   01:03:21 Susanna Joy: It is so good to rest in God's wisdom before taking action.   01:06:32 Michael Hinckley: Modernity and technology have much to blame since many things can be created ex nihilo. Tempts thinking “ye shall be like Gods"   01:10:48 Anthony: Yes   01:10:50 Rachel: Id love to see that   01:11:38 David: I volunteered for catechism but was surprised there was no assignment with a spiritual director and it seemed to become more of a quasi entraining push by those who were the directors by the parish. The focus was keeping the kids coming back and making faith "fun". It seemed so different from my experience here an in Spain.   01:13:42 Susanna Joy: https://youtu.be/LOcCXt1n-fI?si=EGIJbH3UquEgdU0C   01:13:43 Michael Hinckley: Replying to "I volunteered for ca..."   Precisely the problem.   01:14:40 Susanna Joy: Here is a beautiful song for you all. "Who puts his trust in God most Just"   01:14:41 Anthony: Pierogi making brings my parish together   01:14:58 Michael Hinckley: TLM communities also see the young coming b/c of lack of “fun” things   01:15:08 Ambrose Little: I’m not “young” and feel more or less that way.   01:15:25 Adam Paige: You’re young at heart, Ambrose !   01:15:31 Ambrose Little: Reacted to "You’re young at hear..." with 😅   01:15:35 Jeff O.: Reacted to "You’re young at hear..." with 😆   01:15:46 Jeff O.: Reacted to "I’m not “young” and ..." with 👍   01:16:08 Susanna Joy: Reacted to Pierogi making bring... with "❤️"   01:16:17 Michael Hinckley: Gnocchi are pierogis   01:16:20 Rachel: haha I need to go to PA   01:16:54 Rachel: Can activism be another way of intellectualizing the faith?   01:17:08 Susanna Joy: Thank you so much, Father. God bless you.🙏🏻💗   01:17:09 Anthony: Reacted to Gnocchi are pierogis with "😂"   01:17:13 Rebecca Thérèse: thank you🙂   01:17:50 Sophia: Thank you so much fr.Abernethy. God bless you!   01:17:51 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethy!   01:17:55 Jeff O.: Amen, thank you!   01:17:56 David: Thank you father!   01:18:01 Rachel: Thank you Father Thank you evryone

 

Everything about what it is to be a human being should be touched and shaped by the grace of God. Our identity and purpose comes through Christ. When we lose sight of this, a kind of disorder and imbalance enters into the way that we work, the kind of work that we take up, and the time that we spend engaged in it. This evening we were given one story after another about the nature of the work the desert monks did. Their focus was on manual labor that allowed them to be attentive to God while engaged in it. They also worked enough to provide for themselves modestly but always with an eye towards the needs of others. We do not work for ourselves. Nor do we work and labor to the extent that it reveals we want to reach a point where we will no longer have to bear that burden. Work prevents us from falling into idleness, but also allows us to provide for others in their needs. When Christ is absent from this part of our life, then “our toil shall be great, our path unsteady, our grief inconsolable, and our lives care-worn.” The one who is focused upon Christ and seeks him first will labor temperately and freely. In the absence of Christ, however, one is driven by agitation and fear.   ---   Text of chat during the group:   00:21:26 Amale Obeid: How do hermits balance the solitude with the duty to serve others?   00:28:13 Anthony: We Americans have the farce of the Puritan work ethic, though. We are people, not human resources.  That is a point of resistance for me.   00:37:50 Rebecca Thérèse: A siev is a strainer   00:38:02 Rebecca Thérèse: sieve   00:39:25 Anthony: As a matter of historical note, in the middle ages, cloth was the first commodity, and a source of wealth.  Weavers were treated poorly, like the way treat robots.  The heresy of Waldensianism spread among weavers, perhaps during to their social condition.   00:42:07 Lilly: Saint Francis of Assisi, comes to mind. He left his dad's linen business to live a monastic life :)   00:43:19 Anthony: Reacted to Saint Francis of Ass... with "👍"   00:59:29 Amale Obeid: How much work is “enough” to not be slothful or idle? Secular life does not let you step down or slow down. It feels more and more like it’s an all or nothing choice   01:09:33 Anthony: On the neglect of the most important things when work is too long or too heavy: St John Bosco & St Frances Cabrini looked after children whose families were forced to work to the neglect of children....and the boys themselves who worked so much but neglected their souls.   01:10:54 Vanessa: Reacted to "On the neglect of th..." with 👍   01:11:17 Anthony: Thank God Pope Francis preaches on the evil of usury / debt culture.   01:15:53 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You  Father David   01:15:56 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:16:37 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:16:43 Rachel: Thank you   01:16:47 Nick Bodmer: Thanks!

 

In St. John’s discussion of discernment, he reveals to us the beauty of a human being transformed by the grace of God and living in communion with Christ by removing every impediment within the heart and by constantly crying out to him in prayer. At the very center of this reality is the “eye of the soul”. It is extremely beautiful, St. John explains, and next to the angels it surpasses all things. The angels constantly gaze upon God and the purified eye of the soul, the nous, allows us to contemplate the beauty of God‘s love.

There is also a freedom that comes to the soul through this purification. Our capacity to discern spiritual realities enables us to engage in the warfare with the demons more diligently and to avoid the pitfalls that are set for us. Furthermore, it allows us to understand that there is no such thing as a small sin. If neglected, it can consume the entire person. Likewise, there is no part of our life that we are to take for granted. The eye of the soul allows us to see that each moment is an opportunity for us to respond to God and to others with love; an opportunity embraced or lost. Thus, it is a very high view of the human person that is set before us; a view that allows us to understand the radical communion that exists between each of us and to see our destiny in Christ. Beautiful indeed!

  ---   Text of chat during the group:   00:29:50 sprou: virtue beyond our ability?   00:50:31 Nypaver Clan: “Familiarity breeds contempt.” My Mom used to say this if we spent too much time with friends.   00:50:54 Vanessa: Replying to "“Familiarity breeds ..."   My mom used to say that too lol   00:52:59 Anthony: St Paul, 1 Cor 7 (?) Talks about spouses separating for a bit.   00:53:38 Marypaz Mencos: I’ve been listening to your podcasts for a year, this is the first time I’m able to be in real time with y’all. It’s so good to put faces to all of your voices.  God bless you Father, this podcasts have been a blessing to my spiritual life.   00:54:08 Vanessa: Reacted to "I’ve been listening ..." with ❤️   00:55:16 Amale Obeid: Replying to "St Paul, 1 Cor 7 (?)..."   “Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.” Gibran Khalil Gibran (Lebanese poet)   00:56:14 Susan M: Reacted to "I’ve been listening ..." with ❤️   01:05:40 Vanessa: Enjoying this very much tonight.   01:07:43 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Yet St. Basil came back from the desert saying the complete Gospel calls us to include service of others in one's authentic spiritual life...   01:13:27 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Sacrificial intercessory prayer for others is also service of the Body of Christ   01:13:52 Amale Obeid: Reacted to "Sacrificial interces..." with ❤️   01:18:37 Anthony: That kind of sounds superstitious, like an augury.   01:19:27 Anthony: Morning offering....yes. but there's repentance to a bad start and a possible bad end to a good start.   01:26:08 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Father from Maureen & Kenneth   01:26:11 Arthur Danzi: That was wonderful. Thank you, Father!   01:26:14 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethy!   01:26:18 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:26:21 Jeff O.: Thank you!!   01:26:21 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:26:24 David: Thanks Father!   01:26:34 Alexandra K: Thank you Father!

 

We continued our discussion from The Evergetinos on idleness. What begins to emerge from the wisdom of the fathers is that everything that is part of our life as human beings is filled with meaning and touched by grace. God has ordained that we provide for ourselves by the work of our hands. Furthermore, by this very same work, we are attentive to the needs of others. Work allows us to show charity to others in their needs. Avoiding idleness not only allows us to engage in fruitful labor but helps us to remain focused in our thoughts and avoid temptation. 

The fathers also understood that when our work is taken up as from the hand of God, as an act of obedient love, we give ourselves over to it with zeal and attention. We are prevented from falling into laziness. Such an understanding also allows us to engage in work in such a way that others see what motivates us. The intentions of the heart are often revealed in the simple way that we engage in our day-to-day labors. When we love, we take up that work diligently and joyfully.  We do not complain or fall into resentment. Nor do we compare our work with others. When we take up our work from God, it frees us from the pitfalls that often plague us on a daily basis. A balance emerges in our life. When our identity is rooted in God then we take up our labor from him and knowing that it is completed by his grace. Work is not what gives meaning to our life. It is love in our hearts that shapes that work.

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Text of chat during the group:   00:15:59 Suzanne: Father, I'm just popping in to let you know I am going offline for Lent. I'll see you after Easter.   00:16:20 FrDavid Abernethy: Replying to "Father, I'm just pop..."   ok.  God bless   00:16:21 Suzanne: Thank you!!!   00:16:44 FrDavid Abernethy: page 52 top paragraph   00:21:32 Amale Obeid: The toil when working with the mind seems paradoxically heavier than the toil of working with the hands. How might we think about the difference between working the corporate grind versus what the monks consider work?   00:34:45 Louise: A beautiful book about being with God inwardly and with the world outwardly is The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.   00:35:48 Maureen Cunningham: Yes a wonderful book   00:35:50 Anthony: Read it. Supposedly it was a Carthusian work. Very good.   00:56:26 Alexandra K: This is the issue I have while working remote. I really really really don't like it. Need to remember that I should work for God.   00:57:41 Amale Obeid: Reacted to "A beautiful book abo..." with ❤️   01:16:20 Maureen Cunningham: Do you think they were so hard on Monks because they understood Spiritual Warfare   01:19:44 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:19:49 Maureen Cunningham: thank you many Blessings   01:19:53 Amale Obeid: Thank you   01:20:29 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:20:36 Sophia: Thank you, Fr   01:20:38 Alexandra K: Thank you for doing this Father! I'll pray for you

 

As we have discussed, the fruit of humility is discernment. But what is that? Is it simply private judgment, a human wisdom that has deepened over the course of the years? 

St. John gradually begins to reveal to us that it is a freedom that emerges from the removal of the impediments of our passions. A sole passion, the desire for God, begins to direct and guide our lives as well as reveal to us the truth about our actions and the realities around us. 

Yet, it is humility that must continue to guide and direct this gift of discernment. It is to see things as God sees them only because we are allowing ourselves to trust in His providence in the warp and woof of day-to-day life. Whether we are embattled or at peace, whether we are called to be obedient or to guide others, we must rely upon the grace of God. It is His love, the love of He who is the truth that allows us to comprehend the realities of this world and the world come. Thus, St. John shows us, we can never think of ourselves or the gifts that we experience abstracted from a deep intimacy with the Lord. It is only in Him and through Him that we can live the life to which he has called us and through Him that we who were blind can see!

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Text of chat during the group:

00:18:44 Arthur Danzi: I'm sorry, what chapter are we reading?   00:19:53 Barbara: lost sound   00:19:59 Rebecca Thérèse: no audio   00:30:48 Anthony: Maybe another example is the miser who wears shabby clothes, just to save money?   00:45:18 Cindy Moran: Would oriental catholics call this yin-yang?   00:55:50 Cindy Moran: Replying to "Would oriental catho..."     ... 01:03:06 Anthony: Another thing to be careful of is to try observing what is a true state of affairs but to stop short of having unholy judgment or even feelings or inclination to hound something bad out or to resent something.   01:08:23 Carol Roper: Beware the leaven of the pharisees   01:09:21 David Swiderski: I used to waste a lot of time thinking and rethinking about decisions and people. Even doing this I often made bad decisions and was taken advantage by or attacked by people. I now simply concentrate on - does this lead me closer to God or further away from God. I also pay attention to the mood, other things around me much more.   01:11:42 Cindy Moran: Would oriental catholics call this yin-yang? My ? maybe not seen?? My relatives say that all religion is the same...   01:13:03 sam: I think he (John Climacus) also says elsewhere that vainglory has no birthdate but with pride is the mother of all vices. Humility he also says is one of the destroyers of its fruit and source.   01:16:05 Cindy Moran: It's  always a struggle for me . They are new age.   01:18:12 sam: Could we say that the all religions are equal idea is from a vainglorious attempt to please everyone and avoid real arguments about ascetical struggle?   01:20:41 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:21:10 Maureen Cunningham: Blessing   01:21:20 Cindy Moran: Thank you, Father   01:21:27 David Swiderski: Thank you Father!!!   01:21:29 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:21:29 Jeff O.: Thank you Father!   01:21:34 Art iPhone: Thank you Father!   01:21:36 Arthur Danzi: Thank you father!

 

What a blessing it is to read slowly. It allows insights to unfold before our minds and imaginations that we often would not be attentive to due to our typical need to rush. Hurry, most often, comes from the evil one who seeks to undermine our peace. It is lingering over the thoughts of the fathers on idleness that we begin to understand that what they are talking about is not simply avoiding laziness and sloth. They are revealing to us that keeping our focus upon God in mind and body, that is with the whole self, we grow in our capacity to love God and others. 

Virtue forms within the soul from engaging in our tasks with love and humility. Our willingness to take up that which is simple and perhaps menial in the eyes of the world and to do so with love is what is seen by God. Pushing a broom, if done with love, draws us to the very heart of God. Whereas imbalance in our labor, whether it is driving ourselves harshly or laziness, makes us lose sight of the glory of God in all things. May we listen well as we sit at the feet of the fathers, so that we might live our lives and engage in our work with minds and hearts fixed on God.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:41:21 Rachel: I think it important to be clear that panic attacks when endured with patience, can be meritorious. Putting ones trust in God when flooded with waves of panic. The peace of Christ is a gift of God and I wonder, little by little one will find the peace of Christ within the storm. Patience, will teach one to see. Trust in God, He will reveal Himself in these moments   00:41:56 Steve Yu: Reacted to "I think it important…" with 👍   00:44:59 Susanna Joy: Wow...look at you know, though!!!   00:45:36 Susanna Joy: You totally overcame and are presenting CONSTANTLY! 🙏🏻🌟AMDG...   00:52:08 Susanna Joy: Our work becomes the altarspace...   01:05:26 Suzanne: This is a really good class tonight.   01:06:13 Paul G.: Replying to "This is a really goo…" +1   01:06:19 Andrew Adams: Reacted to "This is a really goo..." with 👍   01:06:34 Sharon Fisher: Reacted to "This is a really goo…" with ❤️   01:07:36 Sharon Fisher: Agreed - I love the asides to discuss practical application!   01:11:57 Vanessa: Same with Jacinta and Francisco Marto (Lady of Fatima)   01:12:10 Rebecca Thérèse: Therese's mother died when she was only five and she spent her whole life grief-stricken   01:15:30 Suzanne: Great points.   01:16:32 Vanessa: Reacted to "This is a really goo..." with ❤️   01:17:01 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:17:10 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethy!   01:17:18 Suzanne: Ash Wednesday!   01:17:43 Suzanne: God bless all and God prosper our Lent!   01:18:12 Sharon Fisher: Many thanks!   01:18:18 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:18:19 Sophia: Thank you so much, fr.Abernethy. God bless you!   01:19:07 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Therese's mother die…" with 😞   01:21:29 Arthur Danzi: Thank you Father!   01:21:31 Steve Yu: I was having similar thoughts before joining tonight! I felt too tired but I’m so glad I was able to make it! Thank God!   01:21:42 Vanessa: These classes are the highlight of my week🙂  Thank you   01:21:50 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank youfor persevering

 

We picked up this evening with the beginning of hypothesis 18. For weeks now we have been reading about the essential practice of fasting. The cultivation of virtue and the overcoming of the passions is impossible without it. Making use of the body to strengthen the soul is a necessity. But we quickly realize from the stories that this practice can become imbalanced; monks could fall into extremes and be tempted to engage in disciplines in ways that feed the ego – ways that make them feel holy or religious. 

Yet the desert was a great teacher. The monks learned in this laboratory the subtle movements not only of the mind and the heart, but the way the demons tempt us to extremes. To fast for three or four days serves only to weaken the body and this can disrupt one’s spiritual practices as well as one make one ill. It can also, fill the heart with pride. In this, the gains made in the life of virtue can be lost in an instant. 

Therefore, the fathers begin to understand that fasting must be practiced with restraint, measure, and good wisdom. We must never lose sight of the fact that our fasting is tied to Christ and who he is for us. He is the beloved, the heavenly bridegroom, and our fasting and the hunger it produces must be tied in our minds and our hearts to our desire for Christ, the bread of life. He alone satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart. Therefore fasting is not meant to kill the body, but rather re-order our desires toward their true end. Fasting then is to be done with regularity, extending no more than one day. We begin simply by not eating to the point of satiation. We give the body what is necessary, but no more. In all of this we are taught that the royal path to purity of heart is fasting and that light burdens are also profitable.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:07:34 Una: Could someone tell me what book we're using?   00:08:20 Andrew Adams: Replying to "Could someone tell m..."   https://www.ctosonline.org/patristic/EvCT.html   00:08:44 Una: Thank you!   00:44:43 Anonymous Sinner: What page?   00:47:02 Una: I grew up in Ireland at the time when doctors were doctors and not pill pushers. Our Dr. O'Dolan's best health advice was to always leave the table a little hungry. He was a good Irish Catholic too. I've found following this advice more difficult that doing "heroic" fasts of ten days or so.   01:01:44 Anonymous Sinner: I thought that it was Mother Teresa who said this, about praying for 2 hours when one is busy?   01:07:41 Maureen Cunningham: Moderation in everything even in moderation   01:08:48 Anonymous Sinner: CS Lewis’s chapter on gluttony in the Screwtape Letters comes to mind   01:16:27 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Blessing   01:16:37 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!   01:16:39 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:16:53 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father

 

Where are we in the spiritual battle? Do we understand the virtues that are generally most necessary in the pursuit of virtue? So often in our day, we approach the spiritual life in a piecemeal fashion, gleaning from the writing of saints things that speak to our own particular sensibilities. But are any of these things going to help us address the dominant passions that we struggle with? 

We cannot be lazy in the labors of the spiritual life. We are blessed to be able to sit at the feet of the great elders and those who speak from experience. And yet, as with so many things in our day, we would have things come in our own time and in the way that we desire. Christianity overturns our perception of reality. What it means to love, what is truth, all comes into view only through the person of Christ. The shape of the Christian life is cruciform – always involving a dying to self and sin, and rising to new life in Christ. We must cast off the old man in order to put on the mind of Christ. Lacking discernment we may find ourselves being guided by the demons and settling into mediocrity or the embrace of selfishness and sin that merely is an aping of virtue.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:14:14 David Swiderski: Father do you know any good books on vigils? 00:15:56 Sharon Fisher: Would it be instructions for a home vigil service?   00:17:50 Anthony: For the bibliography, cookbooks are important such as "From a Monastery Kitchen" by Bro. Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette.   00:19:52 Eric Ewanco: With Great Lent on our heels, do you have suggestions for overcoming gluttony and sustaining our fasts?   00:29:26 Andrew Adams: How does one practice the life of obedience as a layperson?   00:30:23 Suzanne: Isaac the Syrian is great on not putting the cart of contemplation before the horse of purification.   00:32:54 Maureen Cunningham: The  Monks on Mt Athose are very healthy a Doctor did a study.   00:35:24 Suzanne: Greek food ain't no penace for me! 😄   00:35:38 Vanessa: Reacted to "Greek food ain't no ..." with 😂   00:39:16 Anthony: Our hypochondria is driven by our societal messaging; our avarice is driven by our capitalist presuppositions wealth, usury, over-emphasis on private property.   00:42:54 Maureen Cunningham: I was told that Christ suffers in the broken .   00:43:30 Anthony: And it's hard to go against presuppositions because it feels like you're doing something wrong.   00:47:02 Suzanne: I quit a part time job because of the filthy language and sick behavior of my fellow employees. I did it to protect my soul.   00:54:04 Jeff O.: I’m reminded of a quote from a Benedictine book - “Personal Prayer” - “Our hope is at its greatest when we have absolutely no other means to provide for ourselves than to beg God for help.” When our hope is rooted deeply in our full understanding of our poverty it’s at its strongest/fullest   00:54:20 David Swiderski: I have found hardship to be helpful in gaining detachment from many things and faults. A saint used to say-gold is purifiied in the crucible of life.   00:54:21 Lee Graham: What does “recklessly despised their torture”?   00:55:27 Eric Ewanco: My translation @Lee Graham has "It was this marvelous grace that enabled the souls of the martyrs to rise superior to their torments."   00:56:29 Vanessa: St. Teresa of Calcutta always said we have to see Christ himself in the poor, broken, and suffering.  Re-aligns our focus to see the humanity in them.   01:07:40 sprou: is that the language of silence?   01:09:26 Eric Ewanco: Is ignoring the demons an option open to everyone, or does this indicate that one is in a better spiritual position so to speak if one can do this?   01:11:19 Adam Paige: One of the tools of good works in the rule of Saint Benedict is “To dash at once against Christ the evil thoughts which rise in one’s heart.”   01:11:26 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:11:30 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethey!   01:11:42 Suzanne: God bless you all!   01:11:46 Lorraine Green: God bless, thank you   01:12:19 Barbara: Blessed Great Fast!!   01:12:22 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:12:23 Jeff O.: Thank you!   01:12:24 Sharon Fisher: And with your spirit!   01:12:36 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father

 

We turn now in the Evergetinos to consider the “avoidance of idleness”. With this, of course, we are compelled to consider the nature of work, and its connection to the spiritual life and our sanctification. 

Avoiding idleness is not simply keeping busy - much less busyness. It is something that allows us to prevent the mind and the heart from wandering from He who is the source of life, God. We are not angels.  We are called to provide for ourselves and also to provide for the poor. And so it is by the labor of our hands that we not only keep ourselves from becoming distracted - but enable ourselves not to become a burden to others and also to offer charity to those in need. 

Furthermore, keeping oneself from idleness also allows for the formation of virtues; obedience, self-control, ordering of the appetites, humility, etc. What is being presented to us, then, is connected to the overall portrait of what it is to be a human being; one whose life is directed completely toward God. The love that we have received and bear within us transforms everything about what it is to be a human being; to suffer, to love, and to work. It is our identity as Christians that must shape our perception of reality.

Text of chat during the group:

00:29:31 Michael Hinckley: Anthony's comment, or rebuke, hits the vainglory   00:35:03 Andrew Adams: What was the name of that commentary on St. Mark again?   00:38:32 Adam Paige: Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, the four-volume “Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew” by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis.   00:38:34 FrDavid Abernethy: Erasmo Merikakis   00:45:57 Michael Hinckley: can't over busyness, lack of focus be acedia   01:05:34 Rebecca Thérèse: The devil makes work for idle hands   01:14:51 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:26 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   01:15:53 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:16:06 Rachel: Thank you!!

 

Extraordinary and beautiful! We are currently reading Step 26 from The Ladder on discernment. As St. John begins to unpack things for us, that is, what discernment allows us to perceive about our intentions, our dispositions, how virtue and vice often get mixed together, why prayers sometimes go unanswered, and why demons often will cease their attack for a period of time - - St John also shows us the beauty and the mystery of the human person in relationship to God and as created by God. 

God‘s loving care for us, when seen with the clarity of the fathers’ wisdom and experience is enough to make one weep for joy. And this joy fosters a desire for God that, if inflamed, can not only purify us of the passions but transform us in such a fashion that we are drawn into the life of the very Holy Trinity. May God grant us this desire!

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Text of chat during the group:

00:09:49 Carol Roper: St. Anne's?   00:31:05 Cindy Moran: I remember a few times the night before a huge exam I slept w the school book under my pillow LOL   00:43:18 maureencunningham: What is the time frame , if one thinks of this as a long journey or one could be discourage   00:48:24 Kate : There are some spiritual writings that take the form of a colloquy…Fr. Gaston Courtois, for example.  How does this fit with the dark knowing of faith, that you mentioned?  The writers seem to have such a tangible intimacy with Our Lord.   00:56:29 Susanna Joy: When the Lord Speaks to Your Heart: Daily Devotions (English and French Edition) https://a.co/d/4ZRzjVi   00:56:46 Vanessa: Replying to "When the Lord Speaks..."   Thank you:)   00:57:02 Susanna Joy: Divine Intimacy https://a.co/d/2WqoJ5e   00:57:43 Susanna Joy: The links are Amazon links to the books mentioned   01:00:46 Cindy Moran: Are the other 4 kinds of dispassion in this chapter?   01:01:18 Jacqulyn: An excerpt from Pauline Books... https://paulinestore.com/media/productattach/1/7/172412-compressed.pdf   01:02:05 Susanna Joy: Reacted to An excerpt from Paul... with "👍"   01:04:51 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "An excerpt from Paul..." with 🥰   01:06:09 Rachel: yes   01:09:24 Michael Hinckley: Leave Christ for Christ... is the Filippo Neri?   01:09:35 Michael Hinckley: that ...   01:10:04 Adam Paige: Reacted to "that ..." with 👍   01:11:58 Rachel: Our Lord was did not have passions   01:14:18 David Swiderski: I have been reviewing some courses for work on Emotional Intelligence and it is interesting some of the information on nueroplastisity. I keep thinking how this research could learn so much from the desert fathers. In nueroplasticity they often talk about the trigger leading to emotion leading to and action and reptitivity creating behavior.   01:14:50 Adam Paige: Reacted to "I have been reviewin..." with ❤️   01:20:22 Suzanne: Thank you!   01:21:57 Art: Reacted to "I have been reviewin..." with 👍   01:22:37 Suzanne: To Rachel, passions in the Roman Church are not disordered in themselves, but part of human nature. Our Lord had no disorder in His Body and Soul. But He had human nature.   01:23:06 Lorraine Green: God bless you, thank you Father   01:23:24 maureencunningham: Thank You Father Dave , My husband said thank you too.   01:23:44 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:23:45 Louise: Thanks, Fr.  Abernethy!   01:23:47 Cindy Moran: Excellent session... thank you Father   01:23:52 Jeff O.: Thank you!!   01:23:53 Rachel: Thank you   01:24:01 David Swiderski: Thank you father!   01:24:08 Rachel: LOL thank you   01:24:09 Kevin Burke: Thanks you!

 

After listening to a multitude of stories from the Evergetinos about responding to insults from others, the only response that one seems to be able to offer is a sigh; not a sigh expressing disbelief but rather wonder. This is the love and the grace that God offers to us at every single moment of our life. A synergy exists between our will (as simple as uttering a “yes” within our hearts to God), and the outpouring of His grace and compassion. Suddenly the unthinkable comes into view through our faith. We see, through experience, the Godly love that is not only offered to us but within us. 

One of the things that we often say to ourselves when we sin or when we respond to another who is wounded us is: “I’m only human!”  However, these are not just fanciful stories in the Evergetinos but rather signs of what God is capable of doing within the human heart and what he has made us by his grace. Through humbling ourselves, acknowledging the poverty of our sin, we are lifted up to love and show compassion to others as we have received from the Lord. 

The Desert Fathers are living icons of the gospel. They reveal to us this love, not primarily through their writings but rather through their lives. We in turn come to understand this not through reading but rather through experience. May God in his mercy draw us into his love and allow us to see him face-to-face!

  ---   Text of chat during the group:   00:10:43 FrDavid Abernethy: page 37 number 4   00:44:10 Nypaver Clan: Screwtape Letters   00:44:49 Lee Graham: Sounds like CS Lewis’s “Screw Tape Letters”   00:54:03 Louise: How about psychopaths, praying for those damaging psychopaths? They seem pseudo-humans, that is, humans only in form but not in soul. They seem to be a window of the devils. I cannot pray for them. Am I wrong?   00:57:06 Rachel: When we sin, are we even being ehat it truly menas to be human? Even the "small" sins?   00:57:55 Sharon Fisher: So we pray that the Holy Spirit reaches them? That may be all I can muster in some cases. Is it enough?   00:58:31 Rachel: That is a beautiful prayer.   00:59:28 Lee Graham: Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.   01:00:05 Lori Hatala: Reacted to "Let there be peace o..." with ❤️   01:00:39 Vanessa: Reacted to "Let there be peace o..." with ❤️   01:01:57 Rachel: Imagine a masterpiece that has been defaced. Yet, by grace, God can restore His image in the sinner.   01:02:30 Sharon Fisher: Reacted to "Let there be peace o..." with ❤️   01:03:38 Tracey Fredman: Jesus asks people in the gospels - he asked Solomon in a dream - and I believe he asks us, "What do you want me to do for you?" We can ask for grace to be able to pray for those who difficult for us to pray for.   01:04:19 Sharon Fisher: Reacted to "Jesus asks people in..." with ❤️   01:04:24 Vanessa: Reacted to "Jesus asks people in..." with ❤️   01:06:56 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Let there be peace o…" with ❤️   01:07:20 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Imagine a masterpiec…" with ☦️   01:07:31 Rachel: Wow.  How beautiful.   01:08:50 Amale Obeid: How do you overcome the fear of needing to work for money to survive when you’re otherwise completely ready to sell everything and follow God and devote your life day in and day out to Him? To honoring him, praising him, praying, reading about him, etc… It has become hard to live in both worlds.   01:15:24 Rachel: I wish I could go! God bless you all   01:15:37 Steve Yu: Replying to "I wish I could go! G…" Same here!   01:16:23 Andrew Adams: Thank you Father!   01:16:24 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethy!   01:16:27 Lorraine Green: Thank you very much!   01:16:28 Sharon Fisher: And with your spirit!   01:16:29 Suzanne: God bless everyone!   01:16:30 Adam Paige: Thank you Father !   01:16:38 Lee Graham: Brilliant, thank you!!