The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part V

As one reads the thoughts of Saint Isaac the Syrian the experience is almost like that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “Did our hearts not burn within us?” Isaac speaks to something so deep within the human heart that it ignites the very thing that he sets out to inflame: desire, wonder, awe at the love of God and the mystery of the Divine Life into which God invites us. 

One of the great struggles that we have as Christians is that we approach the faith and the spiritual life in a common fashion.  In our reading of the Scriptures, we approach them in a reductive manner, dissecting the gospels; pulling out for ourselves bits of wisdom to help us get through life. Yet, Isaac understands that we cannot over-scrutinize the words that are written or spoken to us, but rather must immerse ourselves humbly in Divine Wisdom. Isaac tells us that those who are filled with grace are led by the light that is running between the lines. It is this humble and prayerful approach not only to the scriptures but to the faith as a whole that prevents the heart from being common and devoid of that holy power that “gives the heart a most sweet taste through perceptions that awe the soul.”  A soul that is filled with the spirit is going to run toward God, driven by an urgent longing for the fullness of life and love that He alone can satisfy. Not every soul is awakened to that sense of wonder yet it is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field, and the one thing necessary. May God fill our hearts with a holy desire.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:09:28 The Recovery Community Hub of PBC, Inc.: Hey everyone, in Christ, my name is Ian, I am only using my former workers Zoom platform

00:11:17 Myles Davidson: Pg. 116 “Just as the heaviness of weights…”

00:11:50 Vanessa: I'm in Ontario too. Blizzard is bad here.

00:12:18 Edward Kleinguetl: I lived in Toronto for a year!

00:12:46 Ben: Replying to "I lived in Toronto f..."

I'm east of Ottawa.

00:14:16 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: When you desire to do something for the love of God, put death as the limit of your desire. In this way you will rise in actual deed to the level of martyrdom in struggling with every passion, suffering no harm from whatever you may meet within this limit, if you endure to the end and do not weaken. 

~ St Isaac the Syrian

00:20:34 Anthony: It appears Isaac uses "Liberty" of mind different than the Greek Fathers?

00:34:08 Ben: I remember reading "The Imitation of Christ" for the first time in my youth, and thinking, "Oh, boy, this totally demolishes everything we were ever taught about self-esteem!"

00:36:20 David: I am wondering if the Diatessaron which was the most common with Aramaic communities might have influenced idea of living the gospel instead of the legal way of the west?

00:38:06 David: St Emphrain wrote a discourse on that and I assume Issac was likely exposed where the separate gospels tend to compare and contrast and get far to analytical.

00:40:22 David: The other thing I find fascinating the Syrian fathers taught through poetry which moves emotions not just debates or arguments.

00:42:17 Anthony: Seeing the Word of God as the Divine Logos keeps us from the "fundamentalism" that makes categories of touchable and untouchable.

00:42:27 Jamie Hickman: Great podcast episode on the show Square Notes looking at Thomas Aquinas's poetry...too often he's only known by his Summas as though that's his only writing style

00:42:46 Jamie Hickman: hat tip to Fr. Innocent Smith, OP, for his contribution

00:43:11 Paisios: Next book/class should be Hymns on Paradise

00:44:14 Anthony: Reacted to Great podcast episod... with "❤️"

00:44:52 Paisios: yes

00:45:04 Zack Morgan: I feel like the over-scrupulous approach we are discussing works more towards an apologetic end than anything else.  We find it almost too easy to read the Gosepls and accept them in contrast to a world that wants to reject them, so we easily fall into the temptation to over-explain that which we have come to blieve by a gift of faith that is in contrast very simple.

00:50:04 Kate : Perhaps it is a lack of faith and trust in the grace of God and the workings of the Holy Spirit in the depths of the soul.

00:52:37 Jamie Hickman: In one of St Louis de Montfort's books on the Holy Rosary, he recounts that Our Lady apppeared to Saint Dominic and told him to preach a simple homily rather than the one he had prepared, which was super eloquent, because in his humility he would convert the souls in the church even though the academics wouldn't be impressed...apparently Our Lady told him to preach the same simple version repeatedly, which led many academics present to think less of him...I might have confused which Dominican, but I think it was Dominic and definitely it was a saint

00:52:40 Sr. Charista Maria: My experience in reading the desert Fathers has been that the purpose and heart of it all is an encouragement to strive to "become fire!"

00:56:53 lauren: Reacted to "My experience in rea…" with ❤️

01:00:12 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "My experience in rea..." with ❤️

01:06:37 David: "Virtue seen and lived inspires and virtue explained often makes others weary " was a saying of my grandfather. People were attracted to Christianity by seeing love among the followers not convincing arguments. My own path from being young and not sure of religion was seeing Christ along side me in my grandparents and parents living their faith in love and sacrifice.

01:11:20 Ben: I've thought of that...

01:12:18 Catherine Opie: ❤️🙏🏻

01:12:21 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

01:12:23 Jamie Hickman: thank you, Father!

01:12:23 Diana Sciuto: Thank you

01:12:25 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you Father!

01:12:26 David: Thank you father !

01:12:31 Catherine Opie: Deo Gratias