Philokalia Ministries

Here St. Isaac does not define virtues as behaviors but as states of being before God. He strips away external markers and leaves the soul alone with truth. What he offers is not a ladder of accomplishments but a geography of the heart. A stranger, he says, is not one who has left a place, but one whose mind has been estranged from all things of life. This is the quiet violence of the Gospel: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:16). Estrangement here is not contempt for creation but freedom from possession. Abba Arsenius fled Rome, but what he truly fled was the tyranny of relevance. To become a stranger is to consent to being unnecessary. It is to let the world continue without you and discover that God remains. The mourner is not a melancholic soul but a hungry one. He lives, Isaac says, in hunger and thirst for the sake of his hope in good things to come. This is the blessed mourning of the Beatitudes, the ache that refuses consolation because it has tasted something eternal. St. John Climacus calls mourning “a sorrow that is glad,” because it is oriented toward the Kingdom. It is grief baptized by hope. Such a soul does not despise joy; it waits for the only joy that cannot be taken away. Then Isaac dares to say what a monk truly is. Not one who has taken vows, not one who wears a habit, but one who remains outside the world and is ever supplicating God to receive future blessings. The monk stands at the edge of time and begs. His posture is eschatological. He lives as though the promises are real. This is why the monk’s wealth is not visible. It is the comfort that comes of mourning and the joy that comes of faith, shining secretly in the mind’s hidden chambers. Christ Himself names this hiddenness when He says, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mt 6:6). The true treasure does not announce itself. It warms quietly. Mercy, too, is redefined. A merciful man is not one who performs selective kindness but one who has lost the ability to divide the world mentally into worthy and unworthy. This is the mercy of God Himself, who “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Mt 5:45). St. Isaac elsewhere says that a merciful heart burns for all creation: for humans, animals, demons, even for the enemies of God. Such mercy is not sentimental. It is cruciform. It is the heart stretched until it resembles Christ’s own. And then Isaac turns to chastity, and again he refuses reduction. Virginity is not merely bodily restraint but an interior reverence. One who feels shame before himself even when alone. This is a startling phrase. It speaks of a soul that lives before God even when no one is watching. Shame here is not self-loathing but awe. It is the trembling awareness that one’s thoughts are already prayers, or blasphemies, before the face of God. Therefore Isaac is unsparing: chastity cannot survive without reading and prolonged prayer. Without immersion in the Word, the imagination becomes a wilderness of unguarded images. Without prayer, the heart has no shelter. Abba Evagrius taught that thoughts are not defeated by force but by replacement—by filling the mind with divine fire. The Jesus Prayer, Scripture read slowly, the psalms murmured in weakness, these do not merely resist impurity; they transfigure desire itself. What unites all these sayings is this: St. Isaac is describing a soul that has accepted vulnerability. God has permitted the soul to be susceptible to accidents: not as punishment, but as mercy. Weakness becomes the doorway. Hunger becomes the guide. Shame becomes watchfulness. Mourning becomes wealth. Nothing here is safe, and nothing here is superficial. This is not an ethic for the strong. It is a path for those who have consented to be poor before God. In the end, St. Isaac is teaching us how to stand unarmed in the presence of the Kingdom; estranged from the world, aching for God, clothed in quiet prayer, and guarded not by our strength but by grace that shines unseen in the depths of the heart. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:04:33 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 7 Homily Six 00:04:45 Angela Bellamy: What is the book titled please? 00:04:56 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "What is the book tit..." with 👍 00:08:11 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 7 Homily Six 00:08:21 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php?cPath=75_105&products_id=635 00:11:18 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 7 Homily Six 00:12:25 Angela Bellamy: We have another advisory as well. 00:14:38 Angela Bellamy: Is the Saturday group suitable for me to join as well? 00:15:31 Jesssica Imanaka: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..." They are sporadic. I didn't think there was a regular Saturday group. 00:16:05 Angela Bellamy: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..." Is it a kind of fellowship meeting or is it usually topic related? 00:16:12 Andrew Adams: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..." The Saturday groups are one-off topics. They have been on more broader topics/themes of Eastern Christin spirituality. 00:16:25 Angela Bellamy: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..." Wonderful! Thank you. 00:48:59 Myles Davidson: Some of my favourite times during a challenging night vigil where I am very tired and battling sleep and even the Jesus prayer is too much effort, is only having the ability to repeat the name of Jesus over and over. Being too tired for any other thought has a very liberating and tender quality to it 00:49:39 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Some of my favouri..." with ❤️ 00:54:51 David Swiderski, WI: I found arrow prayers have helped me. A spiritual director told me to leave a breadcrumb trail throughout the day so the heart continues to return to God as much as possible. A picture of our mother in one's wallet, a rosary/prayer rope in one's pocket etc.Hourly Prayers of Saint John Chrysostom 00:55:16 Rebecca Thérèse: St John of the Cross says that it's beneficial for the intellect to sleep or be otherwise occupied to assist the communication of God with the soul. Contemplative prayer is the action of God in the soul, it's completely passive - it doesn't depend on our effort except to cooperate with the Holy Spirit by endeavouring to grow in virtue. 00:55:45 Fr Marty: Beautiful explanation. Thank you 00:57:37 Jessica McHale: Praying the Divine Office but also working an 8 hr day and tending to family etc can some times make the Office feel like something just to check off on the list of things to do and not prayer. It's a challenge. I love praying the Office but sometimes it does become one more thing to get done. Maybe it's the few moments within a long evening prayer or morning prayer that I do pray from my heart counts most. 00:57:59 Angela Bellamy: What is the hallmark difference between prayer rule, simple prayer, and contemplative prayer? 00:58:25 Fr Marty: Prayer and theosis is sometimes too wonderful to comprehend 00:59:10 Jesssica Imanaka: Reacted to "I found arrow prayer..." with ❤️ 00:59:16 Angela Bellamy: Is it necessary to know or label the prayer? 00:59:22 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I found arrow pray..." with ❤️ 01:06:14 Una’s iPhone: The Perfect Prayer Book by Father Frey is a Catholic breviary that covers the entire psalter in a week 01:07:40 Kimberley A: Faith is the reality of  the Presence of God deep in my heart. Almost like is an invisible Being who is ever with me and in me. Is this right? 01:07:43 Una’s iPhone: published by Confraternity of the Precious Blood in NY. An old and small book. $10 on Amazon. It’s been a lifesaver for me with my reduced physical energy 01:08:58 Kimberley A: My heart has become a humble "manger". 01:09:51 Joan Chakonas: I listen to the old podcasts (right now Ladder of Divine Ascent) when I can -when I’m driving or doing other solitary activity- and I find I am in communion with God listening to the words you read.  Every reading directs my mind toward things in my mind and life and its all so good. 01:17:06 Joan Chakonas: Agree the live group is epic!! 01:17:13 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Agree the live group..." with 👍 01:17:22 Ben: Reacted to "Agree the live group..." with 👍 01:17:31 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I listen to the ol..." with ❤️ 01:17:40 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Agree the live gro..." with 👍 01:18:07 Ann’s iPad: Reacted to "Agree the live group…" with 👍 01:18:18 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father! Such a blessing to be in this group! 01:18:21 Angela Bellamy: Thank you Father. 01:18:32 Janine: The best! Thank you Father! No better way to spend Eve! 01:18:42 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "The best! Thank you …" with ❤️ 01:19:06 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you, happy new year everyone.☺️ 01:19:11 Kimberley A: Blessed 🎊 new year 01:19:20 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father. May God bless you and your mother! 01:19:41 Jessica McHale: I absolutely LOVE your teaching and counsel. Praise God fo leading me to you and these groups this past yesr!  Many prayers!!!! Thank you! 01:19:49 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!

There is something terrifyingly honest in these stories because they do not allow us to hide behind good intentions or spiritual reputation. They expose how thin the veil is between holiness and destruction when the heart is not fully purified of anger and envy. Florentius is not portrayed as weak or negligent. He is guileless. He prays. He fasts. He entrusts his life to God so completely that even a wild bear becomes obedient to the rhythm of his prayer. Creation itself recognizes innocence when the human heart is simple. The bear does not argue. It does not rebel. It returns at the sixth hour. It submits to fasting schedules. It becomes a brother. And then men who pray and chant psalms murder it out of envy. The Evergetinos does not soften this. Envy is not a small flaw. It is demonic participation. The Devil enters precisely where comparison takes root. Their teacher does not work miracles. Another is becoming known. Something inside them twists. They do not attack Florentius directly. They kill what he loves. That is how envy works. It strikes sideways. It wounds through the innocent. What follows should frighten anyone who thinks holiness gives permission to anger. Florentius prays for justice. He does not strike with his hands. He strikes with words. And heaven responds. The punishment is immediate. Public. Irreversible. And the most horrifying part is not the leprosy of the guilty monks but the lifelong repentance of the holy one whose prayer was answered. Florentius spends the rest of his life calling himself a murderer. That should stop us cold. God answers his prayer and Florentius is undone by it. He learns too late that the tongue can kill just as surely as a knife. Gregory is mercilessly clear. Revilers do not inherit the Kingdom. Not murderers. Not adulterers. Revilers. Those who curse. Those who wound with speech. Those who let anger become a prayer. Then the Fathers press the knife deeper. Makarios meets the same pagan twice. Once he is cursed and beaten almost to death. Once he blesses and converts a soul. The difference is not the pagan. The difference is the word. The disciple speaks truth without love and becomes an occasion of violence. The elder speaks love without flattery and becomes an occasion of resurrection. One word produces blood. Another produces monks. An evil word makes even a good man evil. A good word makes even an evil man good. This is not poetry. It is spiritual law. We want crosses without insults. We want asceticism without humiliation. We want holiness that never contradicts our self image. The Fathers laugh at this illusion. We behold the Cross and read about Christ’s sufferings and cannot endure a single insult without defending ourselves internally. Not even outwardly. In the heart. That is where the battle is lost. Abba Isaiah is ruthless because he knows how fast anger multiplies. Do not argue. Do not justify. Make a prostration before your heart rehearses its case. Silence is not weakness here. It is warfare. If the insult is true repent. If it is false endure. Either way the soul is saved if the tongue is restrained. The bear was obedient. The monks were not. The pagan ran in vain until he was greeted with mercy. Florentius learned that holiness without restraint of speech can still become an instrument of death. And the Fathers leave us with no escape. Words are not neutral. They either heal or rot the body of Christ. This teaching burns because it strips us of our favorite refuge. We excuse anger as clarity. We baptize sharp speech as righteousness. We call curses discernment. The Evergetinos exposes this lie mercilessly. One word can unleash hell. One word can open the Kingdom. The question is not whether we pray. The question is whether our words crucify or resurrect. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:05:16 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 336 Hypothesis XLIII 00:05:29 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.org/blog 00:09:36 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 336 Hypothesis XLIII 00:09:55 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: http://Philokaliaministries.org/blog 00:11:58 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 336 Hypothesis XLIII Volume II 00:12:32 Angela Bellamy: What is the name of the book please? 00:12:45 Jessica McHale: Same here in Boston 00:13:06 Jerimy Spencer: Aloha Father, from a ‘chilly’ 78° O'ahu 😅 00:13:24 Jerimy Spencer: lol 00:14:26 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.ctosonline.org/patristic/EvCT.html 00:15:13 Angela Bellamy: I bought the Philokalia but the pages don't line up with your YouTube teaching. 00:23:13 Jerimy Spencer: Like the lion that helped dig and bury St Mary of Egypt ♥️☦️ 00:24:34 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Like the lion that..." with 👍 00:37:27 Jessica McHale: In all honestly, should we just endure verbal abuse? 00:39:46 Joan Chakonas: The ability to forgive /avoid cursing others goes along with not despairing of God forgiving us of our own accursed actions 00:40:47 Jerimy Spencer: Two thoughts, I’ve often thought that when someone murders, they murder something of their humanity, they assault the image of God within themselves… And you’ve reminded me of the redemption of the Ransom character’s imagination from C.S. Lewis’ Space trilogy, where he begins to see reality as the two humans who kidnapped him from afar, at first thinks they are oddly shaped, sees them as alien and ultimately as villain. 01:03:23 Joan Chakonas: I think it’s hard to be good because insults or affronts come upon us suddenly  and it takes us by surprise 01:05:26 Joan Chakonas: It takes a lot of prayer and practice and grace eventually arrests our quick responses 01:07:12 John Burmeister: Im 61 and have been angry with people and said some stuff that i should probably have not said over these years. you make we wonder, that a lot of these people i did not know, we really will not know if we caused harm until after our death. 01:07:57 Jessica McHale: It's easier to take the insults of strangers, but when the insults are from family and you have no one--you're alone--it's hard not to become despondent or even engage in self-pity. We can identlfy with Christ in it--to be in the Garden of Gethsemance with Him, but it is a challenge. The worst part is not even the insults, it's knowing that if this person/people were living as a Christian their lives would be so much more peaceful and whole. The insults wouldn't even occur. That's the hard part to come to terms with. Praying and putting it in God's hands is best I guess. 01:12:04 Angela Bellamy: https://www.orthodoxroad.com/bless-my-enemies-o-lord/ 01:27:16 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "https://www.orthod..." with ❤️ 01:27:29 Ann’s iPad: Reacted to "https://www.orthodox…" with ❤️ 01:28:32 Kevin Burke: Thank you Father, this teaching is a great blessing in my life. 01:28:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️ 01:28:45 Jennifer Dantchev: Thank you! 01:28:49 Janine: Thank you Father 01:28:50 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father. 01:28:53 Charmaine's iPad: Thank you 01:28:56 Andrew Adams: Merry Christmas everyone! 01:29:00 Jessica McHale: Bless you, Father--a thousand times! Merry Chistmas! Looking frward to Wednesday! Many prayers

The Fathers do not flatter us here. They speak with a severity that at first wounds, then heals, if we allow it. They do not treat resentment as a minor flaw of temperament or a passing emotional reaction. They name it for what it is: a poison that slowly erodes the soul’s capacity to remember God. Abba Makarios goes straight to the heart of the matter. To remember wrongs is not simply to remember events. It is to allow those events to take up residence within us, to become a lens through which everything is filtered. The tragedy is not primarily that we remain hurt. It is that the remembrance of God grows faint. The mind cannot hold both rancor and divine remembrance at the same time. One displaces the other. When resentment is cherished, prayer becomes difficult, then hollow, then distorted. The heart turns inward and begins to feed on its own injuries. The Fathers are unsparing here because they know how subtle rancor is. Other sins shock us into repentance. A lie, a fall, a moment of weakness often leaves the soul groaning almost immediately. But rancor settles in quietly. It eats and sleeps with us. It walks beside us like a companion we no longer question. Abba Isaiah and the Elder of the Cells both know this danger. Resentment does not merely coexist with spiritual life; it corrodes it from within, like rust consuming iron. The soul grows hard while imagining itself justified. And yet, alongside this severity, there is a startling tenderness. The Fathers do not say that healing comes through argument, vindication, or emotional catharsis. They prescribe something far more humbling and far more powerful: prayer for the one who has wounded us. Not a feeling of goodwill, not an internal resolution, but the concrete act of standing before God and interceding. Again and again the teaching is the same. Pray for him. Pray for her. Force yourself if you must. Obey even when the heart resists. The story of the brother who obeyed the Elder and prayed is quietly miraculous. Nothing dramatic happens. There is no confrontation, no apology demanded, no psychological analysis. Within a week, the anger is gone. Not suppressed. Extinguished. Grace works where the will yields, even reluctantly. The healing is not self-generated. It is given. The account of the two brothers under persecution reveals just how serious this is. One accepts reconciliation and is strengthened beyond his natural limits. The other clings to ill will and collapses under the same torments. The difference is not courage or endurance. It is love. Grace remains where love remains. When rancor is chosen, protection is withdrawn, not as punishment, but because the soul has closed itself to the very atmosphere in which grace operates. St. Maximos names the interior mechanism with precision. Distress clings to the memory of the one who harmed us. The image of the person becomes fused with pain. Prayer loosens that bond. When we pray, distress is separated from memory. Slowly, the person is no longer experienced as an enemy but as a suffering human being in need of mercy. Compassion does not excuse the wrong. It dissolves its power. What is perhaps most astonishing is the Fathers’ confidence that kindness can heal not only the one who was wounded, but the one who wounds. Be kind to the person who harbors resentment against you, St. Maximos says, and you may deliver him from his passion. This is not naïveté. It is spiritual realism. Demons feed on mutual hostility. They lose their dwelling place when humility and gentleness appear. Foxes flee when the ground is no longer hospitable. St. Ephraim’s image is unforgettable. Rancor drives knowledge from the heart the way smoke drives away bees. The heart was made to gather sweetness. When bitterness fills the air, nothing can remain. Tears, prayer, and the offering of oneself like incense clear the space again. This teaching is beautiful because it is honest. It does not minimize the pain of insult or harm. It is challenging because it leaves us without excuses. We cannot claim prayer while nursing grudges. We cannot claim suffering for Christ while secretly rejoicing at another’s downfall. The path offered is narrow and costly, but it is also liberating. Resentment chains us to the past. Kindness loosens the chain. Prayer opens the hand. Grace does the rest. --- Text from chat during the group: 00:04:55 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 332 Section B Hypothesis XLII Volume II 00:11:28 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 332 Section B Hypothesis XLII Volume II 00:11:41 Janine: Yes, thank you Uncle Father! 00:11:57 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Reacted to "Yes, thank you Uncle..." with 😂 00:30:42 Jerimy Spencer: The way you described sharing bread with a demon reminded me of a passage from The Irish Life of Brigit, and after plates were placed for her at a devout lady’s house she stared intently at the plates, and she was asked what it was, and she said, “I see Satan sitting on the dish in front of me.” And it was a demon of sloth that had been ‘invited in’ for years…. 00:38:35 Anthony: Rancid 00:47:13 Anthony: Rocky Balboa probably 00:47:16 Anthony: Paulie 00:47:39 Anthony: Yeah that's a good scene 00:48:40 John ‘Jack’: It’s only when I began to pray for a couple that spread false rumors about me fit years that I received the ability to TRULY forgive them, despite years of “being nice” to them to try to make a mend with them. 00:49:51 John ‘Jack’: It’s very difficult to hate those you actively pray for. 00:50:03 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "It’s very difficult ..." with 👍 00:56:31 John ‘Jack’: Lest we lead another into sin 01:00:54 Myles Davidson: I was unaware of how deeply I resented my father until I began to live with him again a few years ago. It’s taken years of confession, prayer and tears but it’s only been in the last few weeks where that anger and resentment has dissipated like a cloud. There’s no way in a million years I could have shifted it on my own and I consider it a miracle 01:01:24 Jerimy Spencer: Reacted to "I was unaware of how..." with ❤️ 01:01:33 Jacqulyn Dudasko: Reacted to "I was unaware of how..." with ❤️ 01:02:49 Kate : Myles makes a really good point.  I think sometimes we do not realize the interior resentment that we might be holding on to. 01:05:42 Jessica McHale: I do try to do good to those who try to harm me. It does help to limit resenentment or hate from forming. But I also think we have to exercse a bit of prudence when doing good to those who try to harm us. As a female, I can say there were tmes I knew that the loving thing to do was to walk away and not engage rather than to do good toward someone who tried to harm me. 01:05:55 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I was unaware of h..." with ❤️ 01:13:45 Jerimy Spencer: So in a sense, wiping the dust, breaking any unhealthy attachments that may spring up in the moment or moments of offense? 01:19:14 Janine: Blessed Christmas Father! 01:19:50 Jerimy Spencer: Mele Kalikimaka 😃 01:19:56 Maureen Cunningham: Merry Christmas Thank You  Blessing to all 01:19:58 Jessica McHale: Many prayers for you and everyone here! May the Lord bless you abundantly as we close out Advent!!!! 01:19:58 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️Happy Christmas everyone🎄 01:20:07 Jennifer Dantchev: Thank you! Merry Christmas everyone!

What St Isaac exposes here is not a technique but a diagnosis. He is ruthless because the sickness is deep. The soul is meant to be good soil but soil is not neutral ground. It either receives the seed with vigilance or it becomes choked. Remembrance of God is not a poetic feeling but a sustained pressure on the heart a vigilance that does not sleep. When this remembrance is alive the soul becomes a place where God Himself shades and illumines. There is no romance here. Light appears inside darkness not because the darkness is denied but because the soul has chosen to stand watch within it. St Isaac refuses to let us spiritualize our way around the body. The belly is not incidental. What enters the mouth reaches the heart. He speaks bluntly because self deception thrives in vagueness. Excess dulls perception. Pleasure thickens the air of the soul. Wisdom is not stolen from us by demons alone but smothered by our own indulgence. A full belly does not merely weaken resolve it fuels lust because the body has been trained to demand satisfaction. This is not moralism. It is anthropology. The knowledge of God does not coexist with a body that has been enthroned. Here asceticism is revealed as truth telling. It strips away the lie that discipline is punishment. Labor is not opposed to grace. Labor is the ground where grace becomes intelligible. St Isaac compares it to labor pains because knowledge of God is not an idea grasped but a life brought forth. Without toil there is no birth only fantasy. Sloth does not simply delay holiness it gives birth to shame because the soul knows it has avoided the cost of truth. This is where the inner disposition becomes decisive. Asceticism without remembrance hardens into pride. Asceticism without humility becomes violence against the self. But remembrance without discipline dissolves into sentimentality. St Isaac holds them together because life demands it. The question is not how much one fasts or how little one sleeps but whether the heart is consenting to be trained. Discipline embraced with resentment breeds bitterness. Discipline embraced with attention becomes wisdom. In an age starved of living elders this teaching cuts even deeper. We are tempted either to abandon asceticism entirely or to turn it into a private project shaped by personality and preference. St Isaac offers neither comfort. He places responsibility back into the hands of the one who desires God. The absence of elders does not absolve us. It makes inner honesty more urgent. The body becomes the first elder. Hunger teaches restraint. Fatigue teaches humility. Failure teaches mercy. If these are ignored no amount of reading will save us. Christ’s closeness to the mouth of the one who endures hardship is not sentimental reassurance. It is promise and warning. He draws near to the body that has consented to the Cross. Not to the body pampered under the language of balance or self care. The care Christ offers is not the removal of hardship but His presence within it. Asceticism then is not heroic excess but fidelity to reality. It is the refusal to live divided. Priceless indeed is labor wrought with wisdom because it produces not control but clarity. The soul begins to see. And once it sees it can no longer pretend. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:01:50 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 5 00:06:54 susan: how is lori hatari? 00:14:30 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 5 00:27:40 Eleana Urrego: the brain register emotional and physical pain in the same way. 00:29:59 Jessica McHale: A question about ascetic disciplines of the body: I discerned monastic life with an order of nuns that wouldn't let me fast.(3 times a week was all I was asking) and wouldn't allow me to exercise more than a contemplative walk (which is not exercise to me). I feel very much called to fast for spiritual reasons and called to bodily stewardship as well. It's very personal. I coudl never understand how monastic nuns could discourage this and encourage--in my opinion--indulging in food too much. 00:31:48 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "A question about asc…" with 👍 00:50:26 Eleana Urrego: Virgen Mary said in Medjugorje every Wednesday and Friday except on solemnities days. 00:56:03 Myles Davidson: There is a resurgence of traditional fasting within the Church. I’m a member of a fellowship that does four lenten fasts a year (Great Lent, St. Michaels Lent, St. Martins Lent and the Apostles Fast) as well as fasting 2-3 x a week the rest of the year. 00:57:26 Una’s iPhone: Niall of the Nine Hostages! Una from Dublin here 00:57:40 Myles Davidson: Replying to "There is a resurgenc..." The Fellowship of St. Nicholas if anyone wants to look it up 01:00:24 Art: Replying to "There is a resurgenc..." Thank you. 01:00:36 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Thank you." with 🙏 01:01:52 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Thank you." with 🙏 01:02:15 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "The Fellowship of ..." with 👍 01:04:16 Anthony: I wonder if we think too hard about this? I'm not a religious, so why would I need to apprentice to a spiritual father, when I have a pastor? It sounds like a person who is a plumber seeking to apprentice to an electrician. 01:05:25 Ren Witter: I do want to offer a slightly different perspective on this. Sometimes, given the background we come from, or for some internal reason, we can feel the desire for a very strict, exacting spiritual father. Even to the point of feeling tempted to move on from a spiritual father who seems too kind, or gentle, or understanding. At some point, I think we need to follow our own conscience to the best of our ability, and, if we have a good and nourishing relationship, to trust in it and be at peace. It can be frightening to trust that God loves us, and that there are some things left to the conscience of the individual and to discernment, and because we are frightened or insecure we simply seek out the harshest, most difficult guidance. 01:06:31 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "I do want to offer a…" with 👍 01:09:08 Ambrose Little: Stand in the company of the elders; stay close to whoever is wise. Be eager to hear every discourse; let no insightful saying escape you. If you see the intelligent, seek them out; let your feet wear away their doorsteps! Reflect on the law of the Most High, and let his commandments be your constant study. Then he will enlighten your mind, and make you wise as you desire. Sirach 6:34-37 01:09:09 Maureen Cunningham: Reacted to "I do want to offer a…" with ❤️ 01:09:17 Maureen Cunningham: Reacted to "Stand in the company…" with ❤️ 01:10:23 Ambrose Little: Reacted to "I do want to offer a…" with ❤️ 01:11:14 Joan Chakonas: I am going back to the first podcasts in 2013 and I am about seven or eight podcasts in.  This is my spiritual guidance, listening to you read and the discussions.   I thank God. 01:11:37 Una’s iPhone: At times I think we have to look to the books of the fathers and do the best we can with our modern spiritual directors. I agree with Ren 01:13:16 Joan Chakonas: I am reading the Ladder of Divine Ascent along with the podcasts which are indispensable for my understanding.  What s treasure trove 01:13:27 Ben: Replying to "I am going back to t..." That's what I did before I ever sat in on a live group. But...I wish I'd jumped in earlier. 01:14:11 Ambrose Little: Give me St. Isaac over our contemporary writers any day. 01:14:18 Ben: Reacted to "Give me St. Isaac ov..." with 👍 01:14:32 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Give me St. Isaac ov..." with 👍 01:14:36 Art: Reacted to "Stand in the company..." with 👍 01:15:05 Wayne Mackenzie: In part what has happened to the Church became trapped in scholastics and became an intellectual pursuit. 01:15:32 Kevin Burke: Wonderful teaching Father, thank you! 01:17:02 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "Stand in the company..." with 👍🏼 01:18:24 Art: Wonderful teaching Father, thank you! Indeed!  Wonderful teaching tonight, Father.  Thank you. 01:19:50 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "Give me St. Isaac ov…" with 👍 01:19:59 Eleana Urrego: I am catholic Roman and have two hermits priest from Spain studying the mistics, I believe the journey with Jesus for everyone is unique. 01:20:44 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I am going back to..." with ❤️ 01:21:12 Ambrose Little: Beware those rose colored glasses tho. 😉 01:21:13 Joan Chakonas: Replying to "I am going back to t…" Can’t hear them enough 01:21:16 Kimberley A: Yes! So sad 01:22:01 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing To all beautiful chat information Blessing to REN and Her New Husband 01:22:04 Jessica McHale: Your words were so helpful tonight. YOU are creating saints! THANK YOU! Many, many prayers. 01:22:58 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father, may God bless you and your mother! 01:22:58 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️ 01:23:05 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Blessed Christmas! 01:23:05 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father! 01:23:06 Janine: Thank you again father

The Fathers do not speak gently about what we like to call small sins. They expose them as seeds of death planted quietly in the heart. What appears minor in the mind becomes lethal in communion. A thought of irritation. A private judgment. A silent refusal to justify the other. These are not harmless interior movements. They are choices. They shape the heart long before they surface in words or actions. Abba Poimen cuts straight through our self deception. Hatred of evil does not begin with outrage at what is wrong in others. It begins with the hatred of my own sin and the justification of my brother. Until that happens everything else is theater. We think we hate evil when in fact we are protecting our ego. We think we are zealous for righteousness when we are only defending an image of ourselves that needs someone else to be wrong. The Fathers are relentless because they know how the mind works. A God loving soul begins to feel anger not because it is pure but because it is awakening. As the heart starts to turn toward God the soul becomes sensitive to injustice. But this sensitivity is dangerous. It can become poison if it is not purified by love. What begins as a reaction to evil quickly becomes hatred of the person. The Fathers insist that this is where knowledge of God dies. Hatred and the knowledge of God cannot coexist in the same heart. The moment I consent to hatred I lose sight of God even if I continue to speak His name and defend His truth. This is not theoretical. It is experiential. The soul darkens. Prayer dries up. The heart becomes rigid. The neighbor becomes an object. God who now dwells in that neighbor is no longer seen. Abba Isaac presses the knife deeper. Do not hate the sinner because you too are guilty. Hatred reveals that love has already departed. And where love is absent God is absent. This is not moralism. It is ontology. God is love. To lose love is to lose God. We imagine that our resentment is justified. We imagine that our anger is righteous. But the Fathers tell us to weep instead. Weep for the sinner. Pray for him. Not because his sin is small but because hatred destroys you faster than his sin destroys him. The devil mocks all of us. Why then do we join him in mocking our brother. Compassion is not weakness. It is participation in the way God bears the world. The story of Nicephoros is terrifying because it shows where unrepented interior sins lead. A friendship shattered by something never healed. A priest who offers the Bloodless Sacrifice while harboring rancor. A refusal to forgive that hardens over time. Nothing dramatic at first. No public scandal. Just silence. Avoidance. The turning away of the eyes. But this silent sin grows until it devours everything. At the moment of martyrdom when crowns are already prepared rancor proves stronger than torture. The priest who endured the rack cannot endure humility. He would rather deny Christ than forgive his brother. This is the end of so called minor sins. They hollow out the heart until there is nothing left to stand on when the final test comes. Nicephoros on the other hand does nothing extraordinary by worldly standards. He begs. He weeps. He humbles himself. He refuses to protect his pride. He places communion above justice as he understands it. And this love becomes his martyrdom. The Fathers make the conclusion unavoidable. It is not ascetic feats or heroic endurance that reconcile us to God but love of neighbor. Without it everything collapses. Prayer becomes noise. Zeal becomes violence. Faith becomes an empty confession. The Evergetinos does not allow us to hide behind abstractions. God has taken up residence in the other. Every thought against my brother is a wound in my own heart. Every refusal to forgive is a refusal of communion. The tragedy is not that we fall but that we excuse what hardens us. The minor sins we tolerate in the mind become the walls that separate us from God. And the only way back is the way Nicephoros walked. Downward. Exposed. Unarmed. Choosing love even when it costs everything. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:04:15 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II 00:12:33 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II 00:14:43 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II 00:15:42 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II 00:17:13 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 326 section A 00:35:02 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 328 section A 00:40:21 Wayne: Would you not see the hatred develop when two people get divorced. 00:43:07 Jessica McHale: So once we recognize we are annoyed by someone, do we right then pray for that person and ourselves so that it doesn't grow into resentment or hatred? 00:45:02 Joan Chakonas: Its so much better to be hated than  to hate 00:45:29 Joan Chakonas: Hatred like this is awful, unacceptable 00:48:37 Jerimy Spencer: Reacted to "So once we recognize…" with 🙏 00:50:58 Jerimy Spencer: Replying to "So once we recognize…" I personally go straight to the Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” (sometimes three times with the sign of the cross), and then pray, “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on ________.” 00:51:34 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I personally go st..." with ❤️ 00:51:50 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "I personally go stra..." with 👍 00:52:21 Jerimy Spencer: Reacted to "I personally go stra…" with ❤️ 01:06:47 Forrest: We are Saprikios, obstinate to Christ's pleading. 01:07:06 Jerimy Spencer: Aloha Father, do you think this story plays out something of “the unforgivable sin”? 01:08:55 Tracey Fredman: Reacted to "I personally go stra..." with ❤️ 01:09:28 Maureen Cunningham: What about narcissistic people 01:10:10 Bob Čihák, AZ: What happened to the Priest Saprikios? or, what did he do after this? 01:11:39 Forrest: Νικηφόρος in Greek looks like two words: “Victory” and “Tribute paid to the state”. To me, this name is an allusion to Christ’s sacrifice under Pilate. 01:19:26 Jerimy Spencer: A few years ago I wrote in my journal “only the I Am” gets to make a true ‘I am’ statement, ie regards to the whole “I identify as. . .” insomuch as that to me seems to be an ‘I am’ statement. 01:20:45 Jessica McHale: God is the only person we can trust. For sure. It's not jaded; it's reality. No other person is eternal. 01:22:50 Janine: Amazing class..thank you Father 01:23:25 Maureen Cunningham: Blessing Thank you Father and everyone 01:23:38 Jessica McHale: Prayers for you alll!!!! 01:23:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂 01:23:39 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father. 01:24:05 Joan Chakonas: Loved this class 01:24:21 Kevin Burke: Thank you Father!

St Isaac begins Homily Six like one who will not let us hide from ourselves. He does not admire our efforts nor comfort our vanity. He forces us to look directly at what we are and at what we truly desire. A man who slips into accidental sins, he says, is not wicked but weak. And God allows this weakness to appear so that the conscience is pierced and the truth becomes unavoidable. God does not let the soul rise above these falls before its second birth because He wants us awake rather than respectable. Our failures become a kind of mercy. They expose the illusion that we are strong or self sufficient or spiritually advanced. They ask one question above all others. Do you desire God at all It is a raw question. A frightening question. Yet every stumble presses it deeper into the heart. If we fall and tremble the heart is alive. If we fall and justify ourselves the heart is asleep. Isaac calls that shameless. He says that without fervent faith or fear or chastisement the soul will never truly draw near to the love of God. These are not punishments but the three torches that light the way toward Him. If I resist them I do not want God himself. I want an idol shaped like comfort or control or admiration. Then Isaac turns to the roots beneath the roots. Turbulent thoughts come from gluttony. Ignorance and superficiality come from constant talk. Worry over worldly matters scatters the soul like chaff tossed into the wind. These are not merely moral observations. They are spiritual symptoms. They show us the condition of the heart. I can fast until my stomach twists and keep vigil until my knees ache yet if my thoughts are full of resentment or anxious grasping or the need to preserve my image then all my labors remain barren. The body strains while the passions settle deeper into the mind. Nothing changes because nothing inside has surrendered. Isaac gives an image that cuts to the bone. The man who clings to anxiety or covetousness or the memory of wrongs is like one who sows seed into thorns. He works. He sweats. He prays. He begs God to respond. Yet when he lies on his bed he groans because he cannot reap a harvest. The soil itself has been sabotaged by his thoughts. He fasts and wonders why God does not see. He humbles himself outwardly yet inwardly still clings to his own desires. God answers through the prophet. In the very day of your fasts you do your own wills. You sacrifice your free will to your own idols when you should be offering it to Me. It is one of the most devastating revelations in Scripture. The greatest offering we possess is the free will. And we lay it not on the altar of God but before our own desires. Here Isaac is not simply giving ascetical instruction. He is tearing open the heart to expose its truth. He is asking us to face the one question we spend our lives avoiding. Do you really want God or do you only want the appearance of holiness. Do you want the Kingdom or do you want the feeling of being spiritual. Do you want the fire of God or do you want to protect your own self created identity. Until we answer this honestly all asceticism remains external and fruitless. The early lines of Homily Six are not gentle. They are surgical. They strip away excuses and self deception. They show us that the spiritual life is not perfected by effort alone but by the purification of desire. Not by striving but by surrender. Not by vigils and fasts but by a heart emptied of its own will. I will never know God until I want Him more than I want myself. And my accidental sins are the strange mercy that reveals how much I still cling to myself. Isaac begins with our weakness so that we might finally seek the One who heals. He begins with our falls so that true longing may rise. He reveals our poverty so that desire for God might no longer be a sentence we say but a cry that burns within us. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:05:35 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 169 Homily 6 00:05:49 Janine: Father can you say the name of that book again? 00:06:58 Janine: Thank you..it sounds very good 00:10:39 Janine: I just bought it on Thrift books 00:11:57 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 169, # 1 00:13:55 Una’s iPhone: Review on Amazon: Great Byzantine mystic https://a.co/d/2pt0HfE 00:15:28 Una’s iPhone: Sorry, wrong link 00:15:58 Una’s iPhone: Can’t find your comment. It’s on the book. Here’s the book 00:16:03 Una’s iPhone: https://a.co/d/clx1Saz 00:16:13 Una’s iPhone: Sorry! 00:16:49 Ben: They got scared and scrubbed it! 00:17:23 Vanessa Nunez: Reacted to "They got scared and …" with 😂 00:18:25 Bob Čihák, AZ: What are “accidental sins”? I think of sins as requiring a conscious act of the will. 00:40:07 Erick Chastain: How do you avoid sensory things in the mind as he says you should? 00:44:20 Maureen Cunningham: Kingdom of God  id with in 00:49:11 Julie: I do Fr don’t know how to put my hand up… 00:49:29 Jesssica Imanaka: I worry about my own laziness... devoting a lot of time to prayer and spiritual reading can also carry the danger of acedia for me. 00:49:58 Jesssica Imanaka: As if the parasympathetic nervous system is getting overactivated... 00:51:29 John ‘Jack’: NYS just finally started disallowing cell phones schools; I thought they’re would be more kick back than there was.  Children WANT structure, as do we. Obedience ultimately. 00:55:35 Anthony: The guilt of "jansenism" and the Calvinist work ethic of busyness and production are especially present in America and drives us to take these vices as virtues and drive out willfulness to get what we think is good. 00:57:16 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "The guilt of "jansen..." with 👍🏼 00:57:34 Jesssica Imanaka: The Divine Office app can help with ribbon placement in the Liturgy of Hours volumes. 00:58:41 Larry Ruggiero: Found a YouTube that entitled The Self-Phone Setup Guide 00:59:18 Larry Ruggiero: It says let us begin by making our phone…BORING 01:06:48 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "The Divine Office ap…" with 👌 01:09:00 Una’s iPhone: Replying to "I do Fr don’t know h…" It’s under Reactions. It’s a heart icon in my iPhone 01:09:29 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "The guilt of "jansen…" with 👌 01:12:29 Eleana Urrego: Thanks for the movie recomendation, My family love it. 01:13:05 Joan Chakonas: Lately I have come to realize that there really is no activity or minute in my day when I can’t ask God for help.  I am so vainglorious He is teaching me basically every idea I come up with on my own is vanity and I’m learning to experience peace. 01:14:06 Joan Chakonas: I LOVE the desert fathers 01:14:11 Thomas: It feels as though it would be simplest to be obedient to somebody, if you were to do bodily labors, because the it would be hard for it to be for your will or ego, but what should be done if you couldn’t be immediately obedient 01:16:53 Joan Chakonas: This hour goes too fast 01:17:08 Thomas: It feels as though I can’t trust anything I want to do even if it may technically be good, because I can’t trust what the reasons I give myself for doing these things 01:17:10 Joan Chakonas: Yrs 01:17:13 Joan Chakonas: Yes!! 01:17:33 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You always a Blessing 01:17:37 Jesssica Imanaka: I have to pick up my daughter from extended day care, otherwise another hour would be fine! 01:18:18 Janine: Thank you Father! 01:18:40 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father! 01:19:13 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God Bless you and your mother. 01:19:35 John ‘Jack’: Thanks Father

There is a remarkable clarity in these sayings and stories a piercing simplicity that both unsettles and consoles. The Evergetinos places before us the most difficult and necessary truth. The evil done to us is not a detour on the spiritual path but the path itself. Wickedness does not destroy wickedness. Resentment never cures resentment. Anger never frees us from anger. Only goodness that is unmerited and uncalculating has the power to unmake what evil intends to build. It is a truth we often admire in abstraction and dread in practice. The Fathers do not theorize about forgiveness. They reveal what forgiveness becomes when enfleshed. A man betrayed unto martyrdom thanks his betrayer for delivering him to blessing. A brother who has been stealing bread from a starving elder receives not reproach but gratitude. The monk who finds his life endangered cries out to warn the very man who led him into danger and would have robbed him. These stories do not soften the challenge but intensify it. The gospel is not a philosophical proposition but a cruciform way of being. And the cross is never abstract. It always has a name and a face and a voice that has wounded us. It is in the seventh story that the Fathers hand us the key for understanding the rest. The one who injures me is not merely an adversary but a physician. The one who slanders or ignores or mocks me reveals the wound of my vainglory. The one who takes what is mine uncovers my greed. The encounter that disturbs my peace does not create the sickness. It unmasks it. To resent the one who exposes it is to reject the medicine of Christ. It is to say to the Healer not this way not through this pain not at this cost. Yet without accepting what is bitter there can be no cure. Such a word lands upon the heart with weight. It does not flatter our natural instincts or offer comforting sentiment. It is a summons to a death of self that cannot be faked and cannot be delayed without consequence. But if these stories demand much they give even more. The elder who kissed the hands of the thief died with the joy of one who knew the road to the Kingdom was paved by the mercy he showed to others. The patriarch who ransomed the man who robbed him knew the sweetness of compassion that does not remember wrongs. The elder who visited his accuser in prison tasted the freedom of one whose heart was no longer governed by injury. There is joy here not the fleeting spark of vindication but the deep quiet illumination that comes when the soul sees that nothing done to us can keep us from the Kingdom if we allow grace to transfigure it. To forgive is not merely to release another. It is to be released. To bless those who curse us is to breathe a different air. To see those who injure us as agents of healing is to discover that the road into God is not guarded by our enemies but escorted by them. The Evergetinos does not give us a map but it reveals the terrain of the heart. It shows that the spiritual life depends less on what happens to us than on how we respond. And in doing so it opens before us not just a path but a promise. Mercy is not only an obligation but a liberation. Love is not only commanded but possible. And the wounds we receive if we accept them in Christ become the very places where the Kingdom dawns. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:01:17 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 321 00:01:23 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Number 2 00:04:20 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.org/blog 00:09:55 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 321 section E, # 2 00:12:45 Catherine Opie: Apologies for being late where are we? 00:12:53 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 321 section E, # 2 00:21:21 John Burmeister: are we talking money or a material item 00:25:16 Forrest: The Greek words in the passage for what to give is is μικρὰν εὐλογίαν, which is a literally "small good word."  that, is, a small good blessing. 00:25:49 Una’s iPhone: Simone Weil? 00:26:02 John Burmeister: Reacted to "The Greek words in t..." with 👍 00:26:14 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "Edith Stein?" with 😁 00:29:18 Maureen Cunningham: Not speaking negative 00:34:51 Maureen Cunningham: The person who oppresses you can be the hammer and chisel to form you into Christ. 00:37:30 Maureen Cunningham: Hanna & Penna 00:38:59 Jerimy Spencer: “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.” -C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory 00:38:59 Fr Martin, AZ 480-292-3381: This is a struggle, one of my struggles, to see an offense as Jesus shining a light on my weaknesses or illnesses that He wants me to confess before Him so that He can apply the appropriate medicine. Sometimes I have this insight, sometimes I'm defensive or offended. I remember St. 00:39:20 Fr Martin, AZ 480-292-3381: Anthony said, The truly blessed are the ones who can see their own sins.” 00:58:08 Catherine Opie: Dry bread 01:00:59 Forrest: Rusk (Παξιμάδι) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusk 01:04:19 Fr Martin, AZ 480-292-3381: It seems when people sin against us, they find themselves in a prison of shame, embarrassment, anger, and so on. Is that what we should do, to pray and strategize how to be as kind or dismissive as we can so that they can focus on their healing and not on how we are feeling about them? 01:05:36 John Burmeister: after coming to class for a couple of months and reading with, there seems to be a lot of thievery between monks. 01:06:15 Forrest: Replying to "after coming to clas..." Well. they made the news, so to speak. 01:06:47 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "after coming to clas..." with 😅 01:08:19 Myles Davidson: Replying to "after coming to clas..." It was not uncommon for people in those early days to enter monasticism to escape problems back home. Perhaps a criminal past 01:09:00 Myles Davidson: Replying to "after coming to clas..." Not all had pure motives 01:09:04 Catherine Opie: Its not thievery its relieving their brothers of materialistic tendencies 01:09:49 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Its not thievery its..." with 😁 01:10:01 John Burmeister: Reacted to "Its not thievery its..." with 😂 01:11:18 Catherine Opie: This was really good for me to read since my mother just passed away and the covetousness is starting to creep in as we sort things out. I will remember to graciously allow a sibling to be first in line 01:11:33 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "This was really good..." with 👍 01:11:47 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing. 01:12:01 Jessica McHale: I love the novice conferences! 01:12:04 mstef: Reacted to "This was really good..." with 👍 01:12:06 Forrest: Reacted to "This was really good..." with 👍 01:12:32 Janine: Thank you Father! 01:12:38 Catherine Opie: We cannot hear background noise you end 01:13:17 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father. 01:13:28 Catherine Opie: Thank you God bless 01:13:29 Joan Chakonas: Thank you !! 01:13:32 Jessica McHale: Many prayers! 01:13:40 Catherine Opie: 🙏🏻

St. Isaac speaks as one who knows the earthquake at the root of the soul where pride fractures us from God and humility alone builds a refuge strong enough to endure the storm. His words are not gentle suggestions for the religiously inclined. They are fire. They are rope flung into deep water. They are an indictment of every heart that waits for suffering to discover prayer for temptation to discover the need for mercy for collapse to remember God. “Before the war begins, seek after your ally.” This is the secret. The humbled man begins today when there is no battle when the sea is calm and the sky soft. He builds his ark plank by plank small obediences simple prayers hidden acts of self abasement not because the flood is visible but because he knows it is certain. This is the wisdom of the saints: that peace is the time for labor not repose. The iniquitous drown because they mock preparation. They call upon God after pride has stripped them of confidence. Their throat is tight when they pray because they never bent it before in the dust. Humility is the timber that keeps the soul afloat when the heavens split open. St. Isaac dares to tell us that a good heart weeps with joy in prayer. Not from sentimentality not from sorrow alone but from the unbearable nearness of God. Tears become proof that the heart has softened enough to feel Him. A proud heart however disciplined outwardly prays like a clenched fist. It asks but it does not need. It petitions but does not depend. A humble heart begs like a man drowning and this is why God hears him. “Voluntary and steadfast endurance of injustice purifies the heart.” Here the Saint wounds our sensibilities. He tells us that we cannot become like Christ unless we willingly stand beneath the blow and let it fall without retaliation without argument without self defense. Only those for whom the world has died can endure this with joy. For the world’s children honor is oxygen. To be slandered or forgotten is death. But when the world is already a corpse to us when reputation comfort applause identity have all been buried then injustice becomes not humiliation but purification. Not defeat but ascent. This virtue is rare he says too rare to be found among one’s own people one’s familiar circles one’s comfortable life. To learn it often requires exile the stripping away of all natural support so that only God remains. He alone becomes the witness of one’s patience. He alone becomes consolation. He alone becomes vindication. And then comes the heart of St. Isaac’s blow: “As grace accompanies humility so do painful incidents accompany pride.” Humility is the magnet of mercy. Pride is the invitation to destruction. God Himself turns His face toward the humble not in pity but in delight. Their nothingness is spacious enough for Him to enter. He fills emptiness not fullness. He pours glory into the vessel that has shattered self importance. But when pride rises like a tower God sends winds against it not to annihilate us but to collapse what we build against Him. The humble man does not seek honor for he knows what it costs the soul. He bows first greets first yields first. His greatness is hidden like an ember under ash but heaven sees it glowing. Divine honor chases him like a hound. It is the proud who chase praise and never catch it but the self emptying who flee honor and find it placed upon them by the hand of God. “Be contemptible in your own eyes and you will see the glory of God in yourself.” Not self hatred but truth. Not despair but sobriety. Not rejection of one’s humanity but recognition that without God we have no light no love no breath. When we descend beneath ourselves God descends to meet us. When we stop defending our wounds He heals them. Humility is not psychological abasement but the unveiling of reality: only God is great and the one who knows this sees God everywhere even within his own nothingness. Blessed truly blessed is the man who seems worthless to others yet shines with virtue like an unseen star. Blessed the one whose knowledge is deep but whose speech is soft whose life is radiant yet whose posture is bowed. Such a soul is the image of Christ unadorned unnoticed unassuming yet bearing the weight of heaven within. The Saint concludes with a promise that burns like gold: The man who hungers and thirsts for God God will make drunk with His good things. Not the brilliant not the accomplished not the defended but the hungry. The emptied. The poor in spirit who have thrown themselves into the furnace of humility and come forth with nothing left to claim as their own. This is the narrow way. This is the ark built in silence. To bow lower is to rise. To lose all is to possess God. To become nothing is to become fire. May we learn to bend before the storm begins. May we kneel while grace is still soft. May we lay plank upon plank obedience upon prayer meekness upon hidden sacrifice until the ark is finished and the floods come and we are held aloft by humility into the very heart of God. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:14:51 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 166, para 33, mid-page 00:15:33 Wayne: Avoid it 00:28:46 David Swiderski, WI: There is a quote by St. Augustine I don't fully understand but seems like pride in a virtue. - Often contempt of vainglory becomes a sources of even more vainglory, for it is not being scorned when the contempt is something one is proud of . - Is this the holier than thou type of attitude? 00:43:32 David Swiderski, WI: In this St. Teresa of Calcutta really changed how I saw the world with volunteering at St. Ben's a local homeless meal program. I began to see each person as a potential family member or myself and slowly Christ in each person no matter what they were challenged with addiction or trauma one sees suffering and seeks to heal with a simple smile or kindness but always wish we could do more. It is like my experience teaching the teacher often learns more about themselves and the world than the student by offering service. 00:43:37 Anthony: In my work, I almost constantly work with law breakers. Some feel deep shame. My experiences in Confession of kindness and healing has helped me relate to them and calm them. And it's sometimes led to conversations about other very human topics, like healing that they and all people need. 00:51:36 Erick Chastain: How do you heal when you are an unworthy recipient of that? 00:55:22 Una’s iPhone: When Isaac talks about kissing the head, etc, what might that look like today? 00:55:36 Kimberley A: Just got here .. what page are we on, please? 00:55:54 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Just got here .. wha..." 168 last para. 00:58:11 Joan Chakonas: The longer I live the more  I appreciate the immense privilege I experienced in my childhood with my excellent loving parents.  So many people didn’t have what I had and I think but for the grace of God. 01:01:24 Eleana Urrego: I went to the store and I was mean because of the delay, now I have to confess. =( 01:03:45 David Swiderski, WI: It is interesting I did M&A for a while with a multinational. Some of the best companies did not allow emails with "I" they had to use "we". It seems once there is us and them everything breakdown even in the world. 01:05:39 Kimberley A: What to do when we realize we are so far removed from being this way? 01:06:50 David Swiderski, WI: Reacted to "The longer I live th..." with ❤️ 01:09:26 David Swiderski, WI: Mergers and adquistions 01:09:32 Joan Chakonas: Mergers and acquisitions 01:10:24 David Swiderski, WI: The early church talked of the way not the goal 01:12:34 David Swiderski, WI: I used to shoot archery and was delighted when I learned sin in Greek is aiming in archery. You keep your focus on the bullseye and just with effort and learning to narrow the aim 01:13:03 David Swiderski, WI: Sin=aim 01:13:45 David Swiderski, WI: Sin=missing the mark 01:15:12 David Swiderski, WI: I loved living in Latin America you kiss on the cheek who are close to you and it is a sign of caring. The French no not comfortable with that or the Russians ha ha 01:15:52 Art iPhone: I thought I was in the gay district when I was inTurkey 01:16:06 David Swiderski, WI: Strange the early church was known by a kiss 01:16:09 Ben: Reacted to "Strange the early ch..." with 😆 01:16:11 Eleana Nunez: Reacted to "I thought I was in t..." with 😂 01:16:25 Art iPhone: Reacted to "I thought I was in t…" with 😂 01:18:15 Janine: Thank you Father 01:18:20 Joan Chakonas: Thank you Father!!! 01:18:30 Gwen’s iPhone: Thank you 01:18:30 Art iPhone: Thank you Father! 01:18:30 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father and may God bless you and your mother

There is a single thread running through these lives and sayings, like a hidden vein of gold through rough stone. It is the fierce and terrifying command of Christ to love those who wrong us, to turn every injury into an open door to the Kingdom, and to see in every enemy the physician of our soul. In Saint Longinos we see what it means when love has completely displaced fear. He receives the men sent to kill him as honored guests. He feeds them, questions them gently, and when he learns they are to be his executioners, his heart does not recoil. He does not expose them, does not flee, does not calculate how to save his life. He rejoices. He calls them bearers of good things. He sees their swords as the keys that will unlock the true homeland, the Jerusalem on high. The hospitality he offers them becomes the doorway to his martyrdom, and his martyrdom becomes the consummation of that hospitality. He has so fully handed his life to Christ that those who come to destroy him are welcomed as friends. In Saint Theodora, there is a quieter, but no less burning, heroism. Those who envy her virtue set a trap for her and quietly send her into danger at night, hoping she will be devoured by beasts. God turns the malice back on itself. A wild animal guides her like a gentle servant and later nearly kills the doorkeeper, whom she then rescues, heals, and restores. When the superior asks who sent her into such danger, she protects her brothers and hides their sin. She will not expose them, even when the truth would justify her and reveal their cruelty. She bears their malice in silence and lets grace fall on those who had wished her dead. Her humility is as great a wonder as the miracle. Abba Motios shows us what reconciliation looks like in a heart that has allowed grace to ripen over time. He has been opposed, wounded, and driven away. Yet when he hears that the very brother who grieved him has come, he does not hesitate. He breaks down the door of his own hermitage in his eagerness to meet him. He prostrates, embraces, entertains, and rejoices in the one who had been the cause of his exile. The one who injured him becomes the occasion of his elevation to the episcopacy. The doorway to deeper sanctity is opened not by separation, but by reconciliation freely embraced. The conclusion is inescapable and sobering. To keep a grudge is to consent to spiritual death. To hold tightly to injury is to loosen our hold on Christ. Rancor darkens the mind, gives demons room to rest, and drives true spiritual knowledge away, like smoke driving out bees. Yet the same stories also breathe hope. Every wrong remembered can be turned into prayer. Every face that stirs distress can become the face for whom I beg mercy. Every memory of injury can be transformed into an occasion for thanksgiving, if I accept it as medicine from the hand of Christ. The elders tell me to send a gift to the one who insults me, to pray fervently for the one who harms me, to keep my countenance joyful when meeting those who speak against me, to refuse even the secret delight when misfortune falls on someone who has hurt me. This is not softness. It is crucifixion. It is the slow, deliberate choice to let Christ’s mind and heart take shape in me, until I can look at those who betray me and say with truth: you are the cause of blessings for me. If I want to belong to Christ, then I must learn to see every enemy as a hidden benefactor, every wound as a gate, every slight as a purifying fire. The saints do not simply tell me to let go of resentment. They show me how far love can go, and how much is at stake. Between Longinos and those who killed him, between Theodora and her envious brothers, I am being asked to choose which heart will become my own. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:02:49 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Volume II Page 317 Section C 00:03:37 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.org/blog 00:08:36 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Volume II Page 317 Section C 00:10:26 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Volume II Page 317 Section C 00:11:21 Myles Davidson: Pope Leo visiting St. Charbel’s tomb in Lebanon recently 00:11:29 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Pope Leo visiting St…" with 😇 00:11:40 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Screenshot 2025-12-02 at 8.35.12 AM.png" with ❤️‍🔥 00:11:49 Janine: The orthodox bible 00:12:20 Janine: Page 534 00:12:39 Janine: It’s the same as our Ukrainian church on weekdays 00:13:15 Janine: That’s tomorrow 00:13:27 Janine: Yes….sundays may be different 00:13:40 Janine: Look in appendix 2 00:16:36 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 317 section C 00:25:15 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 318 last paragraph, bottom of page 00:30:04 Anthony: But it gets worse! Pagans believed a divine punishment awaited people who broke the rules of hospitality. 00:30:40 Bob Čihák, AZ: Replying to "But it gets worse! P..." Thanks. 00:35:20 Catherine Opie: His faith is such a strong witness to the passion and resurrection of Our Lord. 00:36:24 Maureen Cunningham: How many years was he a Christian 00:36:29 Bob Čihák, AZ: Replying to "His faith is such a ..." Amen, amen. Thank you 00:36:36 John Burmeister: do we know how long after Jesus death that this took place 00:37:22 Myles Davidson: It must have been extraordinary to have been in the presence of these martyrs in the lead up to their death. No wonder the Church grew in their wake 00:38:18 Catherine Opie: It seems Pontious Pilate ruled from 26-36 AD 00:38:49 John Burmeister: how many of us would, whne our friend said come on over so we could be martyered 00:39:48 Bob Čihák, AZ: p. 320 section D 00:43:28 Maureen Cunningham: Demons had obey, the authority of Christ in her 01:03:43 Jerimy Spencer: Aloha father, I was two courses from getting ordained as an elder in the Nazarene Church but corruption and heresy here in Hawai'i stopped me in my already reluctant tracks. Now as a catechumen in the Greek Orthodox Church some ask me about priesthood, and I still feel air of holiness is too attractive to me. And while the ‘uniform’ is supposed to cause and evoke humility, I would be entirely too tempted to even think and feel it looked ‘cool.’ 01:05:50 Anthony: I was thinking lately that maybe part of the scandal of priesthood was the laity expecting priests not to be sinners. But, priests are sinners...as are laymen who might use the scandal to vent feelings or sinful attitude they are keeping pent up. I say this as one who was scandalized and see now how I incorrectly processed the news of the scandal.  I see how scandal was used to prop up other people's longstanding grudges against the Church.  The scandalized helped contribute to the awful situation. 01:06:31 Jerimy Spencer: I can also see a flip side; like wearing an officer’s uniform causes one to stand upright, and likewise could be transformative, like an icon that keeps one looking in the right direction? 01:08:43 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "I was thinking latel..." with 👍 01:09:10 Bob Čihák, AZ: A story in the news was about a man who wore four different disguises in public, one was as a priest. He was humbled, I would guess from the story, by the trusting response some people gave to him. 01:13:52 Catherine Opie: As a therapist for 30 years dealing with many people who had a background of child abuse or sexual abuse perpetrated upon them I can absolutely say that its definitely not just a Catholic priest problem, it is more prevalent in the secular world. I think that it was important to deal with it but the press about it was out of balance in that there are many politicians ets who are heinous pedophiles and there is no press about that. What about child trafficking rings like Epstein? Nothing to see there apparently. 01:16:12 Anthony: Replying to "As a therapist for 3..."   Exactly. It is "inconvenient" to really get to the root of the problem. 01:16:21 Catherine Opie: I salute the way the Catholic Church has dealth with this scandal. A friend of mine who was abused in foster care by Catholic priests here in NZ just received an apology and a payout of 100,000 NZD. It was well investigated and they took it very seriously 01:22:39 Bob Čihák, AZ: I'm not at all sorry you got stirred up!! 01:22:41 Janine: Thank you Father 01:22:52 Catherine Opie: Always Fr.

St. Isaac speaks as one who knows the earthquake at the root of the soul where pride fractures us from God and humility alone builds a refuge strong enough to endure the storm. His words are not gentle suggestions for the religiously inclined. They are fire. They are rope flung into deep water. They are an indictment of every heart that waits for suffering to discover prayer for temptation to discover the need for mercy for collapse to remember God. “Before the war begins, seek after your ally.” This is the secret. The humbled man begins today when there is no battle when the sea is calm and the sky soft. He builds his ark plank by plank small obediences simple prayers hidden acts of self abasement not because the flood is visible but because he knows it is certain. This is the wisdom of the saints: that peace is the time for labor not repose. The iniquitous drown because they mock preparation. They call upon God after pride has stripped them of confidence. Their throat is tight when they pray because they never bent it before in the dust. Humility is the timber that keeps the soul afloat when the heavens split open. St. Isaac dares to tell us that a good heart weeps with joy in prayer. Not from sentimentality not from sorrow alone but from the unbearable nearness of God. Tears become proof that the heart has softened enough to feel Him. A proud heart however disciplined outwardly prays like a clenched fist. It asks but it does not need. It petitions but does not depend. A humble heart begs like a man drowning and this is why God hears him. “Voluntary and steadfast endurance of injustice purifies the heart.” Here the Saint wounds our sensibilities. He tells us that we cannot become like Christ unless we willingly stand beneath the blow and let it fall without retaliation without argument without self defense. Only those for whom the world has died can endure this with joy. For the world’s children honor is oxygen. To be slandered or forgotten is death. But when the world is already a corpse to us when reputation comfort applause identity have all been buried then injustice becomes not humiliation but purification. Not defeat but ascent. This virtue is rare he says too rare to be found among one’s own people one’s familiar circles one’s comfortable life. To learn it often requires exile the stripping away of all natural support so that only God remains. He alone becomes the witness of one’s patience. He alone becomes consolation. He alone becomes vindication. And then comes the heart of St. Isaac’s blow: “As grace accompanies humility so do painful incidents accompany pride.” Humility is the magnet of mercy. Pride is the invitation to destruction. God Himself turns His face toward the humble not in pity but in delight. Their nothingness is spacious enough for Him to enter. He fills emptiness not fullness. He pours glory into the vessel that has shattered self importance. But when pride rises like a tower God sends winds against it not to annihilate us but to collapse what we build against Him. The humble man does not seek honor for he knows what it costs the soul. He bows first greets first yields first. His greatness is hidden like an ember under ash but heaven sees it glowing. Divine honor chases him like a hound. It is the proud who chase praise and never catch it but the self emptying who flee honor and find it placed upon them by the hand of God. “Be contemptible in your own eyes and you will see the glory of God in yourself.” Not self hatred but truth. Not despair but sobriety. Not rejection of one’s humanity but recognition that without God we have no light no love no breath. When we descend beneath ourselves God descends to meet us. When we stop defending our wounds He heals them. Humility is not psychological abasement but the unveiling of reality: only God is great and the one who knows this sees God everywhere even within his own nothingness. Blessed truly blessed is the man who seems worthless to others yet shines with virtue like an unseen star. Blessed the one whose knowledge is deep but whose speech is soft whose life is radiant yet whose posture is bowed. Such a soul is the image of Christ unadorned unnoticed unassuming yet bearing the weight of heaven within. The Saint concludes with a promise that burns like gold: The man who hungers and thirsts for God God will make drunk with His good things. Not the brilliant not the accomplished not the defended but the hungry. The emptied. The poor in spirit who have thrown themselves into the furnace of humility and come forth with nothing left to claim as their own. This is the narrow way. This is the ark built in silence. To bow lower is to rise. To lose all is to possess God. To become nothing is to become fire. May we learn to bend before the storm begins. May we kneel while grace is still soft. May we lay plank upon plank obedience upon prayer meekness upon hidden sacrifice until the ark is finished and the floods come and we are held aloft by humility into the very heart of God. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:02:30 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 164 paragraph 29 00:03:03 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: philokaliaministries.org 00:11:37 Ben: Re: Orthodox Saints...if you look you'll often find that many of them are already liturgically venerated by the Eastern Catholic churches - I've even heard that St. Seraphim is actually commemorated by Russian Catholics. 00:12:08 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 164, para 29, at bottom of page 00:12:09 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "Re: Orthodox Saints.…" with ❤️ 00:14:16 David Swiderski, WI: We get those random at my job. AI platforms are trying to take IP and data. 00:15:09 Sam: Greetings from Australia and wishing you a happy thanksgiving 🙏 00:15:18 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "Greetings from Austr..." with ❤️ 00:27:19 Lilly: The new film 'Man Of God' shows the example of Saint Nektarios blessing all those who convicted him unjustly. 00:30:26 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Replying to "The new film 'Man Of..." Where is this film available? 00:31:55 Andrew Adams: Replying to "The new film 'Man Of..." Looks like it is included with Prime and can be bought wherever 00:32:04 Gwen’s iPhone: Replying to "The new film 'Man Of…" YouTube 00:32:07 Jesssica Imanaka: It's hard for me to apply this as a parent of a 5th grader seeing middle school dynamics emerge! 00:33:59 David Swiderski, WI: You Tube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldUGahNlMRk 00:35:14 Andrew Adams: Reacted to "You Tube link: https..." with 👍 00:36:15 Ben: Reacted to "You Tube link: https..." with 👍 00:36:48 Elizabeth Richards: I work with dyslexic kids and true identity in Christ is the heartbeat behind my intervention. School is torture for so many of these kids & affects the trajectory of their life! 00:37:04 Maureen Cunningham: I watch a short film On Nigeria  Christian. They have a faith under such pain 00:37:13 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "I watch a short film..." with 🙏🏼 00:41:28 David Swiderski, WI: Is this a typo or error in translation? The gold of Ophir is referenced multiple times in the Bible, often associated with immense wealth and divine blessings. It was a place known for its unparalleled riches, supplying gold to King Solomon and other ancient rulers.Biblical descriptions imply that Ophir’s gold was exceptionally pure and highly prized. This aligns with historical records of ancient civilizations refining gold to a high degree. In fact, gold from South Arabia, India, and Africa was known to be of superior quality, often described as "untarnished." 00:46:40 Ben: Even hockey crowds in the late '60's were full of suits & ties. 00:50:52 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "Is this a typo or er..." with ❤️ 00:55:52 Adam Paige: Re: “gold of Souphir”, the Septuagint has “Σουφιρ” at 1 Kings 10:11, it’s a variant rendering of Ophir in the LXX according to Wikipedia 00:57:23 David Swiderski, WI: This really echo's my experience. Arrogant, puffed up people in business are always selling themselves and gain a great reward often as in politics.  In doing good in my life I often have been punished but with both I think if it was not to be against what is of this world do I really have and show love. Ie. try to do the will of God. 00:58:17 Thomas: Would a humble person have any idea they were humble, it seems like they wouldn’t, also how do you deal with thoughts that tell you that you are being humble, is it simply to just revile yourself 00:59:10 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "Is this a typo or er…" with ❤️ 00:59:36 David Swiderski, WI: If always rewarded can we ever know we truly love and have values or seek the easy way and avoid the narrow path. 01:00:26 Elizabeth Richards: Replying to "Would a humble perso..." It seems humility is to see self as Christ views me- worthy of his love, dependent on Him for EVERYTHING 01:04:14 Vanessa Nunez: Replying to "If always rewarded c…" I think we can still be rewarded but we can recognize that it is not through our own doing but by gods providence, the only thing that WE do is say yes to god. 01:04:42 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "I think we can still..." with ❤️ 01:05:21 David Swiderski, WI: Reacted to "I think we can still..." with 👍 01:12:49 Jesssica Imanaka: Dostoyevsky was fascinated by the figure of the Holy Fool. 01:12:52 Elizabeth Richards: "Laurus" by Eugene Vodolazkin is a fantastic novel about a holy fool 01:13:15 David Swiderski, WI: Reacted to "Dostoyevsky was fasc..." with ❤️ 01:13:40 Jesssica Imanaka: Reacted to ""Laurus" by Eugene V..." with ❤️ 01:14:04 David Swiderski, WI: Faith but the saints let the light of the son enter into our lives like the saints in stained glass windows in churches 01:14:55 Elizabeth Richards: Happy Thanksgiving! 01:15:00 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂 01:15:01 Jessica McHale: Many prayers for everyone! Happt THanksgiving! 01:15:10 Janine: Thank you Father! Happy thanksgiving! 01:15:13 Art: Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! 01:15:14 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you father God bless you and your mother