Philokalia Ministries

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. --- 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. --- 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! --- 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. --- 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. --- 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  

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 --- 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. --- 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.!  

Dive into the heart of spiritual life with insights on the power of silence in prayer. Discover how communal worship strengthens focus and devotion, as monks reflect the angelic praise of God. The challenges of distractions are discussed, urging listeners to prioritize spiritual longing over worldly pursuits. Compassionate communication and reverent worship take center stage, reminding us to foster a supportive atmosphere. Lastly, the journey of connecting with the divine parallels the excitement of waiting for something cherished.

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. --- 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