Philokalia Ministries

One of the most difficult things about the faith is not simply desiring God with all of our heart, but allowing God and His desire for us to transform us and shape us. It means allowing Him to draw us into His own life and virtue. We are to become in the world what He is to us.  Therefore, we are immediately confronted with the fact that we have to let go of the limited powers of our own reason and judgment. We must place our faith and hope in the providence of God to guide us along the path that leads to salvation. Like Saint Peter there often comes a time in our life when another binds us and leads us where we do not want to go. There will likely be many occasions when we are called to die to self and sin and to live for God alone  - come what may.!  The afflictions that we bear and our desire NOT to force our will upon others can only emerge from this reality. We must put on the mind of Christ. We must become what we receive in the holy Eucharist. All that we suffer must be seen as united to Christ’s redemptive work on the cross. Christianity is about as far from being a philosophical system or ideology as something could be. It is Divine Life and Love. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:01:48 FrDavid Abernethy: page 374   00:02:05 FrDavid Abernethy: Welcome Susanna   00:02:15 FrDavid Abernethy: Facebook friend :-0   00:02:33 Susanna Joy: Reacted to "Facebook friend :-0" with ☺️   00:02:49 Susanna Joy: Thank you, Father.   00:02:57 FrDavid Abernethy: You’re very welcome   00:41:30 John: Would making asceticism an end in itself a type of obeying the letter of the law, rather than the spirit?   00:42:31 Susanna Joy: This is very helpful advice for me right niw, as I have been staying at my friend's spiritual community, and being so distressed at members'  contentiousness...wondering what to do and stay cenetered/bring a spirit if peace   00:42:50 Susanna Joy: *spirit of peace   00:46:15 Susanna Joy: Yes...exactly. .. Love must return to its Source in order to flow ever onward... Remembering to turn to Christ in these moments   00:49:02 TFredman: (My name is Tracey) The hardest Lent I ever had was when my spiritual director suggested a different type of fast - a fast from just what we are talking about. Taking his counsel to heart, I decided that a contentious coworker would not disturb my peace and I would love her - oh yes, she was my Lenten project. It was incredibly difficult. She did her best to destroy me and to talk about me to others and to in effect destroy our "team" during the most difficult season of our work. I suffered through that Lent and beyond more than I can express. But through it all, I was at peace and grace followed.   00:51:52 John: At a retreat in June, I was given a Holy Card with a prayer of St. Charles de Foucauld: An Act of Abandonment: "Father, I abandon myself into Your hands. Do with me what you will. Whatever You may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all Your creatures - I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into Your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to Thee with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into Your hands, without reserve, and with boundless confidence. For You are my Father. Amen.   00:52:43 carol nypaver: 🙏🏼   00:53:22 Alexandra K: Amen..   00:55:59 Anthony: I agree with the feeling of loss. There's an interesting verse in Sirach or Wisdom,  I think, "Let not th eunuch say 'I am not fruitful.'" It's a verse pointing to Abraham 's hope in an impossibile situation.   00:57:09 Louise: A woman I know ask the Beloved to teach her unconditional love. After few months, her 30-year husband announced her that he was leaving for a younger woman. What an opportunity to react with unconditional love!   00:59:00 Louise: ''asked''   01:05:36 carol nypaver: Is it important to discern whether it is atonement for sin or a test?   01:10:01 John: These experiences of painful, crushing long-suffering remind me of what Cardinal Merry del Val prayed for in his Litany of Humility: http://catholictradition.org/Litanies/litany55.htm   01:10:36 Anthony: The Gospel insinuates some Jews called St Mary a very bad name.  That must have been hard to bear.   01:12:16 Alexandra K: And during this past year of contentiousness i have been praying The cardinal s litany of humility.     Watch out you ask for!   01:14:08 Sheila Applegate: Do we really want "thy will to be done" because does that not mean he wants us humbled..and like Him. We don't, mostly.   01:18:13 Sheila Applegate: Ouch.   01:18:25 maureencunningham: Thank You   01:19:01 Susanna Joy: Thank you, Father.🙏🏾   01:19:03 Lorraine Green: Thank you Father   01:19:03 John: Thank you, Father!   01:19:09 sue and mark: good night thank you   01:19:14 Alexandra K: Ty  

All that was to be redeemed had also then to be assumed in the Incarnation. All that is human and all that is part of the human experience must be embraced by Christ in order that it might be healed by his grace.  We are shown this in a very simple way in regards to one of our basic appetites as human beings - sleep. Like any other appetite, it must be ordered rightly; otherwise, it can end up stealing half of our life. Rather than being drawn into the rest of contemplation, we are often pulled into something much less helpful. Instead of engaging He who is Reality, Life and Love, we often seek to escape these things and enter into sleep or the myriad of ways that we can escape reality.  Therefore, when it comes to prayer, we are often embattled. Sleep can come upon us quickly or we can be drawn to direct or attention to the work of our hands. The Evil One can stimulate the mind at just the right time to pull us away from the comfort and consolation of God into conversation, food, sleep, etc. We must understand that we are engaged in a spiritual battle. When the devil sees us engaging in spiritual warfare, when he sees us developing the discipline of prayer, he will immediately seek to afflicted us with temptations and fantasies the moment the prayer is finished. He will try to snatch away from us the first fruits of the soul.  We can understand, then, why John tells us that bodily vigil leads to spiritual vigil or alertness. We need to be alert not to protect ourselves from the things of this world, but from the darkness that would enter into our hearts if we do not guard them. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:08:28 FrDavid Abernethy: page 162 para 10   00:09:06 angelo: Reacted to "page 162 para 10" with 👍   00:25:49 Maureen Cunningham: did they recite the Psalms as prayer   00:35:46 Louise: Television induces a trance in most people.   00:43:26 Louise: Another feature of watching television is that we become what we contemplate.   00:45:25 carol nypaver: Amen!🤣   00:46:11 Anthony: Recreation,  re-creation, takes work, and I find it's easy just to watch, but it is agitating and like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football, it's a recurrent trap around 10pm.   00:47:25 Eric Ewanco: This is a general question that's been percolating for a while in my mind as I've been listening to the sessions: Sometimes the desert fathers come across like salvation is so difficult to achieve that it would tempt me to despair, if I were to give it credence. Can you comment on their perspective, and also what they believed the chances of a layperson to be saved was?   00:47:33 Cindy Moran: I've worked in broadcast TV for 43 years. It's the last thing I pick for relaxation.   00:48:10 Ren Witter: Who was it who said: “I have learned a great deal from television, because, every time it is put on, I leave the room and read a book” ? 🤣 I don’t remember, but I thought it was great at the time.   00:49:39 Cindy Moran: Replying to "Who was it who said:..."     Groucho Marx said this.   00:52:15 Bonnie's iPad (2): In fact it can be quite shocking as to how quickly this can occur.   00:53:01 Art: Reacted to "Who was it who said:..." with 👍   00:53:13 John: I seem to be especially vulnerable to attacks right after Confession - including getting stuck behind a slow driver (the most annoying thing for a New Yorker... 🙂 so I've tried to become very vigilant at that time.   00:55:29 Ambrose Little, OP: Reacted to "I seem to be especia..." with 😅   00:56:27 sue and mark: I remember hearing a priest say that "a saint is not someone who never fell, they just did not make friends with the dirt"  It is not the falling but the getting back up over and over again, according to this priest.   00:57:12 Bonnie's iPad (2): Reacted to "I seem to be especia…" with 👌   01:03:37 Ambrose Little, OP: Replying to "Who was it who said:..."   Say it in your head with his style of speaking—classic. 🙂   01:04:03 Lawrence Martone: It is hard to find a priest/confessor who really understands spiritual warfare and dealing with attacks from demons.  The demons zero in on your weakest points, especially in retaliation after times of holiness and grace.  It can result in deep despondency, or anger, with a total absence of peace.   01:04:27 Lee Graham: Saints fall down and get up   01:05:05 John: Reacted to "It is hard to find a..." with 👍   01:05:38 Eric Ewanco: There is an agraphon (word of Jesus not in the Gospels) recorded in the Byzantine Anointing of the Sick service that goes "As any times as you fall, arise, and you shall be saved".   01:06:14 sue and mark: Reacted to "There is an agraphon..." with 👍   01:07:33 Anthony: Sometimes I've used Frederick Neitsche in a way to help me. Exert the will not to stay in despondency. Despite emotional feeling, maintain a deep determination to hope.   01:09:38 Cindy Moran: I read that EWTN has a new series on The Desert Father's starting Aug 20   01:09:52 Eric Ewanco: Reacted to "I read that EWTN has..." with ❤️   01:12:51 Cindy Moran: 😄   01:13:13 Anthony: That's a mistake I believe the Puritans made.   01:14:58 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:15:41 John: Thank you Father!!   01:15:43 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   01:15:44 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father...great session!   01:15:49 Krissy: Thank you Fathet  

Being thrown off balance! The experience of vertigo! This is what comes to mind when considering the writings from the Evergetinos this evening. Once again, the gospel is put before us in an unvarnished fashion. It is as if through the unclouded vision of the fathers suddenly the truth of the gospel appears before us and all of its starkness. We are to love and to become love. It is this reality that must shape and form our interaction with every person we encounter. It suggests a kind of vulnerability where we seemingly leave ourselves exposed to the world around us and its malice. So easily does the Evil One whisper in our ears, “If you give yourself in such a way, you will undoubtedly find yourself impoverished.” “Would God really ask such a thing from you?”  Such thinking makes us very calculating about our lives. We are comfortable with boundaries and sometimes the religious boundaries, the walls that we put up around ourselves in the name of God are the highest and thickest of them all.  Yet, we always have before us Christ crucified - arms outstretched and hanging naked upon the cross. He is mocked in the same way that our own hearts mock the truth when we shrink away from its demands in horror. To “think” about unconditional love always allows us to remain one step removed. If we keep the faith notional, we do not have to live it. The fathers, however, allow us no such luxury. Nor did they have confidence in their own virtue or rectitude. Humility understands one thing – all is Grace. This will forever compel us to look upon others with the generosity of God and ourselves as the recipients of incalculable and unmerited mercy. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:14:10 FrDavid Abernethy: dabernethy@gmail.com   00:24:14 LauraLeigh: Not sure how to do this in real life. Last week, I pitched a battle at work, and won. And it was no petty matter. I think it takes a lot of wisdom, a lot of discernment, to do this well. Me, I was lucky.   00:26:37 LauraLeigh: Thankfully, it wasn't about the Faith.   00:28:13 Louise: We lost you Fr.   00:28:14 carol nypaver: Yes   00:30:02 Eric Ewanco: “Here the parallel holds good—it is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.”   Newman, John Henry, Sermon III, The Usurpations Of Reason, Preached December 11, 1831. MATT. 11:19, Sermons, Chiefly On the Theory of Religious Belief, Preached Before the University of Oxford (London: Francis & John Rivington, 1844), p. 48   00:52:02 Anthony: I do have a concern.  I don't want to be a sucker and I resent having been taken for a sucker. That helps drive my engaging religious  and cultural discussions and it's why I'm careful in what charitable works I agree to do.   01:00:33 Maureen Cunningham: What about the  Book  The Way of the Pilgrim  Hw would say the Jesus Prayer in silence   01:03:12 Paul Fifer: I see people walk in for help with food, gas, or money quite regularly.  Many I know for a fact are gaming the system and it really gets to me at times.   I have this quote written down from Mother Theresa to reflect on for those times. “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”   01:20:19 LauraLeigh: I love this message, but in the moment, I forget them.   01:23:41 John: Thank you Father!  

The healing of the soul! So often we lose sight of the meaning of the spiritual life and the disciplines that we embrace. We often look at them as being punitive or requiring us to give up something that we enjoy or take pleasure in. We can lose sight very quickly of the presence of God even in the practice of prayer.  This came forward when we discussed this evening something such as vigils. Rarely is the practice of vigil (breaking one’s sleep to rise and pray at night) ever discussed as a valuable exercise for those not only living in a monastery. To order our appetite for sleep and to break the night for prayer is seen as nonsensical or something that could jeopardize one’s health and well-being or one’s capacity to work.  What we find in the spiritual tradition, however, is a far different vision. Bodily vigil leads to spiritual vigil; that is, spiritual vigilance or alertness. Arising during the quiet of the night, humbled in mind and body, one is able to enter into the deep silence of prayer and receive more freely what God desires to give us. Not experiencing the impediment of worldly distractions or the distractions of a multitude of thoughts we are able to open the mind and the heart to God fully. And in doing so we can also experience the deepest healing.  We begin to lose the desire to escape from reality in the things of this world or in sleep. The opening of the mind and the heart to God through deep prayer can bring about the repairing even of the deepest trauma caused by our own sin or the sins of others. God can pass freely into the deepest recesses of the human heart that learns how to become vulnerable to Him over time through the experience of His love and compassion. Trust emerges and with it hope. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:12:48 Nathan: (Thx Father, I'm using the Paulist Press CWS edition so that's helpful)   00:22:34 sharonfisher: I thought it was my dog whining! Lol   00:31:01 Maureen Cunningham: Page please, Thank You   00:31:29 Kevin Burke: 161   00:31:51 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you   00:35:59 John: Would practicing vigils have a positive effect on being subject to deceptive dreams? I've gone down numerous dead ends in the past trying to interpret dreams, or thinking that they were pre-cognitive, but most of them turned out to be mirages.   00:56:56 John: Sounds like vigils are a gateway to "the meat ye know not of."   00:58:43 Louise: Maybe the Beloved has given people insomnia (waking up in the middle of the night) so we can turn to ward Him during this quiet time.   01:00:56 Maureen Cunningham: sleep does not become your master,   01:02:20 Anthony: On vigils, prayers, rosaries,  looking at God as the other imposing an obligation on me makes these annoying. But maybe looking at God as the Other Who gave me His image as an integral part of myself would make vigils, etc desirable.   01:03:19 Kate: Father, would you have any advice on how to begin the practice of vigils for someone who does not have a spiritual director who could help incorporate this practice in the interior life?   01:06:09 Anthony: The cell becomes hell   01:13:13 Anthony: The 3 Apostles slept in the Garden out of sorrow.  I'll have disordered sleep out of sorrow.   01:15:29 Lee Graham: Prayer changes us   01:18:12 Ren Witter: Yea. The “type and number” narrative about confession really makes the sacrament so transactional, and more like a bad experience with your doctor than an encounter with God.   01:18:15 Bonnie Lewis: Father, I had a priest say that to me in the confessional.  It did hurt and surprise me.  I've never forgotten it, obviously.   01:18:58 sue and mark: Reacted to "Yea. The “type and n..." with 👍   01:21:46 Greg C: Good comments, Ren.  We aren't a vehicle to be serviced.   01:21:47 Maureen Cunningham: You can not easily see a Doctor they zoom   01:25:56 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You ,   01:26:12 John: Thank you, Father!   01:26:15 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂  

If I were to give a title to this evening’s session, it would be “What is the place of the Christian in a post-Christian culture? Even better, “What is the place of the Christian in an age of nihilism? When we begin to consider our conduct in relationship to others, how we are to conform ourselves not simply to a law or teaching but to Christ himself, we are confronted with something quite radical. We are to meet insults, hatred, misunderstandings and aggression with humility.  Love is always meant to trump the other things that we hold on to with a firm grip; our own judgment, our own will, our own opinion and the satisfaction of our own desires above the needs of others.  What we are presented with in the teachings of the fathers is rooted in the capacity of the soul for true discernment. The one who is pure of heart is able to see things as God sees them and so see their true value. Therefore, the fathers tell us that in this world we should take the place of a “stranger”; that is, not seeking to have the first word or seeking to have any desire at all except the desire for God and that which draws us toward Him. We are to bend like a reed in the wind when it comes to our relationships with other people. What value does our personal opinion have or the acceptance of some truth that we speak that is greater than love? To stand up against the winds is to court danger; it is to give rise to quarrels and cause trouble. If we want to live with others, we are not to desire to give them orders, but like Christ we are to become an example of obedience. Even as we read the fathers, we must keep Christ before eyes for he is the standard. In the end, it was His actions that revealed a perfect obedience; an obedience rooted in love and willing to empty itself and take on the form of a servant. We are to strive for this alone – that our love would be cruciform. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:09:32 FrDavid Abernethy: page 370 no. 6   00:26:54 Louise: Could we say that, when meeting someone, shaking hands indicates a willingness to welcome the other, to allow a certain form of intimacy and to trust that the other is clean (especially 100 years and more ago when hygiene was questionable)?   00:49:03 Maureen Cunningham: Why is  Letting Go soooooo Hard   00:54:55 Ren Witter: I love this story sooo much   00:55:10 Ambrose Little, OP: They just needed Twitter.   00:55:37 Patrick: 😄   01:06:38 Louise: We have to be ready for ridicule, persecution and even martyrdom.   01:12:35 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You,   01:13:23 Ambrose Little, OP: Powerful stuff!   01:13:29 David Fraley: Thank you, Father!   01:13:31 Alexandra K: Thank you Fr  

When we think of appetites or bodily desires, we rarely consider something such as sleep. Yet this evening St. John shows us that sleep is something that can disrupt that which is most important for the spiritual life; our prayer. Sleep is certainly an essential need that we have as human beings. However, there are many reasons that we can be drawn into it excessively. One of these is human nature of course. However, sleep can come upon us from an excess of food, from the temptation of demons, and also from extreme or prolonged fasting. Thus, sleeping is important for us to consider closely.  Excessive sleeping can become a long-standing habit that is difficult to cure.  It may be difficult for us to think of demons having an impact upon us in this fashion. Yet, when the bell rings for prayer or when the alarm goes off in the morning we can hear a voice within our minds say “Wait, give yourself a little more rest.” In modern days the snooze alarm allows us to extend this indefinitely and we begin our days, perhaps lacking prayer altogether. We can also experience the sensation of severe and unusual pains in the stomach or fits of yawning or even waves of laughter over some amusing incident that comes to mind or takes place within the church.  The same sluggishness in getting out of bed can follow us into the practice of prayer itself. We can hurry through our prayers; saying them inattentively and allowing the mind to wander. We can enter into church without the proper demeanor or making signs of devotion. When these patterns of behavior take over then the demons will certainly make sport of us. To combat this St. John encourages common prayer where we unite ourselves with others in this most essential practice of calling out to God. In this, we can call to mind Jesus’ own words, “Where two or three are gathered, there I am in their midst.“  Often in our day with the breakdown of Christian culture and community, those living in the world, sadly, find themselves left to pray on their own. However, we are not left to ourselves. Through the Hours or the Divine Office we were able to pray with one mind and heart with the Church throughout the world. A deep mystical Communion exist when we engage in the prayer of the Church.  All this is meant to be a simple reminder to us about the subtle things that can distract us at the time of prayer. Therefore, St. John tells us that the practice of prayer itself purifies our hearts and increases our zeal and love for God. The more that we engage in the discipline of prayer, the greater our capacity to rout the demons! --- Text of chat during the group: 00:11:06 FrDavid Abernethy: page 160 starting Step 19   00:38:58 sharonfisher: Yes, agree, but we’re not taught properly. (Re:genuflecting) Our western church has cradle Orthodox attendees from time to time. The grace of this one woman’s entrance and adoration was truly beautiful. I asked how she ‘learned’, but sh said she’d just grown up  with the reverence displayed.   00:42:15 sharonfisher: We need a manual to get us started! lol   00:43:15 Anthony: The older generation was taught a kind of theology that emphasizes human community.  So I think they were misled, thinking they are doing right by having socialization in church.   00:48:09 Lawrence Martone: Re: solitary prayer”for the very few’”  Some Third Order members are required to pray the office daily and spend at least 30 minutes in mental prayer daily - along with other requirements (but not under the pain of sin if missed).  Only at monthly meetings can we pray lauds or vespers in community.  Basically, we have no choice but to pray in solitude for the most part. Isn’t that true of most lay people also?   00:51:51 Louise: Basically, demons are trying to make us turn our attention away from the Beloved. Yet, our present culture is ferociously made up of distractions, engineered with distractions.   00:52:26 TFredman: Replying to "Re: solitary prayer”..."   We used to pray Vespers following the 5:15 p.m. Mass Mon-Sat. This was a great blessing to us lay folk. I miss it.   00:52:58 Barbara: Would that we would become attentive to one another!   00:54:07 Lori Hatala: I find it frustrating when the windows are being closed before the priest even leaves the alter.   00:54:10 sharonfisher: Replying to "Re: solitary prayer”..."   Does attending live streamed services count? (Hoping yes)   00:54:57 Lawrence Martone: Replying to "Re: solitary prayer”..."   To TFredman,   00:55:08 Anthony: We can thank (intentional?) city planning and the heresy of Americanism for harming ethnic Catholic identity.   00:55:18 Lawrence Martone: Replying to "Re: solitary prayer”..."   Yes, I would feel the same way.   00:55:29 Ambrose Little, OP: Replying to "Re: solitary prayer”..."   Certainly it is better to pray alone than not at all. As one such 3rd order member, I have found the Office to be a tremendous anchor to my spiritual life—even though in most cases I am alone.   00:55:47 Lori Hatala: I tend to go to silent prayer when someone leading  or loudly praying is rushing through it.   00:58:09 Ambrose Little, OP: Replying to "Re: solitary prayer”..."   There’s a benefit to individual prayer in that there is time to pause and meditate on things that strike you. Can’t really do that in community.   00:58:52 Bonnie Lewis: Reacted to "Certainly it is bett..." with ❤️   00:59:05 Bonnie Lewis: Reacted to "There’s a benefit to..." with ❤️   00:59:12 sue and mark: Reacted to "Certainly it is bett..." with ❤️   01:02:15 Susan M: I personally am very grateful for ZOOM   01:02:35 Kevin Burke: Reacted to "I personally am very…" with 👌   01:03:21 Rebecca Thérèse: I'm very grateful for Zoom and livestreamed prayer.   01:07:39 Lawrence Martone: Replying to "We can thank (intent..."   E. Michael Jones - “The Slaughter of Cities.”   01:08:09 sharonfisher: Reacted to "There’s a benefit to..." with ❤️   01:10:14 Susan M: Henri Nouwen was my teacher for 3 courses 1971-74. Very blessed time.   01:10:55 Paul Grazal: Reacted to "I find it frustratin…" with 😇   01:11:35 TFredman: Reacted to "I personally am very..." with 👌   01:11:39 carol: Reacted to "Henri Nouwen was my ..." with ❤️   01:11:45 TFredman: Reacted to "Henri Nouwen was my ..." with ❤️   01:13:52 Ambrose Little, OP: Reacted to "Henri Nouwen was my ..." with ❤️   01:14:22 Paul Grazal: Reacted to "I personally am very…" with ❤️   01:15:04 Cindy Moran: Great session, thank you Father   01:15:12 Rebecca Thérèse: thank you🙂   01:15:21 Rory: Thanks, father   01:15:21 Deiren Masterson: God bless Father   01:15:30 Courtney Wiley: Thank you Father.  

“In the deserts of the heart  Let the healing fountain start.” W.H. Auden (1907-1973)  “The road of cleansing goes through that desert. It shall be named the way of holiness.” Isaiah 35.8 (LXX) It has been said that all true renewal within the life of the church comes through the desert fathers, or rather through the embrace of their wisdom. For it is not a worldly wisdom but the wisdom of the gospel, the wisdom of the kingdom that they set before us; not in an abstract fashion but through lived experience.  The desert fathers looked deep within; precisely where Christ directs us to search for the kingdom. It’s not an easy thing to do; to look deep within oneself. Often what begins to emerge can seem ugly and repulsive to us. Sin has not left us untouched. We know its darkness, its suffering, and how it shapes the way we view ourselves, the world, and others.  However, this inward gaze and the ascetic life aids us in seeing with a greater clarity not only our sin but the image of something beautiful beyond imagination; the soul made in the image and likeness of God, transformed and transfigured by his grace. Even in the midst of the struggle, the beauty of God‘s mercy and grace begins to manifest itself, and to reshape the human heart. We begin to understand that the perfection to which we are called is not moral perfection; nor is it the perfection of our natural virtues. It is to share in the very life of God. Christ strength is to become our strength. His virtue is to become our virtue.  It has been said the Christ is the most beautiful of all human beings. In him, we see what we shall be through the grace of God. All that is dark in us, all that becomes an impediment to our ability to love gradually begins to fade away. We no longer cling to the demands of our own will or the pettiness of our ego. We begin to see that in Christ we have all and lack nothing. It is in this realization that we become truly free and capable of love. How beautiful! --- Text of chat during the group: 00:05:20 FrDavid Abernethy: Starting Hypothesis 42 page 367   00:13:23 FrDavid Abernethy: Starting Hypothesis 42 page 367   00:20:45 John: Kind of reminds me of the Jews who went out to see John the Baptist to ask who he was - though I don't think they were being critical.   00:20:59 Ren Witter: For Father David’s favorite comic about Stylites: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=6720341144666823&set=pb.100000730124605.-2207520000.&type=3   00:21:39 John: Reacted to "For Father David’s f..." with 😂   00:51:35 iPhone (61): What page or book are we on Blessings   00:56:07 Rachel: 🤪   00:56:35 Rachel: I love that story.   00:56:37 Ren Witter: Can I say that to the next person who yells at me? “Imitate the Statue” :-D   00:58:46 Rachel: Fun. :/   00:59:06 Rachel: Reacted to "Can I say that to ..." with 👍   00:59:10 iPhone (61): I think we are suppose become like the statue.   01:02:39 Ashley Kaschl: This might be a leap in relation to this analogy with the stone statue but I have been having conversations about Filial Confidence in God. Isaiah 50:7 says, “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; Therefore I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” If the monks in this passage agree to both enter into this life combatting their lower faculties which suggests doing battle against disordered sensibilities, then it also relates to the grace of an inflexible resolve that, no matter what happens to them, all is passing away compared to eternal glory in Christ; they have set their faces like flint against all struggles that may come. I think the goal, then, is to enter into ourselves and do battle so as to become docile and not react in the extremes, to repose ourselves like children in the arms of our Heavenly Father.   01:02:49 Rachel: You cant project it on to Christ. The all innocent and Perfect One.   01:05:16 Rachel: Reacted to "This might be a le..." with ❤️   01:05:33 Ashley Kaschl: Yes! That is what I meant by docile as well. Not a passivity but one who can be directed or taught as you said 😁🙏   01:07:44 Alexandra K: Reacted to "This might be a leap..." with 👍   01:08:56 John: A bit ironic that flint produces a spark when struck by steel or something similar. However, docility implies that this spark is not anger, but charity.   01:09:08 iPhone (61): Guilty of all these that you mentioned.  I am grateful   01:09:15 Ashley Kaschl: Reacted to "A bit ironic that fl…" with 🔥   01:11:16 Alexandra K: Reacted to "A bit ironic that fl..." with 👍   01:12:22 Sheila Applegate: Reacted to "A bit ironic that fl..." with 🔥   01:12:28 Ashley Kaschl: Reacted to "Guilty of all these …" with 💯   01:17:06 Susanna Joy: Thank you, Father. 🙏💖  

Darkness, whatever its source, cannot be driven out or overcome by mere force of will or through reason. The fathers reveal to us a darkness that exists within the human heart like no other - insensibility. It is a deadening of the soul and the death of the mind before the death of the body. We all have our vulnerabilities and have experienced wounds on both spiritual and emotional levels. To address this darkness requires an even greater trust in the grace of God to guide us through it and to provide us with what is necessary for healing. Each person is unique and with certain predispositions, including the predisposition to a more melancholic or morose state of mind. Furthermore, the human mind and heart are ever so changeable.  It is also how the evil one can use these things to distort our vision of reality. We can be engaged in the religious and spiritual life and speaking about it and yet this can mask not only a sham piety but something even darker. We can live in the dark so long that it becomes the place of comfort. To move toward the light can be painful, especially if one has experienced trauma.  More than any of the passions the remedy for this darkness consists of relying upon the grace of God and being drawn into the tenderness of Christ’s love. When our trust has been destroyed, we must allow Him to rebuild it. Where desire has been lost, we must wait for the Beloved to come to us to stir it into flame. Where wounds are so deep that they seem irreparable, it is only He who is the Lord of Life who can re-create us. --- Text of chat during the group:   00:13:51 Susan M: Thank you for introducing me to the Optina Monastery and Elders! Am buying the recommended book.   00:26:47 John: Are all these internal contradictions the same as hypocrisy, or is that a different malady?   00:39:22 sharonfisher: That’s so interesting. I find myself unwilling to be around these really negative people. I love them, but I have my own issues battling depression. It’s hard to do both at once.   00:50:23 Ren Witter: I wonder - would these people really appear very negative on the exterior? So much of the description involves teaching or speaking, and most often those who take up that role are very dynamic and charismatic personalities. It seems like the melancholy aspect might kind of hidden.   01:01:36 Kate: Fr. David, Is this also known as sloth?  Or is that a different vice?   01:01:41 Ren Witter: I’ve been told that this, or something very similar to it, can be caused by a traumatic event - particularly one involving the Church in some way. Are fasting and vigils still the only way to begin fighting it in that case?   01:06:20 Ren Witter: “He and I” is also a very good one.   01:06:43 carol nypaver: Can you please repeat the name of the French priest and his book?   01:07:21 Louise: Gaston Courtois is the name of the French priest.   01:07:31 carol nypaver: Thank you!   01:09:32 David Swiderski: My experience is this often is connected to resentment and lack of detachment. Anyone digging up wounds from the past or worrying about the future cannot help themselves from falling into despair.   01:13:25 Louise: In my clinical experience, it was my willingness as a psychotherapist to be there with the, to remain with them despite the intensity of their pain, which was healing - I did not abandon them as they were experiencing abandonment depression from early childhood.   01:17:10 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father!   01:17:10 Lorraine Green: Thank you Father   01:17:15 David Swiderski: Thanks father!   01:17:17 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂  

The conclusion of hypothesis 41 was as beautiful as it was convicting. The fathers speak of a stability of mind and heart that deepens through the ascetic life and allows us to see the most subtle movements either toward or away from God. This subtlety of perception is unmatched in the spiritual tradition. The ascetic life revealed to the fathers not only sin and its manifestations, but the power of God’s grace to transform our lives in such a way that every impediment is removed that prevents us from loving unconditionally. The ascetical life is not an end in itself. It allows us to “ascend the cross”, the fathers tell us. The purity of heart that is achieved through it, the freedom from the passions, allows us to love in a self-emptying fashion, and to truly abandon ourselves to the will of God. Every illusion is set aside and one gradually comes to see with greater and greater clarity that “all is grace”. It is then that the desire for God compels us in our every word, thought, and action! --- Text of chat during the group: 00:25:38 Anthony: Perhaps something should be allowed for different characters or temperaments. Maybe this is a reason Westerners have different orders.   00:30:05 Louise: Was the Ethiopian a demon or a hallucination?   00:43:12 maureencunningham: Longest road is from the head to heart   00:50:34 Ernest: So doesn’t it help to have a spiritual director to regularly guide your path.   00:54:06 John: There's a book called "Talking Back" by Evagrius which has a variation of mocking evil thoughts: he supplies verses of Scripture against a whole variety of evil thoughts.   01:07:53 Ernest: But doesn’t one experience these higher gifts, greater than earthly bread, when one receives Holy Communion…the real presence of Jesus?   01:10:52 Louise: In the Sufi mystical tradition, the disciple-to-be had to wash the latrine for 5 years, and only that. Afterward, he could attend the meetings with the Sufi master, where he was mostly bashed, laughed at, lied to, publicly humiliated, etc. while love was produced in his heart. What a way to chose the heart!   01:12:44 Paul Grazal: +1   01:17:30 Paul Grazal: Amen.  Thank you Father   01:18:56 maureencunningham: Beautifully said Thank You.   01:19:25 David Fraley: Thank you, Father!   01:19:28 Lorraine Green: Thank you very much Father  

Freedom! We often associate this word with our own rights in this world or our capacity to do as we will and go where we want. A kind of promise is put out to us - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Yet the image of freedom that is put before us by the saints and by Saint John in particular is attached to our willingness to be “detached” from the things of the world. God created all things good but in our sin our tendency is to idolize them. We seek our identity and happiness in the things of this world and we work ourselves to the point of exhaustion to protect these things as well as ourselves from others. We do not want to lose what we have or what we have earned.  Yet we very quickly learn that this is no real happiness. In fact, it is the root of all evils. The deeper that root becomes, the greater our desire for the things of this world grows. It begins to produce the fruit of hatred, thefts, envy, separations, enmities, storms, remembrance of wrong, hardheartedness, and murderers. Therefore, what we hold up as having so much value for ourselves, and what seems to promise us freedom and safety eventually becomes our prison or the shackles that bind us. It is only in having tasted the things above that one begins to find joy, freedom from care, and the loss of anxiety. If we obtain this virtue, John tells us, we run the race with the swiftness of athletes of old - that is, stripped and unimpeded.  --- Text of chat during the group: 00:11:00 Rebecca Thérèse: Yes happy birthday!   00:11:34 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Yes happy birthday!" with 🎂   00:15:23 Lawrence Martone: Fr. Abernethy,   00:15:50 Lawrence Martone: What is your opinion of The Noon Day Devil book?   00:22:32 Connor: Re: point 1 - Prayer of the Last Optina Elders:   O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace, help me in all things to rely upon your holy will.  In every hour of the day reveal your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me.  Teach me to treat all that comes to throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that your will governs all.  In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings.  In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by you.  Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others.  Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.  Direct my will, teach me to pray.  And you, yourself, pray in me.  Amen.   00:26:01 Susan M: Father, who are the last Optina Elders?   00:28:04 Connor: Guess I’m the quote guy today:   “All our peace in this sad life lieth in humble suffering rather than in not feeling adversities. He who best knoweth how to suffer shall possess the most peace; that man is conqueror of himself and lord of the world, the friend of Christ, and the inheritor of heaven.” — a Kempis (Imitation of Christ)   00:31:14 Eric Ewanco: Do we know the Greek for "non-possessive" (my translation uses "poor"/"poverty" but I like your translation better)?   00:31:52 Connor: Replying to "Father, who are the …" “Over the course of one century—from Elder Leonid's arrival in 1829 until the Monastery's forced closure by the Communists in 1923—Optina, with its Skete of St. John the Forerunner, was at the center of a tremendous spiritual revival in Russia.”   https://orthochristian.com/65171.html   00:31:59 John: Replying to "Do we know the Greek..."   So does mine (archive.org).   00:32:39 Connor: I was responding to a question Father, no need to read it lol.   00:35:18 Susan M: Thank you.   00:37:14 Connor: Replying to "Do we know the Greek…" ἀκτημοσύνης in response to Greek for non-possessiveness. Literally “landless.”   00:45:31 Anthony: To forget the Beatific Vision is to merely fight the devil mostly conscious of your own efforts.  Been there.  Done that / Doing that. Not healthy.   00:52:44 Connor: St. Louis de Montfort famously got into bar fights over Our Lady’s honor… even after his ordination…   00:57:03 Anthony: Regarding "principles" in our Anglo-American world it seems to me some of our principles have been developed and used to harden us against conscience and towards vice.   00:57:16 Louise: I find that it is mostly the human gesture and the smile in return that is the gift, beyond the money given; the person feels treated as a human being at this moment.   00:57:41 Anthony: Reacted to "I find that it is mo..." with ❤️   00:57:49 Anthony: Replying to "I find that it is mo..."    I agree   01:18:40 Cindy Moran: Thank you   01:18:43 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂