Philokalia Ministries

Tonight we picked up with Hypothesis 34. Again we are introduced into the practice of asceticism; in particular, how it is embraced in the spirit of obedience. We were given multiple stories of individuals who, out of love for their elder, respond with an immediacy to their demand or request. In each case we are shown the deep fruit that this bears.  However, the greater task for us is to look at our lives and to see if we have prepared our hearts to receive the seed of our Lord‘s word as he calls us to the life of holiness. Do we respond with swiftness when called to prayer or with zeal when called to embrace the practice of fasting or urgency when called respond to someone in need or jeopardy?  What the stories show us is that obedience is based upon a relationship, not law. It is love that makes us run to respond to Christ and to those He has given to us to guide us along the path to Him. If our asceticism or obedience lacks this love, then it is something that is suspect. --- Text of chat during the group:  00:10:43 B David: hi all  Ben David here.  sort of new here...   00:10:55 FrDavid Abernethy: welcome Ben!   00:12:24 David Fraley: Hello Ben!   00:12:59 David Fraley: I did. I found a place in West View.   00:21:09 Bridget McGinley: St Hesychios in the Philokalia states “ a faithful servant is one who expresses his faith in Christ through obedience to His commandments.  Father, if one cannot find an “elder” can one be assured of the graces and gifts of obedience by simply following the commandments?   00:24:33 Bridget McGinley: thank you   00:33:13 Anthony Rago: This is in stark contrast with the pagans - example the fear in the Adventures of Ulysses, in the trip to Hades, land of the shades.   00:35:22 Anthony Rago: The Coptic Hymn to St George names him the conqueror of his tormentors   01:14:40 David Fraley: Thank you, Father!  

The subtle movements of the human heart and mind stand revealed while reading the Ladder of Divine Ascent. As one makes one’s way through the text, it becomes clear that it is an inevitability. We must stand ready to have our hearts illuminated and the places that we desire to keep in darkness, whether consciously or unconsciously, exposed. Yet, somehow, when these words come from the pen of a Saint, there is a healing that one begins to experience; even as we know the sting of the words. Knowing and seeing the truth lightens the mind and the heart and opens us to experience the grace and the mercy of God. By removing the impediments to the action of that grace, we find ourselves no longer running with a heavy tread under the burden and the weight of some hidden guilt or wound, but freely and swiftly moving towards He who is Love.  The jarring nature of John’s words is eventually overcome by the confidence in his desire, as well as God’s, to bring us healing. Such is the case with John’s description of the remembrance of wrongs. He makes it clear that without remedy, it can poison the heart and become dark spite. The more we nurture our anger, the more the heart becomes poisoned, and we eventually only see the faults of others.  To be free of this burden, he tells us, allows us to boldly ask our Savior for the release of our own sins.  John would have us show no hesitancy and experience no doubt about what coming to God brings us. If we do not attend to this wound, what is born from it is slander. This, he tells us, drains the blood of love and becomes the patron of a heavy and unclean heart. In our anger, we may diminish another through our words, but the consequence that has for ourselves is far greater. It is a coarse disease that only Christ and gazing upon Christ crucified can heal. --- Text of chat during the group:  00:07:24 Anthony Rago: Tractor Supply, too   00:08:15 Anthony Rago: time for an exorcism of the air....   00:09:39 FrDavid Abernethy: page 126 para 13   00:12:43 Cindy Moran: Oooo...Yes!   00:22:53 Anthony Rago: Then this would apply also to wrongs WE have done, too, that filter our His healing?   00:27:03 sue and mark: I have found that if I am struggling in this area..that if I ask God to forgive them for me...  it is easier  also to bring me to that place of forgiveness that he desires   00:32:12 Anthony Rago: This is what I have a hard time understanding: sin, mortal and venial, which is emphasized so much in the admonishion if frequent confessions....so much emphasis on me, me, me.   00:35:42 Anthony Rago: How often is good?   00:39:56 Anthony Rago: Thank you   00:55:41 Rebecca Thérèse: I'm still puzzled as to the difference between spite and dark spite   00:57:43 Cindy Moran: Who is the author of the book you mentioned last week "Orthodox Psychotherapy"?   00:57:44 Ambrose Little, OP: Maybe something like.. If you harbor it secretly in the “darkness” of your inner self. You don’t allow it to be brought into the Light, examined for what it is, and see that it is wrong and needs to be eliminated.   00:57:59 carol: Dark definition includes “angry, threatening, arising from evil, sinister”   00:58:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you all   01:01:16 Ambrose Little, OP: “Speaking the truth in love” is one of the most abused phrases.   01:03:23 Anthony Rago: Chastity covers up, it is modest.  Unchastity is an unholy exposure.   01:11:29 Rachel: LOL   01:11:49 Anthony Rago: I think you're right.  More St. Francis is needed, less "vert few will be saved."   01:13:08 Lee Graham: The river of life flowing out of us   01:14:37 Rachel: ouch   01:15:45 Rachel: Thank you   01:15:47 Jeff O.: Thank you!   01:15:56 Devansh Shukla: Thank you   01:15:57 Rachel: YES!!   01:16:08 Bernadette Truta: Yes please!   01:16:09 Art: Thank you good night.  Yes I’m interested in the Zoom group on fasting.   01:16:10 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you 🙂   01:16:10 Ambrose Little, OP: Yes   01:16:12 Deb Dayton: Is this in person?   01:16:13 sue and mark: yes   01:16:16 Jacqulyn: Yes... I am interested!   01:16:19 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: when?  

Reading the fathers deeply is unsettling. It strikes against every sensibility that we have and calls into question our perception of reality itself. In this sense, their writings are meant to illuminate the gospels for us and allow them to challenge us. So often we become lukewarm simply because things have become familiar and comfortable to us. We lose sight of the fact that in the face of Christ’s teaching individuals tore their garments and repeatedly wanted to put him to his death and eventually did accomplish this.  What does reading the gospel or the fathers give rise to within our hearts and consciences? The stories about obedience in this hypothesis are startling; we can hardly imagine ourselves enduring such things for a moment, let alone seeing them as something that are a means to freeing us from self-will and from the ego. What is it that we love? What stirs our hearts to their greatest desire? What are we willing to die for? Is Christ our Beloved or merely the construction of our minds and imaginations to make us feel safe in this world? --- Text of chat during the group: 00:21:29 Paul Fifer: This paragraph sounds a lot like the Russian movie named “The Island”.   00:21:58 Anthony Rago: Reminds me of "Ostrov / Island" in which the foolish monk tends the coal furnace for 30 or so years   00:22:30 Charbel: A fantastic film, I get some folks together to watch it at the beginning of the Fast every year.   00:24:03 carol nypaver: Profound film!  I need to watch it again.   00:24:38 Ambrose Little, OP: Much like having small children. 🙂   00:25:52 Anthony Rago: Culturally, in Sicily, my family had livestock on the ground floor.  Same with Padre Pio's family.  Living quarters were upstairs.  Maybe the monk lived in a downstairs "barn" and the others lived on the floor(s) above.   00:27:54 Deb Dayton: Reacted to "Much like having sma..." with 😂   00:28:00 carol nypaver: Very interesting, Anthony.  Thank you for the insight.   00:39:16 Charbel: Apologies for ducking out. I'm taking an extra shift at the shelter and may have to step away from time to time as folks come into my office.   00:39:22 Joyce and Jim Walsh: Story of the Monk reminds me  of the indignities suffered by St. FAUSTINA as noted in her Diary.   00:51:40 Anthony Rago: But if we are in the image of God, I see a tension.  One the one hand, there is the parable of the unworthy servants doing only what is expected of you.  But on the other hand, you are made in the image of God, and I would thing, there is room for some sense of ego and satisfaction.  Not smugness, but joy and satisfaction.   00:53:52 iPhone: Amen Father   01:04:05 iPhone: Really Powerful Message.   01:13:14 Denise T. : This is probably really worldly of me, but if you allow someone to hurt you unjustly or lie about you or anything else that is deliberately inflicted by another without saying anything, will that be good for them. There seems a sense of justice is lost. Not saying anything.    01:20:05 Denise T. : Thank  you, Father.   01:20:16 carol nypaver: Do those who inflict the “punishment” on us,  also become more saintly even if their intent is NOT that we become more patient, humble, etc.? Especially if they are not our “elders”? If we become holier for what we endure at their hands, do they also grow in holiness if we endure patiently?   01:21:27 Sharon: Thank you

There are certain moments while reading the fathers when one trembles. The truth expressed is so vivid and pierces so deeply that the experience of it is visceral. One is shaken.  This is not easy to endure, and perhaps there are moments when reading such texts becomes a stumbling block for our minds and our hearts. However, when they speak the truth of Christ and when they reveal the depth of love that we are called to in Him, ultimately these words are healing. The fathers, in so many ways, are spiritual physicians. Their words cut like a scalpel and cut deeply. But they cut out the “rot” as John describes it. The remembrance of wrongs, which is the offspring of anger, is not something that we can remove on our own. Untreated it spreads like a cancer. The fact, John tells us it has no offspring because it poisons the soul so completely that it makes us incapable of love.  May God give us the grace to listen with humility and gratitude. We are given such loving fathers who desire nothing but our healing. When we begin to trust that, then their words become as bright and illuminating as the sun. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:03:54 FrDavid Abernethy: Page 125 Step number 9   00:20:29 Anthony: Another kind of remembering wrongs is to trod the path of bad example someone has set...examples, hearing cursing, and then carrying on that "tradition" instead of cutting it off; or doing violence because someone else did violence to you (a chain of abuse).   00:22:58 Eric Ewanco: My translation titles this section "On Malice" (with a translation note that also offers "remembrance of wrongs). Your translation refers to "hourly malice" (mine says "rancor by the hour"). Can you elaborate on the relationship between malice and remembrance of wrongs?   00:24:12 Ashley Kaschl: Could a victim mentality be tied to the “pleasureless feeling cherished in the sweetness of bitterness” part?   00:24:26 Bonnie Lewis: So I shouldn't be troubled that I can relate so deeply to this step?   00:27:16 iPhone: Whoa.  Amen Father   00:28:30 Anthony: Healing.  In Divine Comedy, Dante is washed in a river of forgetfulness when passing from Purgatory to Heaven, so he can forget all memory of sin.   00:31:35 iPhone: +1   00:48:05 iPhone: Love these Sessions Father !   00:48:53 Daniel Allen: The internet, for a million different reasons, is dangerous… not reading the fathers.   00:50:52 carol: How does one speak freely in the context of therapy or spiritual direction while also avoiding the remembrance of wrongs?   00:55:37 Charbel & Justin: Demons are fundamentally chaotic.   01:05:47 Anthony: Remember that the demons make suckers and schlubs out of all of us.  It makes it easier to have compassion on another.   01:07:09 iPhone: Amen   01:08:37 Bonnie Lewis: true   01:08:47 iPhone: Love that   01:10:37 iPhone: Much work to do in this regard.   01:12:17 Ashley Kaschl: This entire section reminds me of a quote by St. John of the Cross: “Whenever anything disagreeable happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.”   01:12:25 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:12:26 Bonnie Lewis: This step is excellent Father.  Much to ponder.   01:12:43 Debra: Reacted to "This entire section ..." with ❤️   01:12:44 iPhone: Amen Father.  Tremendous !   01:13:39 Jeff O.: Amen, thank you Father. Great to be with you all.  

The further we get into the Evergetinos, the more we are poised to begin to understand something important: our pursuit of virtue, such as obedience, is rooted first and foremost in our love and desire for God. We embrace the ascetical life, we embrace very difficult practices and and pursue virtue, not as a test of endurance. It is a response to a love and a desire deeply rooted within our hearts. The grace of God begins to allow us to comprehend that we are heirs of the kingdom, that we are sons and daughters of God. To pursue this path outside of this context is to make ourselves the most pitiable of all creatures. To embrace all, even the hatred of the world for the love of Christ is most beautiful and precious of things.  --- Text of chat during the group: 00:12:04 FrDavid Abernethy: page 290 paragraph 6   00:42:10 Anthony: Is this why there are numerous examples of the monastics in tears, but little about the sacrament of Confession?  Because they saw their hearts and were in a state of grief and contrition?   00:42:55 Lee Graham: “Love and do what you will.” Augustine (354-430). A sermon on love. St Aurelius Augustine Sermon on 1 John 4:4-12.   00:44:10 carol nypaver: I thought it was “Love God, then do as you please.” ?   00:59:19 Ambrose Little, OP: See #8 here for the St. Augustine quote in context: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/170207.htm   01:01:19 Anthony: Then St. Francis of Assisi was a marble pillar - almost a Fool for Christ, but so joyful and at times profoundly mournful   01:03:11 Anthony: Did saints like Francis and Philp Neri have elders or were they directly inspired?   01:03:12 Ambrose Little, OP: You mean he didn’t publish a blog about how wrong the Holy Father was?? 😄   01:07:19 Anthony: Well in our time we were not brought up with the saints.  We were brought up with revolutionaries, with men who bent society to their will - with ambitious men, and THIS is virtue to us when we are young.   01:10:15 Ambrose Little, OP: Independence and Liberty are the chief American virtues.   01:15:52 Ambrose Little, OP: May you be saved!  

As we follow Saint John’s teaching on the passion of anger, we truly begin to get a sense of what a great spiritual teacher and physician he and the other fathers are. St. John has the capacity to see the various ways that anger manifests itself in our lives, the subtlety of the demon’s trickery, and the danger of our own blindness to self-conceit. St. John makes it very clear to us that if we struggle with the passion of anger we must be willing to place ourselves in a situation where we are going to be able to diagnose it and bring it before another in order that a healing balm might be applied. The person who is in the grip of anger is going to bring agitation to all those around him. Therefore, a person must go where this passion might revealed by testing and overcome by trial. Austerity in life and firmness from one’s spiritual director or elder is often needed to break one free from the grip of this passion. However, John tells us, he who has won this battle by sweat has conquered all the passions that precede it. Let us then not be afraid to be mortified in regards to our self-esteem and pride; for they both collaborate to hold us captive. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:07:22 FrDavid Abernethy: page 122, paragraph 17   00:10:12 Bonnie Lewis: Hi Father David!   00:14:21 FrDavid Abernethy: page 122 para 17   00:55:12 Ambrose Little, OP: “fuller’s shop”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulling   01:03:43 Bonnie Lewis: we lost you   01:04:17 carol nypaver: Come back, Father!   01:04:28 Sheila Applegate: You are frozen for us all. :(   01:15:58 Rafael Patrignani: Thaís week I had to face w tough situation from my Chief, who received false accusations against me. The advice I had received from my spiritual director was to be ready to listen for understanding but not for having a reaction. I found this very coincidental with your speech Father David. That position was very useful in that meeting and for that kind of attack   01:16:10 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:16:11 Rafael Patrignani: * this   01:16:12 Jeff O.: Thank you!!   01:16:17 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father   01:16:17 Rafael Patrignani: Thank you   01:16:23 Dev Shukla: Thank you  

What is our standard of judgment? When we consider anything about life in this world, or our struggle with vice, or seeking to grow in virtue, where do we look? So often we, even in our spiritual struggles, look to our own reason and judgment. The problem with this is that we only see partial truths, even when we see things clearly. We all have hard spots and blind spots in our perception of reality and of others. If anything, John’s writing on anger and meekness remind us that there must be a willingness as Christians to suspend our judgment and allow the grace of God to touch our minds and hearts; so that we can perceive the greater reality about the other person, even when they commit evil against us. The standard for us is Christ. The standard is the cross and cruciform love. It is when our minds and our hearts have been shaped by this Love, that we begin to be guided by the spirit of peace; and our minds are illuminated with the greater truth of the goodness of the other created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the blood of Christ. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:32:08 Deb Dayton: So many (me) hear to rebut, rather than listen for understanding   00:44:13 Jeff O.: So holy/righteous anger is anger directed at the true enemy - the “demons” - and anger towards another undermines their dignity as an imager of God>   00:48:14 Ambrose Little, OP: Might have more luck typing it in.   00:51:25 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: What about anger that motivates one to take action for justice for others?  Any room in the Fathers for this?  Or is that called something else in their terminology?   00:54:34 Daniel Allen: It is interesting because it seems like Christ acted by suffering with the suffering and without destroying the one causing the suffering   01:00:49 Daniel Allen: A hopeful reading for the Irish such as myself   01:03:24 carol nypaver: Can’t acting out a virtue (patience/silence) lead us to actually acquire that virtue?   01:06:05 Ambrose Little, OP: It seems like while anger can be a useful motivator to act, the more perfect motivation is love. If we see someone hurting and in need, the motivation of compassion and charity seems more than sufficient motive to act, even when the pain/need is caused by some injustice. And when love is our motive, we can then turn that same love towards even the offender, who may be in even greater need by their damaging of their relationship with God and others—they may be imperiling their eternal soul, in addition to whatever circumstances may have led to their unjust action. Contrast that to anger, which only tends to act in favor of the victim, while often seeking the suffering of the offender (or at best ignoring the offender’s need).   01:14:51 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:14:54 iPhone (2): Thank you!   01:15:01 Jeff O.: Thank you, great being with you all.   01:15:01 Art: Thank you!!  

What does obedience allow us to hear? This may seem to be a funny question. In light of how we often characterize obedience or think about it in our own lives, so often it is about setting aside our own will and having to do what another tells us to do. But in light of the fathers’ writings, it becomes clear that obedience is not a kind of slavishness. The etymology of the word obedience is “to hear.”  It allows us to listen and to receive a Word from God that reveals divine truth. Obedience raises us up to comprehend the very love that has saved us.  Of course, one must admit that it is jarring to our sensibilities and our reason. When we hear the stories of the monks’ obedience, we begin to see that it had to do more with their desire for God, their yearning to be conformed to Christ who emptied himself to take upon our humanity and become obedient even unto death. Our obedience leads us to hear that word spoken in our own heart, inviting us to draw close to Christ in every way. This means embracing a wisdom that is wholly unlike what is made manifest within the world and so often shaped by sin. The fathers are living icons of the gospel. What they write and what they do becomes a window revealing the path that we are to walk and that will draw us closer to Christ.  --- Text of chat during the group:  00:14:43 Anthony: I believe there are different sizes and thicknesses for different strength dogs   00:15:05 Debra: Yes...I think you can get them rated for different breeds   00:15:09 Babington (or Babi): I have one too   00:27:03 Paul Fifer: How would one then differentiate between this zeal and scrupulosity?   00:28:12 Babington (or Babi): Hmmm. Perhaps I’m being ruled by flesh at the moment but I feel resistant to this as the Word of God. If I heard correctly the the teacher led the seeker of God to starve himself potentially very destructively in year two. I don’t see that as God’s love. But again perhaps I’m missing something as I’m distracted by cooking for my dogs.   00:36:09 Babington (or Babi): Oh wait. A second day? I thought he directed him to fast for a whole year, not day.   00:41:00 Babington (or Babi): I get that saturated trusting submission and have tasted it as seeker towards a teacher.    But not a whole year of very unhealthy fasting. As you clarify, extremes aren’t the Way. But I’ll go back and listen to podcast. Perhaps I misunderstood him and you. So sorry if so. Much love and gratitude. 🙏🏼🤍   00:43:10 Babington (or Babi): Fasting is great. I thought you read a year not day. A year seems like starvation.   00:45:59 Anthony: I suggest the stick was a fig branch; It is not entirely unreasonable to have him do this.   00:46:32 Anthony: Figs take about 3 years to fruit and this is one way how you start them (I've done it).   01:09:39 Ashley Kaschl: We don’t often come upon stories, though I know there have been a few, of brothers who were stirred to anger or resentment in the keeping of their obedience. Is there a correlation between being purified of anger, and the lack of an interior movement that might convince someone that the authority figure is lording their commands over the one being called to obedience?   01:11:46 Ashley Kaschl: So our anger can point to us the areas in our life where we need to grow in virtue so that we can be perfectly obedient?  

Today someone mentioned to me that Saint John Climacus does not mince words when speaking about the spiritual life, and in particular when speaking about the passions. This is unequivocally true. John does not varnish the truth. His heart has been formed in such a way that it would be impossible to do so; his view of God, man, redemption, and sin is shaped by the cross, and by the fullness of the gospel. Such is the case in our reading this evening of Step 8. St. John begins to define for us the nature of freedom from anger and the virtue that leads us along that path: meekness.  In this step like so many others, our view of reality and our experience as human beings is going to be challenged. Our experience of aggression in ourselves and from others must be seen now through what has been revealed to us in Christ and through the Cross. We must allow the grace of God to shape our identity so deeply that we remain unmoved either by dishonor or by praise. Meekness is allowing the love of God to touch our emotions and affective state as well as the incensive faculty that protects us from sin.  The Scriptures teach us that “the anger of man does not bear fruit acceptable to God.”  The reason for this is that such anger is often driven by an insatiable desire that we be treated in a fashion that satisfies our vainglorious needs or our sense of justice. Anger, however, can become so deeply rooted within the soul that bitterness becomes the lens through which we view relationships, and circumstances of every kind. It can become the log in our eye that prevents us from seeing any goodness in the world or others. Let us, then, listen attentively to what John says and allow him to guide us along this challenging path. --- Text of chat during the group:  00:03:22 FrDavid Abernethy: page 119, para 66   00:18:02 Maple(Hannah) Hong: What page?   00:19:24 Sean: Top of 120   00:20:06 Maple(Hannah) Hong: Thank you, Sean!   00:57:54 Jeff O.: Evagrius talks a lot about the blinding effect of anger on the intellect of the mind, blinding the seer and consequently how meekness allows us to see (know) God   00:58:11 Eric Ewanco: Reacted to "Evagrius talks a lot..." with 👍🏻   00:58:40 carol nypaver: 👍🏼   01:02:24 Ashley Kaschl: Something that might help give a little guidance in regards to feeling the emotion of anger is something that Ven. Fulton Sheen said when he gives perspective on Wrath vs. Righteous Anger, in that he writes,    “Be angry, and sin not”; for anger is no sin under three conditions: (1) If the cause of the anger be just, for example, defense of God’s honor; (2) If it be no greater than the cause demands, that is, if it be kept under control; and (3) If it be quickly subdued: "Let not the sun go down upon your anger.”   01:04:03 Ambrose Little, OP: “How can one take a fire to his bosom and not be burned?”   01:04:36 carol nypaver: Awesome, Ashley.  Can’t go wrong with Ven. Fulton Sheen!   01:08:22 Meghann (she/her) KS: is it like God's, Christ's expressions of anger are always intended toward repentance not punishment... opportunities of wakening not retributive...?  Always pathways toward salvation, not "justice" or closure?  Ours tend to be mixed and partial expressions   01:14:07 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you 🙂   01:14:54 kevin: Thanks father   01:14:55 Jeff O.: Thank you, great being with you all.   01:15:05 Art: Thank you father!   01:15:11 Mitchell Hunt: Thanks father David   01:15:12 Larisa and Tim: Thank you!   01:15:13 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father   01:15:17 Babington (or Babi): Thank you  

To have Christ praying within us, to have Christ fasting within us, to have Christ suffering within us. We hear from the fathers that the ascetical life is meant to draw us into deeper communion with the Lord. The ascetic life must begin and end with Him. If not, it will bear no fruit. Only when our spiritual life is elevated by the grace of God does it become pleasing in God’s sight. Even our virtues must be perfected by His grace. We may have spent many years in silence and prayer and the pursuit of virtue. Then God in his providence may lead us along another path in order that he might fulfill the deepest desires of our heart as well as to bring us to salvation and the perfection of virtue.  We can have no conceit in this regard. Only God sees the nature and the depth of our desire and love. We must follow Him and allow Him to guide us through those He puts in charge of us or those He makes responsible for us. At times, it is only when we are pushed beyond the limits of human strength that we begin to see the power and the action of God’s grace.  Again we can have no illusions about our own desire. As strong as it might be, and even if it does come from God, our weakness and poverty can only be overcome through His mercy and by His wisdom. We must allow Him to draw us more and more deeply into the Paschal Mystery. We must allow our hearts to be shaped by Divine and self-emptying love. --- Text of chat during the group:  00:09:01 FrDavid Abernethy: page 279 J   00:51:54 Anthony: for Sunday of the Syrophoenecian woman, Father told us God tests all of us to have the faith to persevere to the end.   01:19:23 David Fraley: Thank you, Father!