Philokalia Ministries

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🙂  

The Mystery of the Human Person!  What comes forward in the ascetical writings of the fathers is not a moralistic or legalistic view of sin. Rather, we see within them a deep understanding of the complex beauty and dignity of the human person despite often being marred by sin. Perhaps too often we emphasize the negative; rather than fostering a desire both for God and for virtue and for the freedom and joy that it brings to the human heart.  Like so many of the fathers, Saint John describes certain passions as a disease in need of remedy. While we must be disciplined in so many ways and vigilant in our thoughts, we never want to lose sight of how God has created us; that it is through our very being that we love and give ourselves in love. We are not meant to hate ourselves but rather sin. Self-contempt can often be our demise in the spiritual life. True love of the self begins with the desire for God; not with self-indulgence or laziness that reduces and diminishes the image we have of creation and our own goodness. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:12:42 Ashley Kaschl: I was trying to say we have a diocesan hermit so if you DO want to stay, he’s got room haha   00:34:50 Louise: An amazing movie just came out, called 'Sound of Freedom, about combatting child sex trafficking. Being a trauma therapist myself, I can only fathom that pedophilia is due to demonic influence. These people are untreatable. What are your thoughts?   00:35:22 carol nypaver: It was a very informative and well-done film!   00:36:43 David Swiderski: Doesn't abuse of food or lust devalue these things. I know when I break a long fast water taste sweeter, food is savored and so when we truly develop love rather than just physical attraction or objectification. The diamond is often hidden by the dirt on the outside.   00:39:33 Louise: By the way, 2.5% of priests abuse children sexually, 5% of physicians, and 10% of school teachers, according to three studies.   00:44:21 Art: What do you mean Father?   00:55:03 Charbel & Justin: “Prefer nothing to the love of God.”   01:10:59 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethy! I must go.   01:12:17 Ashley Kaschl: I am friends with many people who are constantly worried about money, about their paychecks, jobs, etc. and it prevents them from choosing to move forward in their potential vocations, so they put it off and put it off and put it off. I think some of the downsides of our culture, and even the mindset of many who come out of universities today, is this absolute concern about climbing the ladder in their jobs or this habit formed to always look for “greener grass”/better opportunities. And this demand of function over substance makes me think of a quote by CS Lewis:    “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”   01:16:42 John: There's an old Rod Serling movie about the corporate mindset (ladder-climbing) called "Patterns."   01:17:16 Monk Maximos: Good night   01:17:51 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you ☺️   01:17:53 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father   01:17:56 Jeff O.: Thank you!   01:18:04 Art: Thank you!   01:18:17 Jeff O.: 🎉🎉🎉   01:18:22 Monk Maximos: Flying to the Holy Land on Saturday. Will be praying for you.   01:18:30 David Swiderski: Have a wonderful Birthday Father!   01:18:34 Eric Ewanco: happy birthday!  

Avoidance: often this can be the fundamental reason that an individual gravitates towards solitude, religious, or otherwise. We do not want to be in the presence of others, because it is there that we stand revealed - not only in their eyes, but in our own. In our interactions with others, we begin to see our dominant passions and the poverty of our sin. Our weak spots, blind spots and hard spots become perfectly evident to us. It is for this reason that the desert fathers counsel spending many years in the common life because it is there that true purification takes place. It is in our day-to-day struggle with the movement of our own thoughts and emotions and interactions with others, that sin is overcome and virtue begins to grow. To flee into solitude, prematurely, and even with the highest spiritual aspirations, promises only danger. It is perilous to enter into deep silence alone. If one falls, there is no one to pick them up. If one is swallowed up by delusion, there is no one to set them aright. How can we repent without having the other as one to whom we can direct our compassion or who reveals our darker side?  Silence can never be an escape. In fact, silence can only be loved by one who has been freed from every impediment in order to encounter He who is Love and find true respite and peace in Him.  --- Text of chat during the group: 00:04:13 FrDavid Abernethy: page 359 Letter C From Abba Mark   00:04:17 FrDavid Abernethy: Welcome Sandy   00:11:11 FrDavid Abernethy: page 359 Letter C   00:15:40 Cindy Moran: Is this like a consecrated virgin?   00:26:06 LauraLeigh: Replying to "Is this like a conse..."   Cindy, I think it is probably different, in that you can continue to live in the world in any way you feel called as a consecrated virgin, but I believe that being a hermit involves deliberately leaving the world to live apart, yet following the monastic rule. Maybe Father can add or correct this.   00:27:38 Cindy Moran: Thank you!   00:27:39 LauraLeigh: Replying to "Is this like a conse..."   Your diocesan office will probably have someone who can answer questions about both.   00:27:50 LauraLeigh: Reacted to "Thank you!" with 👍   00:31:41 Rachel: This reminds me of Saint Paul stating that he doesn't even judge himself. Years ago this statement left me wondering at what he meant and have now come to believe that what Cassian is saying is the same thing that Saint Paul was saying. He had a thorn in the flesh, knew a man taken up to the third Heaven yet does not even judge himself. Not even stopping to examen himself except to boast in his weakness in order to glorify God's great mercy.   00:32:15 LauraLeigh: Seems like, whether in community or as a hermit, one needs to be prepared to be a "plucky fighter"!   00:32:22 Eric Ewanco: Can you relate these eremitic hazards to ordinary laymen who live involuntarily alone but in the world? Obviously some hazards apply, but some may not. Can you comment?   00:32:39 LauraLeigh: Reacted to "Can you relate these..." with 👍   00:32:55 LauraLeigh: Replying to "Can you relate these..."   This is my question too.   00:38:05 LauraLeigh: The thing is, though, about living alone in the world, you know very well that there is no one there to catch you when you fall. Everything   00:45:47 Anthony: I suggest that maybe women have more living examples of a secular spiritual life since widows with their maturity and their link to other widows are more common than widowers   00:45:51 Anthony: Grand torino   00:46:25 Eric Ewanco: Oh that's where that came from! I've used that. :-)   00:52:47 LauraLeigh: Thank you for not running off to a cabin in the woods, Father.   00:53:26 melissa kummerow: Reacted to "Thank you for not ru..." with 👆   00:54:12 Anthony: Sometimes I think we try too hard to be good Catholics, so hard that we dispel that peace we might otherwise have if we didn't try so hard , since trying too hard can focus us on our turbulent selves. Perhaps it's to have a hobby and cigar and an occasional prayer than making and measuring ourselves against a lot of self imposed religious obligations.   00:56:55 Eric Ewanco: With all due respect to Tolkien, I'd rather live under corrupt government than anarchy.   00:57:21 sue and mark: Reacted to "Sometimes I think we..." with ❤️   00:58:09 Patrick: Reacted to "Sometimes I think ..." with ❤️   01:09:39 Anthony: Or by taking obligation to pray and fast because you're going to fight evil......that _can_ lead to obsessive type of behavior for an ostensibly good reason. It's perhaps like a modern day "Children's Crusade."   01:12:34 John: Yesterday's Gueranger article talks about exterior-only asceticism: "The Jewish casuists were not slow in drawing up their famous formula, that all moral goodness was guaranteed to him that had received circumcision! St. Paul, later on, told them how such a principle was a stumbling-block to the Gentiles, leading them to blaspheme the name of God. According to the moral theology of these Hebrew doctors, conscience meant only what the tribunal of public justice issued as its decisions: the obligations of the interior tribunal of a man’s conscience were to be restricted to the rules followed by the assize-courts. The result of such teaching soon showed itself: the only thing people need care for was what was seen by men; if the fault were not one that human eyes could judge of, you were not to trouble about it."   01:17:24 Louise: Thanks, Fr. Abernethy!   01:18:22 sue and mark: Thank you   01:18:32 Rachel: Thank you  

The fathers have often been accused of having a negative anthropology; that is, a negative view of the human person and human nature. However, as we read through St. John’s teachings on chastity and purity, we begin to see that their understanding arises from a very high and exalted anthropology. Their understanding of how God has made us, the beauty that is expressed in our very nature is so high that we must respect its preciousness as a gift from God. Furthermore we must also respect the power that lies within us and that it is through this nature that we are able to love and give ourselves in love to others and serve God.    Indeed, it is true that sin has darkened our vision of this truth and our will has often become weak so that we misuse our nature and the appetites associated with it. Yet, God looks upon us with mercy and compassion and gives us every aid for healing. It is the Evil One that becomes our accuser who tries through shame to draw us into despair.    Part of the relentless nature of our struggle with these sins is that we are forever bound by nature to this body of ours. Yet we must remember in the struggle that the body is destined to put on immortality and incorruptibility by God’s grace. We are called all even now to make use of our body through the ascetic life to share in this incorruptibility through purity of heart. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:03:31 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: What step?   00:03:59 FrDavid Abernethy: Page 151 paragraph 76   00:20:36 Anthony: I wonder if "worm" means not the helpful compost bug, but is really the Anglo Saxon "wyrm" or dragon.   00:26:32 melissa kummerow: Reacted to "I wonder if "worm" m..." with 💡   00:27:51 Louise: Disgust and shame are useful emotions when we apply them onto our faults. Otherwise, we justify our faults. Would you say?   00:30:36 LauraLeigh: It seems to me that St Climacas, like other Desert Fathers, ask for a very difficult mental balance between being uber-humble while maintaining a healthy psychology. If you don't have a strong grip on your mental health, this ascetical lifestyle could trip you up or even take you down. Other than recommending a guide, like an elder, any thoughts about how we can cautiously yet profitably practice asceticism?   00:31:20 Anthony: I learned something,  I think from a talk by a Maronite. It can be helpful to pray Jesus Prayer in another language.  Sometimes that prevents thoughts in one's native tongue from arising in the mind.   00:34:39 LauraLeigh: I need to remember that the Fathers are talking to others already in the ascetical life. And then to remember to order everything toward God.   00:35:46 sue and mark: could it be said that simply looking for opportunities to practice self -restraint for the love of God is a good place to start.  especially in the areas of our passions.   00:36:06 angelo: Reacted to "could it be said tha..." with 👍   00:42:13 LauraLeigh: Reacted to "could it be said tha..." with ❤️   00:43:01 LauraLeigh: "The Way of the Ascetics"   00:46:46 carol nypaver: The Little Flower   00:52:15 Anthony: Remember: the demons don't play fair.   00:53:24 Cindy Moran: In the Classics of western spirituality version of the Ladder this verse translation is unclear to me   00:54:11 Cindy Moran: Yes.   00:54:40 Cindy Moran: I'm slow   00:56:14 Cindy Moran: Because the soul tormented by earlier sin is a burden to me I will save it from its enemies Lk 18:5   00:59:15 Cindy Moran: Much clearer to me now   01:05:31 LauraLeigh: Being proud of your sins is a sign of a darkened conscience, I think. And a sensitive and refined conscience is a great help in getting a handle on troubling or persistent sins. This is what I'm particularly working on.   01:06:36 angelo: Reacted to "Being proud of your ..." with 👍   01:08:26 Anthony: I think it also means that you've entrusted yourself to God,  He won't play legal games with that trust and so the evil thoughts are not as awful upon us as the devil wants us to think. Sure the devil is a deceiver and wants us to take full mortal sin culpability for what the demons sows.  But the struggle is evidence God loves you and takes your whole self and situation into account.   01:09:25 LauraLeigh: Reacted to "I think it also mean..." with ❤️   01:10:30 angelo: Reacted to "I think it also mean..." with 👍   01:10:37 Eric Ewanco: I've found it immensely consoling that empirical evidence from exorcisms establish that demons are extremely legalistic. The converse of this is that God is not. This is a great relief to me, as we often tend to see God as legalistic and looking for "gotchas"   01:12:08 John: After you've read Fr. Mateo's "Night Adoration in the Home," it's impossible to think of God as legalistic. He is the complete opposite!   01:12:21 sue and mark: Reacted to "After you've read Fr..." with ❤️   01:12:34 LauraLeigh: Reacted to "After you've read Fr..." with ❤️   01:12:50 LauraLeigh: Replying to "After you've read Fr..."   I have that! Thanks for the reminder!   01:13:05 Susan McShane: Reacted to "I've found it immens..." with ❤️   01:13:05 John: Replying to "After you've read Fr..."   👍   01:13:23 sue and mark: I have that too...   01:14:53 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂   01:14:54 Louise: Thanks, Fr!   01:14:58 Cindy Moran: Thank you Father...excellent session   01:15:02 Jeff O.: Thank you! Blessings  

In the advertisement for and description of this evening’s group, I wrote: “How does one deal with feelings of desolation in regards to one’s vocation, resentment towards others, being treated with envy or finding one’s circumstances to be a source of temptation? In the face of the many trials brought upon us by the evil one, great perseverance is needed and freedom from self will.”  This description, however, does not capture the depth of the wisdom that we were exposed to this evening. All of our asceticism, all the ways that we seek to remove the impediment of our passions, all the ways that we seek to remain focused upon the spiritual battle that lies within the heart has one end: to bring us to the place where we can enter into the Paschal Mystery in union with Christ. Not one of us should seek to leave the training, ground of the spiritual life prematurely or to choose to rest before God grants it. For it is precisely in this battle that all that remains an impediment to our ascending the cross with Christ is removed. Abba Isaiah, in the richest and most beautiful interpretation of the Passion, unpacks for us the meaning of every experience of our Lord; not that we might reflect upon it in an abstract fashion, but that we would take hold of His experiences as our own. We engage in the ascetical life not to reach the kind of moral perfection or emotional Nirvana but rather that we might reach the place where we can ascend the Cross with Christ. Once we are delivered from all of these things, we pass through our own Passion Week and enter into another, new age, thinking new and incorrupt thoughts. We are reminded of St. Paul’s words, “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you’re dead.“ We leave our sins behind and find mercy together with those who are worthy of Him! --- Text of chat during the group: 00:10:59 FrDavid Abernethy: page 353 paragraph 4   00:11:16 FrDavid Abernethy: And Elder said: “Just as a tree . . . .   00:32:56 Anthony: I suggest that the various revolutions, including the American,  were designed to uproot a stable society.  The mass migrations of the late 1800s to 1900s were caused by Socialist governments displacing their peasants. This uprooted stability and is a root of our mental and moral afflictions today.   00:36:36 Anthony: The honest peasant is an essential character for Solzhenitsyn.   00:37:05 Louise: Focus   00:37:07 Anthony: Vanishing point   00:37:40 Zoom user: True North   00:37:54 Carol: touchstone   00:40:59 Anthony: The reformation was a symptom of society failing in its "monastic " vocation.   00:48:48 Louise: Sartre   00:50:38 Louise: Ste-Thérèse-de-Lisieux forced herself to hang out with the most annoying nun in the convent in order to confront her impatience and find her deeper loving kindness.   01:19:37 Louise: Thank you, Fr. Abernethy!   01:19:43 sheri: Thank you.