Season 8

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily II, Part II

Gratitude is placing ourselves into the hands of God, trusting in His providence and allowing Him to guide us where He wills (without asking us for permission or our understanding His purpose). It is like having a bucket of cold water dumped over our heads. We are suddenly awakened and our whole being is set on edge. 
We realize in the words of Saint Isaac the Syrian that gratitude and faith are often not what we imagine or want them to be. To show gratitude to He who is crucified Love means that we embrace that Love in our lives, are driven by the same desires as Christ, and willing to bear affliction patiently and with joy. 
In the Scriptures, we hear the surprising words: “He was made perfect by what he suffered“. We see the perfection of love and the mercy of the kingdom most fully when Christ allows himself to be broken and poured out on the cross. Life allows himself to be swallowed up by death.  From the perspective of human understanding, it seems to be absurdity and failure.
Despite our acknowledgment and the celebration of the resurrection of Christ - trampling death by death, so that those in the tombs might be granted life, we do not want this reality to shape our experience of life in the world. Saint Isaac is not presenting us with anything different from the gospel and yet our almost infinite capacity for rationalization makes us avoid affliction at every cost and become resentful when we find it ever present in our lives. 
The kingdom of heaven is within. Salvation is now. The life that we are called to live and the love that we are to embody has been freely given to us. Not to embrace this life and love, not to allow it to shape the very essence of our lives is the height of ingratitude.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:01:11 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 120
01:10:34 Catherine Opie: I think that we have been indoctrinated into only being grateful when things go the way we want, I read a story about St Dominic that he took great pains to build a church on a hill. When it was finally complete the local king demanded it be torn down stone by stone until nothing was left. St Dominic upon finding this out declared joyously "Praise the Lord!". This really struck me deeply because it is so the antithesis of the attitude I was brought up in where we bemoan and curse God for misfortune and only are grateful when we get what we want. Or we see relationship with God only as a place to demand what we want.
01:10:56 Kathleen: Tall order. Very difficult.
01:11:35 Maureen Cunningham: Wow it hard but many rewards . That we can not see
01:11:36 Kathleen: It’s a decision one makes with complete awareness of the situation at hand
01:11:47 Rebecca Thérèse: Sometimes there's no option but to suffer. Uniting one's suffering to the redemptive suffering of Christ gives it purpose.
01:12:36 Art iPhone: Reacted to "I think that we have…" with 👌
01:13:48 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Sometimes there's no..." with ❤️
01:15:03 David: I don't remember who said it but " It is only in suffering we know we have faith and grow". When everything is easy or pleasurable there is always doubt if this is the ego or faith and virtue.
01:15:28 Elizabeth Richards: We so want to create meaning & give purpose to our suffering (make sense of it), but Isaac seems to be showing that entering into suffering is entering into Christ.
01:17:25 Joseph: The heart of asceticism is stripping away the palpable, to open up space for the noetic
01:18:38 Kathleen: Yes
01:18:48 Ren Witter: ALS
01:19:03 Kathleen: Yes
01:19:28 Kathleen: Yes
01:19:50 Kathleen: Thank you!!!!
01:20:03 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Father
01:20:04 Julie: Thankyou
01:20:47 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:20:52 Catherine Opie: 🙏🏻❤️ Thank you
01:20:54 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you, happy Easter everyone🙂
01:20:56 Matt S: Thank you!
01:20:57 David: Thanks father!
01:20:57 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!
01:21:08 Andrew Adams: Thanks everyone. Great comments tonight!

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part VII and II, Part I

After having spoken to us about the importance of being filled with wonder at the love and mercy of God revealed to us in Christ and desiring him above all things, Saint Isaac immediately stresses that what is born from the heart must be real and concrete. It is one thing for us to use beautiful words to speak about Christ and the faith. It is another to embody the love and compassion of Christ so vitally that our actions and words transmit virtue to others. In other words, for our actions to be life-giving, they must be rooted in the experience of the living God. Otherwise, our wisdom becomes a “deposit of disgrace”. Whereas righteous activity born of the love of Christ and the experience of his mercy becomes a “treasury of hope”. How do we engage the world around us and those in it except by embodying He who is reality, love and truth.
Our temporal life passes so quickly and Isaac tells us that if we love it then our way of life is defiled or we have been deprived of knowledge. He writes: “the fear of death distresses a man with a guilty conscience, but the man with a good witness within himself longs for death as for life.“  If Christ is the center of our life then we will have no fear or anxiety. The only thing that we take out of this world is our vice or virtue. Everything passes away like a dream disappearing in the morning.
All that we have received is pure gift; coming to us through baptism and faith where we are called by the Lord - called by name - to enter into his life and to love as he loved. Indeed it is an interesting thing that Isaac begins his Ascetical Homilies by emphasizing wonder, desire, urgent longing and God‘s desire for us as well how freely He has given us everything that is good. Isaac set us upon a path that helps us keep our focus upon God and God alone. All of our spiritual disciplines must serve to help us love and give ourselves in love or they are hollow. Likewise, all that we receive must be responded to with gratitude. There is only one thing that keeps us from experiencing the richness of God’s grace and mercy. It is our failure to turn towards him through a lack of trust or appreciation for His generosity.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:08:47 Catherine Opie: Apologies I missed last weeks zoom due to being offline. What page are we on today?
00:10:29 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 118 paragraph 34
00:19:12 Catherine Opie: Things move slower down here in Australasia 🤣
00:24:50 David: I find this part so beautiful my grandmother was an artist near Lake Superior and painted in water colors I spent my summers with her and while I love her paintings I remember more the scenes , smell of the wildflowers and of course being next to her. The painting is but a pale reflection. So to with talking about love but feeling that from my family/mentors special people illuminates long after the time has past.
00:29:18 David: In the end I found Christ seeing him in my grandparents and others not the years of studying, reading the Summa. He was there next to me living through them.
00:46:06 Ren Witter: Don’t worry Father, I’ll throw myself on your grave and weep ;-)
00:46:50 paul g.: Reacted to "Don’t worry Father, …" with 😇
00:47:25 Tracey Fredman: Sometimes we find ourselves in a position ... I have thoughts! I pray for everyone's prayers - don't know how to raise my hand on the phone! lol
00:47:51 Tracey Fredman: Reacted to Don’t worry Father, ... with "😇"
00:48:13 Tracey Fredman: I can unmute
00:49:23 Tracey Fredman: (or not , lol)
00:49:36 David: I nice thing to do is to take a picture and send it to them SMS. Someone did this for me and it is really comforting in bad times to see a candle lit, a thought shared etc.
00:51:53 David: We enter this life and leave the same way - no teeth, no hair and in diapers what is important is what we share in-between was a saying from my Grandfather.
00:54:46 Bob Čihák, AZ: I've given up saying, "I can't wait to be a burden to my children." too much static.
00:57:01 David: Reacted to "I've given up saying..." with 😂
01:00:09 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: HIs advice here would also apply to those who carry trauma memories.
01:01:39 David: When my Mom was in hospice at home dying I was also raising my sons alone and commuting to Chicago (4hrs driving). I had a lot of anxiety and listed to relevant radio on the way back. Father Simon said the only honest prayer is not asking for things but - God teach me your ways. When I started doing this most of the anxiety and frustration went away. I guess letting go of pride?
01:02:23 Bob Čihák, AZ: Reacted to "When my Mom was in h..." with 👍
01:03:02 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "When my Mom was in h..." with ❤️
01:03:14 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "We enter this life a..." with ❤️
01:03:45 Anthony: A problem is that these very remedies - Bible, sacraments, real theology - have been distorted and abused and therefore look ugly and repulsive.  That blockage needs to be overcome
01:03:58 Bob Čihák, AZ: My favorite is "Thy will be done." So much so that we're planning it for our gravestone.
01:05:16 David: Reacted to "A problem is that th..." with 👍
01:05:21 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "My favorite is "Thy ..." with 🤣
01:17:39 Ryan N: Father, How does one who struggles with giving gratitude arrive to such state. Is it left to the grace of God? Do we ask God for the grace to be grateful?
01:19:45 Naina: Thank you Father 🙏✝️❤️
01:20:30 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:20:30 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!
01:20:42 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr, I will pray for you.
 

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part VI

Saint Isaac the Syrian begins his teaching with a gentle reminder that liberation from material things, that is, our attachment to the things of this world and placing them above God, is a slow process that involves great toil. Yet, this is the common order of things. In our journey, we often have to break loose of the mooring of those things that prevent us from loving. And so Isaac teaches us that righteous activity involves comprehending what God has revealed to us and then embodying it through action - praxis. Even as we make gains our memory of past sins and failures often brings grief to the soul. We shouldn’t be discouraged by this, St. Isaac tells us, but we must simply allow these recollections to lead us to greater repentance and gratitude for God‘s mercy.
Yet all of this is but a prelude to Isaac asking us an important question: Do you desire to commune with God by perceiving the love and the mercy that He reveals not just with the mind or the senses but through faith and experience?  Do you desire God? Do you desire Love? If our answer to this question is “yes” then Isaac tells us we must pursue mercy: “For when something that is like unto God is found in you, then that holy beauty is depicted by Him.“ We begin to see and comprehend the mercy and love of God by loving as he loves; by going beyond the limitations and the confines of our own understanding. 
Such spiritual unity once unsealed incessantly blazes in the heart with ardent longing. The soul‘s divine vision, Isaac tells us, unites one to God and the heart becomes awestruck; filled with wonder at what no eye has seen or mind could imagine outside of the grace of God. The path to divine love first begins by showing compassion in some proportion to the Father’s perfection. As Christ tells us, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect, be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful“
The dignity and destiny that is ours, the life and love into which God draws us should be what we pursue the most in life. To desire God, to give free reign to an urgent longing for Him brings about our transformation. Desire is our path to the Kingdom within.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:15:08 Callie Eisenbrandt: I’ll take your books Father!! 😂
00:16:21 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 117 paragraph 26 starting "Liberation from...."
00:20:11 Eleana: I want Icons😁
00:30:39 Sr. Charista Maria: Amen Father. So very true. We so often fall so short of such communion with the indwelling presence of the Holy Trinity. Most don't realize the profound grace of our Baptism.
00:30:43 Anthony: This is interesting.....in Italian, a translation of "lust" is "desire."  Lust (the sin) must be misplaced desire.
00:31:53 Paisios: There's a phenomenal article by Cormac Jones about converting desire being the most important thing in the Christian spiritual life
00:31:55 Paisios: https://cormacjones.substack.com/p/converting-desire
00:33:38 Sr Mary Clare: Reacted to "https://cormacjones...." with 👍
00:34:19 Anthony: Reacted to There's a phenomenal... with "👍"
00:34:25 Anthony: Reacted to https://cormacjones.... with "👍"
00:36:16 Jamie Hickman: Replying to "This is interestin..."
concupiscence...think concupiscible appetite. we tend to think of it only in the negative (evil, sinful), but as you say: it is not in itself bad
00:41:56 Anthony: Too much asceticism leads to resentment
00:45:00 Nypaver Clan: Father, How do we balance Mercy with the Judgement of God?  Is it possible to rely too much on God’s Mercy?
00:50:05 Paisios: I once read, "God's judgement is mercy"
00:52:37 Maureen Cunningham: W hat about abusive act
00:55:43 Sr Mary Clare: There are many out there who constantly say, "Don't judge!. when a person may just be speaking about sins that hurt the heart of Jesus Christ. It is a constant cry of those who seemingly have problems with church teachings and the ten commandments.
00:59:45 Jamie Hickman: I might have missed it: to whom is Isaac intending homily? Was this preached in a church during Divine Liturgy? Looking for context and audience.
01:02:08 Anthony: Leaving their boats and family was leaving freedom and security of having your place where you belong.
01:02:20 Jamie Hickman: thank you, Father
01:02:37 Anthony: Also they left economic power
01:02:52 Sr. Charista Maria: There's a video called The Third Way, which is so beautifully done, that may reflect what you are saying here Father regarding love. Letting Love inspire in all things. The first way is Judging, the second is compromising, the third is Christ's way it seems.
01:04:42 Sr. Charista Maria: It is testimonies of some who were in the homosexual lifestyle, but then were drawn by love to the truth.
01:05:49 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: The intensity of man's thirst for God determines his spiritual progress. Longing for God stands above all ascesis. Man's desire constitutes the small human part, which man offers to God, and God then adds to it the great part of His grace. It is essential to constantly rekindle our desire, and this should be the main concern of our life. God gave the same commandments to all, so if God's gifts are more abundant in some, this means that their thirst for God is greater and they renew their desire day after day. Spiritual thirst brings the whole heart of man to the source Christ, as He Himself said, 'Where your heart is there shall your treasure be also." Respecting man's freedom, however, God responds to man according to his longing, as Saint Silouan writes: ‘The Lord has love for all men but His love is greater for the one who seeks Him.' If we expect the Lord's visitation with all our heart, then, of a surety, we will attract the living waters of His grace.
01:06:28 Lee Graham: Life with Christ must be “experiential”,
01:08:22 Sr. Charista Maria: There's a video called The Third Way, which is so beautifully done, that may reflect what you are saying here Father regarding love. Letting Love inspire in all things. The first way is Judging, the second is compromising, the third is Christ's way it seems. It is testimonies of some who were in the homosexual lifestyle, but then were drawn by love to the truth.
01:12:05 Kathleen: HAHA
01:12:45 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Father
01:12:53 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:13:10 Maureen Cunningham: Yes
01:13:20 Lee Graham: Yes!
01:13:25 David: Thank you father!
01:13:26 Sr Mary Clare: Thank you
 

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part V

As one reads the thoughts of Saint Isaac the Syrian the experience is almost like that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “Did our hearts not burn within us?” Isaac speaks to something so deep within the human heart that it ignites the very thing that he sets out to inflame: desire, wonder, awe at the love of God and the mystery of the Divine Life into which God invites us. 
One of the great struggles that we have as Christians is that we approach the faith and the spiritual life in a common fashion.  In our reading of the Scriptures, we approach them in a reductive manner, dissecting the gospels; pulling out for ourselves bits of wisdom to help us get through life. Yet, Isaac understands that we cannot over-scrutinize the words that are written or spoken to us, but rather must immerse ourselves humbly in Divine Wisdom. Isaac tells us that those who are filled with grace are led by the light that is running between the lines. It is this humble and prayerful approach not only to the scriptures but to the faith as a whole that prevents the heart from being common and devoid of that holy power that “gives the heart a most sweet taste through perceptions that awe the soul.”  A soul that is filled with the spirit is going to run toward God, driven by an urgent longing for the fullness of life and love that He alone can satisfy. Not every soul is awakened to that sense of wonder yet it is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field, and the one thing necessary. May God fill our hearts with a holy desire.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:09:28 The Recovery Community Hub of PBC, Inc.: Hey everyone, in Christ, my name is Ian, I am only using my former workers Zoom platform
00:11:17 Myles Davidson: Pg. 116 “Just as the heaviness of weights…”
00:11:50 Vanessa: I'm in Ontario too. Blizzard is bad here.
00:12:18 Edward Kleinguetl: I lived in Toronto for a year!
00:12:46 Ben: Replying to "I lived in Toronto f..."
I'm east of Ottawa.
00:14:16 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: When you desire to do something for the love of God, put death as the limit of your desire. In this way you will rise in actual deed to the level of martyrdom in struggling with every passion, suffering no harm from whatever you may meet within this limit, if you endure to the end and do not weaken. 
~ St Isaac the Syrian
00:20:34 Anthony: It appears Isaac uses "Liberty" of mind different than the Greek Fathers?
00:34:08 Ben: I remember reading "The Imitation of Christ" for the first time in my youth, and thinking, "Oh, boy, this totally demolishes everything we were ever taught about self-esteem!"
00:36:20 David: I am wondering if the Diatessaron which was the most common with Aramaic communities might have influenced idea of living the gospel instead of the legal way of the west?
00:38:06 David: St Emphrain wrote a discourse on that and I assume Issac was likely exposed where the separate gospels tend to compare and contrast and get far to analytical.
00:40:22 David: The other thing I find fascinating the Syrian fathers taught through poetry which moves emotions not just debates or arguments.
00:42:17 Anthony: Seeing the Word of God as the Divine Logos keeps us from the "fundamentalism" that makes categories of touchable and untouchable.
00:42:27 Jamie Hickman: Great podcast episode on the show Square Notes looking at Thomas Aquinas's poetry...too often he's only known by his Summas as though that's his only writing style
00:42:46 Jamie Hickman: hat tip to Fr. Innocent Smith, OP, for his contribution
00:43:11 Paisios: Next book/class should be Hymns on Paradise
00:44:14 Anthony: Reacted to Great podcast episod... with "❤️"
00:44:52 Paisios: yes
00:45:04 Zack Morgan: I feel like the over-scrupulous approach we are discussing works more towards an apologetic end than anything else.  We find it almost too easy to read the Gosepls and accept them in contrast to a world that wants to reject them, so we easily fall into the temptation to over-explain that which we have come to blieve by a gift of faith that is in contrast very simple.
00:50:04 Kate : Perhaps it is a lack of faith and trust in the grace of God and the workings of the Holy Spirit in the depths of the soul.
00:52:37 Jamie Hickman: In one of St Louis de Montfort's books on the Holy Rosary, he recounts that Our Lady apppeared to Saint Dominic and told him to preach a simple homily rather than the one he had prepared, which was super eloquent, because in his humility he would convert the souls in the church even though the academics wouldn't be impressed...apparently Our Lady told him to preach the same simple version repeatedly, which led many academics present to think less of him...I might have confused which Dominican, but I think it was Dominic and definitely it was a saint
00:52:40 Sr. Charista Maria: My experience in reading the desert Fathers has been that the purpose and heart of it all is an encouragement to strive to "become fire!"
00:56:53 lauren: Reacted to "My experience in rea…" with ❤️
01:00:12 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "My experience in rea..." with ❤️
01:06:37 David: "Virtue seen and lived inspires and virtue explained often makes others weary " was a saying of my grandfather. People were attracted to Christianity by seeing love among the followers not convincing arguments. My own path from being young and not sure of religion was seeing Christ along side me in my grandparents and parents living their faith in love and sacrifice.
01:11:20 Ben: I've thought of that...
01:12:18 Catherine Opie: ❤️🙏🏻
01:12:21 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:12:23 Jamie Hickman: thank you, Father!
01:12:23 Diana Sciuto: Thank you
01:12:25 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you Father!
01:12:26 David: Thank you father !
01:12:31 Catherine Opie: Deo Gratias
 

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part IV

Again, already in these first paragraphs of Homily One what comes forward most powerfully in Saint Isaac‘s writing is that the ascetic life is driven by love and desire for God. More accurately, one might say that it is the soul’s response to God‘s revelation of His love, mercy and compassion to us in His only begotten Son. 
Therefore, Isaac can speak of things such as shame not in the sense of diminishing an individual’s self-identity but rather as a veil protecting the mind and the heart for Christ alone. As one purifies the heart one begins to see with a greater clarity those things that can diminish one’s capacity to love and to see that which is good in God and others. Thus, while shame mortifies us it also protects us from being led indiscriminately by our thoughts and desires. 
One of the blessings that God has given to us in order to purify the heart is the scriptures. We are exhorted to have a fervent love of instruction; to fill the mind and the heart with the words and deeds of Christ. In doing so we create a new habit of mind that directs the soul toward God in such a way that we put behind us and even forget everything that is a distraction from this greater reality. We are surrounded by the noise of the world and in kind of thoughtless fashion we allow ourselves to be led away from what endures unto eternity or what is uplifting. However, when the mind is captivated by the divine word, it can be filled with such wonder that it becomes unaware of even thoughts that are associated with our basic human needs - when our last meal was or how the night has passed away so quickly.
The ascetic life, therefore, is not about self perfection or endurance. Rather, it is a recognition of our identity in Christ. We are made in the image and likeness of God and by his grace and his redemptive love we are being drawn into the very life of the Holy Trinity. Isaac’s homilies are an invitation to enter into the wondrous depths of God’s love.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:14:37 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 115 paragraph 15 from start of homily
00:28:16 Jamie Hickman: Sorry, I had trouble with the keyboard...regarding the last paragraph that begins "Not he is chaste who...": just wanted to say that the saint we are reading would be guarding his own thoguhts, but I wonder: can we say confidently that he doesn't judge another? Instead, can we assume he regrets that another has fallen prey to evil one by not preserving his purity in thought, word, or action? My purpose: guarding our purity seems to include guarding us from judging others...something I struggle with for sure, shamefully!
00:30:53 Jamie Hickman: Thank you, Father 🤝
00:32:39 Anthony: Father, how does this differ from "quietism?"
00:39:34 Jessica Imanaka: Would Saint Isaac have memorized most of scripture? I wonder if such memorization would also facilitate driving out worldly memories.
00:43:12 Christian Corulli: How can one avoid being like the older brother of the prodigal son parable in all this? It is so easy to work and focus on ourselves and our own perfection in the spiritual life... there seems to be a fine line where we cross over into fixation on ourselves in the spiritual life.
00:48:52 Christian Corulli: Thanks 🙏
00:48:55 Alex Underwood: It is so profound that God offers us this practice of asceticism and hesychasm… these homilies are almost like an owner’s manual, that sadly not many people have. Yet it seems as if Isaac is saying that really everything he has found and has been shown about this practice can be deduced from the scriptures, if only one would look.
00:52:35 Ryan Ngeve: Father, if we memorize the scriptures as St. Isaac describes, how different are we from the Pharisees and where does the grace of God come to play in understanding and living the scripture?
00:53:46 Anthony: The new Syriac Divine Office book ("Book of Before and After") arranged by Fr Andrew Younan is pretty nice, especially while reading St Isaac the Syrian.
00:54:02 Alex Underwood: Reacted to "The new Syriac Divin..." with 👍
00:55:28 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "The new Syriac Divin..." with 👍
00:56:01 Jamie Hickman: Reacted to "The new Syriac Div..." with 🙏
00:57:16 Catherine Opie: I joined a class to study the Pentateuch and was surprised to find out that even though I had read the Bible several times I had never fully understood underlying meanings, patterns of language and numbers and foreshadowing within the scriptures in quite the same way it has opened up to me through doing this
00:58:02 Catherine Opie: Sorry pressed enter without thinking
01:00:14 Myles Davidson: Fr. Agapetos YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@FatherAgapetos
01:00:24 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Fr. Agapetos YouTube..." with 🙏🏻
01:00:51 Lori Hatala: Reacted to "Fr. Agapetos YouTube..." with 🙏🏻
01:01:18 Jonathan Wiseman: Reacted to "Fr. Agapetos YouTube..." with 🙏🏻
01:09:57 Julie: Reacted to "Fr. Agapetos YouTube…" with 🙏
01:10:15 Alex Underwood: “To suffice the mind firmly to pinion it’s thoughts to a single thought of wonder”
01:10:31 Julie: Reacted to "The new Syriac Divin…" with 🙏
01:10:44 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "“To suffice the mind..." with 🔥
01:12:02 Jamie Hickman: Reacted to "“To suffice the m..." with 👁️
01:12:23 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "“To suffice the mind..." with ❤️
01:12:24 Christian Corulli: Reacted to “To suffice the mind... with "🔥"
01:12:36 Jamie Hickman: thank you as always, Father
01:12:40 Alex Underwood: Excellent insight, thank you
01:12:57 cameron: Thank you Fr
01:13:37 Julie: God bless you are in my prayers 🙏🏻
01:13:38 Ben: Thank you very much, Father! God & Mary keep you.
01:13:41 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:13:47 Elizabeth Richards: Amen 🙏🏼
01:13:51 Jamie Hickman: wow!
01:13:52 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you Father!
01:13:57 Rachel: Thanks be to God!
01:14:06 Rachel: Thank you
01:14:25 David: Thank you Father!
01:14:36 paul g.: God Bless Father
01:14:37 Catherine Opie: Thank you

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part III

Holy inebriation! We are to become drunk with faith.  For those inebriated with alcohol there is often a loss of the capacity to think about things or see things clearly. For those inebriated with faith, there is a loss of sight of the things of this world and attraction to them because one’s gaze is fixed upon the Beloved. Love alone draws the soul forward. Indeed, it is by the grace of God that we make that initial turn towards Him and so begin to see with a greater clarity the inconstancy that sin brings into our life and the healing, the hope, and the joy that faith alone provides.  
Our senses and our natural faculties that we use constantly to perceive the world around us often become a source of distortion because of the weakening of our will and the darkening of our intellect. And even if these faculties should function perfectly, they still are incapable of comprehending God as he is in himself.  
When faith begins to grow, we begin to see the presence of God in all things and his Providence acting on our behalf. Love, seeks union and communion and perfect Love is present in our lives in a transformative fashion. We need not fear affliction, poverty, or the hatred of others knowing that we are loved with a perfect love. We are never in isolation when we are in Christ through faith and the grace that he provides us. The inconstancy of sin is replaced with the stability and fearlessness of faith. The world can take everything from us, including our honor, and yet we find no loss in it. With St Paul we count all things as refuse in comparison to knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified. Isaac wants a to understand the need to be fully immersed in this love, to be inebriated by it and permeated by it so that it shapes our entire existence.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:02:32 Paisios: Baptismal. One moment I'll get headphones.
00:09:33 Una: I see we have a dog and cat in attendance tonight
00:09:45 Una: Very Franciscan
00:09:59 Una: Are they keen on Isaac?
00:14:26 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 114, # 7
00:16:53 Paisios: Reacted to "Are they keen on I..." with ❤️
00:22:00 Eric Jobe: There is an emphasis here on “perception” (rgeshta), which he repeats, a perception of the power of faith versus the perception of visible matter. I think this keys into the notion of being drunk. When we are drunk, we lose perception. If we are drunk with faith, we lose perception of worldly things and become perceptive to spiritual things.
00:22:07 Una: How does this paragraph fit with the essence/energy ?
00:23:10 Una: Thank you
00:23:40 Jamie: Reacted to "There is an emphas..." with 👍
00:23:42 Lee Graham: Reacted to "There is an emphasis…" with ❤️
00:27:50 Alex Underwood: Reacted to "There is an emphasis..." with 👍
00:36:46 Bob Čihák, AZ: Just over the last few days, my nous perceived than I am a reflection of God in that He created me in His “image and likeness.” Other people are also blessed in this way. I’m seeing Christ more easily in others.
00:37:18 Rachel L.: Is it wrong then,to want to be comfortable around people,  want friends, and have relationships with others outside of my family?
00:37:50 Anthony: Our parish priest said something very important: it is very difficult to commit a mortal sin. This counters a tendency to fear we will lose God, that is kind of common among "traditional" ways of thinking.
00:37:58 Rachel L.: I'm confused about the practical application of this
00:42:35 Eric Jobe: St. Isaac makes a contrast between fear of death and fear of God (who destroys death by death). It seems we are controlled by one or the other, as if some type of fear is necessary. Why? Perhaps because we lack perfect love that “casts out all fear”. I believe it is something that Diadochos of Photiki talks about in Philokalia Vol. 1.
00:42:44 Joshua Sander: I've been reading commentary on the book of Job, and it seems to correspond well to this paragraph, especially demanding investigation due to a lack of faith, and then moving from that to a faith that is born of grace and viewing God relationally rather than legalistically. Do Isaac or any of the other Fathers view Job's journey in this way?
00:45:14 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "There is an emphasis..." with ❤️
00:45:45 Kate : Is this trust in the providence of God something that we bring about in ourselves, or is it a grace that we must pray and beg God to give to us?
00:56:36 Art: This paragraph calls to mind St John of the Cross “…if the desire of the will be dispersed among other things than virtue, it must be weaker as regards virtue.  And thus the soul whose will is set upon various trifles is like water…never rises.”   Ascent of Mt Carmel.
00:59:50 Paisios: "Silence is the womb of wisdom"
01:00:07 Paisios: I don't
01:11:13 Kathleen: Can’t find raise hand. But can you elaborate more on #13?  Examples? Perhaps next week if no time.
01:14:00 Una: Look under "reactions" on the tool bar on the bottom. It's an icon of a heart
01:14:20 Una: Right beside "chat"
01:15:00 Anthony: Sorry I can't find the raise hand button.  I sense now the same sense of rage and vengeance as in 2001
01:17:19 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Can’t find raise han..."
Maybe repost your question so Fr. sees it
01:19:03 Paisios: In my rage, whose heart will I change?
01:19:25 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "In my rage, whose he..." with 👍
01:19:43 Carol Roper: Reacted to "In my rage, whose he…" with 👍
01:20:04 Edward Kleinguetl: “God’s love is powerful enough to heal everything, but you must find the courage to decide to pass through the ‘narrow gate’ of forgiveness. This choice is more demanding than the spontaneous reaction of resentment and accusation, but it is a decision in favor of true life.” (Fr. Jacques Philippe)
01:20:28 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "“God’s love is power..." with ❤️
01:20:32 Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec Jr.: Reacted to "“God’s love is power..." with ❤️
01:20:54 Mary Clare Wax: I think of the movie, "The Mission," where some of the priests decided to fight back, and in the end, they were all killed. It was a very sad thing to see. I so hoped they would change their minds and pray until the end like the Superior of the Jesuits did.
01:23:28 Edward Kleinguetl: Reacted to "I think of the movie..." with ❤️
01:23:52 Edward Kleinguetl: Reacted to "In my rage, whose he..." with 👍
01:25:42 Catherine Opie: Since I have become Catholic and humbled myself before God the anxiety and restlessness I always felt has disappeared. Now I find I am  even more humbled by becoming an outsider in my family and with old friends because of this choice. I feel grief but not anxiety. Because
01:25:58 Gina Marie: Reacted to "“God’s love is power..." with ❤️
01:26:24 Tracey Fredman: Reacted to "Since I have become ..." with ❤️
01:27:04 ANDREW ADAMS: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:27:07 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:27:13 Gina Marie: Thank you, Father!
01:27:17 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!
01:27:20 Joe: Thank you Fr. Charbel
01:27:23 paul g.: Excellent tonite
01:27:25 David: Thank you Father. May you be blessed with good health
01:27:50 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr.
01:28:25 David: Meeting Planner – Find best time across Time Zones

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part II

How we begin something often determines how it will develop in later stages and the fruit that it will bear. Thus, Saint Isaac tells us, that the beginning of the path of life is our immersion in the word of God and to live in poverty. This is strikingly unlike how other ascetic/mystical writers begin speaking about the discipline of virtue. Isaac immediately encourages us to take the focus off of ourselves, of our own judgment of the world as well as to remove our attachment to the things of this world. Our identity is rooted in God. We have been made in his image and likeness and we only find the fulfillment of love and life for which our hearts long in him. To exercise the mind in the words of God is not like reading a book on history. It is opening the heart to receive the fullness of what God has revealed to us and when we approach this word in faith and silence, it allows God to speak a word that is equal to himself. It allows that Divine word to be born in our hearts. This encounter is what transforms us and fills the heart with desire for what we are promised in Christ; that is, theosis, deification, being made one is with God by grace. The more this desire grows within us the less we are attached to the things of this world.  We seek to simplify our lives.  To become poor in the things of this world allows us to become rich in that which endures. Free from the anxiety that our attachment to the things of this world brings we are able to immerse ourselves in the eternal word of God. Lacking this, Isaac tells us, no one can draw close to God. The more occupied we are with the things of the world the more susceptible we become to the passions. When we surround ourselves with the noise of the world all of the senses are flooded and we are in a constant state of receptivity. Thus, we become less receptive to the one thing necessary and that is sanctifying. What we find in Isaac then and what makes his writing so captivating is his understanding that love is the most powerful source of motivation and transformation. It is Christ who raises us up out of the poverty of our sin and when we have Him, as St paul reminds us, everything else appears to be mere refuse.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:07:20 Una: Where is the hand button?
00:07:58 Una: Mine is a heart icon
00:10:21 Una: I feel like Isaac the way I felt when I first discovered the Bible. Total immersion
00:11:48 Una: Replying to "I feel like Isaac ..."
I have not been able to stop listening to the audiobook
00:11:53 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 113, # 4
00:11:55 Daniel Allen: i am but my camera and mic aren't working
00:11:57 Daniel Allen: yes
00:11:59 Daniel Allen: confirmed
00:12:13 Daniel Allen: on a laptop instead of ipad tonight and i can't seem to figure out zoom on this
00:12:34 Daniel Allen: not sure if you can see my typing
00:13:07 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 113, # 4
00:16:56 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 113, # 4
00:29:27 Kathleen: Rationale thought
00:34:38 Lee Graham: No
00:46:20 Maureen Cunningham: I find everyone seems so Angry these days.
00:46:40 Maureen Cunningham: Silence is the only way
00:51:16 Daniel Allen: It's hard to leave Christ for Christ, to see it as such. As a parent, sometimes the last thing you want is a kid asking you a question, or really anyone needing you. And inevitably when you try to find time to pray, that's when you're needed without fail. The natural reaction, especially after awhile, can be frustration. So to "leave Christ for Christ" is a challenging thing to actually do.
00:54:20 Joshua Sander: Forgive my question for going back a paragraph in the text, but when Isaac speaks of "the word of God," is he simply speaking of the formal canon of Scripture, or is he extending this to the holy writings of the Fathers as well?
00:56:36 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "It's hard to leave C..." with ❤️
01:00:14 Anthony: If St Neri is an example, this becoming prayer comes gradually, organically. It isn't grasped at with ambition.
01:00:41 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "If St Neri is an exa..." with 👍🏼
01:07:09 Nick Bodmer: We are amusing ourselves to death
01:08:16 The Recovery Community Hub of PBC, Inc.: At our wedding our priest had this line that stuck with me, that every single struggle in marriage will ultimately lead to the cultivation of a virtue that each of the spouses needs to attain heaven
01:08:36 Alex Underwood: It seems like Isaac’s concept of “separation” here could be a direct lesson from and emulation of Jesus when he would remove himself into the wilderness or desert to pray and commune with the Father?
01:18:36 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father, this is awesome !
01:18:38 Elizabeth Richards: Thank you Father!
01:18:41 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You
01:18:44 santiagobua: Thank you Father!!
01:18:46 Nypaver Clan: Sorry to disagree with Lord Byron…If I thought “marriage was hell” I wouldn’t have stuck with it for 41 years.   🥰
01:18:47 Una: That's very tempting to do Isaac more than once a week
01:18:52 Francisco Ingham: Thank you father!
01:18:52 Una: What about Friday?
01:18:53 Daniel Allen: Thank you Father!
01:19:32 ANDREW ADAMS: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:19:35 Joe Mugo: Thank you Father.
01:19:37 Bob Čihák, AZ: Bless you, Father!
01:19:37 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:19:56 Catherine Opie: That sounds wonderful
01:20:01 Elizabeth Richards: Lenten group sounds good!!
01:20:03 Anthony: Ok sounds good.
01:20:04 Maureen Cunningham: Ok Saturday is wonderful
01:20:07 ANDREW ADAMS: That sounds great!
01:20:09 Kevin Burke: Reacted to "Ok sounds good." with 👌
01:20:14 Dave Warner | AL: Thank you Father! Would like to participate in a Lenten group.
01:20:17 Joe Mugo: Reacted to "Ok sounds good." with 👌
01:20:17 Catherine Opie: 🙏🏻

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily I, Part I

It bears saying that we find ourselves upon a privileged path as we begin this new journey with Saint Isaac the Syrian. To have access to his writings and access to such a translation in the West is a recent phenomenon and one not to be taken lightly. Further it is often said that Isaac is the greatest of the Desert Fathers in that through his writings one can move from being a novice in the spiritual life to the heights of contemplation.
Immediately, one discovers that Isaac is unique and distinctive in his manner of approaching the spiritual life. He appeals to our capacity in faith to comprehend divine love and what has been revealed to us through Christ. It is what we comprehend in faith that fills the heart with wonder; that we are embraced by a love that never ends and that only seeks to raise us up out of the darkness of sin to the fullness of light. Isaac understands that, made in the image and likeness of God, we are going to be driven by desire; that is, a sense of lack and incompleteness. God has made us for himself and we only find our identity and the fullness for which we long in him.
Our struggle is our attachment to the things of this world, including our own ego – the self. There are so many things that vie for our attention that the “one thing necessary” is often pushed out to the margins of our life or out of mind altogether. The love out of which we have been created and the lavish love through which we have been redeemed is often supplanted by that which eventually turns to dust.
Our awareness of this should produce within us a fear that creates a movement toward God. Repentance is simply or acting on that awareness; turning away from our sin and our attachment to the things of this world and opening ourselves up to the healing grace and mercy of God. It is for this reason that Isaac does not focus on the development of virtue and the overcoming of vice as others do. For ultimately, we are not seeking the perfection of natural virtue or even to exceed what we understand as the heights of virtue. Rather, we are to understand the ascetic life is radically tied to being “in Christ”. In other words, the radical transformation that takes place through the grace that we receive through baptism, the Eucharist, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit leads to our participation in the life of the Trinity. Deification is what has been promised to those of faith. It is divine humility, divine love, divine compassion, and divine vulnerability that we are to embody. This takes place not through raw grit but rather through abandonment to Christ in a spirit of humility. As we let go of the illusion of self identity, independent of Christ, the true self begins to emerge. Thus if we take anything away from this evening’s discussion and reflection it should be the sense of wonder and desire that Isaac seeks to cultivate within the human heart. Love alone endures and the desire it produces inflames the heart to pursue the Beloved and the Life of the Kingdom.
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Text of chat during the group: 
00:15:34 Bob Cihak: Father's Substack comments are another blessing for me. The come by email to me, several times daily and are beautifully succinct, most of the time.
00:17:15 Sr. Mary Clare: Thank you, Father!
00:36:18 Ren Witter: Sr. Barbara - would you mind sending your question to the whole group in the chat so that the people reading/listening to the podcast know what you asked? (I think your question must have been sent directly to Fr. Charbel).
00:36:30 mflory: The whole first paragraph is a chain of practices/virtues: reflection on the “restitution” (providence/the second coming) leads to withdrawal from the world which leads to control of thoughts which leads to faith which leads to fear of God which leads to virtue.
00:36:33 Jamie: Reacted to "Sr. Barbara - woul..." with 👍
00:37:26 mflory: Mark
00:38:37 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Sentence two begins with "It"  - referring to fear of the Lord or to faith?
00:38:42 Eric Jobe: Some comments:The fear of God - it strikes me like the Freudio-Lacanian notion of symbolic castration, whereby we are inscribed into the divine order of virtue.
In Syriac, St. Isaac specifically says that one “takes the opportunity to withdraw his mind from the world” This is important I think - we have an opportunity that we must deliberately take.
…00:39:21 Ren Witter: Reacted to " Sentence two begins..." with 👍🏼
00:40:19 Eric Jobe: This “reflection on the restitution to come” is more evocative in the Syriac. There is a kind of dazzling imagination - sharagragriatha. And “restitution” is the order of the age to come - tuqana. It is a positive thing to meditate on imaginatively, not the judgment to come.
00:41:15 Josh: Would it be possible to get a link to the copy of the book that is being used? I missed the email that may've said it.
00:41:47 Ren Witter: https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/products_id/635/?srsltid=AfmBOorJmXoZG7njKJoH-E9BPgTnoNHhClUY3JtkWMW_1R4AAeZ_fCRp
00:41:47 ANDREW ADAMS: Replying to "Would it be possible..."
https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/cPath/75_105/products_id/635
00:41:55 Jamie: Can we interpret fear as aligned with awe? By that I mean: fear implies awareness of unknown about the object we fear. God is the ultimate mystery...we can't know him perfectly, so the fear is a healthy appreciation for "other". It's living in the reality that God is entirely other than creation. We appreciate how utterly other God is as object, so we fear God in awe and wonder. We will never fully know God, even as we grow in intimacy with him, so we continue to fear / awe God. It's a healthy thing. Is this a workable interpretation? If this is workable, it would seem the beginning of virtue is to appreciate God as not me, akin to he must increase and I must decrease. It's a fear that leads me closer to God -- not driven away, because this Utterly Other is the object who can provide for me all my needs.
00:42:04 Niño: I think the modern day problem is that we often associate the Love for God with emotionalism or sensationalism ...but like what you said father..the discipline, the virtues are ways of showing and increasing our love for God 
00:42:05 David: Is the focus on fear of the lord similar to training wheels to focus our attention on God and push away the work of the evil thoughts often using fear. I see later writings say once you have mastered the fear then you focus on love of God and each moment and expression of love possibly leaving fear like training wheels behind?
00:42:07 Josh: Replying to "Would it be possible..."
Thank you!
00:42:15 Josh: Replying to "https://www.bostonmo..."
Thank you!
00:43:21 Eric Jobe: Replying to " Sentence two begins..."
“Fear” most likely. It’s ambiguous in Syriac, but “fear” is the grammatical topic.
00:44:16 Ren Witter: Standard procedure for questions: If you have a question you would like Fr. Charnel to respond to in the group, please type your question, and then “raise your hand.” Once Father sees the hand, and calls your name, send the message.
00:45:47 Anthony: So "restitution" is like "restoration."
00:45:54 Niño: Reacted to So "restitution" is ... with "❤️"
00:46:12 Jamie: Reacted to "Standard procedure..." with 👍
00:48:09 Anthony: A spirituality of "The Song of Songs."
00:48:34 Jamie: Reacted to "So "restitution" i..." with ✍️
00:50:34 Gina Marie: Reacted to "Standard procedure f..." with 👍
00:50:45 Rebecca Thérèse: I don't know about Syriac but in biblical Hebrew (a closely related Semitic language) "fear" as in "the fear of the Lord" can also be translated "reverence".
00:57:39 Anthony: $ for land too. 😉
00:58:08 Ryan Ngeve: Father is there a connection between Isaac’s phrase on the fear of God and proverbs 9:10?
00:59:04 David: Reacted to "Father is there a co..." with 👍
00:59:35 Nick Bodmer: People are realizing that they aren't fulfilled, so they are trying all these things to have a chance to fill the void within themselves.
01:00:22 Niño: Reacted to People are realizing... with "❤️"
01:01:48 Eric Jobe: “Contain himself” could be translated from Syriac as “recollects”, which brings up the prodigal son as well as the myriad of statements of the Fathers on the notion of recollection.
01:04:00 Eric Jobe: “Honor” is plural in the Syriac. It likely refers to many instances of others giving honor, like we may say in English: “He received many honors from the military.”
01:06:07 Jamie: In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prays that the Father would glorify him. Jesus can handle being honored, but he does NOT seek honor from men...he seeks it from his heavenly Father. If we are to imitate God in fear, healthy appreciate and awe for God as the provider of all our needs, then we should seek the glory God wishes to give us, which likely means Cross in this world and heavenly paradise in the next (because heaven we will see him face to face...the ultimate honor).
01:07:19 Catherine Eisenbrandt: Father how do you tell the difference between when you need to be obedient and accept “good” active things as service and when not to engage
01:12:13 Niño: Without Love for God, there is no real love for neighbor
Christ showed His love for us by dying on the cross to save us from sin death and hell... Therefore the Love of a neighbor also means to admonish them of obvious sin and to help them, if they are willing, to go to confession 
01:13:49 St. Stanislaus Kostka Religious Education: Next Sunday's Gospel includes being concerned more abou the splinter in the other's eye rather than the beam in our own.
01:17:04 maureencunningham: Thank  You Father Blessing
01:17:21 Jamie: Reacted to "Thank  You Father ..." with 🙏
01:17:40 Niño: Salamat Padre (Thank you Father-Filipino language)
01:18:34 Julie’s iPhone: Thank you Father You are in my prayers
01:18:53 Laura: Reacted to "Thank you Father Yo..." with 👍🏼
01:19:14 ANDREW ADAMS: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:19:15 Dave Warner | AL: Thank you Father!
01:19:16 David: Thank you Father. God bless you and your mother!
01:19:17 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:19:24 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!
01:19:25 Mari: Thank you
01:19:31 Tommie’s iPhone: Glory to Jesus Christ
01:19:32 Gina Marie: Thank you, Father!
01:19:35 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Thank you!
01:19:45 Ben: Thank you, Father! God bless.