Season 8

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

God has no need of anything, yet St. Isaac tells us that He rejoices whenever a man comforts His image and honors it for His sake. The divine joy is found not in what is given but in the mercy that reflects His own. When the poor come to us, it is not their need that is the test but our response to the image of God standing before us. To refuse them is to turn away grace itself, to pass by the honor of having been found worthy to console another. The poor will not be abandoned—God will provide for them—but the one who closes his heart has turned aside the gift of participating in God’s own generosity. When we give, we should bless God who has sent us the opportunity; when we have nothing to give, we should bless Him even more for allowing us to share in the poverty of Christ and the saints who walked this same path of want and trust.
Illness, too, is a visitation of mercy. God sends sickness for the healing of the soul, as a physician would apply bitter medicine to draw out hidden corruption. A monk who grows careless in his service, St. Isaac says, will be visited by temptation or affliction so that he may not sink deeper into idleness. God does not abandon those who love Him, but when He sees them drifting toward forgetfulness, He sends a trial to awaken them, to make them wise again. And though they may cry out to Him, He delays His response, waiting until they understand that their sufferings arise not from divine neglect but from their own sloth and negligence. His silence is not absence but instruction, a sign that He wishes the soul to seek Him with greater purity and perseverance.
Why, we might ask, does the merciful Lord not always answer those who pray with tears? St. Isaac, quoting the prophet, answers: “The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, but our sins have separated us from Him.” It is not that God cannot hear, but that our hearts have become deafened by self-love. The remedy is remembrance—unceasing recollection of God in all things. When the heart remembers God, He remembers us in the hour of trouble, and what once seemed a wall of silence becomes the threshold of communion.
Temptations, St. Isaac says, are as near to us as our own eyelids. They arise not only from without but from within, springing up from the depths of our nature. Yet even this nearness is arranged by divine wisdom so that we might be compelled to knock at His door continually, that through fear and affliction the memory of God might be sown deep within us. The soul learns to pray, not to escape suffering, but to dwell in the presence of the One who alone delivers. Through long entreaty and endurance, we come to perceive that God Himself sustains and forms us, and that this world, with its griefs and trials, is a teacher preparing us for the world to come, our true home and inheritance.
God does not make us immune to what is grievous, for such immunity would lead to pride. If we were never wounded, we would imagine ourselves divine and fall into the same delusion as the adversary. It is the burden of the flesh, the uncertainty of our days, the constant approach of temptation, that keeps us humble and dependent upon mercy. Thus, for St. Isaac, every circumstance—whether abundance or lack, health or sickness, prayer answered or unanswered—is arranged by a wisdom beyond our knowing. The goal is always the same: that we might remember God, that our hearts might be softened, and that our lives might be drawn into the rhythm of His compassionate love.
The divine mercy, then, is not sentimental but purifying. It allows affliction so that grace may take deeper root. It permits delay so that desire for God might grow more ardent. To the one who endures with thanksgiving, every sorrow becomes a revelation: God, who fashioned and sustains us, is both our Chastiser and our Healer, our Teacher in this passing world and our Father who awaits us in the eternal one.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:01:20 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/blog
00:01:49 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 160 paragraph 19
00:08:47 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 160 paragraph 19
00:30:28 Eleana: I think is good to clarify that poor are those who do not know God AKA Jesus. When I worked in crisis with suicidal kids, I went to "mansions" of families in despair because of the absent God. It was a pattern, the lack of God; Thus, lack of  joy, love, and peace.
00:34:57 jonathan: paustinia has been a God sent for getting off the computer, and also to show how addictive it is.
00:37:43 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 160, # 20, bottom paragraph on page
00:47:49 David Swiderski, WI: In Spanish and some Latin languages the English does not make sense. In Spanish it is -do not let us fall into temptation. -No nos deja caer en tentacIon I can understand why language can really affect understanding. No wonder so many misunderstandings in the Greek east and Latin West. From Spanish critics of the English I know the "lead" is what they have the main issue with.
00:56:39 Erick Chastain: He mentions "accidental occurences".... what does he mean by that?
00:56:44 Joan Chakonas: I know not to expect timely replies to prayers from God because 12 years ago my most beloved younger brother George passed away from vicious cancer.  I still don’t get it but I think of the pieta, the Mother of God with her Son, so I figure this sadness is what I have to work through in the way He sees fit.  I don’t complain to Him.
00:59:40 Eleana: Reacted to "I know not to expect..." with ❤️
01:00:23 Joan Chakonas: He is so good- faith is all we have
01:05:11 Vanessa Nunez: One of the things I prayed for constantly was learning to trust God, especially after a lot of sufferings I had to endure and was working on healing how to trust again. When I faced a great illness it forced me to trust in God and made me realize I can’t always be in control, and that my body and life is in Gods control. A prayer that helped me a lot during that time of suffering was “Lord let this cup pass from me if it is in your will, if not, give me the strength to drink from it.”
01:06:16 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "One of the things I ..." with 👍
01:06:17 Andrew Adams: Reacted to "One of the things I ..." with ❤️
01:07:55 Rebecca Thérèse: Are we not all co-redemptors with Christ.  "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church..."  Colossians 1:24
01:08:13 Eleana: Reacted to "Are we not all co-re..." with ❤️
01:08:47 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "Are we not all co-re..." with ❤️
01:08:57 Vanessa Nunez: Reacted to "Are we not all co-re…" with ❤️
01:08:59 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "Are we not all co-re…" with ❤️
01:10:47 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "Are we not all co-re…" with ❤️
01:10:54 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "One of the things I …" with 👍
01:13:12 Anthony: It sounds like excessive grief over falling or failing is a visceral desire not to suffer.  The excessive grief may be due to a desire to be perfect (not lacking anything)
01:19:18 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Father
01:20:01 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:20:03 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God!
01:20:07 Joan Chakonas: Thank you
01:20:07 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father!
01:20:10 Janine: Thank you Father
01:20:10 jonathan: Thank you so much for these lessons, God bless you Fr.
01:20:11 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God bless you and your mother
01:20:22 Joan Chakonas: That ended too fast!!!!!

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

St. Isaac writes with the clarity of one who has walked through the fire of trial and found the peace that follows surrender. His words do not flatter the soul or soften the edges of the truth. They are meant to awaken us to the living reality of divine love. He shows that what we call faith must be tested, and what we call trust must be purified, until both rest entirely in God.
He begins with the martyrs who endured every torment that flesh can bear. They suffered, he says, through a “secret strength” that came from God. Their pain did not prove divine absence but revealed divine nearness. The angels themselves appeared to them, not as symbols but as real presences sent to encourage and to shame the cruelty of their persecutors. The endurance of the martyrs becomes the measure of faith. Where human nature reaches its limit, divine power begins to act. Their calm in suffering, their peace under torture, proclaim that the providence of God surrounds those who love Him even when the world rages.
St. Isaac then turns to the ascetics and hermits who made the desert a dwelling place of angels. These men and women renounced the world not in bitterness but in longing. They exchanged earthly things for heavenly communion. The angels, seeing in them kindred souls, visited them continually. They taught them, guided them, strengthened them when hunger or sickness overcame their bodies. They brought them bread, healed their wounds, foretold their deaths. The desert became a city where heaven and earth met in silence. For those who abandoned the noise of the world, the unseen world became near and familiar.
This leads St. Isaac to the heart of his teaching. If we truly believe that God provides for us, why do we remain anxious? Anxiety is born of unbelief. To trust in ourselves is to live in misery, but to cast our care upon the Lord is to enter into peace. The one who has surrendered everything to God walks through life with a restful mind. He is not careless but free. His rest is not laziness but confidence born of faith.
Isaac describes the path to this inner freedom. The soul must learn non-possessiveness, for without it the mind is filled with turmoil. She must learn stillness of the senses, for without stillness there is no peace of heart. She must endure temptations, for without them there is no wisdom. She must read and meditate, for without this she gains no refinement of thought. She must experience the protection of God in struggle, for without that experience she cannot hope in Him with boldness. Only when she has tasted the sufferings of Christ consciously can she have communion with Him.
Finally, Isaac defines the true servant of God as one who has become poor for His sake and compassionate toward all. Such a person mortifies even natural desires so that nothing distracts from love. To give to the poor is to entrust one’s life to God’s care. To become poor for His sake is to discover inexhaustible treasure.
Here St. Isaac’s realism becomes luminous. He is not describing a harsh ideal but the hidden logic of divine love. God draws near to those who entrust themselves wholly to Him. Angels surround those who choose the path of surrender. The heart that abandons anxiety finds itself upheld by grace. This is the holy folly of trust. It is the wisdom of those who live as though God alone is enough and who discover in that surrender a peace that cannot be taken away.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:04:28 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 158 paragraph 12
00:07:21 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.blogspot.com
00:08:29 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 158 paragraph 12
00:09:17 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: http://Philokaliaministries.blogspot.com
00:12:11 Janine: Congrats and best wishes! REN and Max
00:13:46 Janine: Yes… would love to see the pictures!
00:13:53 Thomas: This may be a strange questions, but Is Natalia Tapsak (formally Wohar) sound familiar
00:14:30 Thomas: She was my Sunday school teacher and changed at my church for a few years until she got married
00:14:52 Thomas: We were at her wedding and stayed at her church for a few nights when I was up there for baseball
00:16:02 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 158, paragraph # 12, first on page
00:31:46 Jessica McHale: Living alone, l do get lonely at times, and when I do, I ask my guardian angel to pray to the Lord with me. It's always consoling.
00:36:52 David Swiderski, WI: St. Jose Escriva used to greet the guardian angels of others first then the person. Once I heard this I find myself thinking of it sometimes with difficult people. The other thing he said is don't say this person bothers me but he sanctifies me. I have found a lot of sanctification in companies over the years. I used to joke about it but now I believe it to be true.
00:37:35 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "St. Jose Escriva u..." with ❤️
00:39:41 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 159, # 16, second full paragraph on page
00:44:34 Anthony: Take a person like George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life). He had a lifetime of failing expectations and then acute disappointment.  A person can really be driven to distraction and become blinded to God's Providence.
00:45:53 Thomas: What does this look like in the world, not taking pains to provide for yourself separately, because in the prayer it says “ bless us o Lord and these Thy gifts” clearly to a hermit what they find and are given are the gifts of God but how can we know when we have exceeded what God has given us and are now taking pains to provide for ourselves
01:06:51 Erick Chastain: Is there a paradox of less tiredness after vigils, even?
01:09:59 Rick Visser: In the night "Rouse yourself and cry out! Holy, Holy, Holy are You O God."
01:11:37 Thomas: It feels like if we are able to remember death when we would think that we don’t have time to sleep so we should pray before we die
01:15:17 Thomas: Wouldn’t the story of Lazarus and the rich man come into play here
01:19:43 Vanessa Nunez: I can really relate to what we are talking about 😂😂 I’m trying to decide between pursuing social work or psychology. After facing some health challenges, I’ve felt this sudden urge to make the most of life and not waste any time with the blessing of healing God has given me. Because of that, I’ve been overcompensating taking on two jobs and volunteering to give back as much as I can but it’s left me feeling unsettled, like I’m constantly moving without real direction.I keep praying and asking God to show me His will, because I truly want to follow His path instead of my own. I spend time in prayer and vigil adoration, trying to listen for His guidance, but even with all of that, I still feel lost. I know He has a plan for me, but it’s hard to understand when it’s my will vs his.
01:24:54 Art iPhone: Thank you Father.  Send pics Ren and congrats to you both!!
01:24:55 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you ☺️
01:24:57 Rick Visser: Thank you, Father. I will pray for you as I know you pray for us.
01:24:59 Elizabeth Richards: Amen
01:25:21 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you father, God bless you and your mother.
01:25:25 Jessica McHale: Many prayers for you all!  Thank you!!!!
01:25:31 Deiren: Thank you Father
01:25:50 Rebecca Thérèse: It's an hour later in the UK next week
01:25:53 Janine: Prayers for you

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

In this section of Homily Five, St. Isaac draws deeply from the ancient well of ascetical wisdom, weaving together the practical counsel of St. Ephraim with his own luminous vision of divine providence. His teaching moves with precision from the diagnosis of sin to the healing of the soul, from the vigilance of self-knowledge to the vision of God’s mercy revealed through trial.
St. Ephraim’s words set the tone: every spiritual illness must be treated by its proper remedy. One cannot overcome a vice through random struggle or general good intentions, but only by applying a medicine suited to the disease. Just as heat is not fought with more heat, so envy, pride, and wrath are not healed through self-will or argument, but through the contrary virtues: humility, patience, and mercy. For St. Isaac, this is the beginning of ascetic discernment. The wise man learns to recognize the first stirrings of passion, and “plucks it up while it is still small,” knowing that what begins as a passing thought can quickly become a tyrant ruling the soul. Negligence is the mother of bondage.
From this root teaching springs one of St. Isaac’s central themes: the blessedness of patient endurance. The one who can suffer wrong with joy, though he has the means to defend himself, has entered into the mystery of the Cross. To bear insult without resentment, to be accused unjustly and respond with humility—these, he says, are the highest forms of virtue, admired even by the angels. Such endurance is not weakness but divine strength, the quiet radiance of faith proven by trial. Here we find the echo of the Beatitudes and of the Apostle’s words, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
St. Isaac then warns against a subtler danger: self-confidence. “Do not believe yourself to be strong until you are tempted and find yourself superior to change.” Virtue untested is unproven. To imagine oneself firm before temptation is to invite a fall, for pride blinds the soul to its own frailty. True strength is born only from humility, the knowledge of one’s dependence upon God. Likewise, knowledge itself can become a snare when it is not rooted in meekness. A “meek tongue” and “sweet lips” reveal a heart governed by peace rather than pride. Those who do not boast of their struggles or their gifts are preserved from shame, while those who glory in their works are permitted to stumble, that humility may be learned through experience.
The culmination of this passage is the vision of divine providence, which St. Isaac presents not as an abstract doctrine but as an experience granted to the purified heart. God’s care, he says, surrounds all, yet it is seen only by those who have cleansed themselves of sin and fixed their gaze upon Him. In times of trial, when the soul stands for the truth, this providence becomes radiant and tangible—as though seen with bodily eyes. God reveals Himself most clearly in suffering, granting His servants courage and consolation. As He strengthened Jacob, Joshua, the Three Youths, and Peter, so too He anoints all who endure affliction for His sake.
In these paragraphs, St. Isaac sketches the entire map of the ascetical path. The soul begins with vigilance, pulling up the roots of passion before they grow. It advances through endurance, learning the joy hidden in unjust suffering. It is tested in humility, discovering that self-reliance is the greatest enemy. And finally, it arrives at the vision of providence, seeing that all things—even trials and delays—are instruments of divine love.
The warfare is inward, but the victory is divine. The heart that ceases to rely on itself learns to rest in God, and the eyes once blinded by passion come to behold His mercy shining through every storm. This is the medicine of the soul and the peace of those who have learned the wisdom of the Cross.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:01:25 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: www.philokaliaministries.blogspot.com
00:02:00 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 156, last line on page, # 8
00:08:00 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: http://www.philokaliaministries.blogspot.com
00:10:33 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 156, last line on page, # 8
00:14:57 jonathan: Would it be fine to just print out a picture of an Icon? Want to make a prayer corner back home.
00:15:23 Jessica McHale: Father, I love this line from your blog post today: “The night is not absence but mystery, not an ending but the quiet preparation for dawn.”  These words help to bring holiness to my rest and to the sometimes challenging night vigils. Thank you!
00:15:42 Adam Paige: Replying to "Would it be fine to …"Bless the printer with holy water first 😉
00:17:38 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 156, last line on page, # 8
00:22:21 Ryan Ngeve: Father does that mean we should completely ignore other passions and focus on the most important one until it is uprooted and then move to the next?
00:24:44 Eleana: Father how to be certain that is not scruples?
00:26:58 Adam Paige: Replying to "Father does that mea…"Saint Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain: “The virtues must be acquired one by one in order, and not all of them together, so that they do not become burdensome and difficult, but easy and light, as St. Isaac said. The virtues must be acquired one by one, for the sake of being helpful and harmless. St. Isaac said, "Each virtue is the mother of the next one. But if you leave the mother who gives birth to each virtue and you seek after the daughters before you acquire their mother, those virtues will prove to be vipers in your soul. And if you do not put them away from yourself, you will surely die." (Handbook of Spiritual Counsel p. 183 “The Virtues Must Be Acquired in Order”)
00:27:59 Eleana: Replying to "Father does that mea..."
Tx.
00:30:10 David Swiderski, WI: I am not sure this is wise counsel but a spiritual director I had in Spain mentioned. How much time to do spend praying to God and how much time do you think about things that lead to vice. First focus on leveling the field to allow grace to enter and second tackle one by one the thoughts that lead you away from focusing on God. Now that I read the fathers I think quite a bit about this .
00:31:41 Vanessa Nunez: How can you reduce anxiety of letting go of control and trust in the lord to be in control of one’s life.
00:33:32 Lilly: Novena of surrender
00:33:42 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Novena of surrender" with ❤️
00:36:21 David Swiderski, WI: Jesus I trust in you, please teach me your ways today. That is an arrow prayer that helped me. The other is the complete serenity prayer by Reinhod I find amazing but most only know the beginning. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as He did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that He will make all things right, If I surrender to His will, That I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
00:37:04 Vanessa Nunez: Reacted to "Novena of surrender" with ❤️
00:37:09 Vanessa Nunez: Reacted to "Jesus I trust in you…" with ❤️
00:37:17 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Jesus I trust in y..." with ❤️
00:46:31 Lilly: What is Meekness?
00:48:09 Rick Visser: Is it boasting to rejoice in what small progress we find in ourselves?
00:50:03 Elijah Majak: Father, is there ever an appropriate time or situation to defend ourselves/speak up or should we just be silent against all  unfair treatment ?
00:51:16 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "Saint Nicodemos of t…" with ❤️
00:51:35 Ryan Ngeve: Replying to "Father does that mea…"Thanks Adam
00:58:40 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 157, last full paragraph, # 11
01:03:51 Ryan Ngeve: Father what does Abba Isaac mean by “acquire sweet lips”
01:04:18 David Swiderski, WI: I have been thinking a lot about what you said about Abba Isaac the strong. Each night I feel lacking seeing the sun set in the west but each morning I look to the east and see the saints and angels.
01:06:21 David Swiderski, WI: Moses yes
01:06:24 David Swiderski, WI: Sorry
01:06:40 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I have been thinki..." with ❤️
01:06:52 jonathan: I always struggled with the idea of always being soft with people. The Apostles could have a very sharp tongue at times, especially Paul.  Even Christ at times would call people vipers and fools. So how do we balance gentleness, with firmness.
01:09:00 Gwen’s iPhone: Gotta love Peter
01:12:49 Larry Ruggiero: Meekness is the pre emergent to the crab grass
01:15:04 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 158, first paragraph, # 12
01:15:28 Julie: Thankyou God bless Father
01:16:11 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:16:15 Jessica McHale: Thank you! Many prayers!   Prayers for you all!
01:16:22 cameron: Thank you Fr
01:16:22 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you father. Always praying for you the steroids and your mom!

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

St. Isaac speaks with a stark honesty that strips away every illusion about the spiritual life. To choose the good is to summon the battle. Every true beginning draws the adversary’s attention. God allows this not to crush the soul but to test its resolve and to purify its love. Without that fire, virtue remains unproven and fragile.
The one who doubts that God is his helper collapses under his own shadow. Fear itself becomes the enemy. Such a person starves amid plenty and drowns in calm waters, undone not by external trials but by the absence of trust. St. Isaac’s words expose this inner poverty: faith without endurance is only sentiment. The steadfast heart, confident in God, is revealed in trial and shines before friend and foe alike.
The commandments are not burdens but treasures. They conceal the presence of the Lord Himself. The one who carries them within finds God as chamberlain, waking and sleeping. Fear of sin becomes illumination, and even darkness turns transparent. The soul that trembles at evil walks with light before and within, guided by mercy that steadies every faltering step.
St. Isaac ends with a fierce precision. There is no substitution in repentance. What is lost must be restored by the same means through which it was forfeited. God will not take a pearl for a penny, nor alms in place of purity. Greed is uprooted only by mercy, not by any other virtue. He will not be deceived by offerings that leave corruption untouched.
This is the hard edge of Isaac’s wisdom: grace demands truth. The path to God is not through sentiment or display but through the narrow way where every false comfort is stripped away, and only the tested heart endures.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:05:26 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Homily 5 paragraph 4 page 155
00:05:41 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.blogspot.com
00:07:39 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Homily 5 paragraph 4 page 155
00:13:14 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 155, last paragraph, 4
00:14:30 Una: Nice!
00:17:20 Una: I like the way Anthony puts it: be prepared to be knocked around
00:17:20 Una: I like the way Anthony puts it: be prepared to be knocked around
00:17:33 Anthony: Reacted to I like the way Antho... with "❤️"
00:17:47 Anthony: Replying to "I like the way Antho..." 
 Thanks :)
00:25:07 Rick Visser: My despondency becomes so great that I cannot move. What am I to do?
00:25:38 Maureen Cunningham: how would you explain the difference between Grace  & Mercy.
00:26:27 Maureen Cunningham: When I have despondency . I put on Bach
00:29:24 Jessica McHale: There is a very short but tremendously helpful book called "Trustful surrender to divine providence: the secret of peace and happiness" (it's so short more like a pamphlet) but it helps so greatly with despondency. I read it every time I feel this struggle with trusting in God in every single tiny thing.
00:30:34 Barbara: The Church/grace is the spiritual hospital.
00:32:19 Anthony: It might be that our passion is the pride of scrupulosity that is revealed by falling to another passion and masked by that passion (a red herring).
00:33:48 Eleana: St. Claude La Colombière, Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure
00:34:00 Jessica McHale: yes, by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure (the author of the book I mentioned)
00:35:52 Anthony: This is a remedy for the terror of mortal sin.
00:40:23 Ryan Ngeve: Father to what degree is engaging in thoughts that lead to despondency harmful to someone. And if it is how are we supposed to avoid engaging in such thoughts
00:45:55 David Swiderski, WI: I find this prayer helpful in challenging times. At one point in my life I felt great despondency having lost everything I had, living in a country I did not want to live in and largely being alone barely surviving. After a time I realized I only had belief and needed to work on actual faith.
00:46:41 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Mobile-Litany-of-T..." with ❤️
00:47:10 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 156, first paragraph, #5
00:50:31 Jessica McHale: Psalm 119 -- i love it
00:53:29 Maureen Cunningham: Kind of like bad acting verse when a person capture the character of the person he playing
01:00:12 Myles Davidson: Lead Kindly Light by Cardinal Newmanhttps://spiritualdirection.com/2012/04/01/lead-kindly-light
01:01:08 Anthony: Here is a Tolkein digression: Frodo is given a gift to light him in the darkness (which I think is Marian "grace,") but it's such a generous gift that even his friend Sam can wield it in need.  The gift of Mary is a kind of kindly light when all is dark.
01:01:29 Ben: Reacted to "Here is a Tolkein di..." with 👍
01:02:53 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Here is a Tolkein ..." with ❤️
01:03:33 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Lead Kindly Light ..." with 👍
01:09:09 Nypaver Clan: My dad used to always tell us, “Give until it hurts.”
01:09:24 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "My dad used to alw..." with ❤️
01:12:23 Myles Davidson: I came across a book years ago (can’t remember the name) filled with stories of people who went through the Great Depression who said they were the best years of their life, due to the strong community spirit and acts of charity that bonded people
01:15:44 Lee Graham: Awesome group. Thank you.
01:15:50 Catherine Opie: Perfect for me as I am a complete beginner 🙏🏻
01:15:55 Jessica McHale: Thank YOU!!!
01:16:34 Jessica McHale: Prayers for you all!!!
01:16:36 Christopher Berry: Thank you, Father!
01:16:38 Art iPhone: Thank you Father! Good night all.
01:16:39 Elizabeth Richards: And with your spirit
01:16:40 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:16:40 Bob Čihák, AZ: Bless you, Father.
01:16:50 Catherine Opie: God bless
01:16:52 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God bless you and your mother
01:17:00 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you

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

St. Isaac’s words reveal that communion with God requires remoteness from distraction and a renunciation of whatever disquiets the heart. This is not something reserved for monks alone, though they live it most radically, but it is a law of the Christian life as a whole. For Isaac, the fruits of renunciation are not abstract but very real: tears, compunction, a fountain of sweetness welling up from the heart, light dawning within. These are given not to the distracted soul but to the one who bows like a convict before the Cross, empty-handed and intent upon nothing else. Renunciation is not simply turning away from sin but from every movement that agitates the mind. He calls it a kind of death, both of the outer man in worldly deeds and occupations, and of the inner man in thoughts, passions, and self-will. It is this dying that makes room for the Spirit to raise one into true life.
For the monk, this call is lived in visible and total form: silence, enclosure, vigils, fasting, the cutting away of unnecessary speech and activity. Leaving behind the noise of the world, the monk learns to dwell continually before God. For them Isaac’s words are direct and literal, for one cannot hold onto worldly cares and at the same time enter into the madness of divine love. Stillness is the path by which grace rushes into the heart.
For those living in the world, this teaching does not mean the rejection of responsibilities, but rather the careful discernment of what is indispensable and what is merely disquieting. Isaac himself acknowledges that not all can practice stillness in its fullness, but warns that one should not abandon the path altogether. Instead, there are ways of living the same spirit in daily life: simplicity, which renounces excess possessions, amusements, and chatter that scatter the heart; sobriety of senses, which guards against overindulgence and constant stimulation; interior watchfulness, which makes room for compunction and prayer in the ordinary rhythms of the day; trust in God’s providence, which loosens the grip of anxiety over outcomes. For the layperson, renunciation looks like choosing silence over noise, prayer over distraction, mercy over greed, humility over self-exaltation. In these small dyings the heart is opened to the same fountain of sweetness, even if not in the same intensity as in the solitary monk.
Isaac reminds us that whoever does not voluntarily withdraw from the causes of the passions will be carried away by them in the end. Whether monk or layperson, if the heart is constantly fed on the world’s noise, possessions, and anxieties, it will inevitably be drawn off course. But if one begins to renounce even in small ways, the Spirit quickly comes to give aid, comforting the soul and granting grace. The lesson is clear: every Christian is called to some measure of renunciation, not as loss, but as the doorway to joy and divine consolation. The monk may live it to the depths, but each person in Christ is summoned to taste it in their own measure.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:14:30 jonathan: started trying practising paustinia every Wednesday and Friday. Its been far harder trying to abstain from all forms of entertainment than it is from food. Like fr said, the noon day demon feels heavy.00:16:55 Catherine Opie: Ave Maria> What page are we on?
00:17:10 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Ave Maria> What page..."
P. 152, last full paragraph on page
00:18:27 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "P. 152, last full pa..." with 🙏🏻
00:31:13 Janine: Rick. Thank you for that!
00:31:22 carolnypaver: Reacted to "Rick. Thank you for ..." with ❤️
00:31:23 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Rick. Thank you for ..." with 🙏
00:31:37 paul g.: I believe that.  Thank you Rick!
00:32:10 carolnypaver: Love that perspective, Rick.  Thank you for sharing!
00:32:14 Rick Visser: I go to bed early--7-8 pm. I make way for it.
00:32:21 Bob Čihák, AZ: Reacted to "Rick. Thank you for ..." with 🙏
00:33:19 Rick Visser: It is the highest form of human expression
00:33:21 Jessica McHale: As a 46 year old widow, I also find prayer much easier as I am alone and vigils are something I look forward to--all I want is God. :)
00:33:41 Myles Davidson: Waking naturally in the night rather than setting an alarm is the way to go.
00:34:22 David Swiderski, WI: My grandfather mentioned aging helped him let go of the last bits of pride and vanity. Enlarged prostate also led to more vigils. ha ha
00:34:38 Julie: Midnight office
00:35:17 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Midnight office" with 👍
00:35:26 Mark South: Reacted to "Midnight office" with 👍
00:35:36 paul g.: Reacted to "Midnight office" with 👍
00:35:37 Myles Davidson: Matins
00:49:53 Vanessa: I really did like your X account though Father. It said a lot of beautiful spritual things on it. I checked it everyday.
00:50:09 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "As a 46 year old wid..." with ❤️
00:50:17 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Waking naturally in ..." with 👍🏻
00:50:53 Rick Visser: Better to pray everyday for the time one was spending on social media.
00:52:45 Catherine Opie: Replying to "I really did like yo..."
You could perhaps repost things from FR or the desert fathers on your account to fill that gap?
00:53:14 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Better to pray every..." with 👍🏻
00:54:17 Lawrence Ruggiero: I hear your message! I was enjoying your daily post but I found it hard to reject all the junk I did not want waste my time.
00:58:03 David Swiderski, WI: My grandfather was in the merchant marine on the great lakes. He taught me Orion and how to find the north star. He always talked about instruments fail, winds blow but without focus on your north star one can be blow in every direction. It was only reading Issac that I now understand he was not talking about boating.
00:59:37 David Swiderski, WI: We see christ through the light that shines through grandparents or elders. We only need the eyes to see.
01:03:44 David Swiderski, WI: Or boating
01:07:57 Thomas: I have heard that we shouldn’t worry about renouncing the world, because if we live as Christians then the world will renounce us. Is this a correct way of looking at it, or is the only way to live a Christian life to renounce the world and be crucified?
01:11:27 Catherine Opie: https://stmaryhillsboroughnj.org/files/Prayer/BeginningPrayersPrayerToSanticyTheHours.pdf
01:12:35 Myles Davidson: Replying to "https://stmaryhillsb..."
👆The Rule of St. Pachomius
01:12:50 Jessica McHale: ..."and be crucified"...it's the hardest part because it's real. When family, friends, colleagues, aquaintances, even strangers shun you becuase of your faith, it hurts. But with the Cross before us (and His agony in Gethsemane), there's a drop of consolation.
01:12:58 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "..."and be crucified..." with 👍
01:13:14 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "👆The Rule of St. Pa..." with 👍
01:15:14 Lawrence Ruggiero: Always remember your weakness, "spoke to me". the second part: if your do remember your weakness, you will never over step the boundry of vigilance. Being aware that there is a way of escape encourages me to have this humble awareness.
01:16:31 David Swiderski, WI: I have journals from my youth perhaps for Thomas I think the best advice is to be patient, pray and ask for the gift of discernment and have your hand outreached. Some have vocations to be monks, some parish priest or nuns, but many of us are to have children, love families and hopefully be grandfathers like I was lucky to have who changed everyone he touched. I wished as a young person I would have had the fathers, tools of vigils and fasting and people that would have kept me from the secular academic world which often created confusion from what in my heart was true.
01:17:46 Rick Visser: Reacted to "I have journals from..." with 👍
01:17:51 carolnypaver: Reacted to "I have journals from..." with ❤️
01:18:10 Catherine Opie: I definitely agree with the need for God. I suffered from anxiety and depression, and tried all sorts of therapy, self help stuff. I think there is nothing that comes near confession, communion, penance and prayer focusing on God. I do not suffer from these any more since my conversion.
01:18:31 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I definitely agree..." with 👍
01:18:31 carolnypaver: Reacted to "I definitely agree w..." with ❤️
01:18:36 paul g.: Reacted to "I definitely agree w…" with 👍
01:18:38 Rick Visser: Reacted to "I definitely agree w..." with ❤️
01:18:50 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "I definitely agree w..." with 🙏
01:19:25 David Swiderski, WI: Reacted to "I definitely agree w..." with ❤️
01:19:36 paul g.: Replying to "I have heard that we…"You're on the right path !  Stay on it
01:20:06 Elijah Majak: Reacted to "I have journals from…" with ❤️
01:20:22 Elijah Majak: Reacted to "I definitely agree w…" with ❤️
01:20:24 Ben: Where is that blog again?
01:20:29 Jessica McHale: thank you!
01:20:33 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https:/www.philokaliaministries.blogspot.com
01:21:16 Catherine Opie: Thank you again Fr. God bless✝️
01:21:23 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:21:34 Thomas: Thank you
01:21:35 Janine: Thank you Father!
01:21:37 Gail Santy: Thank you!
01:21:49 Una: God bless everyone!
01:21:51 jonathan: Thank you Father! Love you lots, have a great day,
01:21:59 Catherine Opie: Replying to "https:/www.philokali..."
Your site is being flagged as insecure in my browser, perhaps make sure SSL certificates are up to date
01:22:00 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you so much father. I am glad you and your mom are better. May God bless you and care for you both you are a light to the world.

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

St. Isaac does not flatter us with easy consolations. He sets before the monk the radical alternative: almsgiving is like the rearing of children, but stillness is the summit of perfection. One can pour out possessions, but if one’s senses remain open to the world, unbarred gates, then the enemy will always find a way in. It is not enough to scatter coins if the mind is still scattered; the true work is to gather the heart into stillness, where God alone becomes its horizon.
Isaac shows us the two wars. The first is fought outside: through sight and hearing, through eating and speech, through the ceaseless tangle of affairs. This “exterior warfare” is exhausting and subtle, for it draws the soul outward, dispersing its strength. But there is another war, fought within. Only when the gates of the senses are shut can one turn inward to confront the deeper enemy: thoughts, passions, memories, and the hidden demons that assault the heart. To reach the “rest in God,” the monk must first cease from unnecessary noise without, in order to learn serenity within.
The blessedness of stillness, Isaac tells us, is to translate all one’s activity into the work of prayer. A man who can remain in his cell, moving from divine service to divine service with nothing added, will never lack for what is necessary, because he has made God his sole concern. Even manual work, though permitted, is an accommodation for the weak. The more perfect path is prayer and compunction; prostrations before the Cross, like a convict bound, crying out for mercy without ceasing.It is this interior life and the divine rest the comes through it that St. Isaac will describe for us next week.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:05:45 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 151 mid paragraph 3000:23:40 Rebecca Thérèse: Once the robber knows he has everything, he won't be back to bother you again. There's nothing else to steal and he has no further means of threatening or manipulating you.
00:29:31 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 151, paragraph 31 at bottom of page
00:30:15 Julie: Reacted to "P. 151, paragraph 31…" with 🙏
00:32:53 Anthony: Father, for me I don't think it's exactly a linear progression. Some people might have the external and internal awareness overlap.
00:40:42 Jessica Imanaka: I worry about acedia/sloth... not so much because of praying offices, but from slipping into endless meditations on spiritual readings to the potential neglect of my schoolwork and housework. It's hard to discern given that my career/life gives me some leeway in what to focus on and when.
00:45:10 Kathryn Rose: We should turn these mundane necessary tasks into types of prayers
00:45:40 Elizabeth Richards: Like Brother Lawrence 🙂
00:45:52 carolnypaver: Reacted to "We should turn these..." with ❤️
00:46:30 carolnypaver: Replying to "We should turn these..."
St. Josemaria Escriva taught this.
00:46:42 Kathryn Rose: Reacted to "St. Josemaria Escriv…" with ❤️
00:47:38 Diana Cleveland: I have found this to be so true. For years I have wanted to renovate my house, but never had the money. Over the last 20 years or so, as I have watched trends come and go that I could never participate in, the cutting back has served to cultivated an abundance mindset vs scarcity. I always thought the cutting back would make me crave more, but actually cutting back has produced satisfaction in simplicity of life.
00:49:23 Art: Reacted to "We should turn these..." with 👍
00:50:35 Art: This little excerpt has helped me a lot of late.  “Fix your heart on God.  For the time being, you cannot, I admit, apply yourself to prayer or to other exercises of piety: but, with my confidence founded on Christ, I will give you a rule which will enable you to pray without ceasing: He prays always who lives well.  Animate yourself with faith, I beg you; keep yourself in the presence of God in all your actions.”  St. Paul of the Cross
00:52:43 Anthony: Oh I learned by experience not to multiply devotion....burnout and legalism and a lack of desire to do anything.....
00:52:59 carolnypaver: Reacted to "Oh I learned by expe..." with 👍
00:54:34 Jacqulyn: Reacted to "Oh I learned by expe..." with 👍
00:54:43 Kathryn Rose: The exterior tasks like cleaning, going to jobs, driving, things we all have to do don’t have to be distractions, they can be symbols of doing the work on tending our interior castles
00:57:03 Catherine Opie: realised when I had my first child that my spiritual practice had to be staying in a heart centred space as much as possible and making all my work an act of love. Now I am Catholic I have learnt to dedicate these things to God, saying a prayer before work for example. I used to chant a mantra while doing tasks, but now I can say the Jesus prayer the Pater Noster or the Ave Maria instead which is bringing my mind to God and is of course the right focus to have. If prayer is simple it can be done at all times.  This is what I love about what I am learning here. Having said that I am really enjoying attending vespers on Sunday.
00:58:18 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "We should turn these..." with ❤️
00:59:58 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "The exterior tasks l..." with ❤️
01:01:52 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "This little excerpt ..." with ❤️
01:02:05 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "This little excerpt ..." with ❤️
01:03:26 Myles Davidson: Free PDF of Flowers Of The Passion: Thoughts Of St. Paul Of The Cross https://archive.org/details/FlowersOfThePassionThoughts
01:03:48 Andrew Adams: Reacted to "Free PDF of Flowers ..." with ❤️
01:04:29 Art: Reacted to "Free PDF of Flowers ..." with 👍
01:05:12 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to " realised when I had..." with ❤️
01:07:09 Julie: Reacted to "Free PDF of Flowers …" with 🙏
01:07:24 Anthony: Ok that's me, I claim the weakness
01:11:59 carolnypaver: Reacted to "Free PDF of Flowers ..." with ❤️
01:14:16 Julie: 🙏
01:14:34 Jessica Imanaka: It's all good.
01:14:39 Janine: Great stuff tonight! Amen
01:15:14 David Swiderski, WI: Take away- The secret eater monk
01:15:15 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:15:17 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:15:30 Catherine Opie: 🙏🏻
01:15:31 David Swiderski, WI: God bless Father and your mother
01:15:42 Elizabeth Richards: Thx Father!
01:15:48 Catherine Opie: 👏🏻
01:16:28 Diana Cleveland: Thank you!
 

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

St. Isaac speaks with the voice of one who has tasted what he teaches. His words carry both severity and sweetness, and at their heart lies a single call: to love God with such singleness that all else is left behind, and to find rest in Him alone.
He begins by speaking of reading. For the one who prays, reading is no small companion. Instead of being filled with scattered memories and impressions of the world, the soul, when nourished by Scripture, finds within itself a treasury for prayer. The words of God become recollections that rise up during stillness, offering the mind holy material with which to converse with God. Sometimes these recollections themselves are so sweet, so overwhelming, that they silence the heart entirely and leave the soul motionless before God. Reading thus becomes a doorway into the mysteries of prayer—not as an exercise of intellect alone, but as communion, as a sacrament of remembrance that enlightens the heart.
But to enter such prayer, St. Isaac reminds us, requires renunciation. A heart weighted with possessions or concerns is like wet wood that cannot be set aflame. Divine fervor does not ignite in a soul that loves ease. The words are stark, even offensive, but they uncover the truth: we cannot serve two masters. Only the one purified of worldly entanglements will be able to bear witness to the sweetness of God’s mysteries, for true knowledge is born only of experience, not of hearsay.
Yet this renunciation is not negation alone. It must take flesh in mercy. St. Isaac turns us to almsgiving, the act that draws the heart most near to God. To give freely, without discrimination between worthy and unworthy, without expectation of return, is to love as God Himself loves. Poverty chosen for Christ becomes a higher wealth, freeing the mind for serenity and boldness in prayer. Still, even here he warns us of subtle temptations: one may come to love possessions “for the sake of almsgiving,” and thus re-enter turmoil. Almsgiving is holy, but stillness is higher, for in stillness the soul communes with God directly, free of all care.
This is St. Isaac’s vision—severe, yes, but radiant: to become all flame with the love of God, to renounce all so that one might rest in Him, and in that rest, to discover the joy of unceasing prayer and the inexhaustible fountain of His mercy. Here, and here alone, the soul finds the rest of love.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:10:46 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 149, last sentence on page
00:22:51 Diana Cleveland: I have found that is to be really true. It is easy to get hyper fixed on self instead of meditating on God.
00:24:14 Diana Cleveland: *hyperfixated
00:32:01 Lou Judd: Question: Father, if we are suffering or are distracted or angered by the situation of the Church, what leaders are doing… and that is distracting and upsetting you … what do you do?
00:39:44 David Swiderski, WI: I remember something from Chesterton who mentioned when someone stole his umbrella at a catholic church he knew it as the right place for him a sinner. Sometimes our pride can get in the way. I learned a long time ago to stop listening to a largely anti catholic media and read what actually is written by the church or Vatican. I prefer a more traditional mass but will go anywhere and in any language where the eucharist is present.
00:40:25 Diana Cleveland: I think of the lamentations of the minor prophets at times of anger.
00:41:03 Catherine: Reacted to I remember something... with "😂"
00:41:22 Lou Judd: You’re absolutely right, Father. But it’s so hard to hear. I don’t know how.
00:42:54 Anthony: Anger over injustice is an ingrained feeling in a "Republic" in which everyone is made to feel responsible for the actions of our leaders and society.
00:43:39 Lilly: The crucifixion itself made the Apostles scatter. Let us stay close to Our Lady in times of disturbances
00:44:40 Jessica Imanaka: Would that process be akin to Cassian's recommendations in the Institutes to meditate on certain scripture passages to drive out the passions?
00:46:39 Jessica Imanaka: It frustrates me when I find myself caught in the grip of some dark passion like anger just hours after having a really great prayer. It always feels like the prayer should have a more stable effect on my day.
00:49:10 susan: so timely  Charlie Kirk  shot and killed today  so much anger tears sad  some people laughing,so upsetting
00:49:38 David Swiderski, WI: "Talking back" by Evagius has scripture for every one of the evil thoughts. I thought this little book was helpful for me . The arrow prayers when practiced seem to change the day.
00:49:50 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to ""Talking back" by Ev..." with 👍
00:50:08 carolnypaver: Reacted to ""Talking back" by Ev..." with ❤️
00:50:26 Jessica Imanaka: So if we can't memorize the relevant scriptures, default to the Jesus Prayer?
00:50:33 Jessica Imanaka: scripture passages
00:54:29 Lou Judd: https://mothersforpriests.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/jumbo-prayers-of-st-john-chrysostom01.pdf
00:54:29 David Swiderski, WI: jumbo-prayers-of-st-john-chrysostom01.pdf
00:55:07 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "https://mothersforpr..." with ❤️
00:55:26 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "jumbo-prayers-of-st-..." with ❤️
00:56:10 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 150, #29, last full paragraph on page
01:05:44 Ryan Ngeve: Father what does St Isaac mean by “The rank of love is more initiated than the rank of labor for God”
01:07:55 Gwen’s iPhone: and we are easily confused.
01:14:42 Anthony: Credo ut intelligam becomes more understandable when I / we probe solely by way of reason and then find we've almost lost something valuable
01:17:29 Jonathan Grobler: Christ seems to prefer sheep over goats.
01:17:48 Lou Judd: In some of your emails this week it kind of sounded like you might want to stop these, Father. Please don’t. Also has something changed in your personal situation? I don’t quite understand everything that has happened to you. God bless you and thank you
01:19:30 Elizabeth Richards: I find it helpful & rich 🙂
01:19:36 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "I find it helpful & ..." with 👍
01:20:03 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God bless you and your mother
01:20:15 Maureen Cunningham: Blessing ThankYou
01:20:18 Janine: Thank you Father!
01:20:54 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:20:58 Diana Cleveland: Thank you!
01:20:59 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father.
01:21:00 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:22:06 Janine: Yes Father …I think that makes sense….
01:22:50 Art iPhone: Thank you Father!

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

St. Isaac’s words fall like a plough upon the heart. He does not speak of religion as ornament, nor of spiritual life as a gentle addition to human comforts. His vision pierces through to the marrow: the Kingdom of God is hidden within, yet it is veiled from us by attachments, by the clamor of outward concerns, by the fog of our restless desires. To find God we do not roam heaven and earth, chasing visions or “phantasms.” We are told simply to purify the soul, to drive away cares foreign to our nature, to cultivate humility and chastity of heart. In that stillness, the mysteries of God shine forth.
Renunciation, for St. Isaac, is not a dour rejection of creation but a necessary loosening of chains. The soul addicted to “ease,” to possessions, to the endless commerce of sights and sounds, is like wet wood; it cannot ignite with the fire of divine love. Only when stripped, when made poor and simple, can it burn. Poverty, humility, stillness; these are not negations but preparations, making space for the light that transforms. It is a paradox: what seems like loss is the doorway into inexhaustible gain.
Isaac teaches us that prayer and reading are not separate paths but one movement of the soul. Reading feeds prayer; prayer clarifies the mind and makes reading luminous. When a man stands in prayer, Scripture rises up within him like fresh springs. It silences distractions, fills the heart with recollection of God, and sometimes overwhelms prayer itself with the sweetness of divine astonishment. Such moments are not learned from books, not borrowed secondhand, they must be tasted. Without the labor of vigilance, no one will know them. Without knocking with persistence, the door remains closed.
Yet the fruit of such striving is nothing less than transfiguration. The soul that bows before the Cross in vigil and compunction finds fountains of sweetness rising from within; unexpected, uncaused by effort alone. Joy surges, the body itself trembles with divine consolation, and prayer ceases to be labor and becomes gift. This is the hidden fire of the Kingdom, the mystery known only to those who hunger and thirst for God above all else.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:06:25 susan: what page?
00:11:46 Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec Jr.: No I don’t. I stole it from you
00:37:47 Ryan Ngeve: Father this seems to imply that external converse has a great effect on the internal internal self. How does this relates to the role of the thought as the source of all temptation
00:38:09 Jonathan Grobler: After decades of severe addiction to digital entertainment, silence has become an exceptionally difficult thing to achieve.
It is truly a difficult thing to break away from.
00:44:22 Thomas: Will intellectually accepting something eventually lead to belief of that thing in the heart
00:44:40 John Burmeister: Reacted to "After decades of sev..." with 👍
00:50:37 Rachel: I find it hard to come across a confessor that understands I'm trying to expose my thoughts. Roman rite frequently requests obvious sins only.  How would I check my thoughts on my own to God?  I think I'd just be thinking about thinking and will lack simplicity.
00:57:18 susan: yoke mercy to prayer...be kind to yourself trust Jesus will shepherd and guide  forgive yourself trust into the heart of Jesus
01:03:41 Rick Visser: Question:  what is "say your rule of prayer..." In the first line of this para.
01:05:33 Rick Visser: A transcendent "to do" list
01:05:42 Erick Chastain: What kind of reading of scripture has the effects he talks about here?
01:08:16 Maureen Cunningham: What version of the Bible do you think is the closest. I find the Orthodox read much different then other version to include the Eastern  version
01:08:28 Rachel: Do you have a suggestion for the best Bible translation?
01:15:44 Rick Visser: How about D B Hart's New Testament?
01:15:57 Jessica Imanaka: Reacted to "How about D B Hart's..." with 👍
01:15:59 Ben: Ignatius finally released the full Old & New Testament single-volume.
01:16:10 David: CATENA AUREA BY SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
01:16:41 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Blessing
01:16:59 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:17:05 Francisco Ingham: Thank you father!
01:17:10 David: Thank you father God bless you and your mother!
01:17:10 Diana Cleveland: Thank you!
01:17:15 Gail: Thank you!
 

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

St. Isaac the Syrian leads us into a subtle yet decisive truth about the spiritual life: to taste of God rightly, one must be weaned from the world—not only from its visible distractions and passions, but also from the premature grasping of spiritual visions and insights. Renunciation, for Isaac, is not merely the abandonment of external goods; it is the letting go of everything that agitates, excites, or exceeds the soul’s present capacity.
Like a child given honey before it can digest it, the soul that seeks lofty knowledge or noetic vision without purification risks sickness and collapse. This is why Isaac insists that silence and stillness are the true companions of renunciation. The soul must be emptied and simplified, freed from the clutter of worldly images, memories, and concerns. Only then can she begin to perceive, not in phantasy, but in the true theoria that God bestows upon the humble and pure of heart.
Silence, for Isaac, is the protection of this delicate work. It guards the soul from shameless curiosity about mysteries that surpass her strength, and it teaches her to receive revelation with reverence, not presumption. Stillness, likewise, is the arena where renunciation becomes fruitful. By cutting off the “exterior war” of the senses—sight, hearing, chatter, possessions—the soul is fortified against the subtler inner warfare of thoughts. In this solitude, prayer and Scripture reading form the new conversation of the heart, replacing worldly recollections with the remembrance of God.
Thus renunciation is not negative but deeply positive: it creates space for mercy, for purity, for true prayer, and for the divine astonishment that halts the soul in stillness before the mysteries of God. Isaac reminds us that almsgiving and voluntary poverty open the heart to boldness before God, but stillness is the summit—where the soul is no longer divided, tossed about, or burdened, but rests in the radiant quiet of God’s presence.
Renunciation, then, is not escape but transfiguration. It severs us from the false sweetness of the world and teaches us to taste, in measure, the true sweetness of God. It bids us to be content with what is given, to wait in silence for the moment when grace itself will lift us beyond our measure, and to remain always in the humility by which mysteries are revealed.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:05:39 Bob Čihák, AZ: Our current book is “The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, revised 2nd Edition” 2011, published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/products_id/635 . This hard-covered book is on the expensive side but of very high quality.
00:12:38 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 147, halfway down page
00:26:41 carolnypaver: Page # ?
00:26:51 Andrew Adams: 148
00:26:59 carolnypaver: Reacted to "148" with 👍
00:28:34 Myles Davidson: I love these mystical passages of Isaac. No-one gets closest to being able to express the inexpressible as he is able.
00:28:46 Ben: Reacted to "I love these mystica..." with 👍
00:28:49 Bob Čihák, AZ: Reacted to "I love these mystica..." with 👍
00:30:22 Joshua Sander: Feel free to simply say, "He'll get to that," if Isaac expounds upon this later, but what, in Isaac's view, is the place of intellect in this way of going about the spiritual life? How can the intellect serve as an aid to this rather than, as it often has in the West, as a barrier to it?
00:32:12 Gwen’s iPhone: Didn’t St. Francis worry about that.
00:35:03 Myles Davidson: Someone has done an audiobook of Orthodox Psychotherapy on YouTube if anyone is interested
00:35:59 Eleana: Reacted to "Someone has done an ..." with 👍
00:36:07 Russ’s iPhone: How does Isaac integrate the emotions into the spiritual life and their impact on contemplation, our intellect, nous and our ability to discern our experience of God. Is his approach to the spiritual life highly intellectual?
00:36:14 David: What happened to Evargius Pontus did pride later take hold of him I find it strange he had so much insight but is not a Saint and from what I read apparently deviated in the end of his life.
00:36:14 Lee Graham: Reacted to "Someone has done an …" with 👍
00:36:25 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Someone has done an ..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoDG3c_p7-U
00:38:01 David: I have read most of what Evarigus wrote and Talking Back is amazing.
00:38:13 Adam Paige: Reacted to "Someone has done an …" with 👍
00:40:03 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "Someone has done an …" with 👍
00:42:14 Bob Čihák, AZ: Reminds me of Lossky: "All theology is mystical theology" in his book "Mystical Rtheology."
00:42:41 Bob Čihák, AZ: Theology
00:43:33 Gwen’s iPhone: It just hit me that Francis was concerned about intellectual that it would take him away from following Christ. He let others like Bonaventure to be more intellectual.
00:44:33 Mary 🕊️: What should we do if we find it very difficult to identify our sin?
00:44:45 Erick Chastain: The kephalia gnostika by evagrius is said to have problematic passages. See the timios pro dromos commentary on the evagrian ascetical system for details.
00:46:25 Eleana: The sorrowful mother to revel the heart's mysteries as Simon said during the presentation of Christ her pierced heart.
00:47:24 Anna: I find minimal weekly confession and if necessary more, makes one more sensitive to see our sins with clarity. It's like unpeeling an onion.
00:49:07 Zack Morgan: Even St. Poemen turned his own mother away which made her happy with an attitude of "would you rather see me now or not distract me from my prayer and fasting so that you can more assuredly see me in heaven".
00:50:20 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "I find minimal weekl..." with 👍🏻
00:51:01 carolnypaver: Reacted to "I find minimal weekl..." with ❤️
00:51:57 carolnypaver: Reacted to "Even St. Poemen turn..." with 😮
00:53:38 Adam Paige: Reacted to "I have read most of …" with ☦️
00:54:46 Catherine Opie: Fr. does the saying of "for these and any other sins..." during the act of contrition at confession cover this aspect of ourselves not being able to perceive or remember every single sin? If we are truly repentant and contrite?
00:55:38 Mary 🕊️: Two more questions....What does a purified heart look like? How do we recognize if our heart is becoming purified?
00:57:35 Una: Who wrote the book The Ascetical Art? Is that the correct title?
00:57:49 carolnypaver: Replying to "Who wrote the book T..."
Heart
00:58:01 carolnypaver: Replying to "Who wrote the book T..."
Not art
01:02:08 Una: Oh, thank you! I can't find any book with the title The Ascetical Art
01:03:33 Adam Paige: Replying to "Oh, thank you! I can…"Maybe you could write it ! ☺️ https://open.substack.com/pub/frcharbelabernethy/p/ascetic-heart-reflections-on-the-db0?r=26c6hk&utm_medium=ios
01:04:15 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Maybe you could writ..." with 🙏
01:07:38 Eleana: Replying to "Oh, thank you! I can..."
I print them and meditated them during my work day.
01:08:01 Una: I guess it's not a book tthen? At least, not ye
01:08:05 Una: yet
01:13:09 Naina: Thank you Father 🙏✝️
01:13:14 Anna: Can you explain about Saturday
01:13:32 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Lords Blessing to all Prayers for Father
01:13:38 Una: He gives extra talks on some Saturdays, Anna
01:13:54 Una: evenings, around  7 pm
01:13:55 Anna: How do I sign up
01:14:01 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:14:01 Una: You'll get an email
01:14:02 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:14:06 Catherine Opie: Thank you so much Fr. God bless! have a blessed weekend. I always include you in my prayers.
01:14:09 David: Thank you Father and God bless you and your mother

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

Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian Homily 4 paragraphs 23 and following:
St. Isaac teaches us that true spiritual perception, when granted by grace, is marked not by outward signs of exaltation, but by tears, peace of the senses, and the silence of the body before the living God. Such tears are not emotional outbursts, but a baptism of compunction — torrents flowing from eyes opened to behold reality as it is in God. They cleanse the heart, heal the passions, and usher the soul into a stillness that surpasses every worldly delight.
His counsel guards us against curiosity and presumption in the spiritual life. Just as honey, if consumed in excess, becomes harmful, so too the pursuit of visions, lofty speculations, or knowledge beyond our measure can damage the soul. Instead, we are called to humility, patience, and silence. The mysteries of God are not seized by force of intellect but revealed to the pure of heart, to those who patiently endure the rugged way of purification.
The ascetical life, then, is not about chasing extraordinary experiences but about purifying the heart through prayer, watchfulness, solitude, merciful love, and immersion in the Scriptures. Reading and prayer become companions, one feeding the other, until the mind is illumined and prayer flows with clarity. In such a state, the soul is lifted, yet simultaneously learns timidity — a holy shame at daring to draw near to what surpasses her nature. This shame, however, is itself a sign of humility, a safeguard against delusion.
Thus, St. Isaac reminds us that the authentic path of prayer and spiritual knowledge is marked by sobriety, contrition, silence, humility, and charity. Tears are the sign of divine visitation; restraint and reverent stillness are its guardians. In this, the spiritual life becomes less about grasping after what is beyond us and more about receiving with wonder what God grants to the lowly.
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Text of chat during the group:
 
00:10:06 Tracey Fredman: https://www.pemptousia.tv/view/b/category/Programs/subCategory/saint_paisios_from_farasa_to_the_heavens__bbFSg/id/saint_paisios_from_farasa_to_the_heavens_episode_9_o69MH/lang/el_GR
00:11:23 Thomas: https://ancientfaith.us/media1
00:13:19 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 147, top of page
00:31:10 David: There is so much that delights the mind in the fathers and often heroic thoughts of doing more vigils, fasting, reading ahead come to mind. I often only am left with a superficial understanding I can't remember. I think one needs to digest slowly like food
00:32:39 David: On the negative side I watch my son's dog everytime she eats grass I find myself making the sign of the cross
00:33:02 Diana Cleveland: Fr. Can you say more what you mean by crisis of faith? Do you mean the kind of crisis that makes you question God or the kind that makes you not want to walk with God?
00:35:33 Anthony: Sometimes I want to lash out at "God" but then realize that is a false image, a mask I've imposed on God.  And then, I realize....it'll all be Ok, the false image is not the God Who loves me.
00:40:37 David: Each night I read from the psalter of St. Ephraim it seems to ground me thinking this saint speaks to my struggles. Sometimes with Climatus and Issac it seems like they have it all figured out and have unabtainum.
00:41:12 David: Mythical not obtainable
00:41:17 David: Used in business for products
00:45:29 Julie: How do you know which tears are for God and someone like me who can cry so easily reading lives of the saints and someone’s sorrows etc.
00:51:16 David: I read somewhere the west seeks to capture the understanding by the intellect and the east seeks to have it revealed by grace to the nous.
00:55:02 Francisco Ingham: I’ve heard say that the west is the mind of the Church and the east is her heart 
We need to be deeply acquainted with both spiritual traditions
00:57:26 David: The first book published in the Americas was The Ladder of Devine Ascent. I often wonder if the fruits of the west (much better at evangelical efforts) might have been they also were still breathing with "both lungs" as St. John Paul mentioned.
00:57:40 David: Sorry type Divine Ascent
00:58:27 Kathleen: Describe in your words discursive and non-discursive relative to tonight’s teaching.  I know the definition but want to grasp it further. Perhaps you can provide further insight.
01:02:20 Francisco Ingham: Such a blessing to hear your thoughts on this topic. Truly edifying. Thank you Father
01:11:39 Maureen Cunningham: As
01:11:54 Maureen Cunningham: AA
01:14:17 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you
01:14:50 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:15:00 Diana Cleveland: Thank you!
01:15:02 David: Thank you father God bless you and your mother
01:15:17 David: As we continue to prayer for you
 

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

St. Isaac’s counsel confronts the modern temptation toward self-promotion, verbal dominance, and the illusion of expertise. In a time when our culture prizes quick answers, visible influence, and a polished public persona, his words cut against the grain. He reminds us that the deepest authority is not rooted in rhetoric or clever disputation, but in the quiet radiance of a virtuous life. Humility, expressed in meek speech, modest bearing, restraint in judgment, and continual learning, guards the soul from the injury of familiarity and the snares of pride.
For those in the spiritual life today, this means resisting the lure of proving ourselves in debates, curating our image for approval, or speaking beyond what we have truly lived. It is an invitation to clothe our knowledge in tears and fasting, to let the wisdom of the Church shape our vision, and to guard our minds from curiosities that puff up rather than purify. Such a way seems “small” in the eyes of the world, yet it opens the heart to the grace of God, the only true teacher.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:10:58 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 145. Paragraph 20
00:12:39 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 145, mid-page # 20 2nd paragraph on page
00:13:11 Zack Morgan: no
00:24:51 Anthony: This goes so much against the grain of the Classical Greek world: being a public person and a public corrector after the manner of Socrates
00:40:14 Anthony: I found the spirit of blasphemy is contagious from people who proclaim they are righteous but take delight in showing the faults of others. I wish I could shake it off.
00:40:25 Una: Any practical suggestions for those of us whose knees are shot and can't do prostrations anymore?
00:45:55 Ben: I think St. Seraphim of Sarov said something about continual prayer supplying for the inability to fast. Could one hope that the same could be said about an inability to perform other ascetical works, like prostrations?
00:54:02 Ren Witter: How does one discern when one’s conscience differs from widely held beliefs in the Church because it is malformed, and when it differs but is in fact formed well? I am thinking of immediate, small things obviously, but also St. John Chrysostom, who experienced exile from the institutional Church, and who had such confidence in his own conscience that he could say “they have the churches, but we have the truth” ?
00:55:18 Anthony: Replying to "Any practical sugges..." 
 There's something about prayer being the highest ascetical work. Maybe in Evergetinos.
00:59:28 Mary 🕊️: The Truth stands invioable whether any human being gives voice to it or not.
00:59:32 Anthony: The sort us "me against the church" and delighting in it, cavorting in it, seems to me a spirit of blasphemy.
01:01:16 Rick Visser: I may be wrong but I think it was Saint Thomas Aquinas who said that even if our conscience is wrong we must follow it.
01:01:20 Ren Witter: If I may ask a potentially fraught question: as someone who reads a lot of Orthodox writers, and who considers the Orthodox Church a kind of estranged twin to the Catholic Church, I have come across a couple of teachings on morals in which my mind and heart agree with the Orthodox teaching more than the Catholic teaching. What do I do with this? Humbly follow the Catholic teaching against my conscience, or follow the more Orthodox way and trust that the Lord will be pleased with that?
01:01:45 Catherine Opie: "The truth is like a lion, let it loose- it will defend itself"
01:05:56 Maureen Cunningham: I see the beauty in all Christian church
01:07:19 Una: Is the Watchful Mind the book where it talks about spitting blood? Oh, yes. What do you make of that?
01:07:58 Una: Is it literal?
01:08:41 Joseph Lamb: I’ve heard that demons prey on your emotions and can make you think God wants you to do something, when really they’re trying to push you outside of His will. If that’s true, how can you tell the difference?
01:12:13 Anthony: Replying to "The sort us "me agai..." 
 We who bear the effect of hearing of the scandals can "offer it up", accepting this as penalty for listening to it, and suffering as a kind of expiation.
01:12:29 Maureen Cunningham: He was like a Rabbi Father Groshel
01:12:55 Zack Morgan: To address Ren: But when evaluating many of the Eastern Catholic Traditions, you find that many teachings one thinks is uniquely Orthodox is held by many Eastern Catholics.  Even the Philioque - our Melkite brothers and sisters omit "and the Son" from the Creed, and after Florence this became less of an "issue" than what it is still being made to appear.
01:13:41 Mary 🕊️: The Catachumen process into the Orthodox Church can take several years. Much patience is required.
01:14:53 James Crichton: It took me a full year before deciding to write my letter to the Metropolitan to change Sui Iuris. Made too many rash decisions in my life. This wasn't going to be one of them.
01:14:57 Una: I became Orthodox but came back after three or four years.
01:15:55 Tracey Fredman: Replying to "The Catachumen proce..."
The OCIA in the Catholic Church is now (as of the start of the current liturgical year) at least a full year - and for many nearly two now. It's been interesting how patient everyone has been with the updates to the RCIA. They want to follow Christ and they are not deterred by the long process.
01:16:38 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "I became Orthodox bu..." with 👍
01:16:51 Maureen Cunningham: Yay REN
01:17:46 Mary 🕊️: Replying to "The Catachumen proce..." 
 👍
01:17:53 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you
01:17:56 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:18:00 John Burmeister: thanks
01:18:10 Janine: Thank you Father
01:18:33 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. God Bless
01:18:52 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you, Father, esp. for using Substack.
01:18:58 Maureen Cunningham: Amen Father it all beautiful and thank you for all you r time
01:18:58 Lee Graham: Love your prayers on substack, thank you
01:18:59 Rick Visser: Is there a way to group your prayers in one place?
01:19:00 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Is there a way to gr..." with 👍🏻

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

St Isaac the Syrian’s words strike with such power and seek to draw us away from what we desperately cling to as human beings - vainglory. Our focus upon ourselves, our particular needs and desires, makes us gather “abominable treasures“ for ourselves that defile our hearts. But more than defiling our hearts, such a vainglory prevents us from experiencing the love and mercy of God in all of its fullness. 
Thus, Saint Isaac does not hold back in emphasizing the need to purify the heart from all vainglory and pride. His words crash upon the heart like a hammer against an anvil. It is better for us to free ourselves from the shackle of sin than to free slaves from slavery. It is better for us to make peace with our soul than it is to teach about bringing peace among men. It is good to speak about the things of God but it is better for us to make ourselves pure for Him. To speak humbly and to be seen as uncouth by others is better than speaking eloquently about things that we only know as hearsay or that are writings of ink.
What St. Isaac is seeking to have us contemplate is the transformative power of God‘s grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit within our hearts. It is God‘s love and mercy that transforms the repentant heart and it is that same love and mercy that transforms the world; even if it remains hidden in obscurity or in poverty. What value is there in a person preaching or teaching about God when through his negligence his soul remains sickly? What gain is there to teach others or lead them to the knowledge of God and then to fall away from hope in God?
We begin to see through St. Isaac’s writings how we have obscured the gospel. In doing so we have not only weakened its message but we have also lost sight of the presence of God within the sorrows and afflictions of life.  It is through the Cross that we have been redeemed and when there is fidelity and trust in the Lord, when we are humbled by life, it is then that His power is made perfect.
---
Text of chat during the group:
00:19:39 Gwen’s iPhone: Blessed Transfiguration  Father
00:24:55 Myles Davidson: What is the distinction between vainglory and pride?
00:27:53 Jamie Hickman: Was the hedgehog reference from John Chrysostom? Love it...just not familiar with it
00:29:24 Jamie Hickman: ah yes, thank you, Father
00:32:24 Anthony: I have a feeling St Isaac is reflecting on his short time as an active bishop, which he fled.
00:33:39 Myles Davidson: Replying to "ah yes, thank you, F..."
Cassian’s Conference 10.11
00:34:03 Jamie Hickman: Reacted to "Cassian’s Confere..." with ✍️
00:36:18 Jamie Hickman: Mary your vocation to purify your heart is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this.
00:45:51 Anthony: This is the difference of the frankness of a "Rocky" instead of the glibness of Apollo Creed
00:47:57 Rebecca: Sometimes a humble spirit can become a source of pride and vainglory….
00:49:18 Rebecca: …as in the false self co-opts the experience of the ‘humble spirit’.
01:02:38 Russ’s iPhone: Lewis- Pain is Gods divine megaphone to rouse us from our spiritual slumber, or pain is Gods divine drill into the human heart.
01:07:23 Ren Witter: I feel like a lot of the time, the same circumstances that can humble can also lead to intense anger and resentment. What is the difference between the person who allows themselves to be humbled, and the one who responds with resentment and anger?
01:08:55 Anthony: I plenty of times start with anger and have to put it aside.  Maybe that is humility.  Over and over again.
01:09:47 Anthony: We have to remember we are humans, not the mythical Vulcans
01:10:47 Mary 🕊️: Through a history of interactions with Christ I begin to experience his trustworthiness.
01:11:13 Anthony: Reacted to Through a history of... with "👍"
01:12:27 Ren Witter: I feel like maybe the last stage in this process is to resign oneself with joy, rather than sadness. Very difficult.
01:14:45 Diana Cleveland: Reacted to "Through a history of..." with ❤️
01:14:47 Lee Graham: Reacted to "I feel like maybe th…" with ❤️
01:16:32 David: My grandfather used to say it is a curse to say to people- I just want you to be happy which is the road to live an empty life chasing that which never fulfills. When had my children I always said - I just want you to have a fulfilling life. Through lost, struggle, overcoming problems I have grow to appreciate this along with growing closer to Christ.
01:16:59 Andrew Adams: Reacted to "My grandfather used ..." with ❤️
01:17:21 Mary 🕊️: So my death is day by day swallowed up by his Life.
01:21:45 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father! Great discussion tonight!
01:21:48 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:21:50 Rebecca: Thank you!
01:21:52 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!! Great to be with you all
01:21:55 Diana Cleveland: Thank you!
01:21:56 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you, Father.
01:21:57 Gwen’s iPhone: Thank you
01:22:06 Erick Chastain: thank you Father
01:22:08 David: Thank you father God bless you and your mother!
01:22:35 Mary 🕊️: Love to all!! Each and every one ❤️

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

In the writings of Saint Isaac the Syrian, we see so beautifully the desert fathers emphasis on praxis; that is, how we concretely live out our faith in our day-to-day life and relationships. They knew that Christ can be lost to the mind and the heart not only through sin but also simply in the warp and wolf of day-to-day life. We surround ourselves with things that provide us with a sense of security and identity. This goes beyond material goods and includes our being driven by busyness and the pursuit of the world‘s respect of our accomplishments. We can lose time through idle chatter, laziness, and sloth. With anxious hearts, we direct our energy toward pursuing the things that we have come to love within the world; education, art, athletics, and entertainment. We are zealous for what we love and willing to invest ourselves without counting the cost to pursue it. 
However, Saint Isaac reminds us of the meaning and the weight of those small moments and affairs in our day-to-day life. Do we hold in mind the brevity of our life and that it has been entrusted to us in such a way that we will have to give an account before God for how we have used the gift? Do we see the “other” and Christ within the poor or those who are suffering and alone? More often than not our minds and hearts are abstracted by the things that titillate the senses and emotions.  Thus, Saint Isaac tells us acquire freedom in your manner of life; in particular freedom from turmoil. Do not find your freedom by what simply gives pleasure and so become a slave of slaves. Surrounded by abundance and conveniences we often have the sense that we are dependent upon them. Yet we do not realize that they will never help us to acquire humble thoughts or a pure minds. St. Isaac, therefore, describes renunciation as weaning ourselves from our attachment to the things of this world as well as from our own ego. Our dignity and destiny is found in Christ Who is our hope, our salvation, and our Love!
---
Text of chat during the group:
00:05:37 susan: been away  what page are we on?
00:11:58 Myles Davidson: Page 143 “Love chastity…..”
00:13:11 Una: Trouble with my sound
00:13:11 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 143 paragraph 11
00:13:20 Una: Whose feet are those?
00:14:19 Adam Paige: Technical difficulties, please stand by ! ☺️
00:14:37 Jamie Hickman: jealous!
00:29:05 Maureen Cunningham: How do you know you are killing the ego . How would you be different
00:31:33 Julie: Should I feel bad for liking  or surrounding myself with nice things
00:32:41 Eleana: I agree, the tentation when he have a spiritual life is to feel "good" and dressing to be seen or perceive as humble; it can also be false humility that I believe to be the worst pride.
00:33:07 Una: That false self can manifest in busy busy busy
00:34:15 Thomas: I’ve always thought that remembrance of death was about remembering our sins and that we will be judged and so forth, but Isaac says rejoicing, is this just a different aspect
00:34:44 Rebecca: “I live now. Not I.  But Christ live in me”  St Paul the Apostle
00:41:59 Jamie Hickman: The Mother Teresa story reminds me of paragraph 14: "Conduct yourself with knowledge..." -- this knowledge is intimacy, experience as you've called it, Father. She conducted herself with the love of her Love, He Who Thirsts. She really saw him thirsty there on the sidewalk, and she attempted to satiate him.
00:43:08 Joanna Martinez: There is a beutifuly done documentary film on Amazon Prime called "Sacred Alaska" about the life of small Orthodox community and their saints. The film is not free, costs $4.25, but highly recommended by way of illustrating exactly what St. Isaac speaks abot, living in the hands of God, with freedom to not have control over anything, but living by the grace of God
00:44:08 Nicholas B. Besachio: How does one stay humble when they hold a high position that comes with a lot of priviledge, nice things, and command over others. How does one direct those things toward the good.
00:48:32 Ryan Ngeve: Father what would be the proper approach about people who use busy-ness as an escape from sloth and sinful passions
00:48:51 Ryan Ngeve: To people *
00:49:36 Anthony: Replying to "How does one stay hu..." 
 Privilege and honor and authority includes responsibilities including in a way responsibility for souls under us.
00:51:04 Una: Interesting question, Ryan
01:02:14 Rebecca: Father, do you have any suggestions on how to ‘order the sense?
01:02:53 Jamie Hickman: Speaking of senses, I'd go to hearing. Music is more accessible, perhaps, than in ages past due to recording devices and proliferation of devices that play music. We know that faith comes from hearing, and so when much of our music is contrary to the Gospel, it is perhaps unsurprising that contemporary man struggles to believe.
01:07:30 Myles Davidson: St Paisios had only a tin can and a teaspoon as his only cooking and eating utensils
01:07:59 Julie: Silence can be scary with your own thoughts
01:08:07 Anthony: Reacted to Silence can be scary... with "👍"
01:08:27 Anthony: Replying to "Silence can be scary..." 
 Yes. That's a reason I constantly listen to something
01:09:35 Alan Tarantino: My wife started using an app called Dumb Phone to reduce screen time.
01:09:54 Jamie Hickman: Reacted to "My wife started us..." with 👍
01:11:06 Erick Chastain: This is st junipero serra's cell
01:12:21 Anthony: Reacted to pic-4977f22d-6b5b-42ed-be9d-c2aac9403110.jpg with "👍"
01:12:28 Jamie Hickman: Reacted to "IMG_8737.jpg" with 😂
01:12:38 Jacqulyn: Reacted to "IMG_8737.jpg" with 😂
01:12:46 Ben: Reacted to "IMG_8737.jpg" with 😂
01:12:58 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "Interesting question…" with 👍
01:13:07 Ryan Ngeve: Reacted to "IMG_8737.jpg" with 😂
01:13:39 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "pic-4977f22d-6b5b-42ed-be9d-c2aac9403110.jpg" with 🙏
01:14:16 Andrew Adams: Reacted to "IMG_8737.jpg" with 😂
01:18:04 Jamie Hickman: ad multos annos
01:18:53 Rebecca: Thank so much for this session.  Wonderful teaching and help.
01:20:09 Gwen’s iPhone: Thank you. Grateful.
01:21:02 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:21:03 David: Thank you Father may God bless you and your mother!
01:21:03 Joanna Martinez: Thank You.
01:21:07 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:21:15 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you Father!
01:21:16 Jacqulyn: Thank you!
01:21:23 Jeffrey Ott: Are you going to continue substack?
01:22:27 Alan Tarantino: Thank you Father
01:22:34 cameron: Thank you Fr
01:22:40 Diana Cleveland: Thank you!

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

Renunciation: The word has certain connotations that are often tied to deprivation or unhappiness. What we find in the writings of the great ascetics, St. Isaac especially, is something quite different; the weaning of ourselves from the things that we are attached to in the world in order to become more attached to God, to what endures and fills the soul with consolation and strength. 
For example, we are called to embrace the practice of vigils, to rise during the night to pray and thereby humbling the mind and the body. Yet Isaac does not see this as costly but rather as restorative and promising consolation in times of trial and affliction. It is in silence, often deepest during the night and free of distraction, that we are able to listen to God and receive what he desires to give us.  Likewise, we are to persevere in spiritual reading while we dwell in stillness. We let go of the hectic pace of society and the busyness into which we often thrust ourselves in order to taste the sweetness of the wisdom of the scriptures and the fathers. Perhaps more challenging, we are told that we are to love poverty. We are to willingly let go of material goods and radically simplify our lives. In doing so, Isaac tells us, the mind remains collected and is secured from wandering. We often become anxious about our worldly security and protecting what ilwe have come to possess. We become driven to spend more time focused on the things of this world than we are pursuing the life of virtue and prayer. In a similar vein, Isaac tells us to detest superfluity so that our thoughts might remain untroubled. Again, filling our lives with things, activities, work or social engagements steals from us solitude and the silence that is born from it. Surrounded constantly by the noise and the affairs of the world we begin to experience intense anxiety and depression seeing only the presence of chaos and violence that makes one question reality and the value and purpose of life. 
Part of the beauty of reading the desert fathers is that they reveal to us the beauty and the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the blood of Christ.  Their lives and their writings fill the heart with hope in a dark world and set the soul on fire to to embrace what has been promised us by our Lord.
To God be the glory unto ages of ages. Amen.
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Text of chat during the group: 
00:04:19 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 143, first short paragraph, 6
00:12:49 cameron: The names again please
00:14:56 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 143, first short paragraph, 6
00:14:59 cameron: Monk and monastery
00:15:13 cameron: Thank you.
00:20:52 Myles Davidson: Replying to "P. 143, first short ..."
“Honor the work of vigil…”
00:21:55 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 143, first short paragraph, 6
00:32:20 James Hickman: For years I’ve found myself waking up against my will, then over the years (more recently, and not always!) seeing it as a gift. But when I have an icon on my wall, I find it a grace when I lay there awake in bed and make simple prayer of the heart, simple acts. This seems valuable. I’ll be ok to hear if there’s more expected than this. Objectivity is desired here. Work in progress here.
00:33:05 David: I have a prayer book that has a Greek orthodox evening prayer and in the ending it says "we sing to you in the night- Holy, holy holy are you oh God, through the prayers of the Theotokos have mercy on me". Is this a practice when one begins a vigil? When I do wake I always try to say it but was not sure if it is something formal in vigils?
00:35:59 Jessica Imanaka: Several Trappist monks I know have said they don't need as much as sleep as medical science dictates. The deceased abbot used to say that prayer reduces the physical need for sleep. Whenever I go on retreat, praying the full office, I just can't sleep as much. My body doesn't want to.
00:36:13 Anthony: On waking up at night....some people say 3am is the devil's hour, so it's advisable to pray then.  I think that gives way too much focus on the devil's? Or is this real Christian tradition?
00:40:58 Myles Davidson: The noonday devil was a desert father thing
00:41:11 Nicholas B. Besachio: What does St. Issac say about demonic attacks on Faith.
00:41:26 Rebecca Thérèse: Christ died on the cross at 3pm so Satanists say a black mass at 3am, that's why some people refer to it as the devil's hour
00:42:30 Bob Čihák, AZ: Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin did a Mysterious World session # 98 on “Sleep” which I found helpful. Cf. http://jimmyakin.com/ .
00:43:45 Thomas: I have heard priests say not to pretend to be monks what do they mean by this, because we should imitate them
00:46:06 Una: Reacted to "Catholic apologist..." with 👍
00:47:24 Ryan Ngeve: Father why is it the case that there is so much negligence or ignorance on guarding the heart/mind. Especially in today’s world
00:49:44 Jessica Imanaka: A Russian Orthodox monk advised me about a year ago to view my family life as my monastery.
00:51:01 James Hickman: The renewal of the domestic church in the west, particularly after Vatican II, seems to be the closest thing the Latins wish to recover a monastic (single focus) mindset. The family home should be a place of daily prayer of Scripture, rituals, etc that lead to putting on the mind of Christ. We still hear: don’t be a monk, but the lay vocations are being given a good challenge to strive for holiness. Might be centuries to really recover
00:53:46 James Hickman: https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/parents/tools-for-building-a-domestic-church#:~:text=Find%20a%20time%20that%20works,home%2C%20and%20in%20every%20bedroom.
00:56:08 Jeffrey Ott: Where can we find that prologue from St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain?
00:56:34 Erick Chastain: There is a wonderful new book by a Benedictine monk that describes custody of the heart and interior silence among other things (From Silence to Silence by Fr Francis Bethel):
https://tanbooks.com/products/books/from-silence-to-silence-a-benedictine-pilgrimage-to-god-s-sanctuary/
00:57:35 James Hickman: Replying to "There is a wonderful…"Clear Creek is a refuge!
00:57:50 Erick Chastain: Reacted to "Clear Creek is a ref..." with 👍
00:58:39 Erick Chastain: Replying to "There is a wonderful..."
Yes, Fr Bethel is at Clear Creek
01:02:56 Jeffrey Ott: Replying to "Where can we find th..."
Thanks!
01:03:05 Anthony: I think I got the Rule of St Basil from 8th Day
01:03:39 Erick Chastain: oklahoma
01:06:10 James Hickman: Replying to "There is a wonderful…"Thomas
01:06:18 Anthony: Fr Thomas Dubay?
01:07:45 Myles Davidson: Happy are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom by Fr Thomas Dubayhttps://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0898709210?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz
01:09:27 Ryan Ngeve: Father do you think the absence of monastic bishops in the western church could have something to do with the spirituality crisis? Bishop Erik Varden (Trappist) seems to be a breath of fresh air
01:12:53 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Happy are You Poor: ..."
👆Australian Amazon 👇US Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/Happy-Are-You-Poor-Spiritual-ebook/dp/B002HE1K8S/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hsMFxzX8IlA-ylEJ2L4PwA._WS7Go4mNqegxcy1NTQDBJiyC5RAmFcgPvoW9t8QpMg&qid=1753316681&sr=8-1
01:15:34 Rod Castillo: Yes, as Director of Religious Education in my parish, I attend endless meetings.  They are mind numbing!
01:16:55 David: The biggest change in my parish was a small adoration chapel which now needs to be expanded as it is always full and open 24/7. A small group started it but it has drawn a large amount of Gen Z people to our parish. It really has been astounding to me. Years ago daily mass was just old people now 50 to 100 people attend including families.
01:17:33 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "The biggest change i..." with 🙏
01:17:33 Lilly: No such thing as too many monastic books 🙂
01:17:49 Nypaver Clan: Replying to "The biggest change i..."
Where do you live? Where is this chapel?
01:18:40 Anthony: The chaos of Covid & scandal showed us all that we want something more & deep. I see this in my diocese.
01:19:02 James Hickman: Reacted to "No such thing as too…" with ❤️
01:19:38 Catherine Opie: Our priest asked us to organise a pilgrimage here in NZ and it consumed our entire lives for a whole year. However what an opportunity to develop charity through working with others. 🤣
01:20:53 David: If the devil can't make you bad he will make you busy- Fr. Josh Johnson
01:21:09 Ben: Reacted to "If the devil can't m..." with 😆
01:21:23 Lilly: On Feast of Saint Elias, we had 2 priests provide confessions left and right side of the Iconostasis. I've never seen it before ❤️
01:23:40 Anthony: In Naples, multiple confessionals were all over the Gesu Nuovo, and a few were populated by priests. In Reggio Calabria cathedral, the priest was sitting out in the open, ready to receive penitents.
01:25:07 Jacqulyn: Thank you!
01:25:40 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. God bless. ❤️
01:25:41 cameron: Thank you Father!
01:25:42 Diana Cleveland: Thank you!
01:25:43 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:25:46 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!
01:25:51 David: Thank you father god bless you and your mother!

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

Saint Isaac the Syrian begins this homily with the words: “The soul that loves God finds rest only in God.“ This thought permeates all that is to follow. Our weaning ourselves from our attachment to the things of the world and our own self-esteem and judgment opens our eyes to the love and freedom that is ours in Christ. To see this, Saint Isaac tells us, one must engage in the ascetic life; that is, we must discipline the body through vigils, prayer fasting and the like; cultivating the heart in such a way that not only desires God above all things, but is willing to suffer every hardship for his sake. Indeed it is suffering and humiliation that frees us from the yoke of the self to such an extent that we can embrace such hardship with joy. In fact, the one who flees the futile glory of this world already has come to see something of the hope of the age to come. St. Isaac wants us to understand that our freedom from attachment to the things of the world does not merely mean our possession of riches, but rather also the acquisition of anything to which our will clings. Until this takes place, we are scattering with one hand what we have gathered with the other. All that we hold onto prevents us from rising above a worldly understanding of justice and prevents us from experiencing true freedom in our actions.
We cannot show mercy to others except through what has been gained through our own labor and hardship. To sow from another man’s seed is to make our actions ingenuine and hypocritical. It’s a reflection of our desire to isolate ourselves from the suffering of our fellow man. What Isaac is preparing us to see is that we are not simply called to be merciful at the highest level of natural virtue or even what we would see as virtue elevated by the grace of God. Rather, we are called to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. This means giving to everyone who ask of us and not expecting our goods to return to us; not merely to suffer injustice or to have our possessions taken from us, but also to be willing to lay down our life for our brother. Our mercy must be such and our love for our brother so great that even if we were to be treated shamelessly and abusively, our desire would be not to grieve our brother‘s heart. 
Guided by intellect and reason alone we have already reached the level of absurdity. In the months to come, we will be shown that the mercy and love of God stretches far beyond the measures of man’s mind. The love of God has the very dimensions of God Himself.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:18:47 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 141, start of Homily 4, first paragraph
00:34:05 Myles Davidson: On the subject of suffering for Christ, “contempt and humiliation with good will”… I’m reading an extraordinary book called The Autobiography Of A Hunted Priest by John Gerard S.J. written by an English Jesuit priest who survived the Elizabethan anti-Catholic police-state known as the penal times. These young English Catholic men would travel to the continent to attend seminary, knowing when they returned they would be constantly hunted and faced a high chance of imprisonment, torture and martyrdom via being hung, drawn and quartered. While the author lived to tell the tale, he did suffer horrendous conditions in prison and painful torture. What is striking about the story, is the joy and peace he often experienced under these conditions and the often profound effect he had on his jailers. A very real example of “suffering contempt and humiliation with good will”. The book is a real faith booster!
00:35:10 Ryan Ngeve: Father what makes the trope of the fool-for-Christ different from those who actively seek humiliation or other forms of false piety
00:40:18 David: The movie "The Island" has a good example of a fool for Christ who is ideal as a follower of Christ and showing humility and humor.
00:40:25 Anthony: St Gabriel of Georgia should be patron of political philosophers but he was a fool for Christ.
00:40:34 Ben: Replying to "The movie "The Islan..."
👍
00:40:49 Julie: Reacted to "The movie "The Islan…" with ❤️
00:42:05 Myles Davidson: Replying to "The movie "The Islan..."
Is that the Russian film?
00:42:06 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 141, paragraph 3
00:42:35 Ben: Replying to "The movie "The Islan..."
@Myles Davidson That's right.
00:42:58 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "@Myles Davidson That..." with 🙏
00:45:25 Fr. C Mase: It reminds me of that overtaking desire that sometimes comes when we see something we really want and it turns out not to be all that great. Like a new phone or something like that.
00:47:54 Rod Castillo: LOL, I have neither PC nor Laptop.  I do everything on my phone.
00:50:46 James Hickman: Detachment from things so they don’t control us — not avoidance of potentially useful tools. We must posses them. The impoverished can be attached to his simplicity in a spiritually unhealthy way…pastor was preaching John of the Cross today because of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Ultimate detachment even from spiritual things, but this detachment might be aided by a prayer rope, Rosary, or other material thing in our hands.
00:52:58 Maureen Cunningham: Prayer Of  Saint Patrick Christ Before  Me
00:55:25 Bob Čihák, AZ: "Words" do not break into the heart. I think a sense of shared EXPERIENCE is what we hope words can bring to others.
00:55:56 Anthony: The manipulation of stories & images already is part of life, getting people to assent to wars, etc.
00:58:24 Catherine Opie: AI is also terrible for the environment, it uses an incredible amount of power and water. Unbelivable. It has been designed by people whose aim in life is to become gods and live forever by downloading their consciousness into machines. Delusional. I think its anti God and anti life.
01:00:13 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "AI is also terrible …" with 😱
01:03:28 Myles Davidson: There is a phenomena where people think they have led “their AI” to consciousness and are going down a very dangerous spiritual path with it
01:04:27 Thomas: One of my friends asked me why there has been a decline in ascetics, and I kinda guessed at a few things, but a lot of what I read is about awareness, do you think that part of the reason could be because phones and stuff like that just distract us, so nobody can be aware of anything and therefore they don’t even consider the level of repentance of a monk
01:04:28 Nypaver Clan: Replying to "AI is also terrible ..."
😲
01:04:46 Elizabeth Richards: There's an app called "Be Present" that I found helpful to help break the dopamine cycle
01:15:53 Anthony: Should we as Christians be more open about praying for the souls of enemies.....Hitler & Nazis or people who burn monasteries, etc ?  Or would that bring scandal?
01:22:34 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "There is a phenomena..." with 🤣
01:27:13 Naina: Thank you Father 🙏✝️❤️
01:27:33 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You   Father
01:27:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:27:39 David: Thank you Father. God bless you and your Mother!
01:27:47 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. apologies for being on call.
 

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

Perhaps there has been no greater or more beautiful exhortation written than Saint Isaac the Syrian’s homily on temptation. This may seem to be a rather bold statement, but Isaac’s words draw us into the very heart of a reality that even many men and women of faith do not see; that is, we are engaged in a spiritual warfare against the Evil One. Evil is not an abstraction or a story meant to instill fear as a means of control. Isaac speaks of it from the perspective of experience and like the other desert fathers, he stands before us as a living and breathing icon, encouraging us to run the course with courage and fidelity. In the spiritual battle, there is no Sabbath day rest; in other words, we must be ever vigilant in regards to temptation that comes to us in many forms. The only one that we must be concerned about is the temptation to which we freely give ourselves over through neglect or laziness or our attachment to particular sins. Rather, we are to take heart from and acquire zeal in our soul against the devil through the example and the histories of those who proved “allies of the divine laws and commandments of the Spirit in fearful places, and amid most grievous tribulation.” 
The one in essential thing that this requires of us is that we have in our mind God‘s providence, and always to remember that he is ever faithful, and will not abandon those who trust him. This is our hope - that God is ever present to us in the spiritual battle, strengthening us, and surrounding us with a host of angels and Saints. We have a God who is set upon our salvation and who provides everything that is needed in order that we might be raised even above the ranks of angels. Our Lord has humbled himself, taken our poor humanity and its poverty, embraced it in all of its fullness and weakness in order to raise us up to share in the fullness of the life of God.  Deification is the fruit of the spiritual battle and the promise of our loving Lord!
---
Text of chat during the group:
00:03:18 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 138 paragraph number 33
00:12:58 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 138, first full paragraph
00:14:35 Janine: Happy birthday Fr. Charbel…60 is nothing…just wait til 70! You are still very young!
00:15:18 Bob Čihák, AZ: ..or 84...
00:19:24 Catherine Opie: Happy Birthday Fr. May your next circle around the sun be full of Gods graces and blessings🎂
00:21:17 Rebecca Thérèse: Happy birthday it's the 10th already in the UK as well🎂☺️00:22:22 Gwen’s iPhone: Smile you could be turning 79
00:32:42 Erick Chastain: It is interesting that he emphasizes the role of the guardian angel in defending against the temptations. My oblate master says one should pray to the guardian angel to prevent sins. \
00:36:12 Ryan Ngeve: Father it is easy for us who live in the world to tend to forget of spiritual realities in our daily life. How does one change this  ?
00:36:27 David: St. Moses the Black/Strong episode of 'Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints' is streaming now on Fox Nation. I believe this is also on youtube but likely violating copyright.
00:42:15 Anthony: To become prayer is like the lesson on computation on Monday.
00:43:38 paul g.: Reacted to " St. Moses the Black…" with ✔️
00:59:15 Anthony: I think it's important to note they recognized perils, even perils of devils, but did not seek to indulge curiosity about the demons.  The focus was God, without craven feeling toward devils or to God. They shone like simple, confident icons.
00:59:37 Ryan Ngeve: Father, could the very realization of one’s own wretchedness/ poverty/ powerlessness or need for some external mercy lead to tears or even despair?
01:02:11 Elizabeth Richards: Yes!
01:17:13 Catherine Opie: ❤️
01:19:03 David: I heard an interesting podcast with Fr. Josh Johnson who said if the Devil can't make you bad he will make you busy. Apparently a parishioner doubted the devil existed he told her to set a time to sit in adoration or prayer and you will see tons of things will come up to interfere and often not bad things. 2 weeks later she came back and said- ok I believe in the devil. This also has been my experience.
01:21:44 Eleana: And temptations. I usually tell my patients you are often desperate for a "fix" and miserable but when you are trying to be sober and clean, you encounter friends that will invite you and even FIND everywhere what you avoid the most.
01:26:11 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Father Blessing
01:26:49 Elizabeth Richards: 🥳 Happy Birthday! 🎉   Looking forward to Saturday!
01:26:53 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:26:53 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and Bless you, Father.
01:26:54 Art: Have a happy birthday!!
01:26:59 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you! Happy Birthday!
01:27:10 David: Thank you father and may you have a joyful Birthday. I turn 60 next year tell me how it goes

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

Knowledge of God comes through the experience of God. When faith remains an abstraction, an idea, it is destined to remain lifeless and loses its capacity to transform and heal. It is the Lord Himself - He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life - who must teach us. 
Outside this path, we will lack all understanding. What we are called to contemplate is not simply what we can see with our eyes, perceive through our senses or conceive through our intellect. It is the mind of God, the mind of Christ, that we are called to put on. Furthermore, what we are given to understand is not worldly realities but the very mysteries of the Kingdom and the nature of divine Love. 
Such is true in our understanding of the presence of temptation and affliction in our lives. We are told to pray not to enter in the temptation and yet the path the Christ calls us to walk leads us directly into them. The temptations that we are not to give ourselves over to are the ones that come through our own negligence and attachment to the things of this world and the self. We are not to put ourselves to the test by exposing ourselves to things that enliven the passions. Yet, in the gospel we are called by Christ to enter into the tribulation and the trials that we experience in this world and to do so with patience and hope in Him. The temptation that we are to fear is the one that comes through the mind’s self-esteem which opens us up to the demon of blasphemy and pride. It is then that we make ourselves judge of God and become blind to the poverty of our own sin.  
The temptation, the trial we are called to enter into and embrace is the cross. With firm hope we are to take it up daily and in doing so God will reveal the truth to us. Isaac writes: “For without trials, God‘s Providence is not seen and you cannot obtain boldness before God, nor learn the wisdom of the spirit, nor can divine longing be established within you.” Knowledge of the cross, only comes through the experience of the cross, and our willingness to embrace it. This reality allows us to become bold in our hope and trust in the Lord‘s love. Unless we enter into hell, we will never know through experience that that we need not fear it – for Christ has already descended there. Our virtue, our strength is to be the virtue and strength of Christ. This comes only through living in Him and embodying that same love and hope that was made present on Calvary.  
These mysteries even made Saint Isaac cry out: “O the subtlety of the path of the Thy teachings, O Lord!“  We must humbly allow Him to take us by the hand and guide us to the truth.
---
Text of chat during the group: 
00:09:50 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 136, last paragraph, last line, bottom of page
00:12:16 Bob Čihák, AZ: We started on p. 113
00:17:23 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 136, last paragraph, last line, bottom of page
00:19:22 Thomas: Where do I find the raise hand button
00:20:03 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Where do I find the ..."
At the React button
00:20:54 Thomas: Replying to "Where do I find the …"Thanks
00:27:21 Anthony: We also need to be perceptive while simple so we don't let liars beguile us.
00:29:33 Myles Davidson: Replying to "We also need to be p..."
Wise as serpents while innocent as doves
00:31:56 Thomas: Would it be imprudent or untrusting, or something like that to want to suffer more?
00:39:00 Ryan N: Father how does one endure when the pains of the cross become overwhelming
00:39:06 Ryan N: Or even less to a loss of faith
00:39:11 Ryan N: Lead*
01:02:44 Eleana: The father of lies with the daily illusion that freedom is instant gratification is in itself the battle that leads to sanctity. Where sin is abundant so is grace.
01:07:36 Ryan N: Father how do temptations of lusts differ from temptations of affliction
01:14:24 Anthony: That's the spirit of Enlightenment so-called. We are told by our government even, that doubt and blasphemy are freedom.
01:20:53 Jeffrey Ott: I was just there two weeks ago. It was hot then 😆
01:23:49 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. once again. God bless.
01:23:52 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:23:57 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you Father!

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

Saint Isaac the Syrian asks the question that has been put forward for centuries - “how are we to pray?”  In fact, our Lord himself was asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray as John the Baptizer taught his disciples. Within a few beautiful paragraphs Isaac opens up for us not only what we are to pray for but why. What Isaac would have us understand is that our prayer should be a reflection both of who God is and what he is revealed already in regard to his desires for us and a reflection of who we are and our understanding of our dignity and destiny in Christ. It is as if God says to us, “I became man in order that you might become God. If you did not desire to become God, you would do me wrong“. We are to refrain from asking for the things of this world not because it is wrong to do so in a moralistic or legalistic understanding of things. Rather, we are to ask for what is heavenly. At times our focus upon and anxiety about the things in this world makes our vision myopic. We lose sight of the presence of God and the life and the love that he has promised us. Isaac tells us that when our petitions to God are in accord with His glory then our honor is magnified before Him and He rejoices over us. Similarly, Isaac tells us, the angels and archangels are astonished and exalt whenever they behold one who has been made from the earth asking for what is heavenly – one who is been made from the dust asking for what endures to eternity.
Therefore, Isaac, echoing the Scriptures tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all else will be given to us. We need only be humble and patient - trusting above all in the providence of God and not rush onwards to great measures before the appropriate time. “For anything”, Isaac tells us, “that is quickly obtained is also easily lost, whereas everything found with toil is also kept with careful watching.“ That which is precious comes only after striving to give our hearts to God and then we must hold onto it with great watchfulness. 
What is most essential, however, is that we thirst for Jesus and that He would make us drunk with His love. Do not let your eyes focus on the delights of this world, but rather trust that God desires to give you his peace and the invincible joy of the kingdom. Simply put, “the man who desires the greatest things does not concern himself with a lesser“
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Text of chat during the group:
00:05:47 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 135, first full paragraph on this page
00:14:39 Myles Davidson: Top of pg. 135 “Do not become foolish…”
00:26:38 Anthony: This reminds me of a quote by Henri Nouwen, that our biggest affliction is a feeling of self hatred. You shared this on Facebook.
00:30:00 Rick Visser: Is it fair to say that Therese L. was disposed to a love that went beyond the sensual-- the felt--and was disposed to a pure love that transcended the feelings?
00:32:28 Joshua Sander: Isaac's mention of us leaving "our dunghill" for the things of Heaven also reminds me of C. S. Lewis, who writes, "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
00:33:53 Anna: So the desert fathers and mothers didn't have psychological tools and neurological tools to overcome things like anger, anxiety, fear and so on... did they overcome such things through only ascetic life and prayer?
00:35:58 Gwen’s iPhone: It was Leo XIII allowed her to enter Carmel at a young age.
00:46:28 Rick Visser: What are vain repetitions in prayer?
00:46:35 Anthony: When we pray, should we be very specific,  or say only, "Lord have mercy as you know how"?
01:02:05 Rick Visser: Does this mean I must give up my herb garden and pray, give up the lesser things for the greatest things?
01:02:13 Eleana: lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi
01:10:01 Anthony: A Man For All Seasons,  the counsel Thomas More gives to the scholar
01:10:25 Anna: My daughter is asking... Were the desert fathers living in the desert and if so how did they find their food?
01:14:12 Myles Davidson: Desert Christians by William Harmless is a great book about how they lived
01:14:25 Catherine Opie: There are places in the desert where springs come up and monasteries are built on those places
01:15:36 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing
01:15:39 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:15:47 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you!!
01:15:54 Catherine Opie: Thank you God bless
01:16:03 David: Thank you father and may God bless you and your mother

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

As we listen to St. Isaac the Syrian in Homily Three his focus shifts from speaking of the necessary foundation to be laid in the spiritual life, purity of mind, to drawing us further to purity of heart. Purity of mind is established through the toils of the ascetic life, including vigils, fasting, prayer and meditation upon the scriptures, etc.  One’s attraction to the life of virtue grows. However, Isaac warns us that as quickly as it is formed within us, it can be lost. A soul may allow into the mind a thought or image that once again stirs up the passions and what has been gained through much prayer and struggle is lost quickly.
Purity of heart, however, is something that only emerges by the grace of God and His action in our lives. All that St. Isaac speaks of in the ascetic life continues. However, purity of heart, the purification of the “sense of senses” comes only by many afflictions, deprivations, separation from fellowship with the world, and deadness to all things. It is truly a dying to self and self will and abandoning oneself to God completely. This is the stumbling block for the majority of mankind, including many Christians. It is to embrace the Cross. One is no longer soiled by little things, nor dismayed by conflicts and struggles. What Isaac is suggesting here is that a soul begins to be fed on solid food indigestible to those who are weak. Such purity of heart comes through many afflictions and is acquired over a long period of time.
One’s focus becomes fixed upon the Beloved and he becomes the lens through which one views everything. Saint Isaac describes it as a state of limpid purity, of that natural innocence once lost.  To regain such a state is difficult living in a world surrounded by so many things that foster not knowledge of God but rather knowledge of many evil realities. There is only one path to this purity and that is simplicity – desiring the one thing necessary and shaping one’s whole life around that reality. This is the immediate goal of the spiritual life as St. John Cassian teaches. We are to abandon what is small in order that we might find what is truly great. We are to spurn what is superfluous and without value in order to discover that “treasure hidden in the field”. We are to become dead to the world in order that we might not live unto death. Saint Isaac reminds us that martyrs are not only those who have accepted death for belief in Christ, but those who die for the sake of keeping his commandments. He does not varnish the gospel for us, but rather brings into clear view the necessity of loving Christ above all things, including our own lives. What the world needs is martyrs – those who bear witness to the very love of the kingdom.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:01:31 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: The receptacle of grace, the "place" of the presence of divine life, is where we encounter God and in union with God become integrated and transfigured beings. The art of the spiritual life is therefore to become conscious of the "treasure hidden in the heart" —to become conscious of the real but unapprehended presence of God in the heart; and this art is effectuated by inducing the intellect, freed from extraneous thoughts and images, to"descend" into the heart and so to become conscious of the divine presence hidden there.
00:01:55 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Heart as explained by Philip Sherrard
00:02:16 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: One of the translators of the Philokalia
00:03:37 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 133, first paragraph on this page, 22nd paragraph from start of this homily
00:08:57 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: The receptacle of grace, the "place" of the presence of divine life, is where we encounter God and in union with God become integrated and transfigured beings. The art of the spiritual life is therefore to become conscious of the "treasure hidden in the heart" —to become conscious of the real but unapprehended presence of God in the heart; and this art is effectuated by inducing the intellect, freed from extraneous thoughts and images, to"descend" into the heart and so to become conscious of the divine presence hidden there.
00:09:14 Adam Paige: The monastery in Egypt is working on a legal appeal at the moment https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/foreign-policy/1272520/sinai-monastery-working-out-legal-appeal/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#
00:09:45 Adam Paige: Reacted to "The receptacle of gr…" with ❤️
00:12:22 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: The receptacle of grace, the "place" of the presence of divine life, is where we encounter God and in union with God become integrated and transfigured beings. The art of the spiritual life is therefore to become conscious of the "treasure hidden in the heart" —to become conscious of the real but unapprehended presence of God in the heart; and this art is effectuated by inducing the intellect, freed from extraneous thoughts and images, to"descend" into the heart and so to become conscious of the divine presence hidden there.
00:13:59 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: The receptacle of grace, the "place" of the presence of divine life, is where we encounter God and in union with God become integrated and transfigured beings. The art of the spiritual life is therefore to become conscious of the "treasure hidden in the heart" —to become conscious of the real but unapprehended presence of God in the heart; and this art is effectuated by inducing the intellect, freed from extraneous thoughts and images, to"descend" into the heart and so to become conscious of the divine presence hidden there.
00:14:02 Myles Davidson: I’m quite happy to pay for your content Fr
00:24:44 Jamie Hickman: The purification of the mind seems more possible on earth whereas the purification of the heart seems more likely to occur in purgatory 🤷🏻‍♂️
00:29:05 Paisios: St Silouan
00:30:32 Joshua Sander: Can you repeat the name of that book by Fr. Benedict?
00:31:16 Myles Davidson: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0824506286?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz
00:33:21 Myles Davidson: Replying to "https://www.amazon.c..."
Sorry, That’s Amazon Australia
00:34:14 Kevin Burke: How does this concept of purity of heart relate to the traditional Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart?
00:34:33 Janine: Fr Grochel used to say that he hoped he made it to Purgatory!
00:38:04 Jamie Hickman: I agree, Father, but union with God is a lifetime work even if the immediate goal...seems achieved for many of us through purgatory even if we are aiming for heaven. Just suggesting this isn't easily attainable in short time for many of us
00:38:53 Nypaver Clan: Page?
00:39:03 Erick Chastain: 133
00:39:28 Erick Chastain: Now 134
00:39:47 Nypaver Clan: thanks
00:45:11 Erick Chastain: How does one avoid perception without being a hermit?
00:51:29 Rick Visser: Kierkegaard: "Purity of Heart is to will one thing."
01:02:43 Jamie Hickman: No rush, could be for the end: Father, what are your thoughts on the four/five volume Philokalia in separate books vs the more recent publication of all the volumes in a single book? I think the two follow different translations.
01:03:34 Jamie Hickman: Haha love this and thank you, Father!
01:04:04 Ben: Replying to "No rush, could be fo..."
I always wondered how the Pilgrim carried the whole Philokalia in his sack! 😝
01:04:21 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "I always wondered ho..." with 🤣
01:10:13 Anthony: I miss visiting with relatives over coffee. "Americans" just don't do that.
01:12:34 Art: You’ve mentioned “to give up Christ for Christ”, with regards to prayer, for example.
01:15:07 Mark South: Fr David: You posted an article regarding Satan in the Church on Facebook a month or so ago. I believe it was written by a Father or Abbot from Mt Athos. Do you recall?
01:15:38 eleana: "The greatest Glory" the movie about the christeros
01:15:44 Mark South: The name of the article?
01:15:48 Nypaver Clan: Brother Andres at Epiphany Church
01:16:44 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:17:04 Jamie Hickman: Thank you, Father!
01:17:07 Nypaver Clan: Brother Andres is also at Assumption Church, Bellevue
01:17:14 Catherine Opie: Thank you. Apologies we will be at mass on Sunday at that time
01:17:16 Elizabeth Richards’s iPhone: & with you 🙏🏼

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

Saint Isaac for Syrian proves himself once more to be one of the most beautiful and poetic of teachers. He describes for us the nature of the human person and the fragmentation that has taken place because of sin. On the level of the flesh, the body has certain needs and will seek to satisfy them. Yet, sin often brings a disorder to this desire as well as a weakness of will.  In other words, we can begin to seek to satisfy the flesh in a sinful fashion and in a way contrary not only to Divine revelation but also to reason. The soul also is invested with its own particular nature that allows us to perceive the realities of the world around us and to understand them. This understanding, however, is not necessarily going to act in concert with the desires of the flesh. It is for this reason that we so often experience conflict within ourselves. We may see what is good and true and beautiful and yet by the weakness of our will embrace the opposite. Likewise, we may have the strength of will to embrace what is good and yet because of the darkness of our thoughts and our understanding we embrace that which does not conform to the truth or our real needs. 
Due to our being in a constant state of receptivity through our senses, our thoughts can be shaped by the will of the flesh, the imagination from what we have seen or heard, our predisposition to think in a certain way where our minds are filled with inconsistencies and, finally, by the demons who wage war on us and seek to enliven the passions. 
Purity of mind is to be rapt in things Divine and this comes about, Saint Isaac tells us, after a man has long practiced the virtues.  He warns us, however, that we cannot be so bold to think that we have achieved this without the experience of evil thoughts or that we are outside the reach of them while we are still in the body. 
Again, Isaac is seeking to lay a foundation for us that allows us to see the inner workings of the mind and the heart. We must seek this purity of mind and struggle against the multitude of passions and the thoughts associated with them.  Isaac teaches us this not simply that we might understand it on an intellectual level, but that within it we might also find hope. The more clearly we see this the more freely we can pursue purity of mind. We can grow in our capacity to direct our thoughts to those things that are virtuous and create within the human heart a greater desire for God. It is from this vantage point that we can begin to see and enter the path that leads to purity of heart.
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00:08:34 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 131, paragraph 15, first on page
00:14:49 Catherine Opie: Apologies what page are we on today?
00:14:59 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 131, paragraph 15, first on page
00:15:14 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "P. 131, paragraph 15..." with 🙏🏻
00:32:44 Eleana: I have seen my patients crying because they lost their will with the use of substances. The ascetic life then, will increase the use of the will? I don't see that it becomes easier with time the prayiing life and motification by the contrary seems that tentations will increase.
00:44:41 Anthony: And with novels and movies, the observer is drawn into the drama and the thoughts and sensations become his own, and theyvalso become false memories.
00:46:46 Ryan N: Father,Is the best way to avoid these imaginations that are influenced by sensory stimuli to avoid external sensory impulse altogether?
00:57:00 Joshua Sander: The line from T.S. Eliot comes to mind, "And they write innumerable books, being too vain and distracted for silence."
00:57:09 Bob Čihák, AZ: Margaret Thatcher
00:58:22 Ben: And St. Therese..."Oh, how glad I am that I didn't read all those books!"
00:59:15 Art: Reacted to "And St. Therese..."O..." with 👍
01:05:30 Ryan N: Father there seems to be an emphasis on the role of demons as a source of temptation. To what degree is that true in relation to the other sources like natural inclination
01:14:00 Catherine Opie: Fr. how does non judgement tie in with speaking out about evil or injustice? Does it mean that we must not do this with hatred in our hearts for the perpetrator?
01:14:31 Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec Jr.: I think it was St. Peter of Damascus 298 passions
01:15:22 Anthony: The New Advent Catholic encyclopedia on Anger helped me understand  anger.
01:18:35 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing
01:18:41 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:18:43 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. God bless.❤️🙏🏻
01:19:22 Maureen Cunningham: Yay
01:19:23 Ben: 👏
01:19:31 David: Thank you Father. God bless you and your mother.
01:19:47 Elizabeth Richards: Thank you

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

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis (right belief and right practice) are intimately tied together. All of the fathers and, in particular, Saint Isaac the Syrian want us to understand that our perception of revelation, who God is to us and what we have become in his Son through the Paschal mystery, and how we live our life are inseparable. God has revealed himself to us in a unique and distinctive fashion, and has made known to us our dignity and destiny in Christ. Therefore, having a clear understanding of our human nature, the sickness of sin and the passions that follow and the healing that takes place through Grace is imperative.
Isaac pushes us to understand that virtue is the natural health of the soul and the passions are an illness of the soul that follow and invade our nature and despoil its proper health. One can see how essential this is when looking at our life in this world and the struggles of the spiritual life. We can attribute sin and the hold that passions have upon us simply to human nature. However, when we do this, we lose sight of the fact that we have been created in the image and likeness of God and that sin is antecedent to that reality. We have been created for love and to manifest this love through virtue.
A faulty or incomplete understanding of human anthropology and psychology, has often been the pretext that the Evil One uses to distort our vision to the point that we willingly embrace that which enslaves us.  To understand that we have been created good, conversely, establishes a firm desire within the human heart for that which is of God. It also establishes confidence and hope in the grace of God who tells us precisely that he has come not to judge the world but to save it! 
One of the beautiful things that the desert fathers would have us understand is that Christ is the divine physician who has come to heal us. He is the Good Samaritan from the gospel who takes our burden upon himself in order that we might be nursed to the fullness of health.  Again, if Isaac makes us work to understand this, we must see it as a labor of love. To grasp these truths allows us to give free expression to our desire for God and to run towards Him with the freedom of those aided by His Grace.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:01:52 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 128 paragraph 6
00:10:40 Anthony: I just read that there is a "Holy Transfiguration East" in Burnsville, NC.
00:11:43 Anthony: Gotcha thanks
00:26:20 Joshua Sander: I've missed the last couple of weeks, and so you may have already explained this, but when Isaac uses the term "passions," what exactly does he mean? I've heard the term used roughly in the sense of "emotions" (i.e. anger, sadness, etc.), but does Isaac mean it more in the sense of "temptations"? I think you may have just explained this now, but in that case, could you briefly restate this?
00:30:04 Suzanne Romano: Does Isaac distinguish between original nature and fallen nature?
00:33:15 David: I found this helpful from Fr. Maximos- So, we have five stages in the evolution of a logismos,” he concluded, spreading out the five fingers of his right hand. “Assault, interaction, consent, captivity/defeat, and passion/obsession. These are more or less all the stages. While they use the same word in translation it helped me to realize the different stages in context.
00:37:23 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "I found this helpful..." with 👍
00:37:39 Julie: Reacted to "I found this helpful…" with 👍
00:45:53 wayne: late to evening..what page?
00:46:03 Ben: Replying to "late to evening..wha..."
130
00:46:04 Catherine Opie: 130
00:46:08 Catherine Opie: Top
00:46:20 wayne: thnx
00:58:59 Anthony: I'm reading Fr John Custer's book on the Epistles.  He is a priest in Eparchy of Passaic. His description of St Paul in Romans (what I would do, I do not...) is like Isaac here about natural virtue vs foreign passions.
00:59:09 Eleana: I believe Mary was made to give to the divine  flesh, and to the flesh to become divine; to break the passion's hold since men's desire is not enough. Nicodemus asked how we born again? Our Lady!
01:01:02 Ren Witter: Going to throw this out there for anyone who is as confused as I am 🤣. Is Isaac saying that, though the Passions are not natural, they are given to us by God? Even though they are a sickness?
01:03:43 Ren Witter: What would be an example of one of the passions of the soul, given to us for our benefit, by God?
01:09:07 Catherine Opie: Sorry cant raise hand. So Fr., it is like this? For example: We have hunger to tell us we need to eat. This is a natural bodily desire that is beneficial. However, the soul needs to be in control of this and able to acknowledge this desire to eat and allay it to the appropriate time to do this, also to have faith and trust in that food will be provided so there is no need to panic about it, i.e. fear of starvation leading us to grab the food, eat more food than is necessary, steal the food or even attack someone else to desperately obtain food to quiet the fear of hunger? Otherwise we are driven by base bodily functions and raw passions? Therefore we learn to practice the virtue of temperance.
01:15:14 Jeffrey Ott: My family and I are getting chrismated this Sunday at our Ukranian church here in Oregon. Please pray for us!
01:15:16 Catherine Opie: Amen. Deo gratiats
01:15:24 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️
01:15:25 David: Thank you Father may God bless you!
01:15:28 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you Father!
01:15:29 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Thank you Father!" with ❤️

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

Upon reading the beginning of this homily, one clearly gets the sense that Saint Isaac the Syrian wants our understanding of the spiritual life, who we are as human beings, and a relationship with God (who has created us in His image and likeness), to be set on a foundation that is unshakable. One must love Isaac for the effort! He is giving us eyes to see. 
He began by presenting us with an image of a soul who truly abides in her nature, and so comes to penetrate into and understand the wisdom of God. Knowing nothing of the impediment of the passions, the soul is lifted up toward God and is astonished and struck with wonder. This is Isaac’s starting point for a reason. He wants us to regain what over the course of time has been lost; that is, our perception the beauty and wonder of how God has created us and our natural capacity for love and virtue. Furthermore, it is not just about perception but the experience of being God bearers and temples of the Holy Spirit. It is about our deification. 
What has distorted or understanding is the emergence of the passions and how we have come to view them. Isaac tells us categorically that the soul by nature is passionless. We are created in God‘s image and likeness and it is only the emergence of sin that has darken that which was created to be filled with light. Thus, when a soul is moved in a passionate way, she is outside her nature. The passions have the ability to move the soul after the fall. There’s a radical communion between body and soul and with sin our experience of the world through the senses and in our desires and appetites become distorted. The break of communion with God leads to an internal break within us as human beings; a fragmentation on the deepest level of our existence. What is the nature of a soul created for communion when it pursues autonomy from the one who created her in love? Is it not only the loss of unity with God but within ourselves and our capacity to experience and reflect our true dignity? 
Saint Isaac makes us work in these paragraphs and grapple to understand what he’s saying. Yet, it is a labor of love; for it is upon the foundation of this understanding of our nature that we will once again be able to see the wonder and beauty of how God has created us and experience the healing necessary to reflect this wondrous reality to the world.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:17:20 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 127, paragraph 1
00:31:07 Lindsey Funair: When I hear the memories of the soul grow old, it reminds me that the soul knows not ego or attachment, it remembers only what is worthy of taking to Paradise, only that that is in Love. That is all there is once the world and self-love and other things that are not Love, is filtered from our memory.
00:31:13 Anthony: It's important to say that Isaac was born into a time and geography of turmoil and he wasn't living in comfort locked away from the outside.
00:31:43 Maureen Cunningham: Washington Carfer
00:31:52 Maureen Cunningham: Carver
00:33:02 Troyce Garrett Quimpo: This sections reminds me of St John of the Cross's Purgative Way.
00:36:11 Anthony: George Washington Carver
00:36:20 Vanessa: famous Black inventer
00:40:08 Maureen Cunningham: Yes George Washington Carver thank you , a little book I read . A Man who talked to flowers.
00:40:34 Anthony: I think when Isaac refers to philosophers he might have in mind the humors that dominate a man or the astrologers who Forcast about a person.
00:42:08 Lindsey Funair: it helps me to think of passions in this sense of Maslow's entire hierarchy, those things which are necessary to life and living and connecting with others and doing good, but when focused on directly become a distraction from the humility and obedience which place us "in" our soul and in relative connection to God
00:42:08 Manuel: How this idea that the soul is passionless by nature fit in with the opening of the Philokalia “There is among the passions an anger of the intellect, and this anger is in accordance with nature. Without anger a man cannot attain purity”?
00:44:25 Vanessa: When I went to university, I always thought the academics disciplines were centered around "explaining the world without God."
00:44:51 Anthony: I wrote it
00:44:56 Kathy Locher: What in our nature would have made us susceptible to temptation. Especially, given that we were living in Eden in God’s company?
00:45:31 Ryan N: Father what would your response be to those who emphasize the importance of the body because it is equally made in the image and likeness of God ( not just the soul)
00:46:35 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "What in our nature w..." with 👍
00:48:25 Lindsey Funair: It is a context for personhood
00:59:59 Lindsey Funair: the body feels first the pain then looks for purpose, where the soul honors the purpose by bearing the pain. vain suffering, suffering without purpose, is not of the soul and is rejected by it rightfully.
01:01:26 David: I notice more and more people respond - that is the way I am . Usually with a passion a mentor once responded but if you could see who you could become. It almost seems like many use that is the way I am as an excuse to embrace sin.
01:02:11 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "I notice more and mo..." with 👍🏻
01:04:30 Vanessa: Reacted to "I notice more and mo..." with 👍
01:04:58 Alex Underwood: It is my understanding that there’s no word for “consciousness” in the Old Testament.. is it right to say that The Christ, as this representation of the revealed consciousness of God, brings us into an understanding of the un-consciousness of The Father.. this “invisibility” that Isaac speaks of?
01:06:42 Una: What's the book again?
01:06:50 Myles Davidson: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09M4CQL1H?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_nz
01:06:53 Lindsey Funair: What then is the meaning of writing a name on the heart?
01:07:11 Una: Thank you
01:07:15 Myles Davidson: Replying to "What's the book agai..."
Essential reading!
01:07:28 Una: Dr. Raymond Richmond in San Francisco gets close to this idea
01:07:41 Una: Chastity in San Francisco? is his site
01:08:04 David: A Beginner's Introduction to the Philokalia, 2016: Anthony M. Coniaris: 9781880971796: Amazon.com: Books
01:08:17 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "https://www.amazon.c..." with 🙏🏻
01:08:30 David: Only available through kindle
01:10:33 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "https://zoboko.com/b..." with 👍
01:13:47 Max Horcher: Reacted to "https://zoboko.com..." with 👍
01:14:53 Catherine Opie: Don't download that PDF version it seems to be a malicious site
01:14:58 Catherine Opie: Sorry
01:16:05 David: I found a good definition of Nous (eye of the soul) or heart.In this belief, soul is created in the image of God. Since God is Trinitarian, Mankind is Nous, Word and Spirit. The same is held true of the soul (or heart): it has nous, word and spirit. To understand this better first an understanding of St. Gregory Palamas's teaching that man is a representation of the trinitarian mystery should be addressed.
01:17:41 Wayne: Reacted to "I found a good defin..." with 👍
01:19:44 Max Horcher: Replying to "Don't download tha..."
I did, and it seems fine to me, but YMMV. I also have AdblockPlus and UBlockOrigin running; might be problematic without adblockers.
The EPUB to PDF converter site isn't English, but it worked as advertised.
01:20:38 Alex Underwood: Excellent insight, thank you father
01:21:13 Catherine Opie: I'm really finding this very transformational thank you Fr.
01:21:28 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: The Deification of Man - a book by a Romanian Orthodox writer of the last century
01:22:28 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you Blessing to all  and many prayer for Father
01:22:28 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:22:29 David: Thank you very much Father. May God bless you and your mother
01:22:32 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:22:34 Art: Thank you!!
01:22:45 Catherine Opie: Thanks be to God. No way!
01:22:45 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you! A presto!
01:22:45 Alex Underwood: lol
01:22:59 Lee Graham: Thank you, have a great week
01:23:01 Lindsey Funair: thank you, Father

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

What is it that forms and shapes us the most as human beings? What affects the way that we perceive reality and gives form to the thoughts that we have  throughout the course of a day? Do we have any awareness of an interior life or are we simply drawn along by the flow of external realities; demands, responsibilities or forms of entertainment? 
According to the Fathers and Saint Isaac the Syrian, we are in a constant state of receptivity through our senses. Part of being a human being is that we see and perceive everything that is around us; all of which give rise to a multitude of thoughts, images and feelings. Our lack of awareness of reality and of the internal life and the effect that our thoughts have upon us means that we often allow or identity to be shaped by the changing tides of the times or the constant shifting of our emotions. 
In so many ways, the Fathers were the first depth psychologists. Their movement to great solitude and the stillness of the desert allowed a greater awareness to emerge of what was going on internally. This of course didn’t lead immediately to understanding or transformation. However, the awareness did allow them to begin to discern the source of their thoughts, what thoughts predominate, and where their thoughts were leading them. 
Thoughts can be so strong and so deeply rooted that they become habitual - as well as the actions that follow from them. These habitual thoughts and actions the Fathers call “passions” and the passions as a whole are referred to as the “world”.  Our growing capacity to acknowledge the dominant passions and to struggle with them allows two things to begin to emerge: a good transformation of our way of life and a greater capacity to understand the nature of our thoughts. Simply put, one begins to be able to measure one’s way of life by what arises from within.  
In this Homily, Saint Isaac is setting the stage for guiding us along a path to spiritual healing and transformation in Christ. The fruit of the struggle promises wholeness, freedom, and the joy that our sin often prevents. When we are guided simply by our private judgment or by what satisfies our most basic needs, then our understanding of things becomes very insular and myopic and we lose sight of the dignity and destiny that is ours’ in Christ. 
The more that we desire the life and freedom that Isaac describes above the more discover that we need to have no fear of anything. One who has tasted the love and mercy of Christ also finds emerging within himself the courage of a lion. The fear of soul that once overshadowed him succumbs before this ever-present love like wax from the heat of a flame.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:08:36 Bob Čihák, AZ: Is this the book? Amazon has: The Secret Seminary: Prayer and the Study of Theology by Fr. Brendan Pelphrey  | Apr 28, 2012
00:16:08 Mary Clare Wax: It has all the bells and whistles! Love it
00:18:29 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 124, paragraph 14
00:19:08 Myles Davidson: Replying to "P. 124, paragraph 14"
“Think to yourself…”
00:20:04 Suzanne Romano: Hey Studge!
00:20:29 Stephen Romano: Hey sis  :)
00:20:47 Suzanne Romano: Reacted to Hey sis  :) with "😅"
00:25:37 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: HEART - (καρδιά - kardia): not simply the physical organ but the spiritual centre of man’s being, man as made in the image of God, his deepest and truest self, or the inner shrine, to be entered only through sacrifice and death, in which the mystery of the union between the divine and the human is consummated. ' “I called with my whole heart”, says the psalmist - that is, with body, soul and spirit' (John Klimakos, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 28, translated by Archimandrite Lazarus [London, 1959], pp. 257-8). ‘Heart’ has thus an all-embracing significance: ‘prayer of the heart’ means prayer not just of the emotions and affections, but of the whole person, including the body.
00:25:52 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: REASON -, mind (διάνοια - dianoia): the discursive, conceptualizing and logical faculty in man, the function of which is to draw conclusions or formulate concepts deriving from data provided either by revelation or spiritual knowledge (q.v.) or by sense-observation. The knowledge of the reason is consequently of a lower order than spiritual knowledge (q.v.) and does not imply any direct apprehension or perception of the inner essences or principles (q.v.) of created beings, still less of divine truth itself Indeed, such apprehension or perception, which is the function of the intellect (q.v.), is beyond the scope of the reason.
00:25:57 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: INTELLECT - (νοϋς - nous): the highest faculty in man, through which - provided it is purified - he knows God or the inner essences or principles (q.v.) of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception. Unlike the dianoia or reason (q.v.), from which it must be carefully distinguished, the intellect does not function by formulating abstract concepts and then arguing on this basis to a conclusion reached through deductive reasoning, but it understands divine truth by means of immediate experience, intuition or ‘simple cognition’ (the term used by St Isaac the Syrian). The intellect dwells in the ‘depths of the soul’; it constitutes the innermost aspect of the heart (St Diadochos, §§ 79, 88: in our translation, vol. i, pp. 280, 287). The intellect is the organ of contemplation (q.v.), the ‘eye of the heart’ (Makarian Homilies).
00:25:57 Adam Paige: Reacted to "REASON -, mind (διάν…" with 👌
00:26:02 Adam Paige: Reacted to "HEART - (καρδιά - ka…" with ❤️
00:40:30 Catherine: Reacted to INTELLECT - (νοϋς - ... with "❤️"00:41:30 David: I find it interesting some of the main physicist and philosophers are now finding or theorize we are living in a simulation. I have a few atheists people I have come to meet who came to Christ agonizing on things like this.  This seems to be an open door to understand this life is not all there is. I also find it interesting reading the desert fathers.
00:42:49 Suzanne Romano: Acedia?
00:43:10 Nypaver Clan: Reacted to "Acedia?" with 👍🏼
00:43:31 David: The worst is the bad translation of acedia badly translated the worst of all today.The seven capital sins, also known as the seven deadly sins, are: Pride Greed Wrath Envy Lust Gluttony Sloth
00:47:04 David: Having studied Economy it is clear the market and people are not rational. Thank God I learned science explains little about real life. ha ha
00:48:54 Anthony: Heresy is a club of people with the same private judgment
00:49:04 Anthony: Reacted to Having studied Econo... with "😂"
00:49:29 Suzanne Romano: Yes!
00:51:11 Ren Witter: To be fair, Father, you look like someone out of the Matrix 😄. Perfect robes. Just need the glasses.
00:51:25 Lee Graham: Reacted to "Heresy is a club of …" with 😂
01:02:01 David: Many atheist or agnostics look for meaning and believe science or stoicism will explain it.  Then they have a child or love someone and that can't be explained rationally alone
01:02:48 David: Love makes little sense but one "knows" it is more real than anything else
01:03:04 Ben: Replying to "Many atheist or agno..."
And I think it was Bishop Sheen who said the worst thing for an atheist is feeling grateful and having no one to thank.
01:03:10 Anthony: And then, I think, perception becomes more acute to sense brief affirmations from God that you are not lost.
01:03:54 David: Replying to "Many atheist or agno..."
👍
01:04:16 Art iPhone: Reacted to "And I think it was B…" with 👍
01:07:52 Anthony: Father is this understanding of incarnation the thesis of Song of Tears by Olivier Clement?
01:09:15 Maureen Cunningham: Hound of Heaven
01:11:39 David: Just an image of what someone said
01:11:49 David: Matrix dogging bullets
01:11:56 David: Orthodox preist
01:19:18 David: Is there something like the Catena Aurea but written based on the desert fathers? I find when I do readings of the scriptures or daily readings I always am interested what meditations the desert fathers might have had.  Reading magnificent or give us our day I don't always find as many treasures as what I have found in the desert fathers. Would be wonderful if there was a missal with this or something like the catena aurea. I have had 3 icons Climatus, Issac and Ephraim for 15 years even with those I would be happy
01:20:36 Ben: "The Bible and the Holy Fathers"? A Byzantine nun mentioned this one.
01:21:29 Lori Hatala: Sounds like a book needs to be written.
01:21:58 Erick Chastain: "The Word in the Desert" talks about generally how the Desert Fathers read and lived scripture
01:22:10 Erick Chastain: There might be things like this there
01:24:13 Myles Davidson: Replying to ""The Word in the Des..."
That’s a good book!
01:24:25 Myles Davidson: Reacted to ""The Word in the Des..." with 👍
01:25:00 Erick Chastain: How does one practice fear for the soul?
01:26:58 Suzanne Romano: My preciouuuus!
01:27:07 Maureen Cunningham: What week would it be in the Bible and Holy Fathers is it different
01:28:07 Anthony: The choice of gollum is perceptive.  In Jewish folklore, a gollum is an artificial thing brought to "life" by magic.
01:28:47 David: There is a great book on Tolkien. Tolkien and Faith. But think of a life without Love existing helped at least me. The alternative is transactional and life has no meaning.
01:29:59 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You on web site
01:30:41 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:30:43 David: Thank you father bless you and your mother!
01:30:45 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:30:47 Suzanne Romano: Pax!
01:30:49 Kathleen: Thank you
01:30:50 Jeff Ott: Thank you!
01:30:52 Julie: God bless all
01:30:57 Lee Graham: Thank you

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

Life in Christ is not an abstraction and the gospel is not simply a set of teachings or an ideology. It is clarion call to “Follow Me” from He who is the Lord of life and love. We are invited to participate in the mystery of Divine Life. Just as the fathers  tell us that we are to “become prayer” and not simply engage in a discipline, likewise, we must become Christ. We must put on Him mind and our hearts must be animated by His Spirit of love.  It is for this reason that Saint Isaac the Syrian places desire at the heart of the spiritual life. There is one path that lies ahead for us – we are to long for Christ and for the life of the kingdom. Anything else is reductive; shrinking the faith down to what is manageable and acceptable to our sensibilities and understanding. It is no longer faith but a simulation or as Christ would say “hypocrisy“. 
The reality that Saint Isaac places before us is the need for the healing of the soul; afflicted by sin, we are dominated by the passion. Yet because we are made in the image and likeness of God we often unknowingly reach out to grasp what is greater than ourselves while neglecting purity of heart and the need for God‘s grace and mercy. Such a path only leads to greater darkness. Sin unaddressed, like illness undiagnosed only grows worse. We must seek the healing that comes through participation in the Paschal Mystery; that is, a dying and rising to new life in Christ. We must die to sin and self in order to have the purity of heart and the depth of faith that allows us to comprehend what is beyond the senses and reason. 
Central to Saint Isaac’s thought is the purification of the Nous, the eye of the soul. If neglected one simply becomes blind to the presence of God and his love. The words of Christ come to mind in this regard: “the eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is  bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” To neglect such a reality is like the man who shamelessly entered into the wedding feast with unclean garments. We seek to enter into the fullness of life and love while yet immersed in the mire of our sin and clinging to the things of the world.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:13:13 susan: wish I could be there  I am a piano teacher  lol
00:13:20 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 123, paragraph 11
00:27:04 Myles Davidson: Father, a week or so ago you mentioned private revelation, many of which seem to also fit into this category (ie. fantasies of the mind). There are a plethora of so-called seers around today, many of which have been shown to be fakes. How do the Orthodox deal with this phenomena? I’ve heard they have a policy of keeping private revelations as just that… private. What are your thoughts on this?
00:28:12 Anthony: If Christ on the criss is the Bridegroom,  then I can see a person who has desired impure thoughts is running to be like the Bridegroom but is not "ready" to be married. Although, the Gospel does tell us to take up the cross and follow Christ,  without reference to one's state of mind or holiness.
00:37:36 Ren Witter: In my notes from the last time we did Isaac, you said that this teaching is not harsh, but practical. Sin being understood as a sickness, a person who has not yet been purified through praxis simply would not have the strength to take up the cross in such a way as to ascend to theoria. Sounds a lot like the teaching on taking up fasting beyond your strength - you’ll just end up worse off than you were before.
00:44:14 Joshua Sander: My apologies if you've already covered this or if Isaac is about to get to this and I'm getting ahead of him, but how does one discern that one's own "senses have found rest from their infirmity" and that he or she is ready for theoria, especially given that temptations and struggles against sin will always be with us while we are in the flesh?
00:47:00 Nypaver Clan: What page are we on?
00:47:07 Ren Witter: 124
00:53:46 Anthony: I suspect a lot of us seekers are like St Teresa d'Avila who suffer much from bad advice until we run into clearer presentations of faith, hope and love.00:54:15 Catherine Opie: Replying to "I suspect a lot of u..."
Definitely my path 🤣
00:54:24 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "I suspect a lot of u..." with ❤️
00:54:52 Myles Davidson: add 😁
00:57:23 Myles Davidson: Christ as anchor"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."  Hebrews 6:19
00:58:28 Ren Witter: The building where this happened was Pitt’s public health building, which is still nicknamed “Our Lady of Public Health”
00:59:11 Wayne: Reacted to "The building where t..." with 😂
00:59:21 Ben: Reacted to "The building where t..." with 🤢
00:59:21 Max Horcher: Reacted to "The building where..." with 😂
01:00:17 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "The building where t..." with 🤣
01:00:45 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Christ as anchor"We..." with 🙏🏻
01:01:11 Bob Čihák, AZ: Reacted to "Christ as anchor"We..." with 🙏🏻
01:01:32 Suzanne Romano: Hell on earth! 😆
01:02:07 Ben: Replying to "Hell on earth! 😆"
Health on earth?...
01:06:16 Myles Davidson: 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"Matt 6:22-23
01:06:21 Elizabeth Richards’s iPhone: Replying to "Hell on earth! 😆"““The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.6.22-23.ESV
01:06:23 Nypaver Clan: Matthew 6:23
01:12:35 Myles Davidson: Is the word used here “watching” the same as the Greek word ‘nepsis’? (A concept I’ve found very helpful!)
01:12:57 Anthony: Ok, this is where philosophy fails, for in philosophy I only recall being taught about "a priori" knowledge and "a posteriori" knowledge.  Isaac is in a different dimension altogether.
01:15:02 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Ok, this is where ph..." with 👍
01:15:18 Alex Underwood: Reacted to "Ok, this is where ph..." with 👍
01:17:25 Ben: Replying to "Is the word used her..."
Thanks for pointing that out...I had been understanding "watching" as "vigils"...but I guess in that case it would have just said "vigils". 😆
01:17:59 John Cruz: Come and see….
01:18:13 Ben: Reacted to "Come and see…." with 👍
01:19:53 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Is the word used her..."
Could be both… good point 🙂
01:21:22 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing
01:21:30 Maureen Cunningham: Yay
01:21:48 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you Father. You'll never retire.
01:22:19 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!
01:22:21 Elizabeth Richards’s iPhone: And with your spirit
01:22:21 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. very "enlightening" discussion as always, God bless have a wonderful week
01:22:23 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:22:28 Jeffrey Ott: Thank you Father!
01:22:29 Suzanne Romano: Pax!!
01:22:40 David: Thank you Father!
01:22:41 Kevin Burke: Thank you father!

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

The experience of reading Saint Isaac the Syrian is something like being caught up in a vortex; not a linear explanation of the spiritual life or spiritual practices, but rather being drawn by the Holy Spirit that blows wherever It wills. It is not as though Isaac’s thought lacks cohesiveness, but rather he presents the life of faith and life in Christ to us as an artist painting with broad strokes. This is especially true in the first six homilies that speak of the discipline of virtue. Isaac seems to be more concerned about our breathing the same air as the Saints. He wants us to be swept up by our desire for God and in our gratitude for His love and mercy. Our life is not simply following a series of teachings or a moral code, but rather embodying very life of Christ. We are to love and console others as we have been loved and consoled by the Lord. If our spiritual disciplines do not remove the impediments to our capacity to be loved and to love others, then they are sorely lacking. 
In every way, our lives should be a reflection of Christ and the manner that we walk along the path of our lives should be reflective of His mindset and desire. In other words, we should desire to do the will of God and to love Him above all things, including our own lives. We are to die to self and sin and have a willingness to trust in the Providence of God that leads our hearts to desire to take up the cross daily and follow him. We begin to see affliction as something that not only shapes are virtue and deepens our faith, but that is a participation in the reality of redemption. We are drawn into something that is Divine and Saint Isaac would not have us make it something common. The Cross will always be a stumbling block when gazed upon or experienced on a purely natural level. But for those who have faith, we begin to see and experience the sweetness of God’s love and intimacy with him precisely through affliction. Isaac would have us know that joy in all of its fullness.
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Text of chat during the group:
00:10:51 Catherine Opie: Hi there, where are we in the text?
00:12:03 Lori Hatala: pg 122 Cover a sinner...
00:13:10 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "pg 122 Cover a sinne..." with 🙏🏻
00:13:53 Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec Jr.: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064674224441
00:14:25 mstef: What's the best place to buy the text for Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian?
00:14:55 Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec Jr.: Replying to "What's the best plac..."
https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/products_id/635/?srsltid=AfmBOop3vDmjuAXUXQSy7YsihYlEpKvTek3MiYqFazzowWu9fREOmiK3
00:16:24 Thomas: I think he is 44
00:17:52 Suzanne Romano: Charbelle
00:19:03 Una: Reacted to "Charbelle" with 👍
00:20:37 Ben: Replying to "What's the best plac..."
Found mine used on Abebooks.com...had study notes, so price was right!
00:22:07 Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec Jr.: Reacted to "Found mine used on A..." with ❤️
00:29:15 Suzanne Romano: Cover a sinner as long as he does not harm you. How do we define harm? Is a person's obstinate refusal of the truth the kind of suffering we can relieve? Or can dealing with an obstinate person open our heart up to harm?  
00:35:56 Kate : Is there a difference between how the Eastern Church understands sainthood vs the Western Church?  In the Latin Rite you hear the term “heroic virtue” but it seems the Eastern understanding is more “Christ living within.”
00:38:18 Sr. Mary Clare: Reacted to "Is there a differenc..." with 👍
00:38:57 Sr. Mary Clare: That's a good question, Kate.
00:39:43 Anthony: It's important to avoid self-loathing in failure to pursue good things, but commend all things to God's disposition.
00:45:40 Maureen Cunningham: Thank you so true ,
00:46:55 David: It is easy to pray for deliverance or in thanksgiving but it seems as you draw closer it seems the only honest prayer becomes- Lord teach me your way I trust in you.
00:51:51 Ben: When Father's elected Pope...bye-bye, pews. 👍
00:52:11 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "When Father's electe..." with 😊
00:52:44 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "It's important to av..." with ❤️
00:52:46 Thomas: When he says to help the sinners in the first part how much are we supposed to do, because at some point wouldn’t you encroach on spiritual father type of stuff
00:53:02 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "It is easy to pray f..." with ❤️
00:53:09 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "When Father's electe..." with 🤣
00:54:05 Una: With my long-term fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue (severe) I simply could not keep up with Orthodox services, especially Holy Week. And the fasting. I was glad to come back to the Western rite and more relaxing fasting. God bless those who can do it.
00:54:48 Sr. Mary Clare: Unfortunately, covid became an excuse not to return to Mass. This has become a very sad situation. Watching the Liturgy online has become the norm. No doubt, this was a tactic of the evil one.
00:55:20 Catherine Opie: Reacted to "Unfortunately, covid..." with 👍🏻
00:55:35 Eleana: I have seen more participation AFTER covid.
00:55:47 Jamie Hickman: This is how the TLM is in my experience. Yes, there are rushed low Masses out there, but my decades experience of Sunday Sung Mass is minimum 90 minutes, but usually closer to 2. The 10:30 in my area ends between 12:20-12:30 weekly. In Tampa this year, Easter Vigil began at 7 PM and ended around 12:30 AM...and the pastor actually began speaking some of the prayers in English that are permitted so to save some time.
00:56:07 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "This is how the TLM ..." with 👍
00:56:30 Ben: Replying to "I have seen more par..."
Trad. parishes *exploded* with growth, it's true. God brings good out of evil.
00:56:41 Catherine Opie: Interesting that
00:57:00 Myles Davidson: Replying to "This is how the TLM ..."
The Extraordinary Form is just that… extraordinary!
00:57:53 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Trad. parishes *expl..." with 👍
00:58:55 David: In my parish we are filled with millennials and Gen Z even daily mass it is amazing I hope they stay. Before daily mass was just me and a few older people now almost every pew is full. But my parish is very traditional and lots of silence in mass. Covid might have been an momentary issue but now at least where I am I am shocked to see sunday service flow into the atrium and people holding open the doors outside during feasts.
00:58:59 Catherine Opie: Sorry, pressed enter before ready, I find it interesting that existing Catholics might be doing that, avoiding going to mass in person by watching on line, while for converts like myself lockdowns drove me into the arms of Catholicism, and adult conversions doubled this year on last year.
00:59:31 Sr. Mary Clare: Reacted to "Sorry, pressed enter..." with ❤️
01:00:09 Sr. Mary Clare: Reacted to "In my parish we are ..." with ❤️
01:01:40 Una: Thank you. Very encouraging.
01:06:51 Catherine Opie: I see the physical pain that intensifies when at mass, praying etc as the level of my resistance to sit with God. I offer it up for the souls in purgatory and breathe through it. As well as having to suffer the perfume other people wear!!!!!
01:06:54 Suzanne Romano: Guadalupe
01:06:54 Anthony: Guadeloupe was 1500s
01:06:58 Ben: Guadalupe was 1531 - Aztecs
01:08:12 Myles Davidson: Replying to "I see the physical p..."
Perfumes = penance!
01:09:04 Ben: Reacted to "Perfumes = penance!" with 😲
01:11:32 David: Guadalupe did convert more Christians in the shortest period of time in history after decades of little success in the Americas. My son was baptized in the first stone font when we lived in Mexico,  the next year moved to a museum in Tlaxcala. The first Christians were other communities and the aztecas a minority in the territory were hold outs till Guadalupe.
01:16:57 Ben: Asceticism in the beginning of the spiritual life is basic to the Fathers, but today it's often treated as something for those who are already saints, with no reference to purity of heart.
01:19:05 Eleana: Reacted to "Guadalupe did conv..." with 😮
01:19:35 Lee Graham: Please explain the soul,s incentive parr
01:19:48 Lee Graham: Incentive
01:19:48 Anthony: Asceticism with little prayer and desire sounds similar to Jansenism
01:20:23 Ben: Right - we need all that.
01:23:11 Ben: It's a deep paragraph for 8:38pm
01:23:15 Sr. Mary Clare: What you have been saying is beautiful!
01:23:16 David: Why with all the ministries and works, committee's, Bingo, fundraisers isn't there more spiritual direction and an ER for the the spiritually sick. What I like most about the desert fathers is they identify the error and give a solution or solutions. I am dismayed by the latin approach to dealing with any of the evil thoughts.
01:23:20 Naina: Amen 🙏 Thank you Father 🙏✝️🤍
01:23:57 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂
01:24:02 Elizabeth Richards: Peace to you
01:24:02 Catherine Opie: God bless Fr.
01:24:10 Francisco Ingham: God bless you Fr.!
01:24:11 David: Thank you father may God bless you and your mother.

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.
---
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.
---
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.
---
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.
---
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.