St. Isaac the Syrian is not offering speculation about the afterlife. He is unveiling the inner logic of existence itself, now and forever. He begins, characteristically, not with heaven, but with humility—because for him humility is not a moral ornament but the measure of reality. You do not know humility, he says, by what you think of yourself when you are alone. You know it only when your self-image is wounded. If accusation disturbs you, if injustice burns you inwardly, then humility has not yet reached the marrow. This is not condemnation but diagnosis. Humility, for Isaac, is not self-accusation performed in safety; it is the quiet endurance of being diminished without revolt. Only such a heart can bear God.

From this point, Isaac lifts the veil on Christ’s words about the “many mansions” of the Father’s house. He dismantles our spatial and competitive imagination. Heaven is not a collection of separate dwellings, not a hierarchy of visible comparisons. There is one dwelling, one place, one vision, one light. God is not divided. Beatitude is not parceled out. The diversity lies not in God’s gift but in our capacity to receive it.

Isaac reaches for images of profound simplicity. The sun shines equally upon all, yet each person receives its light according to the health of his eyes. A single lamp illumines an entire house, yet its light is experienced differently depending on where one stands. The source is undivided. The radiance is simple. What differs is the vessel. Heaven, then, is not the multiplication of rewards but the full revelation of what the soul has become capable of receiving.

This is where Isaac’s teaching becomes both consoling and terrifying. Consoling, because there is no envy in the Kingdom. No one with a lesser measure will see the greater measure of another. There will be no sorrow born of comparison, no awareness of loss, no inner accusation that another has been given more. Each soul will delight fully in what it has been made able to contain. God will not be experienced as deprivation by anyone who is in Him.

But it is terrifying because Isaac makes clear that this capacity is not arbitrary. It is formed. It is disciplined. It is shaped through humility, suffering, obedience, and purification of the heart. The same divine light that gives joy to one will reveal limitation to another. The difference is not external but interior. Heaven does not change us at the threshold; it unveils us.

Isaac goes further. He insists that the world to come will not operate by a different logic than this one. The structure of reality is already set. Knowledge beyond sense, perception beyond images, understanding beyond words—these already exist in seed form. Ignorance remains for a time, but it is not eternal. There is an appointed moment when ignorance is abolished and the mysteries that are now guarded by silence are revealed. Silence, here, is not absence but reverence. God is not fully disclosed to the undisciplined mind.

Finally, Isaac draws a stark boundary. There is no middle realm. A person belongs either wholly to the realm above or wholly to the realm below. Yet even within each realm, there are degrees. This is not contradiction but coherence. Union or separation is absolute; experience within each state is varied. One is either turned toward God or away from Him, but the depth of that turning—or that refusal—determines the quality of one’s existence.

What Isaac is pressing upon us is this: life is the slow formation of our capacity for God. Salvation is not merely forgiveness; it is vision. Judgment is not an external sentence; it is the unveiling of what the soul can bear. Humility is not preparation for heaven—it is already participation in its light. And the tragedy of sin is not punishment imposed from without, but the shrinking of the heart’s ability to receive the One who gives Himself entirely.

In St. Isaac’s vision, God remains eternally simple, undivided, and radiant. The question that decides everything is not how much God gives, but how much we have allowed ourselves to be healed, emptied, and enlarged to receive Him.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:04:59 susan: Hi I'm trying to transition from liturgy or hours on the phone to the 4 volume books.  Can anone tell me what week we are currently in?  tx

00:05:20 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Humility Real? - how heart reacts when another wounds us

00:18:49 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 172, # 11, first paragraph

00:40:28 Ben: Anna; It seems to me that since Charity isn't something that we lose in heaven, that the glory of each soul will somehow communicate it's self to each other soul in such a way that we will each delight in the glory of the other.

00:41:40 Elizabeth Richards: It is so hard to invest and trust fully when our experience human relationships always disappoint (for me). It was easier when I was younger!

00:42:40 Elizabeth Richards: It I can be hard not to be protective in my relationship with God

00:44:05 Elizabeth Richards: The paradox is that I need Christ's strength & grace to have a vulnerable relationship with Him!

00:47:26 David Swiderski, WI: Youth is a struggle of acquiring- knowledge, career, house, family and growing older sometimes is a struggle of learning to let go until there is nothing of us to cling to but God.. (A saying from my Grandfather)  He also said more concisely we come into this world and leave the same way no teeth, bald and in diapers.

00:50:26 Nypaver Clan: Father, Do you have a good, detailed examination of conscience from the Desert Fathers?

00:50:33 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Replying to "Youth is a struggle ..."

Do any of the Saints approach the circuitous routes of  the spiritual life and vocation with a holy sense of humor???

00:50:58 Maureen Cunningham: Sometimes it feels like That God is treating me the same as my adversary s

01:01:20 Angela Bellamy: Is the joy simultaneous with the sorrow entangled forever? or will the joy win?

01:01:59 Art: Going back to paragraph 12 where Isaac speaks of “each according to the clarity of his eyesight” this reminds me of something from the margin of the Roman missal.  It says, “They will receive grace [at Mass] in the measure of their faith and devotion, visible to God alone.”  So it’s as if at mass we are already experiencing this part of heaven.  There we are all in the same place, one abode, one place, one dwelling, yet each seeing “each according to the clarity of his eyesight” and absent any feelings of envy toward any other.

01:04:43 David Swiderski, WI: https://saintnicholas-oca.org/files/catechetical-resources/Self-Examination-before-Confession-From-Way-of-a-Pilgrim.pdf

01:19:47 Nypaver Clan: Father, you’re awesome!🥰

01:19:54 Tracey Fredman: Reacted to "Father, you’re aweso..." with ❤️

01:19:55 Elizabeth Richards: N Macedonia!

01:20:01 Angela Bellamy: Wonderful insights from Saint Isaac. Thank you for your class. sign me up!

01:20:02 Janine: I’m in!

01:20:03 Jesssica Imanaka: The Redwoods!

01:20:06 Bob Čihák, AZ: We've got Zoom already

01:20:08 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "Wonderful insights f..." with 😆

01:20:08 John ‘Jack’: In

01:20:43 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!

01:20:43 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God bless you and your Mother.

01:20:45 Elizabeth Richards: Amen -Thank you Father

01:20:45 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:20:46 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You ,

01:21:06 Charmaine's iPad: Thank you

01:21:11 Gwen’s iPhone: Thank you.

These texts from the Evergetinos unsettle us because they refuse to remain within the boundaries of what feels morally tidy or intellectually manageable. They do not ask us to refine our ethical reasoning. They ask us to relinquish it. Not because truth no longer matters, but because truth in Christ is no longer possessed or deployed by us. It is entered. It is suffered. It is entrusted to God.

Abba Alonios’ answer shocks precisely because it violates our instinct for clean distinctions. We want truth to be a weapon that guarantees justice. We want moral clarity to protect us from risk. Yet the elder places before us a situation in which telling the truth would mean cooperating with death. The choice is not between honesty and deceit as abstract values. It is between acting as judge and surrendering judgment to God. The lie he permits is not born of calculation or convenience but of restraint. It is a refusal to become the final arbiter over another human life.

Here the Gospel quietly overturns us. Christ does not save the world by insisting on correct procedure. He saves it by entering into its injustice and absorbing it without retaliation. He does not clarify situations from a distance. He descends into them and bears their weight. The elder’s answer does not sanctify falsehood. It exposes our illusion that we are capable of wielding truth without wounding when our hearts are still governed by fear and reactivity.

The second account presses even deeper. The Reader does not merely endure slander. He consents to it. He allows truth to be buried in order to spare the Church further scandal and to place his own vindication entirely in the hands of God. This is not passivity. It is not weakness. It is a terrifying freedom. He relinquishes reputation. He relinquishes status. He relinquishes even the right to be understood. He chooses to stand before God alone.

Here moral reasoning collapses. By every rational measure the Reader should defend himself. Justice demands it. Yet the Gospel reveals a different justice. One that does not rush to expose wrongdoing but waits for God to uncover what human judgment cannot heal. The Reader’s silence becomes prayer. His loss becomes intercession. His false condemnation becomes the means by which God exposes the deeper sickness of slander and restores the one who sinned.

What these texts reveal is that the Christian life cannot be lived from the center of our own discernment alone. The Gospel draws us past the point where we ask what is fair or reasonable and into the mystery of Christ who was condemned while innocent and silent before His accusers. These stories are not moral templates to be imitated mechanically. They are icons. They show us what love looks like when it no longer seeks to justify itself.

The Fathers knew how quickly our sense of virtue becomes self protection. How easily truth becomes an extension of our fear. The Gospel dismantles this illusion. It exposes how much of our judgment is driven by the need to control outcomes and secure our innocence. Christ does not ask us to abandon truth. He asks us to abandon ownership of it.

To enter this mystery is to accept that fidelity to Christ will sometimes look like loss. That obedience may cost us clarity. That love may require us to stand undefended. Not because injustice is holy but because God alone is capable of judging without destroying.

These writings do not give us answers we can apply. They draw us into a posture we must inhabit. One where restraint replaces reaction. Where prayer replaces accusation. Where truth is no longer something we speak over others but a life we entrust to God.

The Gospel does not refine our moral instincts. It crucifies them and raises something altogether new.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:00:41 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 343 G paragraph 2

00:06:59 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 343 G paragraph 2

00:07:17 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.org/blog

00:08:34 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "Philokaliaministries..." with ❤️

00:08:46 Una’s iPhone: Laughter is the best medicine?

00:10:05 Una’s iPhone: I’m reading St Nicodemos Handbook of Spiritual Counsel

00:10:25 Una’s iPhone: Yes

00:10:38 Una’s iPhone: Guarding the senses

00:10:49 Anna: What's the book we're reading?

00:11:02 Anna: Thanks!

00:15:01 Angela Bellamy: Good evening Father. I've been looking forward to the class. Its lovely to see you doing well. :)

00:34:40 John ‘Jack’: In John 7; 1-10 where the disciples try to talk Jesus into going in to the feast of the tabernacles he tells them his time has not yet come, he then goes in without them in disguise, thus has always seemed to be he lied, or at least misled them, id love to hear your interpretation on that scripture.

00:41:09 John ‘Jack’: They are very good at showing us our own minuteness

00:43:04 Angela Bellamy: Excuse my interjection but Jesus explained that He couldn't go openly because He was being sought after to be murdered. That the people did not accept Him and that it wasn't time for His crucifixion.

00:44:45 John Burmeister: if i saw the murder, im not judgeing the person, im judging the act,

00:45:26 Julie: The importance of praying for discernment

00:45:42 John Burmeister: god will still have his judgement. it maybe gods providence for me to turn him in

00:54:41 Anthony: I don't think I would just take the judgement. I'd suppose having a good reputation is important for not just me, but my family and people who assume I did the grave evil.  For example how many true and false accusations against Catholic priests and others in USA was an excuse for people to leave faith in anger and grief?

00:54:44 Anna: Wow suffering is so powerful

00:55:37 John Burmeister: Replying to "I don't think I woul..."

or for money

00:57:32 jonathan: Isaiah 53:7 – “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” Mark 15:3–5 – When accused before Pilate, “The chief priests accused him of many things… But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.”

00:57:51 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "Isaiah 53:7 – “He wa..." with ❤️

01:01:54 Anthony: George Pell

01:03:27 Joan Chakonas: A example showing where you turn the other cheek to slander, and God takes care of you ultimately.

01:03:34 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "Isaiah 53:7 – “He wa…" with ❤️

01:06:55 Rebecca Thérèse: Unfortunately, abusers often manipulate themselves into important positions and a network develops where they look out for each other. Then when an allegation arises against an innocent person they go after them to make it look like they're cracking down on abuse and corruption where really they're just deflecting scrutiny away from themselves. The allegations against Cardinal Pell were easy to disprove but the authorities weren't interested in the truth.

01:08:44 Angela Bellamy: Joseph was slandered and yet the Lord held him dear. Humility invites God into our situation. He is sovereign over all.

01:10:20 Forrest: The bishop in this story continued his evil ways stating that the prayers of the reader must be to afflict the woman. Would the reader have been praying that way?

01:17:44 Janine: Praying for you Father!

01:18:37 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:19:43 Bob Čihák, AZ: Bless your excitement and overexpressing the Truth, Father, You're not alone!

St. Isaac is not describing admirable behaviors. He is naming a different kind of human being.

Mercy, humility, and almsgiving are not virtues added to an otherwise intact self. They are the outward signs that the old self has already begun to die. What St. Isaac exposes is not how difficult mercy is, but how incompatible it is with the identity most of us still inhabit.

To endure injustice patiently is not an act of moral endurance. It reveals where a person now lives. The one who still derives himself from possession, reputation, or control must be troubled by loss. He cannot help it. Injury threatens his very sense of being. But the one who has been reborn in Christ no longer draws life from what he owns or from what is said about him. His center has shifted. His life is hidden elsewhere. That is why St. Isaac speaks with such severity. If loss disturbs you inwardly or if you feel compelled to tell others what was taken from you, then mercy has not yet reached exactness. The self that requires vindication is still alive.

The same truth governs humility. St. Isaac does not describe humility as thinking poorly of oneself or rehearsing faults. He describes it as freedom from the need to be justified at all. The truly humble man does not argue with accusation. He does not rush to clarify himself. He does not try to persuade others that he has been misjudged. He accepts slander as truth not because the accusation is factual but because his identity no longer depends upon recognition in this age. He begs forgiveness not because he is guilty but because Christ has released him from the tyranny of innocence.

This is why the examples St. Isaac offers are so severe. They are meant to break our assumptions. These saints did not merely endure misunderstanding. They entered it. They allowed themselves to be named wrongly. They accepted reputations that contradicted their inner purity. Some even clothed themselves in madness so that virtue would remain hidden. They did this not out of self contempt but out of clarity. Praise had become dangerous to them. Visibility threatened to awaken a self they had already buried.

This is not spiritual theater. It is the logic of the Incarnation carried through to its end. Christ did not merely endure false accusation. He accepted it as the path of revelation. He did not correct the narrative. He did not defend Himself. He allowed Himself to be named wrongly so that His true identity would be revealed not by explanation but by self offering. Those who live this way are not imitating a moral example. They are sharing His life.

The figure of Elisha makes this unmistakable. Power and mercy dwell in the same man. Elisha had the authority to destroy his enemies and St. Isaac insists on this point. Mercy is not weakness. It is strength transfigured. The man who feeds his enemies instead of destroying them does so not because he lacks power but because power no longer rules him. Mercy reveals what kind of being he has become. He acts from God rather than from self preservation.

What is at stake here is identity. St. Isaac is asking a question that allows no evasion. From where do you live. From the need to be right. From the need to be seen correctly. From the hope that truth will be acknowledged and justice rendered in this age. Or from the hidden life of Christ where nothing must be defended because everything has already been given away.

These paragraphs do not invite balance or moderation. They announce a death and a birth. Either we remain the kind of people who must protect ourselves from injustice or we become the kind of people for whom injustice no longer defines reality. Either we still live as those who need our names preserved or we have become those whose true name is known only to God.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:35:09 Thomas: The Man of God movie on St. Nektarios is really good for this

00:35:45 Mia: Reacted to The Man of God movie... with "👍"

00:39:21 Eleana Urrego: Sounds like we have to expect to be confronted with false accusations?

00:40:30 Jesssica Imanaka: These teachings of Saint Isaac are amongst the hardest for me... not sure which vice gets in my way: maybe pride?

00:41:38 Catherine Opie: So does that mean that if one is being persecuted one can know that one is on the right path? Rather than being lauded ans a "success"?

00:42:53 Fr Martin, Arizona: "Not self-help writings" seems to be a good comment.

00:43:33 Maureen Cunningham: I think the evil one like to shoot the fiery dart. Our Lord spoke  to us we must forgive.

00:43:44 Fr Martin, Arizona: Instead of better self-made persons, rather partakers of the Divine nature.

00:44:44 Thomas: Is anger very closely tied to this, meaning that I might get angry if someone calls me out even if it’s true. Or even with saints putting forth the hard parts of the gospel that I might get angry because I see that I’m not what I think I am.

00:45:55 Fr Martin, Arizona: it seems we can offer thanksgiving for consolation and thanksgiving for purging.

00:47:35 Angela Bellamy: Is humility being the fruit which makes this experience (accusation) less bitter? Is it a gift of the Lord or is it the result of a practiced virtue?

00:52:16 Eleana Urrego: I used to think I was just being paranoid for wanting to stay faithful to the truth, especially while feeling pressured to conform to the dominant agenda at work and in my classes—and facing constant criticism and accusations 😅. But now I realize this is actually an opportunity to grow in sanctity and deepen my convictions, feels more like blessings then.

00:54:48 Ben: 's wife Anna; I understand the principle, but when faced with betrayal from close friends and faithful exemplary Catholics; it's really hard to put this principle into practice.  How can we actually DO this?

00:57:02 Eleana Urrego: Like in the movie he was betrayed by his clergy brothers more painful.

00:57:09 Joan Chakonas: God will help you in the moment to conform to this principle- this I believe and have experienced.

01:02:58 Angela Bellamy: Is it not a beautiful gift to be stripe of attachments so that our focus is on the Lord? It is painful. I ponder our Christ on the cross and I've asked Him so pitifully how could He find the vulnerability to forgive?

01:03:50 Laura: Reacted to "it seems we can offe..." with 👍🏼

01:05:42 Angela Bellamy: Is humility being the fruit which makes this experience (accusation) less bitter? Is it a gift of the Lord or is it the result of a practiced virtue?

01:07:25 Thomas: Is anger very closely tied to this, because I would get angry if somebody would dare question the image I have of myself

01:11:23 Joan Chakonas: Time goes by too fast on these calls

01:11:38 Angela Bellamy: Wonderfully thought provoking and I am thankful to the lesson. Thank you everyone.

01:11:38 jonathan: Reacted to "Time goes by too fas..." with 💯

01:11:38 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "Wonderfully thought ..." with ❤️

01:11:51 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Time goes by too fas..." with 💯

01:12:03 Janine: Thank you Father!

01:12:44 Maureen Cunningham: Blessing thank you  everyone  Farther much meditate on

01:13:07 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:13:10 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!

01:13:38 Anna: What's the book

The Fathers do not allow us to soften this teaching. They place truth at the very center of the ascetical life and they do so without apology. A truthful mouth a holy body and a pure heart stand or fall together. Where speech is corrupted everything else soon follows. Falsehood is not a minor fault or a social lubricant. It is death. Truth is not a virtue among others. It is the new man himself breathing through the tongue.

They are relentless because they know how easily we excuse ourselves. We lie not only to protect ourselves but to protect relationships. We lie to preserve peace. We lie to avoid discomfort. We lie because we fear that truth will finally sever what little love remains. And yet the Fathers insist that where truth is sacrificed love has already been lost. What we are trying to preserve is not communion but an arrangement held together by fear.

The early sayings leave no ambiguity. The mouth is sanctified only by Christ who is the Truth. The liar does not merely misspeak. He places his mouth under another father. Falsehood reshapes the soul. It expels the fear of God because it replaces trust in God with management of outcomes. We begin to believe that relationships survive by control rather than repentance.

Abba Isaiah exposes the root. Love of human glory gives birth to falsehood. We lie because we want to be seen as kind prudent wise or peacemaking. Humility cuts this root. The humble man can speak truth because he no longer needs to be admired or effective. He entrusts consequences to God. The tongue trained in the words of God no longer needs to improvise.

And then the Evergetinos unsettles us with its hardest stories. A brother lies gently to cover another’s weakness. Another brother lies cleverly to reconcile two elders. The lies work. No one is harmed. Peace is restored. We are tempted to breathe a sigh of relief. Surely love has justified the sacrifice of truth.

But the Fathers are not congratulating us. They are showing us something tragic.

In both stories the lie is necessary because love has already failed. In the first story murmuring has entered the community. Cold has become judgment. Weakness has become resentment. The brother lies to prevent further harm because the truth would now wound rather than heal. But this is not the triumph of love. It is damage control after love has broken down.

In the second story reconciliation does not happen through repentance confession or mutual humility. It happens through misdirection. The elders are not brought face to face with their grievance. They are gently bypassed. Peace is achieved but truth is avoided. The brother’s sagacity saves them from further hardening yet the cost is revealing. Love is so fragile that it cannot bear the truth.

The Fathers do not present this as a model to imitate casually. They present it as a warning. When truth must be bent to preserve peace something has already gone wrong in the heart. The need for the lie exposes the absence of repentance. It reveals relationships sustained by pride fear and avoidance rather than by shared humility before God.

This is why the earlier sayings are so severe. Truth is the root of good deeds. Without it even love becomes distorted. What we often call love is only the desire to avoid conflict. What we call prudence is often fear of exposure. What we call peace is sometimes nothing more than mutual silence around a wound no one will touch.

The Evergetinos does not resolve the tension for us. It leaves us uneasy on purpose. It forces us to see how easily we justify falsehood once communion has been damaged. It also forces us to admit how rarely we do the harder work of repentance that would make truth bearable again.

True love does not need lies. But when love has thinned and trust has collapsed lies become tempting because they seem merciful. The Fathers tolerate this in extremis but they never bless it. They keep pointing us back to the beginning. A truthful mouth. A pure heart. A body not divided. Where these are present truth heals rather than destroys.

The hard word remains. If truth feels too dangerous to speak the work is not to refine the lie but to repent until love is restored. Anything else may buy peace for a moment but it trains the heart to live without light.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:05:26 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 341

00:08:48 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 341

00:30:55 Anthony: Then it sounds to me we can't really assent to going to war, inasmuch as we are told we have to go to war because so-and-so did something dastardly....and we are asked to take that in faith. But, people lie

00:36:35 Forrest: Replying to "Then it sounds to me..."

I think this interpretation would be too great an extension of the text. What is special about declaration of war, Anthony, that we should withhold our assent? We trust the gospel of the resurrection, which we have not seen. Our Lord praised those who believe without seeing. We can assent to trustworthy declarations.

00:40:35 Joan Chakonas: I regard the harsh realities as set forth by the Fathers the kindest warnings of consequences  because the devil is on us everyday, all of the time.  Animals are gifted instincts- our free will  is aided by the desert fathers.  Every second of our life we make  decisions.  The desert fathers are such a help.

00:41:50 Myles Davidson: I was also thinking of politics while reading this Hypothesis and the staggering levels of deception we are expected to swallow these days. If ones looks closely at many of the pretexts for war in the last few decades, they are based on falsehoods to get the masses on board with a war they would never accept if they knew the real reasons for the desire for those in power to go to war

00:42:49 Forrest: Replying to "I was also thinking ..."

Yes, I agree. The text mentioned "glory of men" begets falsehood.

00:44:01 Angela Bellamy: I don't have any confidence in evaluating anything outside of myself when even within myself is so much in the way of deception. It may be folly to take our eyes from Jesus to analyze humanity.

00:46:38 Al Antoni: Ineffable folly

00:51:58 Lee Graham: This is not our home.

00:52:15 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "This is not our home..." with ❤️

00:53:51 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "This is not our ho..." with ❤️

00:54:16 Rebecca Thérèse: Reacted to "This is not our home..." with ❤️

00:54:37 Angela Bellamy: Daniel found himself in a strange place and he restricted his diet in order to remain pure in a foreign land. If we eat with our eyes and our ears, how do we alter our diet in order to maintain purity for the Lord?

01:05:04 Anthony: Ok, so "you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" is not about lying per se, but it is about lying for the purpose of harming another?  God is not demanding absolute truth but God demands love in speech?

01:08:40 jonathan: Is it true the church demands absolute truth? That lying, even in the case of saving someone's life, would still be considered a sin?

01:09:20 Kate Rose: Hate the sin, not the sinner

01:12:09 Joan Chakonas: Some questions you just don’t answer.  My life in corporate America.

01:14:46 Myles Davidson: Could it be said, that if telling the truth allows a greater sin (such as murder), then in that respect telling the truth becomes a sin

01:16:12 Forrest: ccc 2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.

01:16:43 Forrest: If they have no right to the truth, then do not answer.

01:17:27 Myles Davidson: Replying to "Could it be said, th..."

That there is a hierarchy to sin as you said

01:17:31 jonathan: Reacted to "If they have no righ..." with 💯

01:18:44 Anna: No if lying it's not going to heal the situation as only truth heals. Love is not lying. Love is truth.

01:18:56 Forrest: I never practice therapeutic lying. I don't detract against people who do.

01:19:35 Forrest: Replying to "I never practice the..."

And my father had dementia and my step father does. It is tempting.

01:22:18 jonathan: I assume, its similar to moses allowing divorce, even though its against Gods will for man, its a concession, and not necessarily the perfect way.

01:24:00 Al Antoni: St Dionysios of Zakynthos is famous for hiding his brother's murderer (and hence lying), demonstrating immense Christian love and forgiveness.

01:25:29 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "If they have no righ…" with ❤️

01:25:44 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You always so Blessed

01:26:00 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:26:13 Jessica McHale: Thank you! Many prayers!

01:26:15 Janine: Happy feast day!

01:26:18 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father

Here St. Isaac does not define virtues as behaviors but as states of being before God. He strips away external markers and leaves the soul alone with truth. What he offers is not a ladder of accomplishments but a geography of the heart.

A stranger, he says, is not one who has left a place, but one whose mind has been estranged from all things of life. This is the quiet violence of the Gospel: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:16). Estrangement here is not contempt for creation but freedom from possession. Abba Arsenius fled Rome, but what he truly fled was the tyranny of relevance. To become a stranger is to consent to being unnecessary. It is to let the world continue without you and discover that God remains.

The mourner is not a melancholic soul but a hungry one. He lives, Isaac says, in hunger and thirst for the sake of his hope in good things to come. This is the blessed mourning of the Beatitudes, the ache that refuses consolation because it has tasted something eternal. St. John Climacus calls mourning “a sorrow that is glad,” because it is oriented toward the Kingdom. It is grief baptized by hope. Such a soul does not despise joy; it waits for the only joy that cannot be taken away.

Then Isaac dares to say what a monk truly is. Not one who has taken vows, not one who wears a habit, but one who remains outside the world and is ever supplicating God to receive future blessings. The monk stands at the edge of time and begs. His posture is eschatological. He lives as though the promises are real. This is why the monk’s wealth is not visible. It is the comfort that comes of mourning and the joy that comes of faith, shining secretly in the mind’s hidden chambers. Christ Himself names this hiddenness when He says, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mt 6:6). The true treasure does not announce itself. It warms quietly.

Mercy, too, is redefined. A merciful man is not one who performs selective kindness but one who has lost the ability to divide the world mentally into worthy and unworthy. This is the mercy of God Himself, who “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Mt 5:45). St. Isaac elsewhere says that a merciful heart burns for all creation: for humans, animals, demons, even for the enemies of God. Such mercy is not sentimental. It is cruciform. It is the heart stretched until it resembles Christ’s own.

And then Isaac turns to chastity, and again he refuses reduction. Virginity is not merely bodily restraint but an interior reverence. One who feels shame before himself even when alone. This is a startling phrase. It speaks of a soul that lives before God even when no one is watching. Shame here is not self-loathing but awe. It is the trembling awareness that one’s thoughts are already prayers, or blasphemies, before the face of God.

Therefore Isaac is unsparing: chastity cannot survive without reading and prolonged prayer. Without immersion in the Word, the imagination becomes a wilderness of unguarded images. Without prayer, the heart has no shelter. Abba Evagrius taught that thoughts are not defeated by force but by replacement—by filling the mind with divine fire. The Jesus Prayer, Scripture read slowly, the psalms murmured in weakness, these do not merely resist impurity; they transfigure desire itself.

What unites all these sayings is this: St. Isaac is describing a soul that has accepted vulnerability. God has permitted the soul to be susceptible to accidents: not as punishment, but as mercy. Weakness becomes the doorway. Hunger becomes the guide. Shame becomes watchfulness. Mourning becomes wealth. Nothing here is safe, and nothing here is superficial.

This is not an ethic for the strong. It is a path for those who have consented to be poor before God.

In the end, St. Isaac is teaching us how to stand unarmed in the presence of the Kingdom; estranged from the world, aching for God, clothed in quiet prayer, and guarded not by our strength but by grace that shines unseen in the depths of the heart.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:04:33 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 7 Homily Six

00:04:45 Angela Bellamy: What is the book titled please?

00:04:56 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "What is the book tit..." with 👍

00:08:11 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 7 Homily Six

00:08:21 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php?cPath=75_105&products_id=635

00:11:18 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 7 Homily Six

00:12:25 Angela Bellamy: We have another advisory as well.

00:14:38 Angela Bellamy: Is the Saturday group suitable for me to join as well?

00:15:31 Jesssica Imanaka: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..."

They are sporadic. I didn't think there was a regular Saturday group.

00:16:05 Angela Bellamy: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..."

Is it a kind of fellowship meeting or is it usually topic related?

00:16:12 Andrew Adams: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..."

The Saturday groups are one-off topics. They have been on more broader topics/themes of Eastern Christin spirituality.

00:16:25 Angela Bellamy: Replying to "Is the Saturday grou..."

Wonderful! Thank you.

00:48:59 Myles Davidson: Some of my favourite times during a challenging night vigil where I am very tired and battling sleep and even the Jesus prayer is too much effort, is only having the ability to repeat the name of Jesus over and over. Being too tired for any other thought has a very liberating and tender quality to it

00:49:39 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Some of my favouri..." with ❤️

00:54:51 David Swiderski, WI: I found arrow prayers have helped me. A spiritual director told me to leave a breadcrumb trail throughout the day so the heart continues to return to God as much as possible. A picture of our mother in one's wallet, a rosary/prayer rope in one's pocket etc.Hourly Prayers of Saint John Chrysostom

00:55:16 Rebecca Thérèse: St John of the Cross says that it's beneficial for the intellect to sleep or be otherwise occupied to assist the communication of God with the soul. Contemplative prayer is the action of God in the soul, it's completely passive - it doesn't depend on our effort except to cooperate with the Holy Spirit by endeavouring to grow in virtue.

00:55:45 Fr Marty: Beautiful explanation. Thank you

00:57:37 Jessica McHale: Praying the Divine Office but also working an 8 hr day and tending to family etc can some times make the Office feel like something just to check off on the list of things to do and not prayer. It's a challenge. I love praying the Office but sometimes it does become one more thing to get done. Maybe it's the few moments within a long evening prayer or morning prayer that I do pray from my heart counts most.

00:57:59 Angela Bellamy: What is the hallmark difference between prayer rule, simple prayer, and contemplative prayer?

00:58:25 Fr Marty: Prayer and theosis is sometimes too wonderful to comprehend

00:59:10 Jesssica Imanaka: Reacted to "I found arrow prayer..." with ❤️

00:59:16 Angela Bellamy: Is it necessary to know or label the prayer?

00:59:22 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I found arrow pray..." with ❤️

01:06:14 Una’s iPhone: The Perfect Prayer Book by Father Frey is a Catholic breviary that covers the entire psalter in a week

01:07:40 Kimberley A: Faith is the reality of  the Presence of God deep in my heart. Almost like is an invisible Being who is ever with me and in me. Is this right?

01:07:43 Una’s iPhone: published by Confraternity of the Precious Blood in NY. An old and small book. $10 on Amazon. It’s been a lifesaver for me with my reduced physical energy

01:08:58 Kimberley A: My heart has become a humble "manger".

01:09:51 Joan Chakonas: I listen to the old podcasts (right now Ladder of Divine Ascent) when I can -when I’m driving or doing other solitary activity- and I find I am in communion with God listening to the words you read.  Every reading directs my mind toward things in my mind and life and its all so good.

01:17:06 Joan Chakonas: Agree the live group is epic!!

01:17:13 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Agree the live group..." with 👍

01:17:22 Ben: Reacted to "Agree the live group..." with 👍

01:17:31 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I listen to the ol..." with ❤️

01:17:40 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Agree the live gro..." with 👍

01:18:07 Ann’s iPad: Reacted to "Agree the live group…" with 👍

01:18:18 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father! Such a blessing to be in this group!

01:18:21 Angela Bellamy: Thank you Father.

01:18:32 Janine: The best! Thank you Father! No better way to spend Eve!

01:18:42 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "The best! Thank you …" with ❤️

01:19:06 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you, happy new year everyone.☺️

01:19:11 Kimberley A: Blessed 🎊 new year

01:19:20 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father. May God bless you and your mother!

01:19:41 Jessica McHale: I absolutely LOVE your teaching and counsel. Praise God fo leading me to you and these groups this past yesr!  Many prayers!!!! Thank you!

01:19:49 Andrew Adams: Thanks be to God! Thank you, Father!

There is something terrifyingly honest in these stories because they do not allow us to hide behind good intentions or spiritual reputation. They expose how thin the veil is between holiness and destruction when the heart is not fully purified of anger and envy.

Florentius is not portrayed as weak or negligent. He is guileless. He prays. He fasts. He entrusts his life to God so completely that even a wild bear becomes obedient to the rhythm of his prayer. Creation itself recognizes innocence when the human heart is simple. The bear does not argue. It does not rebel. It returns at the sixth hour. It submits to fasting schedules. It becomes a brother. And then men who pray and chant psalms murder it out of envy.

The Evergetinos does not soften this. Envy is not a small flaw. It is demonic participation. The Devil enters precisely where comparison takes root. Their teacher does not work miracles. Another is becoming known. Something inside them twists. They do not attack Florentius directly. They kill what he loves. That is how envy works. It strikes sideways. It wounds through the innocent.

What follows should frighten anyone who thinks holiness gives permission to anger. Florentius prays for justice. He does not strike with his hands. He strikes with words. And heaven responds. The punishment is immediate. Public. Irreversible. And the most horrifying part is not the leprosy of the guilty monks but the lifelong repentance of the holy one whose prayer was answered.

Florentius spends the rest of his life calling himself a murderer.

That should stop us cold. God answers his prayer and Florentius is undone by it. He learns too late that the tongue can kill just as surely as a knife. Gregory is mercilessly clear. Revilers do not inherit the Kingdom. Not murderers. Not adulterers. Revilers. Those who curse. Those who wound with speech. Those who let anger become a prayer.

Then the Fathers press the knife deeper.

Makarios meets the same pagan twice. Once he is cursed and beaten almost to death. Once he blesses and converts a soul. The difference is not the pagan. The difference is the word. The disciple speaks truth without love and becomes an occasion of violence. The elder speaks love without flattery and becomes an occasion of resurrection. One word produces blood. Another produces monks.

An evil word makes even a good man evil. A good word makes even an evil man good. This is not poetry. It is spiritual law.

We want crosses without insults. We want asceticism without humiliation. We want holiness that never contradicts our self image. The Fathers laugh at this illusion. We behold the Cross and read about Christ’s sufferings and cannot endure a single insult without defending ourselves internally. Not even outwardly. In the heart. That is where the battle is lost.

Abba Isaiah is ruthless because he knows how fast anger multiplies. Do not argue. Do not justify. Make a prostration before your heart rehearses its case. Silence is not weakness here. It is warfare. If the insult is true repent. If it is false endure. Either way the soul is saved if the tongue is restrained.

The bear was obedient. The monks were not. The pagan ran in vain until he was greeted with mercy. Florentius learned that holiness without restraint of speech can still become an instrument of death. And the Fathers leave us with no escape. Words are not neutral. They either heal or rot the body of Christ.

This teaching burns because it strips us of our favorite refuge. We excuse anger as clarity. We baptize sharp speech as righteousness. We call curses discernment. The Evergetinos exposes this lie mercilessly. One word can unleash hell. One word can open the Kingdom.

The question is not whether we pray. The question is whether our words crucify or resurrect.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:05:16 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 336 Hypothesis XLIII

00:05:29 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Philokaliaministries.org/blog

00:09:36 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 336 Hypothesis XLIII

00:09:55 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: http://Philokaliaministries.org/blog

00:11:58 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 336 Hypothesis XLIII Volume II

00:12:32 Angela Bellamy: What is the name of the book please?

00:12:45 Jessica McHale: Same here in Boston

00:13:06 Jerimy Spencer: Aloha Father, from a ‘chilly’ 78° O'ahu 😅

00:13:24 Jerimy Spencer: lol

00:14:26 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.ctosonline.org/patristic/EvCT.html

00:15:13 Angela Bellamy: I bought the Philokalia but the pages don't line up with your YouTube teaching.

00:23:13 Jerimy Spencer: Like the lion that helped dig and bury St Mary of Egypt ♥️☦️

00:24:34 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Like the lion that..." with 👍

00:37:27 Jessica McHale: In all honestly, should we just endure verbal abuse?

00:39:46 Joan Chakonas: The ability to forgive /avoid cursing others goes along with not despairing of God forgiving us of our own accursed actions

00:40:47 Jerimy Spencer: Two thoughts, I’ve often thought that when someone murders, they murder something of their humanity, they assault the image of God within themselves…

And you’ve reminded me of the redemption of the Ransom character’s imagination from C.S. Lewis’ Space trilogy, where he begins to see reality as the two humans who kidnapped him from afar, at first thinks they are oddly shaped, sees them as alien and ultimately as villain.

01:03:23 Joan Chakonas: I think it’s hard to be good because insults or affronts come upon us suddenly  and it takes us by surprise

01:05:26 Joan Chakonas: It takes a lot of prayer and practice and grace eventually arrests our quick responses

01:07:12 John Burmeister: Im 61 and have been angry with people and said some stuff that i should probably have not said over these years. you make we wonder, that a lot of these people i did not know, we really will not know if we caused harm until after our death.

01:07:57 Jessica McHale: It's easier to take the insults of strangers, but when the insults are from family and you have no one--you're alone--it's hard not to become despondent or even engage in self-pity. We can identlfy with Christ in it--to be in the Garden of Gethsemance with Him, but it is a challenge. The worst part is not even the insults, it's knowing that if this person/people were living as a Christian their lives would be so much more peaceful and whole. The insults wouldn't even occur. That's the hard part to come to terms with. Praying and putting it in God's hands is best I guess.

01:12:04 Angela Bellamy: https://www.orthodoxroad.com/bless-my-enemies-o-lord/

01:27:16 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "https://www.orthod..." with ❤️

01:27:29 Ann’s iPad: Reacted to "https://www.orthodox…" with ❤️

01:28:32 Kevin Burke: Thank you Father, this teaching is a great blessing in my life.

01:28:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:28:45 Jennifer Dantchev: Thank you!

01:28:49 Janine: Thank you Father

01:28:50 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father.

01:28:53 Charmaine's iPad: Thank you

01:28:56 Andrew Adams: Merry Christmas everyone!

01:29:00 Jessica McHale: Bless you, Father--a thousand times! Merry Chistmas! Looking frward to Wednesday! Many prayers

The Fathers do not flatter us here. They speak with a severity that at first wounds, then heals, if we allow it. They do not treat resentment as a minor flaw of temperament or a passing emotional reaction. They name it for what it is: a poison that slowly erodes the soul’s capacity to remember God.

Abba Makarios goes straight to the heart of the matter. To remember wrongs is not simply to remember events. It is to allow those events to take up residence within us, to become a lens through which everything is filtered. The tragedy is not primarily that we remain hurt. It is that the remembrance of God grows faint. The mind cannot hold both rancor and divine remembrance at the same time. One displaces the other. When resentment is cherished, prayer becomes difficult, then hollow, then distorted. The heart turns inward and begins to feed on its own injuries.

The Fathers are unsparing here because they know how subtle rancor is. Other sins shock us into repentance. A lie, a fall, a moment of weakness often leaves the soul groaning almost immediately. But rancor settles in quietly. It eats and sleeps with us. It walks beside us like a companion we no longer question. Abba Isaiah and the Elder of the Cells both know this danger. Resentment does not merely coexist with spiritual life; it corrodes it from within, like rust consuming iron. The soul grows hard while imagining itself justified.

And yet, alongside this severity, there is a startling tenderness. The Fathers do not say that healing comes through argument, vindication, or emotional catharsis. They prescribe something far more humbling and far more powerful: prayer for the one who has wounded us. Not a feeling of goodwill, not an internal resolution, but the concrete act of standing before God and interceding. Again and again the teaching is the same. Pray for him. Pray for her. Force yourself if you must. Obey even when the heart resists.

The story of the brother who obeyed the Elder and prayed is quietly miraculous. Nothing dramatic happens. There is no confrontation, no apology demanded, no psychological analysis. Within a week, the anger is gone. Not suppressed. Extinguished. Grace works where the will yields, even reluctantly. The healing is not self-generated. It is given.

The account of the two brothers under persecution reveals just how serious this is. One accepts reconciliation and is strengthened beyond his natural limits. The other clings to ill will and collapses under the same torments. The difference is not courage or endurance. It is love. Grace remains where love remains. When rancor is chosen, protection is withdrawn, not as punishment, but because the soul has closed itself to the very atmosphere in which grace operates.

St. Maximos names the interior mechanism with precision. Distress clings to the memory of the one who harmed us. The image of the person becomes fused with pain. Prayer loosens that bond. When we pray, distress is separated from memory. Slowly, the person is no longer experienced as an enemy but as a suffering human being in need of mercy. Compassion does not excuse the wrong. It dissolves its power.

What is perhaps most astonishing is the Fathers’ confidence that kindness can heal not only the one who was wounded, but the one who wounds. Be kind to the person who harbors resentment against you, St. Maximos says, and you may deliver him from his passion. This is not naïveté. It is spiritual realism. Demons feed on mutual hostility. They lose their dwelling place when humility and gentleness appear. Foxes flee when the ground is no longer hospitable.

St. Ephraim’s image is unforgettable. Rancor drives knowledge from the heart the way smoke drives away bees. The heart was made to gather sweetness. When bitterness fills the air, nothing can remain. Tears, prayer, and the offering of oneself like incense clear the space again.

This teaching is beautiful because it is honest. It does not minimize the pain of insult or harm. It is challenging because it leaves us without excuses. We cannot claim prayer while nursing grudges. We cannot claim suffering for Christ while secretly rejoicing at another’s downfall. The path offered is narrow and costly, but it is also liberating.

Resentment chains us to the past. Kindness loosens the chain. Prayer opens the hand. Grace does the rest.

---

Text from chat during the group:

00:04:55 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 332 Section B Hypothesis XLII Volume II

00:11:28 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 332 Section B Hypothesis XLII Volume II

00:11:41 Janine: Yes, thank you Uncle Father!

00:11:57 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Reacted to "Yes, thank you Uncle..." with 😂

00:30:42 Jerimy Spencer: The way you described sharing bread with a demon reminded me of a passage from The Irish Life of Brigit, and after plates were placed for her at a devout lady’s house she stared intently at the plates, and she was asked what it was, and she said, “I see Satan sitting on the dish in front of me.” And it was a demon of sloth that had been ‘invited in’ for years….

00:38:35 Anthony: Rancid

00:47:13 Anthony: Rocky Balboa probably

00:47:16 Anthony: Paulie

00:47:39 Anthony: Yeah that's a good scene

00:48:40 John ‘Jack’: It’s only when I began to pray for a couple that spread false rumors about me fit years that I received the ability to TRULY forgive them, despite years of “being nice” to them to try to make a mend with them.

00:49:51 John ‘Jack’: It’s very difficult to hate those you actively pray for.

00:50:03 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "It’s very difficult ..." with 👍

00:56:31 John ‘Jack’: Lest we lead another into sin

01:00:54 Myles Davidson: I was unaware of how deeply I resented my father until I began to live with him again a few years ago. It’s taken years of confession, prayer and tears but it’s only been in the last few weeks where that anger and resentment has dissipated like a cloud. There’s no way in a million years I could have shifted it on my own and I consider it a miracle

01:01:24 Jerimy Spencer: Reacted to "I was unaware of how..." with ❤️

01:01:33 Jacqulyn Dudasko: Reacted to "I was unaware of how..." with ❤️

01:02:49 Kate : Myles makes a really good point.  I think sometimes we do not realize the interior resentment that we might be holding on to.

01:05:42 Jessica McHale: I do try to do good to those who try to harm me. It does help to limit resenentment or hate from forming. But I also think we have to exercse a bit of prudence when doing good to those who try to harm us. As a female, I can say there were tmes I knew that the loving thing to do was to walk away and not engage rather than to do good toward someone who tried to harm me.

01:05:55 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I was unaware of h..." with ❤️

01:13:45 Jerimy Spencer: So in a sense, wiping the dust, breaking any unhealthy attachments that may spring up in the moment or moments of offense?

01:19:14 Janine: Blessed Christmas Father!

01:19:50 Jerimy Spencer: Mele Kalikimaka 😃

01:19:56 Maureen Cunningham: Merry Christmas Thank You  Blessing to all

01:19:58 Jessica McHale: Many prayers for you and everyone here! May the Lord bless you abundantly as we close out Advent!!!!

01:19:58 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️Happy Christmas everyone🎄

01:20:07 Jennifer Dantchev: Thank you! Merry Christmas everyone!

What St Isaac exposes here is not a technique but a diagnosis. He is ruthless because the sickness is deep. The soul is meant to be good soil but soil is not neutral ground. It either receives the seed with vigilance or it becomes choked. Remembrance of God is not a poetic feeling but a sustained pressure on the heart a vigilance that does not sleep. When this remembrance is alive the soul becomes a place where God Himself shades and illumines. There is no romance here. Light appears inside darkness not because the darkness is denied but because the soul has chosen to stand watch within it.

St Isaac refuses to let us spiritualize our way around the body. The belly is not incidental. What enters the mouth reaches the heart. He speaks bluntly because self deception thrives in vagueness. Excess dulls perception. Pleasure thickens the air of the soul. Wisdom is not stolen from us by demons alone but smothered by our own indulgence. A full belly does not merely weaken resolve it fuels lust because the body has been trained to demand satisfaction. This is not moralism. It is anthropology. The knowledge of God does not coexist with a body that has been enthroned.

Here asceticism is revealed as truth telling. It strips away the lie that discipline is punishment. Labor is not opposed to grace. Labor is the ground where grace becomes intelligible. St Isaac compares it to labor pains because knowledge of God is not an idea grasped but a life brought forth. Without toil there is no birth only fantasy. Sloth does not simply delay holiness it gives birth to shame because the soul knows it has avoided the cost of truth.

This is where the inner disposition becomes decisive. Asceticism without remembrance hardens into pride. Asceticism without humility becomes violence against the self. But remembrance without discipline dissolves into sentimentality. St Isaac holds them together because life demands it. The question is not how much one fasts or how little one sleeps but whether the heart is consenting to be trained. Discipline embraced with resentment breeds bitterness. Discipline embraced with attention becomes wisdom.

In an age starved of living elders this teaching cuts even deeper. We are tempted either to abandon asceticism entirely or to turn it into a private project shaped by personality and preference. St Isaac offers neither comfort. He places responsibility back into the hands of the one who desires God. The absence of elders does not absolve us. It makes inner honesty more urgent. The body becomes the first elder. Hunger teaches restraint. Fatigue teaches humility. Failure teaches mercy. If these are ignored no amount of reading will save us.

Christ’s closeness to the mouth of the one who endures hardship is not sentimental reassurance. It is promise and warning. He draws near to the body that has consented to the Cross. Not to the body pampered under the language of balance or self care. The care Christ offers is not the removal of hardship but His presence within it. Asceticism then is not heroic excess but fidelity to reality. It is the refusal to live divided. Priceless indeed is labor wrought with wisdom because it produces not control but clarity. The soul begins to see. And once it sees it can no longer pretend.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:01:50 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 5

00:06:54 susan: how is lori hatari?

00:14:30 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 170 paragraph 5

00:27:40 Eleana Urrego: the brain register emotional and physical pain in the same way.

00:29:59 Jessica McHale: A question about ascetic disciplines of the body: I discerned monastic life with an order of nuns that wouldn't let me fast.(3 times a week was all I was asking) and wouldn't allow me to exercise more than a contemplative walk (which is not exercise to me). I feel very much called to fast for spiritual reasons and called to bodily stewardship as well. It's very personal. I coudl never understand how monastic nuns could discourage this and encourage--in my opinion--indulging in food too much.

00:31:48 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "A question about asc…" with 👍

00:50:26 Eleana Urrego: Virgen Mary said in Medjugorje every Wednesday and Friday except on solemnities days.

00:56:03 Myles Davidson: There is a resurgence of traditional fasting within the Church. I’m a member of a fellowship that does four lenten fasts a year (Great Lent, St. Michaels Lent, St. Martins Lent and the Apostles Fast) as well as fasting 2-3 x a week the rest of the year.

00:57:26 Una’s iPhone: Niall of the Nine Hostages! Una from Dublin here

00:57:40 Myles Davidson: Replying to "There is a resurgenc..."

The Fellowship of St. Nicholas if anyone wants to look it up

01:00:24 Art: Replying to "There is a resurgenc..."

Thank you.

01:00:36 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Thank you." with 🙏

01:01:52 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "Thank you." with 🙏

01:02:15 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "The Fellowship of ..." with 👍

01:04:16 Anthony: I wonder if we think too hard about this? I'm not a religious, so why would I need to apprentice to a spiritual father, when I have a pastor? It sounds like a person who is a plumber seeking to apprentice to an electrician.

01:05:25 Ren Witter: I do want to offer a slightly different perspective on this. Sometimes, given the background we come from, or for some internal reason, we can feel the desire for a very strict, exacting spiritual father. Even to the point of feeling tempted to move on from a spiritual father who seems too kind, or gentle, or understanding. At some point, I think we need to follow our own conscience to the best of our ability, and, if we have a good and nourishing relationship, to trust in it and be at peace. It can be frightening to trust that God loves us, and that there are some things left to the conscience of the individual and to discernment, and because we are frightened or insecure we simply seek out the harshest, most difficult guidance.

01:06:31 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "I do want to offer a…" with 👍

01:09:08 Ambrose Little: Stand in the company of the elders;

Sirach 6:34-37

01:09:09 Maureen Cunningham: Reacted to "I do want to offer a…" with ❤️

01:09:17 Maureen Cunningham: Reacted to "Stand in the company…" with ❤️

01:10:23 Ambrose Little: Reacted to "I do want to offer a…" with ❤️

01:11:14 Joan Chakonas: I am going back to the first podcasts in 2013 and I am about seven or eight podcasts in.  This is my spiritual guidance, listening to you read and the discussions.   I thank God.

01:11:37 Una’s iPhone: At times I think we have to look to the books of the fathers and do the best we can with our modern spiritual directors. I agree with Ren

01:13:16 Joan Chakonas: I am reading the Ladder of Divine Ascent along with the podcasts which are indispensable for my understanding.  What s treasure trove

01:13:27 Ben: Replying to "I am going back to t..."

That's what I did before I ever sat in on a live group. But...I wish I'd jumped in earlier.

01:14:11 Ambrose Little: Give me St. Isaac over our contemporary writers any day.

01:14:18 Ben: Reacted to "Give me St. Isaac ov..." with 👍

01:14:32 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "Give me St. Isaac ov..." with 👍

01:14:36 Art: Reacted to "Stand in the company..." with 👍

01:15:05 Wayne Mackenzie: In part what has happened to the Church became trapped in scholastics and became an intellectual pursuit.

01:15:32 Kevin Burke: Wonderful teaching Father, thank you!

01:17:02 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "Stand in the company..." with 👍🏼

01:18:24 Art: Wonderful teaching Father, thank you!

01:19:50 Joan Chakonas: Reacted to "Give me St. Isaac ov…" with 👍

01:19:59 Eleana Urrego: I am catholic Roman and have two hermits priest from Spain studying the mistics, I believe the journey with Jesus for everyone is unique.

01:20:44 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I am going back to..." with ❤️

01:21:12 Ambrose Little: Beware those rose colored glasses tho. 😉

01:21:13 Joan Chakonas: Replying to "I am going back to t…"

01:21:16 Kimberley A: Yes! So sad

01:22:01 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Blessing To all beautiful chat information Blessing to REN and Her New Husband

01:22:04 Jessica McHale: Your words were so helpful tonight. YOU are creating saints! THANK YOU! Many, many prayers.

01:22:58 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father, may God bless you and your mother!

01:22:58 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:23:05 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: Blessed Christmas!

01:23:05 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father!

01:23:06 Janine: Thank you again father

The Fathers do not speak gently about what we like to call small sins. They expose them as seeds of death planted quietly in the heart. What appears minor in the mind becomes lethal in communion. A thought of irritation. A private judgment. A silent refusal to justify the other. These are not harmless interior movements. They are choices. They shape the heart long before they surface in words or actions. Abba Poimen cuts straight through our self deception. Hatred of evil does not begin with outrage at what is wrong in others. It begins with the hatred of my own sin and the justification of my brother. Until that happens everything else is theater. We think we hate evil when in fact we are protecting our ego. We think we are zealous for righteousness when we are only defending an image of ourselves that needs someone else to be wrong.

The Fathers are relentless because they know how the mind works. A God loving soul begins to feel anger not because it is pure but because it is awakening. As the heart starts to turn toward God the soul becomes sensitive to injustice. But this sensitivity is dangerous. It can become poison if it is not purified by love. What begins as a reaction to evil quickly becomes hatred of the person. The Fathers insist that this is where knowledge of God dies. Hatred and the knowledge of God cannot coexist in the same heart. The moment I consent to hatred I lose sight of God even if I continue to speak His name and defend His truth. This is not theoretical. It is experiential. The soul darkens. Prayer dries up. The heart becomes rigid. The neighbor becomes an object. God who now dwells in that neighbor is no longer seen.

Abba Isaac presses the knife deeper. Do not hate the sinner because you too are guilty. Hatred reveals that love has already departed. And where love is absent God is absent. This is not moralism. It is ontology. God is love. To lose love is to lose God. We imagine that our resentment is justified. We imagine that our anger is righteous. But the Fathers tell us to weep instead. Weep for the sinner. Pray for him. Not because his sin is small but because hatred destroys you faster than his sin destroys him. The devil mocks all of us. Why then do we join him in mocking our brother. Compassion is not weakness. It is participation in the way God bears the world.

The story of Nicephoros is terrifying because it shows where unrepented interior sins lead. A friendship shattered by something never healed. A priest who offers the Bloodless Sacrifice while harboring rancor. A refusal to forgive that hardens over time. Nothing dramatic at first. No public scandal. Just silence. Avoidance. The turning away of the eyes. But this silent sin grows until it devours everything. At the moment of martyrdom when crowns are already prepared rancor proves stronger than torture. The priest who endured the rack cannot endure humility. He would rather deny Christ than forgive his brother. This is the end of so called minor sins. They hollow out the heart until there is nothing left to stand on when the final test comes.

Nicephoros on the other hand does nothing extraordinary by worldly standards. He begs. He weeps. He humbles himself. He refuses to protect his pride. He places communion above justice as he understands it. And this love becomes his martyrdom. The Fathers make the conclusion unavoidable. It is not ascetic feats or heroic endurance that reconcile us to God but love of neighbor. Without it everything collapses. Prayer becomes noise. Zeal becomes violence. Faith becomes an empty confession.

The Evergetinos does not allow us to hide behind abstractions. God has taken up residence in the other. Every thought against my brother is a wound in my own heart. Every refusal to forgive is a refusal of communion. The tragedy is not that we fall but that we excuse what hardens us. The minor sins we tolerate in the mind become the walls that separate us from God. And the only way back is the way Nicephoros walked. Downward. Exposed. Unarmed. Choosing love even when it costs everything.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:04:15 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II

00:12:33 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II

00:14:43 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II

00:15:42 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 326 Hypothesis XLI Volume II

00:17:13 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 326 section A

00:35:02 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 328 section A

00:40:21 Wayne: Would you not see the hatred develop when two people get divorced.

00:43:07 Jessica McHale: So once we recognize we are annoyed by someone, do we right then pray for that person and ourselves so that it doesn't grow into resentment or hatred?

00:45:02 Joan Chakonas: Its so much better to be hated than  to hate

00:45:29 Joan Chakonas: Hatred like this is awful, unacceptable

00:48:37 Jerimy Spencer: Reacted to "So once we recognize…" with 🙏

00:50:58 Jerimy Spencer: Replying to "So once we recognize…"

00:51:34 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "I personally go st..." with ❤️

00:51:50 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "I personally go stra..." with 👍

00:52:21 Jerimy Spencer: Reacted to "I personally go stra…" with ❤️

01:06:47 Forrest: We are Saprikios, obstinate to Christ's pleading.

01:07:06 Jerimy Spencer: Aloha Father, do you think this story plays out something of “the unforgivable sin”?

01:08:55 Tracey Fredman: Reacted to "I personally go stra..." with ❤️

01:09:28 Maureen Cunningham: What about narcissistic people

01:10:10 Bob Čihák, AZ: What happened to the Priest Saprikios? or, what did he do after this?

01:11:39 Forrest: Νικηφόρος in Greek looks like two words: “Victory” and “Tribute paid to the state”. To me, this name is an allusion to Christ’s sacrifice under Pilate.

01:19:26 Jerimy Spencer: A few years ago I wrote in my journal “only the I Am” gets to make a true ‘I am’ statement, ie regards to the whole “I identify as. . .” insomuch as that to me seems to be an ‘I am’ statement.

01:20:45 Jessica McHale: God is the only person we can trust. For sure. It's not jaded; it's reality. No other person is eternal.

01:22:50 Janine: Amazing class..thank you Father

01:23:25 Maureen Cunningham: Blessing Thank you Father and everyone

01:23:38 Jessica McHale: Prayers for you alll!!!!

01:23:38 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂

01:23:39 Bob Čihák, AZ: Thank you and bless you, Father.

01:24:05 Joan Chakonas: Loved this class

01:24:21 Kevin Burke: Thank you Father!

St Isaac begins Homily Six like one who will not let us hide from ourselves. He does not admire our efforts nor comfort our vanity. He forces us to look directly at what we are and at what we truly desire. A man who slips into accidental sins, he says, is not wicked but weak. And God allows this weakness to appear so that the conscience is pierced and the truth becomes unavoidable. God does not let the soul rise above these falls before its second birth because He wants us awake rather than respectable. Our failures become a kind of mercy. They expose the illusion that we are strong or self sufficient or spiritually advanced. They ask one question above all others. Do you desire God at all

It is a raw question. A frightening question. Yet every stumble presses it deeper into the heart. If we fall and tremble the heart is alive. If we fall and justify ourselves the heart is asleep. Isaac calls that shameless. He says that without fervent faith or fear or chastisement the soul will never truly draw near to the love of God. These are not punishments but the three torches that light the way toward Him. If I resist them I do not want God himself. I want an idol shaped like comfort or control or admiration.

Then Isaac turns to the roots beneath the roots. Turbulent thoughts come from gluttony. Ignorance and superficiality come from constant talk. Worry over worldly matters scatters the soul like chaff tossed into the wind. These are not merely moral observations. They are spiritual symptoms. They show us the condition of the heart. I can fast until my stomach twists and keep vigil until my knees ache yet if my thoughts are full of resentment or anxious grasping or the need to preserve my image then all my labors remain barren. The body strains while the passions settle deeper into the mind. Nothing changes because nothing inside has surrendered.

Isaac gives an image that cuts to the bone. The man who clings to anxiety or covetousness or the memory of wrongs is like one who sows seed into thorns. He works. He sweats. He prays. He begs God to respond. Yet when he lies on his bed he groans because he cannot reap a harvest. The soil itself has been sabotaged by his thoughts. He fasts and wonders why God does not see. He humbles himself outwardly yet inwardly still clings to his own desires. God answers through the prophet. In the very day of your fasts you do your own wills. You sacrifice your free will to your own idols when you should be offering it to Me. It is one of the most devastating revelations in Scripture. The greatest offering we possess is the free will. And we lay it not on the altar of God but before our own desires.

Here Isaac is not simply giving ascetical instruction. He is tearing open the heart to expose its truth. He is asking us to face the one question we spend our lives avoiding. Do you really want God or do you only want the appearance of holiness. Do you want the Kingdom or do you want the feeling of being spiritual. Do you want the fire of God or do you want to protect your own self created identity. Until we answer this honestly all asceticism remains external and fruitless.

The early lines of Homily Six are not gentle. They are surgical. They strip away excuses and self deception. They show us that the spiritual life is not perfected by effort alone but by the purification of desire. Not by striving but by surrender. Not by vigils and fasts but by a heart emptied of its own will. I will never know God until I want Him more than I want myself. And my accidental sins are the strange mercy that reveals how much I still cling to myself.

Isaac begins with our weakness so that we might finally seek the One who heals. He begins with our falls so that true longing may rise. He reveals our poverty so that desire for God might no longer be a sentence we say but a cry that burns within us.

---

Text of chat during the group:

00:05:35 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 169 Homily 6

00:05:49 Janine: Father can you say the name of that book again?

00:06:58 Janine: Thank you..it sounds very good

00:10:39 Janine: I just bought it on Thrift books

00:11:57 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 169, # 1

00:13:55 Una’s iPhone: Review on Amazon: Great Byzantine mystic https://a.co/d/2pt0HfE

00:15:28 Una’s iPhone: Sorry, wrong link

00:15:58 Una’s iPhone: Can’t find your comment. It’s on the book. Here’s the book

00:16:03 Una’s iPhone: https://a.co/d/clx1Saz

00:16:13 Una’s iPhone: Sorry!

00:16:49 Ben: They got scared and scrubbed it!

00:17:23 Vanessa Nunez: Reacted to "They got scared and …" with 😂

00:18:25 Bob Čihák, AZ: What are “accidental sins”? I think of sins as requiring a conscious act of the will.

00:40:07 Erick Chastain: How do you avoid sensory things in the mind as he says you should?

00:44:20 Maureen Cunningham: Kingdom of God  id with in

00:49:11 Julie: I do Fr don’t know how to put my hand up…

00:49:29 Jesssica Imanaka: I worry about my own laziness... devoting a lot of time to prayer and spiritual reading can also carry the danger of acedia for me.

00:49:58 Jesssica Imanaka: As if the parasympathetic nervous system is getting overactivated...

00:51:29 John ‘Jack’: NYS just finally started disallowing cell phones schools; I thought they’re would be more kick back than there was. 

Children WANT structure, as do we. Obedience ultimately.

00:55:35 Anthony: The guilt of "jansenism" and the Calvinist work ethic of busyness and production are especially present in America and drives us to take these vices as virtues and drive out willfulness to get what we think is good.

00:57:16 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "The guilt of "jansen..." with 👍🏼

00:57:34 Jesssica Imanaka: The Divine Office app can help with ribbon placement in the Liturgy of Hours volumes.

00:58:41 Larry Ruggiero: Found a YouTube that entitled The Self-Phone Setup Guide

00:59:18 Larry Ruggiero: It says let us begin by making our phone…BORING

01:06:48 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "The Divine Office ap…" with 👌

01:09:00 Una’s iPhone: Replying to "I do Fr don’t know h…"

01:09:29 Una’s iPhone: Reacted to "The guilt of "jansen…" with 👌

01:12:29 Eleana Urrego: Thanks for the movie recomendation, My family love it.

01:13:05 Joan Chakonas: Lately I have come to realize that there really is no activity or minute in my day when I can’t ask God for help.  I am so vainglorious He is teaching me basically every idea I come up with on my own is vanity and I’m learning to experience peace.

01:14:06 Joan Chakonas: I LOVE the desert fathers

01:14:11 Thomas: It feels as though it would be simplest to be obedient to somebody, if you were to do bodily labors, because the it would be hard for it to be for your will or ego, but what should be done if you couldn’t be immediately obedient

01:16:53 Joan Chakonas: This hour goes too fast

01:17:08 Thomas: It feels as though I can’t trust anything I want to do even if it may technically be good, because I can’t trust what the reasons I give myself for doing these things

01:17:10 Joan Chakonas: Yrs

01:17:13 Joan Chakonas: Yes!!

01:17:33 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You always a Blessing

01:17:37 Jesssica Imanaka: I have to pick up my daughter from extended day care, otherwise another hour would be fine!

01:18:18 Janine: Thank you Father!

01:18:40 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father!

01:19:13 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God Bless you and your mother.

01:19:35 John ‘Jack’: Thanks Father