top of page
_edited.jpg)
Search
Parched at the Well
When the One Who Gives Living Water Reveals the Poverty of a Religious Identity “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” Psalm 42:2 I enter the desert of my own heart and there is no romance in it. It is not the desert of icons or poetry. It is dry, wind worn, stripped of illusion. I know the language of living water. I have preached it. I know the mystery of the Bread from Heaven. I have lifted it in my hands. And yet I fee
Father Charbel Abernethy
4 days ago3 min read
When Nothing in This World Satisfies
On holy heaviness, simplicity, and the narrowing of desire “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Psalm 73:25 ⸻ There is a tiredness that sleep cures. And there is a tiredness that sleep cannot touch. The body rests. The mind functions. The day moves forward. And yet beneath everything there is a heaviness of heart, not despair, not depression, not regret, but gravity. A weight that feels almost sacred. Nothing in this world
Father Charbel Abernethy
4 days ago3 min read
Sixty Years and the Sound of a Rooster - Part II
Warming at Another Fire “When they had kindled a fire of coals there… Peter stood with them, and warmed himself.” John 18:18 You would think at sixty a man would know the difference between warmth and fire. The rooster has already crowed once in my life. It crowed when I realized how much of my priesthood was constructed out of activity. It crowed when the doors closed, when requests were denied, when the scaffolding of identity began to fall. It crowed when I saw how often I
Father Charbel Abernethy
5 days ago4 min read
When the Words Begin to Die
On the stripping away of speech and the birth of prayer in hiddenness “Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the sources of sinlessness.” Abba Arsenius ⸻ There comes a point when solitude stops feeling like refuge and begins to feel like exposure. At first, the desert appears to protect you. It removes the noise. It removes the constant friction of personalities. It removes the demands. It gives the illusion that now, finally, you can pray. But then something
Father Charbel Abernethy
Feb 115 min read
To Become a Fool and Live
A Reckoning with the Ego at the Edge of the Living Tradition “Such renunciation appears intolerable, insane even, to the self willed but the man who is not afraid to become a fool has found true life and true wisdom.” St. Sophrony of Essex Christianity, when you draw near to it, is not reasonable. It is not tidy. It does not fit inside the categories we use to manage our lives, protect our reputations, or justify our instincts. It is a scandal. The God who reveals Himself in
Father Charbel Abernethy
Jan 263 min read
Tags
bottom of page