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Urban Asceticism: Finding the Desert Within - Chapter Six
Chapter Six: "The Ache Beneath the Ache" There is a deeper ache beneath the ache we usually name. At first it hides itself under the surface disturbances of life. Weariness. Uncertainty. The heaviness of daily labors. The confusion of living between two worlds. The loneliness of a vocation stretched thin. These are real, but they are not the deepest thing. They are only the surface where something far more primal presses upward, something ancient and wordless, a longing that
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 18, 20254 min read
In God Alone My Soul Is at Rest
Turning Toward Silence Like a Flower Toward the Sun “In God alone is my soul at rest My help comes from him.” Lord, when I speak these words, something in me loosens its grip on the world. I feel the soul begin to descend into a place that is not yet silence but is turning toward it like a flower toward the sun. This psalm names a truth I barely dare to whisper: that my heart longs for the stillness that comes only from resting in You alone. Not in certainty. Not in reputatio
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 17, 20252 min read
Urban Asceticism: Finding the Desert Within - Chapter Five
Chapter Five The Slow Emptying: Learning to Descend There comes a moment in the city, often when the night has settled like a thin veil over the streets, when the soul feels a quiet pressure drawing it inward. It is not dramatic. It does not arrive with clarity or consolation. It comes almost imperceptibly, like a hand resting on the back of the neck, guiding you into a darkness that is not hostile but unbearably honest. Most turn away from it because the world is too full of
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 17, 20254 min read
A Dialogue on the Call to Absolute Silence
Seeker: Father, something is beginning to stir in me that I hardly dare to name. A pull toward silence. A desire to withdraw from noise, distraction, and unnecessary duties. It is as if God is preparing me for something deeper, something that can only be received in stillness. But I am afraid. And I do not yet understand what it will require of me. Elder: You speak of a holy summons. Few perceive it when it first brushes the heart. Silence is not merely the absence of sound,
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 17, 20254 min read
The Hiddenness of the Saints and the Unseen Kingdom
There is something hauntingly beautiful and quietly terrifying about the truth that most saints remain unknown. For every life that finds its way into a synaxarion or the pages of a spiritual book, there are countless others whose holiness never touched parchment, whose tears never left a record, whose struggles were seen only by God. It is a truth that comes to me with increasing weight, especially now, as my own life seems to be sinking into a kind of obscurity that I did n
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 16, 20254 min read
A Dialogue on the Burning Heart
In the dim cell of a mountain hermit, a single oil lamp flickers. The night has been long, filled with psalms and tears. St. Isaac sits near the wall, weakened from illness but watchful. His disciple, a young monk trembling from what he has seen, kneels nearby, unable to find words. ⸻ Disciple: Father, my heart trembles at what my eyes have witnessed. That brother, how can flesh endure such fire? He struck the ground again and again as though his bones were not his own, as t
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 11, 20253 min read
“Why Not Become All Flame”
This morning, as I watched the fire consume the logs upon the hearth, I thought of Abba Lot coming to Abba Joseph and saying, “Abba, as far as I can, I keep my little rule. I fast, I pray, I keep silence, and I strive to purify my thoughts. What else should I do?” And the old man stood up, stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.” That story has haunted me for years, but this
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 7, 20252 min read
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