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No Longer Ourselves
Mercy and Humility as the Revelation of Who We Have Become in Christ Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily 6 paragraphs 9-10 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
Father Charbel Abernethy
6 days ago3 min read
The Hands That Lead Us Home
Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume II Hypothesis XL Section E There is a remarkable clarity in these sayings and stories a piercing simplicity that both unsettles and consoles. The Evergetinos places before us the most difficult and necessary truth. The evil done to us is not a detour on the spiritual path but the path itself. Wickedness does not destroy wickedness. Resentment never cures resentment. Anger never frees us from anger. Only goodness that is un
Father Charbel Abernethy
Dec 8, 20253 min read
The Fire That Burns Away Rancor
Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Hypothesis XL Section C - E1 There is a single thread running through these lives and sayings, like a hidden vein of gold through rough stone. It is the fierce and terrifying command of Christ to love those who wrong us, to turn every injury into an open door to the Kingdom, and to see in every enemy the physician of our soul. In Saint Longinos we see what it means when love has completely displaced fear. He receives the men sent
Father Charbel Abernethy
Dec 1, 20253 min read
Dialogue with St. Sophrony on Holy Pain
The night was quiet in that strange and heavy way it sometimes is before dawn, as though the world were holding its breath. I sat in the silence with the ache in my chest like a stone I could not swallow. Out of the shadows, not dramatic, not radiant, just present, like a memory sharpened into flesh, St. Sophrony stood beside me. ⸻ Disciple: Father, I am tired of hurting. It feels like my heart never has a day without ache. Prayer comes like dragging a broken limb. Why is th
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 29, 20253 min read
When the Wronged Become Rich in God
Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Hypothesis XXXIX B-C and Hypothesis XL Section A-B The Martyrdom of St. Menas The Evergetinos gathers these stories around a single, unsettling truth: those who endure injustice with gratitude and refuse to avenge themselves become truly rich, and God Himself becomes their defender. Abba Mark says it simply and without comfort: “He who is wronged by someone, and does not seek redress, truly believes in Christ, and receives a hund
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 24, 20253 min read
A Terrible Mercy
Psalm 94 - The Evergetinos and the Humiliation of Logic There is a moment when the Word of God cuts straight through every illusion we have about righteousness and justice. Psalm 94 does not soften the blow. It names the violence of a world where those who carry the sword of judgment often wield it against the innocent, where injustice hides behind the veneer of legality, where condemnation is drafted on paper but written in blood. Can judges who do evil be your friends? They
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 21, 20253 min read
Non-Resistance, Justice, and the Peace of Christ
A Desert Reflection in Conversation with St. Thomas Aquinas In a recent reflection I wrote on the Evergetinos , I tried to name the scandal many of us feel when we read stories of monks who refuse to defend themselves, who accept theft, insult, or even violence in silence, as if it were a blessing. Everything in our Western formation cries out that this cannot be right. Someone then sent me a series of texts from St. Thomas Aquinas on peace, justice, rights, judgment, scandal
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 16, 20258 min read
The Scandal of Non-Resistance and the Blessing of Christlike Love
A Reflection for Those Troubled by the Evergetinos and the Gospel’s Hardest Word When we read the Evergetinos , something in us recoils. The stories of monks who refuse to defend themselves, who stand silent before violence, who surrender their few possessions to thieves without protest—these accounts strike our modern Western sensibilities as unreasonable, even dangerous. We live in a world shaped by the language of rights, boundaries, justice, and the moral duty to protect
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 13, 20254 min read
The Royal Road: Bearing Wrong, Refusing Retaliation, Loving Enemies
Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Hypothesis Section E paragraphs 1-9: The Evergetinos sets the bar of freedom in a surprising place: anger without cause is not when we flare up over trifles, but whenever we react to any ill-treatment aimed at us. Abba Poimen sharpens the point: even if a brother were to gouge out an eye or cut off a hand, anger would still be without cause, unless he were separating us from God. In other words, the only justified “anger” is zea
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 10, 20252 min read
A Letter from the Edge of Disappearance
“The heart that is truly illumined by grace is content to be unknown.” — St. Isaac the Syrian Introduction There are seasons when the life one built through decades of devotion, work, and obedience begins to dissolve: not through failure, but through a slow mercy that strips away every illusion of permanence. In such moments, one learns that stability of soul is not founded upon community or calling, but upon the hidden life of the heart in God. The following reflection was w
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 9, 20254 min read
The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love
(Meditation of Psalm 118/119 Grail Translation) “It was good for me to be afflicted, to learn Your statutes.” The psalmist’s words have ceased to be poetry for me; they are blood and breath. I believe them more than I believe in my own existence. For when every certainty was stripped away—reputation, belonging, even the seeming usefulness of priesthood and labor—what remained was the naked truth of God’s love, fierce and unsparing. Affliction has become my teacher, and its la
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 8, 20252 min read
“I Am Your Salvation”
The heart trembles before the unknown, before its own weakness, before the hidden movements of the evil one. But when the Lord speaks, everything within becomes still. “Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’” (Psalm 35:3, Grail). This single word, once heard in truth, remakes the entire landscape of the inner man. It gathers the scattered thoughts and passions into silence and fills the darkened places with the light of His presence. The Fathers teach that the remembrance of
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 4, 20252 min read
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