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The Soil That Must Be Broken
Asceticism as Truth, Remembrance, and the Cost of Seeing God Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 6 paragraphs 5-6: 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 he
Father Charbel Abernethy
Dec 17, 20253 min read
Not the Light, Yet Burning
Ascetic Waiting at the Edge of the World John stands at the edge of the world, neither inside its comfort nor entirely outside its need. He does not flee creation, yet he refuses its consolations. The desert is not his protest but his truth. There, stripped of noise and reputation, his life becomes a single gesture of waiting. Not the waiting of one who delays obedience, but the waiting of one who prepares the way by removing every obstacle within himself that would hinder th
Father Charbel Abernethy
Dec 13, 20253 min read
A Nativity Fast of Silence
There are seasons when the soul no longer asks for more words, only for fewer. Not because speaking is wrong, but because the heart senses that language has become crowded. Even holy things can make noise when the interior is swollen with thought. Even prayer can become agitation when the mind has no quiet space into which God may speak. This Nativity fast offers an invitation, not to flee responsibility or withdraw from love, but to simplify . To lay aside unnecessary speaki
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 29, 20252 min read
The Invincible Peace: A Meditation on Letting Go of Anxiety
Our Lord speaks into the human heart with a clarity that unnerves and heals at once. Do not be anxious. Do not be afraid. Take no thought for your life. These are not gentle suggestions. They are the authoritative words of the One who knows the true condition of the human mind and the ravages that fear inflicts upon the soul. Christ does not command the impossible; He calls the heart back to its native freedom, to the trust that Adam once knew before he clothed himself i
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 24, 20253 min read
Not Knowing Up from Down
“I have sunk into the mud of the deep and there is no foothold.” There are seasons when the inner world loses its compass and the outer world turns to mist. Days when nothing holds still long enough to be named and every direction seems equally unreliable. The Fathers knew these seasons well. Cassian once wrote that the soul can enter a place where “all things seem confused within,” where discernment wavers like a flame in the wind. St Isaac tells us that God sometimes allows
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 22, 20253 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
When My Heart Stands Watch
There are seasons when something shifts inside me, almost imperceptibly at first. A restlessness rises from a place deeper than thought. Familiar patterns no longer anchor me. Prayer becomes an ache rather than a comfort. And I realize that God is drawing me toward a silence I have avoided and longed for in equal measure. In those moments, I know I must begin to listen differently. Not with my mind, but with my life. A rule of discernment has become, for me, a way of listenin
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 16, 20253 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
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