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One Kingdom, Four Windows
Reflections on the first series from City a Desert Press “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” — Luke 17:21 Looking back over the past years, I have begun to see that the books and manuscripts emerging through City a Desert Press are not separate works so much as different windows opening onto the same mystery. When I first began writing, I did not see this clearly. Each manuscript seemed to arise from its own questions, its own struggles, and its own encounters with t
Father Charbel Abernethy
Jul 273 min read
The Simplicity That Reveals the Kingdom
Why the Desert Fathers Wrote So Little - and Why Their Few Words Continue to Heal the Heart “The words of the wise are like goads, and like firmly fixed nails are the collected sayings.” — Ecclesiastes 12:11 The first gift the desert fathers offer us is not instruction but vision. Before they teach us how to think, they teach us how to see. One of the most striking characteristics of their writings is not what they explain but what they refuse to explain. A single saying of A
Father Charbel Abernethy
Jul 254 min read
The Silent Guide
On the Feast of Saint Charbel (July 24) and the Hidden Work of Divine Love “He must increase, but I must decrease.” — John 3:30 There are saints who dazzle the world by their words, and there are saints who quietly disappear into God until only Christ remains visible. Saint Charbel belongs to the latter. He spoke little, taught almost nothing publicly, left behind no great theological treatises, and sought no influence. Yet from the hiddenness of a small hermitage in the moun
Father Charbel Abernethy
Jul 234 min read
The Heart Becomes Luminous
Asceticism as the Healing of Sight and the Revelation of Christ Within “If you keep these observances… your soul will see the light of Christ in herself, and will never be darkened unto all eternity.” — St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 17 Synopsis of Tonight's Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 17 paragraphs 7-9 There is a temptation when reading the closing section of Homily 17 to see it as little more than a long list of prohibitions. Do not quarrel.
Father Charbel Abernethy
Jul 223 min read
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