top of page
_edited.jpg)
Search
The Judgment We Call Love
On the Cross, Mercy, and the Poverty of Our Vision “At that time, my mind was standing, weeping, at the place where Christ was crucified.” Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume III Hypothesis II Section H paragraphs 23-27 The Fathers tell us again and again not to judge. We nod our heads. We agree. We repeat the commandment. And then we continue judging. The reason is simple. We do not believe judgment is judgment. We believe it is love. That is what makes thi
Father Charbel Abernethy
4 days ago4 min read
Trained by Leopards
The School of Disillusionment and the Freedom of Christ “The better you treat them, the worse they become. I am more and more trained in discipleship by their ill usage of me.” — St. Ignatius of Antioch There are certain passages in the Fathers that are so fierce we are tempted to place them behind glass. We admire them. We quote them. We call them heroic. Then we quietly move on before they ask anything of us. This passage from Ignatius is one of them. Most of us can underst
Father Charbel Abernethy
5 days ago4 min read
The Brother We No Longer Want
On the Sin Beneath Judgment “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 The stories of Timothy and Abba Poimen in The Evergetinos are not ultimately about sin. They are about love. Or rather, they are about what happens when love disappears. In the first story, a brother is undergoing temptation. Timothy advises that he be expelled. Immediately the temptation falls upon Timothy himself. Why? Because God is cruel? No. Be
Father Charbel Abernethy
6 days ago3 min read
The End of Explanations
When God Becomes Greater Than Our Questions “I knew you then only by hearsay; but now, having seen you with my own eyes, I retract all I have said, and in dust and ashes I repent.” — Job 42:5-6 There is a point in the spiritual life where words begin to fail. Not because we have run out of things to say, but because we finally begin to realize how little we know. For most of the Book of Job, Job is speaking. He is questioning. Arguing. Defending himself. Demanding answers. An
Father Charbel Abernethy
Jun 53 min read
When God Refuses to Explain
The End of Arguments and the Beginning of Vision “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?” — Job 38:4 There is something unsettling about this passage. After thirty-seven chapters of suffering, questions, arguments, accusations, explanations, and demands, God finally speaks. And He does not answer a single one of Job’s questions. He does not explain the loss of the children. He does not explain the collapse of Job’s life. He does not explain Satan. He does not exp
Father Charbel Abernethy
Jun 44 min read
Who Am I?
The Prayer That Opens the Heart “If you want to find rest, both here below and in the age to come, in every situation say, ‘Who am I?’ and do not judge anyone.” — Abba Poemen The older I become, the more I am convinced that most of our suffering comes from forgetting these two things: who we are and who God is. The Desert Fathers understood this. A brother comes to Abba Poemen asking what sounds like a profound spiritual question: “How can I become a monk?” He is asking about
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 313 min read
The Mercy That Refuses to Condemn
What the Desert Fathers Saw When They Looked at Sin “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” — St. Luke 6:37 Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume III Hypothesis II Section H 1-12: There is a fierce honesty in the Desert Fathers that can unsettle us if we read them too quickly. They never soften the reality of sin. They do not sentimentalize weakness. They do not pretend evil is harmless, nor do they collapse into the modern
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 254 min read
Heaven Trembles While We Condemn
On the Madness of Judging Those for Whom Christ Became Man “Heaven is astounded at this, and the earth quakes, but they are insensible and unabashed.” — St. Maximos the Confessor There is something almost incomprehensible in this passage from St. Anastasios and St. Maximos because it reveals just how surrounded we are by mercy while continuing to behave as though condemnation were wisdom. The Fathers do not merely tell us not to judge. They overwhelm us with reasons not to ju
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 184 min read
The Basket of Sand
On the Terror of Judging Others While Blind to Ourselves “My sins are flowing out behind me, and I do not see them; and yet, I have come today to judge someone else’s sins.” — Abba Moses the Black, The Evergetinos There is something terrifying in this story, and it is not the brother’s sin. It is how quickly holy men gathered to judge it. The desert fathers were not naïve about sin. They did not sentimentalize evil. They fasted until their bones ached. They wept over passions
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 173 min read
The Hope of the Hidden Life
St. Isaac the Syrian on Hesychasm, Perseverance, and the Mercy of God “But if he dies in this hope, even if he has nowhere seen that land from close at hand, nevertheless it seems to me that his inheritance will be with those righteous men of old.” — St. Isaac the Syrian Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 12 and 13 What is striking in these homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian is not severity, though there is severity in them. Nor
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 134 min read
The Sanctity of Nazareth
A Dialogue with St. Arsenius on Silence, Hiddenness, and the Fear of Being Forgotten “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace before God and men.” — The Gospel of Luke 2:52 The disciple came to the cell of St. Arsenius the Great near sunset. He bowed low and remained kneeling for a long while before speaking. “Father, my heart is restless.” Arsenius did not answer immediately. He continued weaving palm branches with long thin fingers worn smooth by prayer. Finally he asked
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 84 min read
Who Is Not Wounded?
A Fierce Word from the Evergetinos on Judgment and Love ⸻ Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume III Hypothesis II Section B4 - Section D2 There is something in us that wants to make the spiritual life clear, manageable, and measurable. We fast. We give alms. We pray. We examine ourselves. And quietly, almost imperceptibly, something begins to form beneath it all: A self that stands. A self that knows. A self that can look at another and say, “At least I am not
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 43 min read
When the Heart Makes Room
Remaining Until the Spirit Breathes Within Do not make even grace your possession. Do not grasp what is given. Because the Spirit does not remain where He is held as an object. He comes where there is space. And space is born when we allow even the most sacred things to pass through our hands without clinging. ⸻ So the life becomes very simple. You receive the day. You do not flee the small humiliations hidden within it. You let your thoughts come and go without enthroning th
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 21 min read
Prayer Before the Iconostasis III
Before the Ladder An unceasing ascent in the Spirit “Arise, O Lord, to the place of your rest, you and the ark of your strength.” — Psalm 132 (Grail) It stands before us without apology. Not as an image to admire. But as a judgment. The ladder rises from the earth toward Christ, and every rung exposes something we would rather not see. Not the obvious sins alone, but the hidden attachments, the subtle compromises, the inner agreements we have made with the passions. Saint Joh
Father Charbel Abernethy
May 13 min read
Become Like a Child
On laying down the burden of being someone before God “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” — The Holy Bible There comes a moment in the spiritual life when a man begins to suspect that much of what he called devotion was still full of himself. His labors were real. His sacrifices were real. His love may even have been real. Yet hidden within it all was the need to be someone. Someone useful. Someone fruitful. Someone importan
Father Charbel Abernethy
Apr 213 min read
The Man You Judge Is Your Mirror
The Tear That Saves the Soul “On seeing someone sinning, a holy man wept bitterly and said: He has fallen today, and I will surely fall tomorrow.” There is almost no spirit rarer in the world than this one. When most people see another person fall, they do not weep. They become inwardly pleased. They feel stronger by comparison. They gather themselves around the weakness of another like crows around carrion. The heart says, At least I am not like him. Even if the lips remain
Father Charbel Abernethy
Apr 202 min read
The Throne Before Which You Cannot Stand
On the End of Every Illusion and the Beginning of Worship “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; he was, he is and he is to come.” ⸻ John is not given comfort. He is not given explanations. He is not handed a system of thought or a theology to manage the chaos of the world. A door opens. And what he sees does not console the mind. It shatters it. A throne. Everything in this vision moves around that throne. Lightning. Thunder. Fire. Creatures that do not rest. Elder
Father Charbel Abernethy
Apr 173 min read
The Voice That Will Not Leave Us in Peace
On the Death of the Living, the Strength of the Weak, and the Fire That Exposes the Lukewarm “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; so be zealous and repent.” Revelation 3:19 There is nothing gentle in this word unless one has already been broken by it. Christ does not speak here to pagans. He speaks to the Church. He speaks to those who bear His name, who pray, who gather, who believe themselves to be alive. And His first word is a wound. You have a name for being ali
Father Charbel Abernethy
Apr 163 min read
The Quiet Violence of Unspoken Expectations
When We Judge Others by What They Failed to Read in Us “If you do not say what you want, but grumble against your brother… you are the one at fault.” — Abba Isaiah of Scetis, in The Evergetinos, Vol. III, Hypothesis I ⸻ There is a particular kind of violence that rarely looks like violence. It does not raise its voice. It does not accuse openly. It does not strike or even speak. It happens quietly, invisibly, inside the heart. It is the violence of unspoken expectation. We of
Father Charbel Abernethy
Apr 133 min read
The Grace of Disappearing
On the Difference Between the Loss of Self and the Loss of Illusion “I sat alone because Thou hadst filled me with indignation.” — Book of Jeremiah 15:17 There is a way of speaking about “disappearing” that is dangerous, because it easily collapses into something else entirely. One imagines silence, withdrawal, the refusal to assert oneself, and assumes this is the same as vanishing. But the Fathers, and even the deeper currents of psychoanalytic thought, would resist such a
Father Charbel Abernethy
Apr 103 min read
Tags
bottom of page