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Ask Until Only God Remains
The poverty of prayer and the gift of the Holy Spirit “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” — Luke 11:9 Ask. Seek. Knock. The Lord gives us three words. They are enough for a lifetime. He does not say: understand. He does not say: arrange your life so that nothing remains uncertain. He does not say: discover what God intends to do with you. Ask. Seek. Knock. These are the words of a poor man. The one who asks does not p
Father Charbel Abernethy
5 days ago4 min read
The Light Given for This Day
A Prayer for an Undivided Heart “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” — Matthew 6:34 O Lord my God, at times the weight of what I do not know becomes heavier than what You have actually placed before me. My mind wanders toward what may come, toward consequences I cannot foresee, toward those whom my response to Your call may affect, toward paths that have not yet opened and sorrows that have not yet been given. Gather me again. Do not allow fear of tomorrow to become a
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 232 min read
Let It Be Done to Me
A Prayer for the Freedom to Say Yes “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” — Luke 1:38 Lord Jesus Christ, You know what lies before me. I do not. And perhaps I do not need to know. My heart desires You. It desires Your will. Let that be enough. Do not let fear speak more loudly than Your voice. Do not let anxiety make me cautious where You ask for trust. Do not let the memory of wounds make me protect myself from what You may now be giving.
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 192 min read
The Grammar of the Heart — Reflection V
What the Heart Knows by Suffering “The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross.” — St. Isaac the Syrian There are things we know only after they have happened to us. Before suffering, we may possess the words. After suffering, we begin to know what they mean. This distinction has become increasingly important to me. For much of our lives we assume that understanding precedes experience. We learn something, comprehend it, and then perhaps apply it. T
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 176 min read
Where the Spirit Wills
The freedom of God and the surrender of the heart “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” — John 3:8 We would like God to be predictable. We would like the spiritual life to unfold according to recognizable lines: obedience followed by clarity, fidelity followed by stability, sacrifice followed by some visible confirmation that we have understood c
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 113 min read
Do Not Name What God Is Doing Yet
On the Holy Poverty of a Life That Has Not Taken Shape “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go.” — Hebrews 11:8 There is a peculiar temptation that comes when a life begins to fall apart. We immediately begin trying to understand what God is building from the ruins. Something has ended, and almost before we have allowed ourselves to grieve it, we ask what is beg
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 48 min read
Only One Thing
A Dialogue with Abba Arsenius on Losing Everything but Christ “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” — Philippians 3:7 The disciple found Arsenius sitting outside his cell. There was nothing before him. No book. No work. No food. Only his hands resting upon his knees and the desert stretching beyond him. The disciple stood nearby. Arsenius did not look up. Disciple: Father, I have lost much. Arsenius: Not enough. The disciple was silent. The words wo
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 15 min read
I Want Nothing More
A dialogue with Abba Arsenius on hiddenness, usefulness, and the one thing needful “Arsenius, flee from men, and you will be saved.” — The Sayings of the Desert Fathers The disciple came to Arsenius after sunset. The old man was sitting outside his cell. The disciple bowed and remained standing. After a long while Arsenius said: ARSENIUS: Why have you come? DISCIPLE: Because I do not know what I am supposed to become. Arsenius looked toward the desert. ARSENIUS: Who told you
Father Charbel Abernethy
Sep 293 min read
Life to Me Is Christ
When every path disappears into the One we seek “Life to me is Christ.” — Philippians 1:21 There comes a point in the spiritual life when the question is no longer: Where will this road take me? The question becomes simpler. Whom do I seek? There are seasons when God permits us to think about paths, places, vocations, works, communities, beginnings and endings. These things matter. They are the substance through which obedience is lived. But they are not life. Christ is life.
Father Charbel Abernethy
Sep 204 min read
By Another Way
The soul does not need to understand the whole road. It needs only to seek the Lord faithfully upon the ground given to it. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways - it is the Lord who speaks.” — Isaiah 55:8 There are paths we would never have chosen because we could never have imagined them. We look back over the years and want to make them intelligible. We search for a straight line. We want to know why God permitted this, why one door closed, why anot
Father Charbel Abernethy
Sep 194 min read
When We No Longer See
The terrible mercy of being led into exile “You have eyes to see, but see not; you have ears to hear, but hear not.” — Ezekiel 12:2 There is a blindness that comes not because there is no light, but because we have grown accustomed to not looking. There is a deafness that comes not because God has ceased speaking, but because we have learned how to hear everything except the word that would require us to change. This is the terrible warning in Ezekiel. The people have eyes. T
Father Charbel Abernethy
Sep 174 min read
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