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Part III: St Paul the Hermit on Inner Warfare in the Modern Heart
A Further Word from the Desert Night has deepened. The stars spread over the wilderness like a silent choir. St Paul sits within his cave, the flame of a small oil lamp illuminating the ancient lines of his face. He speaks again, not to the seeker alone, but to all who wage the unseen war in an age that has forgotten it. St Paul the Hermit Speaks: The Inner Warfare of the Modern Heart Children beloved by God, you ask how to fight the invisible enemies, how to resist the passi
Father Charbel Abernethy
6 days ago5 min read
When God Keeps the Soul in His Memory
Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 5 paragraphs 24-28 St Isaac reveals a truth that is both luminous and frightening. He tells us plainly that nothing shapes the soul more profoundly than the afflictions God allows. In prosperity, the heart drifts. It forgets that it is a creature, and begins to imagine that the strength of its own hand has gained these things. In comfort, the soul becomes dull. In praise, it becomes intoxicat
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 193 min read
A Dialogue in the Desert: The Seeker and St Paul the Hermit
The wind moves softly through the palm leaves. The stones are warm with fading sun. In the distance, a cave breathes out the cool air of forty years of prayer. The seeker stands at its entrance, hesitant. St Paul the Hermit emerges with a gentleness that feels older than the world. Seeker: Father, there is a longing within me that I barely understand, a quiet pull toward stillness and the hermitage. At times my heart cries with the psalmist, “O that I had wings like a dove t
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 195 min read
Urban Asceticism: Finding the Desert Within - Chapter Two
Chapter Two: The Hidden Geography of the Heart There is a desert deeper than any wilderness the eye can see. The ancients knew this well. They spoke of the heart as a landscape: vast, perilous, beautiful, capable of both storm and stillness. It is this inner topography, not the external environment, that determines whether one lives in the world or beyond it. The monk who fled to the Egyptian sands was not escaping humanity; he was fleeing the passions that distort it. He car
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 103 min read
The Bread of a Single Book
The soul does not grow by variety but by depth. One modern elder has said there is no need to read many books: the Scriptures, The Ladder, The Evergetinos, and the Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac are sufficient. These few, he said, contain the entire path: from the first trembling desire for repentance to the ineffable union of the heart with God. It is not the abundance of reading that sanctifies a person, but the capacity to interiorize one word and let it descend into t
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 103 min read
The City of the Lord Within
Let my heart be a holy temple of the living God and my hermitage the city of the Lord. May God Himself protect it by His holy angels and put within me only the desire to walk the way of perfection. There are mornings when I rise and the silence presses against my chest like a living thing. The walls of this hermitage are close and familiar, yet within them there is an expanse larger than any city. When my heart begins to awaken to prayer, I sense it: how easily the boundaries
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 83 min read
“Seeking the Face of God: The Soul’s Ascent into the Light of Divine Presence”
The phrase “to seek the face of God” runs like a golden thread through Scripture and the writings of the saints. It is not a mere metaphor for prayer but the very heart of the spiritual life, the soul’s longing for communion and transformation. To seek the face of God is to turn the deepest part of one’s being toward the mystery of divine presence, a presence at once hidden and near, terrible and tender, that both purifies and illumines the heart. In the Psalms , this desire
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 54 min read
Who Shall Climb the Mountain of the Lord
“Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things.” — Psalm 24:3–4, Grail Translation The psalm opens with a vision that pierces through the veil of complacency. It is not a casual ascent but a purification. To stand in the holy place is to allow every falsehood to be consumed by the fire of God’s presence. The heart must be opened not partially but entirely, emptied of pride
Father Charbel Abernethy
Nov 43 min read
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