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To Belong to God Alone
St. Isaac the Syrian on the Undivided Heart and the Poverty of True Love “He it is that possesses nothing upon the earth, who earns nothing for himself among material things, who in his mind clings to nothing visible.” — St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 21 ⸻ Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 21 paragraph 17b-19a There is a poverty of the heart far more difficult to embrace than the renunciation of material possessions. It is the
Father Charbel Abernethy
1 hour ago9 min read
The Courage to Hear
When listening to God may cost us the life by which we have known ourselves “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” — 1 Samuel 3:9 There are moments when I look back upon the last several years and wonder whether I should simply have stopped. Not searched. Not planned. Not tried so quickly to find another place to stand. Perhaps I should have waited longer. Waited upon the Lord. Waited until the noise within me had quieted enough that I could distinguish His voice from my fea
Father Charbel Abernethy
2 days ago6 min read
Something Greater Is Here
The terrible possibility of standing before God and still asking Him to prove Himself “Behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” There comes a point when asking for another sign is no longer prudence. It is refusal. We tell ourselves that we are waiting for clarity. We want God to make the path unmistakable. We want some interior certainty that cannot be questioned, some providential arrangement that removes the possibility of error, some word so direct that obedience wi
Father Charbel Abernethy
3 days ago5 min read
The Stronger One Has Come
When Christ enters the house we have learned to guard “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” — Luke 11:20 There is something terrible in this Gospel. A man who could not speak is set free. Christ casts out the demon. The man’s tongue is loosed. He speaks. And those standing nearby do not rejoice. They explain the miracle away. Some say that Christ is in league with the demons. Others demand another sign. The man
Father Charbel Abernethy
7 days ago5 min read
When Desire Must Enter the Fire
The heart does not become pure by wanting God intensely, but by allowing God to purify what it means to want Him. “There is a desire that seeks God, and there is a desire that seeks to possess even God. Only the fire reveals the difference.” There comes a moment in the spiritual life when desire itself must be judged. Not extinguished. Not distrusted. But brought into the light. We begin perhaps because something has awakened in us. The heart discovers that the world cannot s
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 274 min read
The Grammar of the Heart — Reflection X
Until Christ Be Formed in Us “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” — Galatians 4:19 Perhaps we have been speaking about one thing all along. Not primarily about East and West. Not about spiritual traditions. Not even about phronema. We have been speaking about the formation of Christ within the human heart. Everything else matters because of this. The Fathers matter because they show us what a human being can become in Christ. Pr
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 248 min read
The Grammar of the Heart — Reflection IX
When the Heart Recognizes Its Native Language “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.” — 1 Samuel 3:9 There are moments in the spiritual life when recognition precedes explanation. Something is heard. Something is encountered. And before the mind has assembled its reasons, the heart says: I know this. Not because it is familiar. Because it is true. I have become increasingly interested in this kind of recognition. It is dangerous territory. The heart can deceive itself. Desire
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 247 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
Synopsis of Session I of the Fall Retreat: To Become All Flame
When Desire Is Purified into Love A Reflection on the First Evening of Our Retreat “If you will, you can become all flame.” — Abba Joseph We began our retreat with one of the most familiar sayings of the Desert Fathers, and yet perhaps one of the most inexhaustible. Abba Lot came to Abba Joseph and described what had become the pattern of his spiritual life. He kept his little rule. He fasted according to his strength. He prayed and meditated. He tried to maintain interior pe
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 199 min read
There Is No Other
When the Heart Ceases to Live as Though Anything Existed Apart from God “Let all men know from the rising to the setting of the sun that, apart from me, all is nothing. I am the Lord: there is no other.” — Isaiah 45:6 There are words in Scripture that console us, words that instruct us, and words that seem to leave nothing standing. This is one of them. “I am the Lord: there is no other.” We can hear such words as a declaration about the uniqueness of God. And certainly they
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 186 min read
When the Shadows No Longer Satisfy
A Dialogue on the Painful Mercy of Learning to See “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” — 1 Corinthians 13:12 The disciple came to the elder late in the afternoon. For a long while he said nothing. Finally the elder asked, “What troubles you?” “I no longer know what is real.” The elder looked at him. “That is not always a bad beginning.” “I thought you would tell me not to doubt.” “Perhaps you are doubting the wrong things.” The disciple lowered his eyes. “F
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 174 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
When Conscience Becomes Quiet
On belonging, uncertainty, and learning to stand before God when no one can tell you what comes next “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” — Isaiah 30:15 There are seasons when conscience seems to ask for a decision. And there are seasons when it asks for something more difficult. To stand before God without one. I have found myself in such a season. Things that once seemed settled no longer seem so. A form of life that
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 116 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
The Wound Becomes a Door
“Let the wound become a door into the desert, and there learn again that God is enough.” There are wounds that cannot be repaired. No explanation will undo them. No apology may come. No one may ever understand what was taken from you. The desert fathers would not tell us to pretend otherwise. They would tell us to enter the wound. Not to live there in bitterness, but to pass through it. For sometimes the wound becomes the door through which God leads us away from everything w
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 111 min read
The Peace That Does Not Depend on Peace
Christ does not promise us a life without disturbance. He gives us Himself in the midst of it. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” — John 14:27 We often imagine peace as the moment when everything finally settles. The conflict ends. The illness passes. The decision becomes clear. The person we love is safe. The future opens before us again. Then, we tell ourselves, we will have peace. But this is not the peace Christ give
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 112 min read
Nevertheless, Not as I Will
Lord Jesus Christ, let these words descend from my lips into my heart: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. Let them become the fabric of my life. Let them enter my breathing until I no longer need to summon them, until consent becomes quieter than thought. When the cross is heavy, let me say them. When the cross seems too small to matter, let me say them. When the chalice is bitter, let me drink. When it is ordinary, and I am tempted to believe that holiness must be
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 102 min read
The Harbor Beyond Conscience
John Henry Newman and the moment when searching becomes recognition “It was like coming into port after a rough sea; and my happiness on that score remains to this day without interruption.” — St. John Henry Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua There is something almost startling about the serenity with which Newman describes his conversion. Anyone who knows the years preceding it knows that serenity was not their dominant character. There had been searching, controversy, misunderst
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 97 min read
When the Greatest Becomes Small
John the Baptist and the terrible freedom of decreasing “He must increase, but I must decrease.” — John 3:30 There is something almost unbearable about where we find John the Baptist in this Gospel. The man of the wilderness is no longer in the wilderness. The voice that once cried out beside the Jordan is confined behind walls. The crowds are elsewhere now. Another is preaching. Another is healing. Another is gathering disciples. John cannot even go to Jesus himself. He must
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 86 min read
Dig Until You Reach Rock
The terrible mercy of discovering what our lives are actually built upon “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” — Luke 6:46 There are words of Christ that console us. There are others that strip us. This is one of them. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” There is almost something frightening in the simplicity of the question. Christ does not ask whether we believe the correct things about Him. He does not ask whether we admi
Father Charbel Abernethy
Oct 75 min read
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