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Philokalia MinistriesAuthor: Father David Abernethy
Philokalia Ministries is the fruit of 30 years spent at the feet of the Fathers of the Church. Led by Father David Abernethy, Philokalia (Philo: Love of the Kalia: Beautiful) Ministries exists to re-form hearts and minds according to the mold of the Desert Fathers through the ascetic life, the example of the early Saints, the way of stillness, prayer, and purity of heart, the practice of the Jesus Prayer, and spiritual reading. Those who are involved in Philokalia Ministries - the podcasts, videos, social media posts, spiritual direction and online groups - are exposed to writings that make up the ancient, shared spiritual heritage of East and West: The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Saint Augustine, the Philokalia, the Conferences of Saint John Cassian, the Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, and the Evergetinos. In addition to these, more recent authors and writings, which draw deeply from the well of the desert, are read and discussed: Lorenzo Scupoli, Saint Theophan the Recluse, anonymous writings from Mount Athos, the Cloud of Unknowing, Saint John of the Cross, Thomas a Kempis, and many more. Philokalia Ministries is offered to all, free of charge. However, there are real and immediate needs associated with it. You can support Philokalia Ministries with one-time, or recurring monthly donations, which are most appreciated. Your support truly makes this ministry possible. May Almighty God, who created you and fashioned you in His own Divine Image, restore you through His grace and make of you a true icon of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Language: en Genres: Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian - Homily VI, Part VII
Episode 43
Saturday, 31 January, 2026
Here Isaac is not giving us a technique for moral improvement. He is unveiling an icon. Behind his austere language of toil and Scripture and withdrawal stands a single, luminous vision: the human heart being slowly remade into the dwelling place of God. Asceticism is not a set of behaviors aimed at self mastery. It is the patient clearing of space so that the Trinity may come to rest within us. Everything Isaac names flows from this one mystery. He begins with what looks like a chain of practices. Bodily toil guards purity. Scripture sustains the toil. Hope and fear steady the soul. Prayer and withdrawal from men protect the heart. But Isaac is not describing a ladder that climbs upward by human effort. He is describing how the soul is held open until it can be seized by the Spirit. These disciplines do not save. They keep us available for salvation. They prevent the heart from sealing itself against grace. This is why Isaac speaks so soberly about the Scriptures. Until the Comforter has come and taken up His dwelling in the depths of the person we need the written word to keep us from drifting into forgetfulness and fantasy. The Scriptures are not information. They are a form of remembrance. They press the shape of Christ into the memory of the heart so that when our mind is scattered and the passions begin to speak their lies we are not carried away from our true homeland. But Isaac also knows that even Scripture is provisional. There comes a moment when the teaching no longer comes from without but from within. When the Spirit penetrates the noetic powers of the soul the heart itself becomes the book. The same Word who once spoke in letters now speaks in fire. This is not a rejection of Scripture but its fulfillment. The written Gospel gives way to the living Christ engraved upon the heart. Here we touch the heart of Eastern Christian mysticism. Salvation is not merely a verdict. It is a transformation of perception. The center of knowing shifts. The ego no longer stands as the interpreter of reality. The Spirit becomes the teacher. And because this teaching comes from God Himself it is not lost. It does not evaporate under distraction or suffering. It remains as a living memory of communion. Isaac then strikes at something that terrifies the ego. He distinguishes between good thoughts and a good heart. We are accustomed to judging ourselves by the surface weather of the mind. We watch our thoughts rise and fall like waves and imagine that our worth before God is decided by their movement. Isaac says this is an illusion. Thoughts come and go like sea winds. They stir the waters but they do not constitute the depths. The heart is the foundation. It is the place where we truly consent or refuse. A person may be flooded with thoughts and yet remain rooted in God. Another may have refined ideas and yet be inwardly turned toward self. What matters is not the agitation of the surface but the direction of the ground beneath it. This is a devastating word for the controlling ego. We want to manage our thoughts. We want to produce holiness by technique. We want to ensure our standing before God by monitoring every inner movement. Isaac tells us that this entire project is misguided. If judgment were passed on every thought we would be condemned and justified a thousand times a day. That is not how God sees us. God looks at the heart. He looks at where we have placed our deepest trust. And here the abyss opens. To let go of the ego is not to become passive or vague. It is to cease making ourselves the measure of reality. It is to fall into the love of God without conditions. The heart that consents to this fall becomes a foundation of peace even while the mind continues to be stirred by many winds. This is why the saints can live in such freedom. They are no longer organized around self protection. They have entrusted themselves to the Paschal mystery. For Isaac all of this is Christological. The Spirit who teaches the heart is the Spirit poured out by the crucified and risen Lord. The abyss into which we fall is the same abyss into which Christ descended in His self emptying love. To enter this path is to be drawn into the very life of the Trinity. We are no longer managing ourselves toward virtue. We are being re created from within by divine love. This is the beauty of the ascetical mystical tradition of the East. It does not offer self improvement. It offers transfiguration. It does not promise control. It invites surrender. It does not measure us by the turbulence of our thoughts but by the quiet yes of the heart. Isaac shows us a humanity that has learned to rest in God even while the winds still blow. A humanity no longer driven by fear or fantasy but grounded in the living presence of the Spirit. This is what we have become in Christ. And this is what the desert still calls us to be. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:01:01 Jonathan Grobler: Evening father 00:02:20 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Good evening 00:02:50 Ryan Ngeve: Good evening Father 00:04:37 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 175, # 19, final paragraph 00:04:49 Adam Paige: Happy feast day of Saint Isaac the Syrian to all ! New movie from the writer & director of “Man of God” (about St Nektarios) coming out this weekend: “Moses the Black” ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_the_Black_(film) 00:05:49 Anna: There was a run on bananas with this last storm 00:06:06 Anna: What movie 00:06:35 Anna: Thanks 00:08:08 Anna: Movie theater for Moses the Black... https://www.fathomentertainment.com/releases/moses-the-black/ 00:08:19 Anna: It's in theaters 00:09:35 Anna: That doesn't look like it 00:10:11 Jonathan Grobler: Excited for Lent, will hopefully be confirmed this Easter 00:10:41 Jessica McHale: 16th of Feb 00:10:41 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 175, # 19, final paragraph 00:10:53 Angela Bellamy: Is there a resource some place on how Lent is traditionally observed? 00:11:18 Anna: That link is the movie playing on the 30th and so on 00:11:18 Janine: Yes 00:11:22 Anna: https://www.fathomentertainment.com/releases/moses-the-black/ 00:11:30 Janine: Alexander 00:11:45 Jessica McHale: Great Lent: Journey to Pascha by Father Alexander Schmemann 00:14:22 Angela Bellamy: Reacted to "Great Lent: Journey ..." with 👍 00:19:14 Elizabeth Richards: Amen! 00:30:28 Anthony: As a matter of comfort, seeing sin is not a sign necessarily of being cut off from God; seeing sin is a token of grace. I think a Greek father said this. 00:32:41 Jessica McHale: Reacted to "As a matter of com..." with ❤️ 00:32:45 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "As a matter of comfo..." with ❤️ 00:35:24 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 176, # 29, first paragraph 00:38:48 susan: thoughts? Jesus prayer 00:43:42 Jessica McHale: That would be a TERRIFIC course! Much needed for me! 00:44:13 Kevin Burke: Reacted to "That would be a TERR…" with ❤️ 00:47:06 Ben: Reacted to "That would be a TERR..." with 👍 00:47:36 Erick Chastain: how practically does the judgment from the thought not hit one, especially with the high number of them and their potentially upsetting nature? Turning to the prayer might not happen rapidly enough to prevent reacting to some thoughts. 00:47:49 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "That would be a TERR..." with ❤️ 00:50:19 Maureen Cunningham: The St Patrick Prayer 00:50:55 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "The St Patrick Praye..." with 👍🏼 00:52:33 Angela Bellamy: I love the story of Peter walking on water to meet Jesus but is overcome by his circumstance... the Lord reached out and brought him back to Himself, after Peter cried out, and they went back to the boat together.❤️ 00:53:19 Joan Chakonas: I understand my vainglorious nature and have been blessed lately with the understanding that my ideas, which I am initially inclined to love, are usually wrong, and it ‘s a relief to abandon them to God’s guidance, which He always gives 00:53:43 David Swiderski, WI: I wasted years reading on discernment and looking back think the minute I engaged reason to try to discern I could rationalize just about anything. On a retreat a 92 year old priest when I asked for yet another book on discernment smiled and said no no no don't waste your time. Simply weigh by your heart anything "Does this lead me closer to God or away from God" discard that which does not lead you closer and don't dwell upon them. This seem clearer since that point. 00:54:49 Anthony: Become like an atheist.... that's like the examination of conscience in the Pilgrim book. 00:55:37 Elizabeth Richards: You are speaking the gospel! 01:00:03 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "I understand my vain..." with 🙏🏼 01:02:25 Anthony: That's a danger to me. I think it sets up an idol in a sense, and then is very confusing to distinguish my thoughts from God, from dark origin thoughts. 01:02:55 Elizabeth Richards: I heard today we cannot "make" sense- because sense has already been made 🙂 01:03:31 Elizabeth Richards: Reacted to "I wasted years readi..." with 🙏🏼 01:03:35 Kevin Burke: Reacted to "I wasted years readi…" with 🙏🏼 01:04:15 Angela Bellamy: It seems that the difficulty in letting go of an identity outside of God is that we often built that identity around love — but human love, when it is not healed, can be a brutal thing. When that identity is stripped away, what is revealed is not the absence of love, but its truth: a freedom that is real, attainable, and no longer bound to self-will. Glory to Him. 01:04:51 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "I heard today we can..." with 👍🏼 01:08:52 Kimberley A: I believe before the Fall Adam was fully God conscious. After the Fall, he became self conscious. 01:09:18 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "I believe before the..." with 😯 01:13:20 Elizabeth Richards: So rich this eve! Thank you Father 01:13:40 Elizabeth Richards: Amen! 01:14:18 Maureen Cunningham: Blessing thank you 01:14:39 Joan Chakonas: Thank God for your guidance 01:14:43 David Swiderski, WI: Thank you Father may God bless you and your mother! 01:14:45 Joan Chakonas: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ 01:14:47 Angela Bellamy: Thank you Father 01:15:01 Angela Bellamy: 😁 01:15:03 Janine: Thank you Father! 01:15:05 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you 😊 01:15:05 Elizabeth Richards: Plan a conference!! 01:15:08 Nypaver Clan: Thank you! 01:15:08 Jessica McHale: St Issac Feast Day for Melkite today too! Thank you and Amen! Many prayers. Yes, I am moving to Pittsburg since you said it!
