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Philokalia Ministries

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,

religion & spirituality spirituality

All Episodes

63:36

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/11/08

God has no need of anything, yet St. Isaac tells us that He rejoices whenever a man comforts His image and honors it for His sake. The divine joy is found not in what is given but in the mercy that reflects His own. When the poor come to us, it is not their need that is the test but our response to the image of God standing before us. To refuse them is to turn away grace itself, to pass by the honor of having been found worthy to console another. The poor will not be abandoned—God will provide for

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63:10

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XXXVIII, Part II

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/11/05

The Evergetinos continues to unveil through the lives of the saints the beauty and power of a heart freed from anger and the desire for vengeance. In the story of Saint Spyridon and the deceitful shipowner we see how divine simplicity disarms deceit. The Saint entrusted his gold to another with pure confidence and without suspicion, and when that trust was betrayed he did not rage or demand justice. Instead he allowed truth to reveal itself in silence. The emptiness of the box became the mirror of

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71:20

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/30

St. Isaac writes with the clarity of one who has walked through the fire of trial and found the peace that follows surrender. His words do not flatter the soul or soften the edges of the truth. They are meant to awaken us to the living reality of divine love. He shows that what we call faith must be tested, and what we call trust must be purified, until both rest entirely in God.He begins with the martyrs who endured every torment that flesh can bear. They suffered, he says, through a “secret

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63:21

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XXXVIII, Part I

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/28

The stories from the Evergetinos draw us into a vision of holiness that reaches far beyond passive endurance. The saints do not simply bear injustice with patience; they transform it by the power of divine love. Their silence is not weakness, nor their gentleness naivety. It is the strength of souls utterly freed from the tyranny of self, who see in those who wrong them not enemies but brothers blinded by ignorance or fear. Saint Libertinus, robbed and humiliated, offers even the whip that might

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61:34

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/28

In this section of Homily Five, St. Isaac draws deeply from the ancient well of ascetical wisdom, weaving together the practical counsel of St. Ephraim with his own luminous vision of divine providence. His teaching moves with precision from the diagnosis of sin to the healing of the soul, from the vigilance of self-knowledge to the vision of God’s mercy revealed through trial. St. Ephraim’s words set the tone: every spiritual illness must be treated by its proper remedy. One cannot overcome a vice

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64:47

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XXXVII, Part V

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/22

This section of The Evergetinos is among the most luminous and convicting in its entire corpus. It speaks with the voice of a Father who has entered deeply into the mind of Christ; where justice is transfigured by mercy, where the love of neighbor becomes inseparable from the love of God, and where even material loss becomes a gate to eternal life.The Elder’s teaching exposes the great inversion of values that defines our time. In an age obsessed with self-preservation, power, and vengeance, the

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61:19

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/16

St. Isaac speaks with a stark honesty that strips away every illusion about the spiritual life. To choose the good is to summon the battle. Every true beginning draws the adversary’s attention. God allows this not to crush the soul but to test its resolve and to purify its love. Without that fire, virtue remains unproven and fragile.The one who doubts that God is his helper collapses under his own shadow. Fear itself becomes the enemy. Such a person starves amid plenty and drowns in calm waters,

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64:48

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XXXVII, Part IV

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/14

The teaching of the Fathers on vengeance and anger does not allow us to linger in the comfortable ambiguities of human justice. It tears at the fabric of self-justification. Their words bring us face to face with the scandal of divine love—the Cross as the only standard by which we are to measure our dealings with others. The heart that desires retribution, or even to “set things right,” cannot bear the full light of that Cross without trembling.St. Diadochus unmasks the subtle ways we clothe

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63:47

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/09

St. Isaac’s words reveal that communion with God requires remoteness from distraction and a renunciation of whatever disquiets the heart. This is not something reserved for monks alone, though they live it most radically, but it is a law of the Christian life as a whole. For Isaac, the fruits of renunciation are not abstract but very real: tears, compunction, a fountain of sweetness welling up from the heart, light dawning within. These are given not to the distracted soul but to the one who bows

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62:20

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XXXVII, Part III

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/10/08

Abba Mark’s teaching pierces the heart because it strips away our worldly sense of “justice” and places us before the wisdom of the Cross. The lawyer’s questions are not unlike our own: What do we do when wronged? What about fairness? What about the law? But the Elder directs him beyond human reasoning toward the spiritual law of Christ.For the world, the offense is external, and the “solution” is measured by punishment and recompense. For the ascetic, the wound of injustice exposes what is hidden

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60:49

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Chapter XXXVII, Part II

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/09/28

The Gospel Without VarnishThe Desert Fathers present the Gospel in its rawest form. Their words strike the heart not because they soften Christ’s commands but because they echo them without compromise: do not resist the one who is evil, forgive seventy times seven, love your enemies, bless those who curse you. To modern ears, this sounds offensive—even impossible. How can one not seek justice, especially when faced with cruelty, violence, or grave injustice? Yet the Fathers insist: freedom in

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60:45

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/09/19

St. Isaac does not flatter us with easy consolations. He sets before the monk the radical alternative: almsgiving is like the rearing of children, but stillness is the summit of perfection. One can pour out possessions, but if one’s senses remain open to the world, unbarred gates, then the enemy will always find a way in. It is not enough to scatter coins if the mind is still scattered; the true work is to gather the heart into stillness, where God alone becomes its horizon.Isaac shows us the two

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51:46

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Part XXXVI, Part II and...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/09/16

The Fathers in the Evergetinos remind us that the measure of our discipleship is often revealed in how we respond to insult and injury. The world teaches us to defend ourselves, to demand justice, to take vengeance so as not to appear weak. But the Gospel calls us to something altogether different, something that cuts against every instinct of pride: to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive from the heart, and to entrust judgment to God. Abba Cassian tells us that meekness is not merely restraining the

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68:15

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/09/11

St. Isaac speaks with the voice of one who has tasted what he teaches. His words carry both severity and sweetness, and at their heart lies a single call: to love God with such singleness that all else is left behind, and to find rest in Him alone.He begins by speaking of reading. For the one who prays, reading is no small companion. Instead of being filled with scattered memories and impressions of the world, the soul, when nourished by Scripture, finds within itself a treasury for prayer. The

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61:25

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Part XXXV, Part V and...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/09/10

The Evergetinos gives us stories that cut to the heart of Christian life: how do we respond when insulted, wronged, or treated unjustly? The world would have us defend our honor, insist on our rights, repay injury with injury. But the Fathers reveal another way — the way of Christ — in which anger is cut out at the root, vengeance rejected, and the heart freed from the tyranny of retaliation.The Example of St. Pachomios When insulted by his own brother, St. Pachomios felt the sting of anger rise

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65:44

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/09/04

St. Isaac’s words fall like a plough upon the heart. He does not speak of religion as ornament, nor of spiritual life as a gentle addition to human comforts. His vision pierces through to the marrow: the Kingdom of God is hidden within, yet it is veiled from us by attachments, by the clamor of outward concerns, by the fog of our restless desires. To find God we do not roam heaven and earth, chasing visions or “phantasms.” We are told simply to purify the soul, to drive away cares foreign to our

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64:46

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Part XXXV, Part IV

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/09/03

The Fathers teach that anger is a form of idolatry. Just as the pagans once bowed before false gods, so too does the man who gives himself to wrath bow before the idol of rage, making himself a slave rather than a disciple of Christ. To renounce anger is to trample down idols and become a bloodless martyr, confessing Christ not with words but with meekness. The first step in overcoming anger is silence — not speaking when provoked. From this small beginning, grace can bring the soul to

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01:02:26

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/08/28

St. Isaac the Syrian leads us into a subtle yet decisive truth about the spiritual life: to taste of God rightly, one must be weaned from the world—not only from its visible distractions and passions, but also from the premature grasping of spiritual visions and insights. Renunciation, for Isaac, is not merely the abandonment of external goods; it is the letting go of everything that agitates, excites, or exceeds the soul’s present capacity.Like a child given honey before it can digest it, the

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58:02

The Evergetinos: Book Two - Part XXXV, Part III

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/08/26

The fathers speak with one voice concerning the passion of anger: it blinds the eyes of the soul and expels the grace of the Spirit. St. Cassian tells us that even a “just cause” for anger blinds no less than an unjust one; whether gold or lead is pressed over the eyes, sight is equally obstructed. So too when anger burns, whether cloaked in righteousness or openly irrational, the light of the Sun of Righteousness is veiled from us.The words cut to the quick: we are not to excuse or harbor even a

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01:00:43

The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian -...

Philokalia Ministries ·

2025/08/21

Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian Homily 4 paragraphs 23 and following:St. Isaac teaches us that true spiritual perception, when granted by grace, is marked not by outward signs of exaltation, but by tears, peace of the senses, and the silence of the body before the living God. Such tears are not emotional outbursts, but a baptism of compunction — torrents flowing from eyes opened to behold reality as it is in God. They cleanse the heart, heal the

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