The Evergetinos: Book Two - Hypothesis XV, Part II

Philokalia Ministries

What is it that we are hungry for in this world? So many of the writings of the fathers can be reduced to this very question. What is the deepest desire of our hearts? What have we been created for and what satisfies the sense of incompleteness or the strange feeling of nostalgia within us?

Because we have been created for God and find in Him our truest identity, we are going to experience ourselves as strangers in a strange world. We are made like everyone else and experience internal and external pressures to pursue what the world deems legitimate and of value. In the process, any thought of the future or the remembrance of God slips out of our minds. We become slaves not only to our bellies but to everything that we consume in an unthinking fashion.

Abstemiousness and simplicity are not about lack but rather fullness. We must attend to the very real needs of the flesh but only as much as is required - and sometimes less. When we lose sight of God, our internal world is driven by anxiety and fear. We seek for security and to protect ourselves from want. What we find in the fathers, however, is not a starving of themselves, but rather the starving of the demons and what they nourish themselves upon. We engage in the ascetic life in order not to keep feeding the appetites and the passions that tie us to the world.

This is no easy task. Rationalization and the illusion of joy and freedom keep us moving forward. However, these things (very much like rights and happiness) are very fragile. We think they are the norm but this is perhaps the great deception of our times.

Our life has been given to us for repentance and we must not waste it. Life is a relationship; a constant turning towards God and who is constantly seeking us. Let us not grieve the Holy Spirit by seeking to quench our thirst for life and hunger for love other than in God.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:11:09 Bob Cihak, AZ: P. 118, para 2 00:17:20 Bob Cihak, AZ: Oops. P. 119, para 2 00:31:47 Cindy Moran: Usury 00:34:45 Cindy Moran: No cash allowed at Pirate game concessions 01:08:03 Jennifer Ahearn: Constant prayer, unceasing. There is a Freedom for Excellence between deficit and excess 01:08:47 Jennifer Ahearn: FOMO😃 01:09:26 Jennifer Ahearn: Stay in the rhythm of The Church 01:10:56 Jennifer Ahearn: St. Philip Nero ‘if it is not leading to Christ, cut it out’. Holy leisure is important. 01:11:24 Janine: You are 100% correct 01:12:01 Jennifer Ahearn: Neri 01:12:09 Paul G.: WE experience your teachings and get ntold blessings Father 01:12:24 Paul G.: Untold 01:12:39 Susanna Joy: Reacted to WE experience your t... with "❤️" 01:14:55 Lori Hatala: the things you share are shared with others and create a ripple effect of gratitude and thought provoking prayer. 01:15:00 Jennifer Ahearn: Constant prayer, unceasing. There is a Freedom for Excellence between deficit and excess 01:16:40 Jennifer Ahearn: St Louis DeMontfort Consecration five years in a row in October changed my interior life and mind. 01:18:31 Forrest Cavalier: For me, reading https://archive.org/details/tolovefasting/ has been very eye opening that the practices noted in Evergetinos are not fantastical. He does write that those who live with others will need more nourishment. Monks less, Hermits even less. 01:19:51 Jennifer Ahearn: Yes! Thank you so much, Fr. Charbel. It is a constant reality ♥️🙏 01:20:13 Jennifer Ahearn: It is exciting ♥️🙏 01:21:14 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂 01:21:16 Cameron Jackson: Thank you. 01:21:17 Andrew Adams: Thank you, Father! 01:21:26 Kevin Burke: Thank You Father! 01:21:34 Troy Amaro: Thank You Father. 01:22:22 Lorraine Green: !Thank you Fr., good luck with the move