I’ve often thought the Desert Fathers were the first and truest of depth psychologists. Their understanding of the human person, the workings of the mind and the heart, the effects of the emotions, and the workings of the unconscious is unparalleled in anything that we have seen before or sense. Tonight Saint John Climacus, in a few paragraphs, takes us into those depths. He shows us the extent to which we can become conceited and that a false self can begin to emerge and become solidified. Out of their experience the Fathers came to know the many and varied ways that these things manifest themselves and the spiritual remedies to be applied. Disobedience, our inability to hear the truth and embrace it with love, has an impact on every area of our life and every relationship. It can lead to a kind of passive-aggressiveness that hardens the heart and makes us insensible to the needs of others or their goodness. Even Saint John says that he is amazed at the dexterity that we show in all manner of sin and the diversity of evil that flows from it.
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Text of chat during the group:
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XIV: On Gluttony, Part IV, and Chapter XV: On Chastity, Part I
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XL, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent- Chapter XIV: On Gluttony, Part III
Behold His Face: They Shall Look On Him Whom They Have Pierced
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XIV: On Gluttony, Part II
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXIX, Part I
City a Desert Lecture Series, Lecture Three: Interiorized Monasticism Part III: Chastity and Obedience
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XIV: On Gluttony, Part I
The Evergetinos, Hypothesis XXXVIII
City a Desert Lecture Series, Lecture Two: Interiorized Monasticism Part II: Fundamental Principles
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XIII: On Despondency
The Evergetinos, Hypothesis XXXVII
Repentance
City a Desert Lecture Series, Lecture One: Introduction to Interiorized Monasticism
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XII: On Lying
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXV, Part II and Hypothesis XXXVI
To Love Fasting
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XI: On Talkativeness and Silence
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XXXV, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter X: On Slander or Calumny, Part II
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