Mindful obedience sets us free because it balances the heart on the eternal. Never finished, always imperfect, always getting up again, always needing sound advice from others, always desiring, or wanting to desire, the eternal.

Mar 18
Mar 18 Amma Syncletica: Does obedience set you free?

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

The practice of Lent often distracts us from its point: to return to the eternal. Proper action based on discernment is central to regaining our balance. This is one lesson from the Desert Elders’ idea of obedience.

Feb 27
Feb 27 Discernment is the heart of Lent: A challenge from the Desert Elders

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

Three hundred years after the death of Jesus on the outskirts of Jerusalem and 1,000 kilometers away, the habitable margins of the deserts of Egypt were filling up with strange people devoted to becoming more like him. The eldest and most revered of these are called the Desert Elders. Most were native Egyptian villagers and peasants who left their villages and farms to enter the desert and follow more seriously the way of Christ. They were mostly poor, not well educated, and of lower social class. Their language was Coptic, with its roots in the ancient agriculture of the Nile.

Mar 31
Mar 31 The Heart of the Desert and the Threshold of Easter

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

The sorrow of the days before Easter is at the heart of the Desert Elders' teaching. But grief is out of fashion. We prefer to be spiritual.

Mar 24
Mar 24 Cleansing the Self for Service: again, that fiery humility

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

What to do when we find ourself in the Desert? Welcome our fears with a fiery humility.

Mar 20
Mar 20 Pilgrimage, Interrupted

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

Our pilgrimage is interrupted by unexpected events. Can obedience to these interruptions be the real journey?

Mar 17
Mar 17 The Obedience of the Desert Elders: a tool for reflecting the true self

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

When our will bumps up against the will of another, we can discern the desires of the true self.

Mar 11
Mar 11 Amma Syncletica: The fiery nature of humility

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

I have always thought of humility as simpering and self-effacing – silent because of fear or weakness. While reading the Sayings of the Desert Elders, I was stunned by the image of a fiery humility. Where had that been hiding?

Mar 10

Mar 10 Learning from the Desert Elders: Taking Conversation to Heart

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

Today I want to introduce you to a central practice of the Desert Elders: conversation. This is not a conversation to meet the other, it is a conversation with another in which we meet, and come to know, ourselves.

Mar 4

Mar 4 The alphabet of the Spirit: A conversation with Evagrius Ponticus

Chuck Huff

Lenten Retreat

Three hundred years after the death of Jesus on the outskirts of Jerusalem and 1,000 kilometers away, the habitable margins of the deserts of Egypt were filling up with strange people devoted to becoming more like him. The eldest and most revered of these are called the Desert Elders. Most were native Egyptian villagers and peasants who left their villages and farms to enter the desert and follow more seriously the way of Christ. They were mostly poor, not well educated, and of lower social class. Their language was Coptic, with its roots in the ancient agriculture of the Nile.

Feb 26

Feb 26 Walking with the Desert Elders through Lent: An invitation

Chuck Huff

lesson from the monastery, Lenten Retreat

The deep origins of Christianity are in the desert. It was an urban and pastoral culture on the edge of the desert into which Jesus was born. When he was baptized, Jesus was driven to walk into the desert for 40 days of fasting and reflection. The origins of monasticism came from Christians walking into the desert, away from the distractions and comfort of urban society. This Lent, we will be reflecting on the spiritual journeys and wisdom of those desert Elders. What knowledge can these gentle and severe extremists bring us for our own life journeys?