Reviews
Monday, February 06, 2006
Books for Lent
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The Lenten season is once again upon us, and we're offering our encore "best of the best" Lenten reading for your perusal. Just click on "Read More" in the categories below to browse and make your selections...
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Chiefly Lenten
These books stir up the Lenten spirit, entreating us to consider “the grace of the Fast” and the firm resolve necessary on our part to make, and continue making, a good beginning.
Great Lent
Alexander Schmemann
An exploration and explanation of the liturgical services, fasts, symbols, and prayers of the Lenten season.
The Year of Grace of the Lord
Monk of the Eastern Church
A devotional look at the seasons of the church.
The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Classics of Western Spirituality)
The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Holy Transfiguration cloth edition)
John Climacus
A seventh century ascetical handbook read every year during Lent in Orthodox monasteries.
Ascending the Heights: A Layman’s Guide to the Ladder of Divine Ascent
John Mack
A layman’s reflection on each rung of Climacus’ Divine Ladder.
The Way of the Ascetics
Tito Colliander
An excellent introduction to the Orthodox theology of theosis, or deification.
The Seven Perennial Sins and Their Offspring
Ken Bazyn
A reader’s meditation on the seven deadly sins.
Confession: Doorway to Forgiveness
Jim Forest
An Orthodox Christain examines the communal nature of sin and forgiveness.
Ladder of the Beatitudes
Jim Forest
An anecdotal exploration of the extraordinary dimensions of the Kingdom.
The Beatitudes: Soundings in Christian Tradition
Simon Tugwell
A Biblical and devotional stirring of the moral imagination.
The Return of the Prodigal Son
Henri Nouwen
A luminous meditation on the parable in regard to Rembrandt’s painting.
The Arena
Ignatius Brianchaninov
A manual on the inner life and outward conduct of the monk.
Thoughts Matter: The Practice of the Spiritual Life
Mary Margaret Funk
A notable manual for keeping us awake to that ‘’still, small voice.’’
Back to Virtue
Peter Kreeft
Ethics without virtue is illusion.
Meditations on a Theme
Anthony Bloom
A powerful look at what conquering the Kingdom of God actually means.
Unseen Warfare
St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain / St. Theophan the Recluse
One of the most useful and trusted manuals in the literature of Orthodox teaching on the spiritual life.
Catechetical Lectures, Vol. 1 (Fathers of the Church Series)
Catechetical Lectures, Vol. 2 (Fathers of the Church Series)
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
One of the earliest known catechisms of the Christian Church.
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On Prayer
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The inner significance of Lent is best summed up in the triad of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. To quote Bishop Kallistos Ware, "Divorced from prayer and from the reception of the holy sacraments, unaccompanied by acts of compassion, our fasting becomes pharisaical or even demonic. It leads, not to contrition and joyfulness, but to pride, inward tension and irritability."
That said, here are our picks (among the myriad available) On Prayer...
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Orthodox Prayer Life
Matthew the Poor
A contemporary Egyptian monastic points the way to those who desire, and are willing to sacrifice for, an existence formed by the practice of unceasing prayer.
Beginning to Pray
Anthony Bloom
“The day when God is absent, when He is silent—that is the beginning of prayer.’’
Earthen Vessels: The Practice of Personal Prayer According to the Patristic Tradition
Gabriel Bunge, O.S.B.
Written by a Benedictine monk and patristic scholar, this book belongs in the hands of anyone who seriously desires a life of prayer.
Prayer for Beginners
Peter Kreeft
A clear and eminently reasonable approach to prayer for people not very good at praying.
How to Pray
Jean-Nicholas Grou
An instruction which gives equal weight to grace, personal effort, interior intention, outward acts and prescribed forms of prayer.
Prayer: Living With God
Simon Tugwell
Focuses on our relationship with God and ways we can learn to enjoy and appreciate that relationship through prayer.
Prayer in Practice
Simon Tugwell
An unblinkingly honest and even humorous treatise on different forms of prayer.
Three Prayers
Olivier Clement
A meditation on three of the most essential prayers of the Christian tradition.
A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain: A Discussion with a Hermit on the Jesus Prayer
Metropolitan Hierotheos
A discussion encompassing essential dimensions of the human person in relation to the most precious and numinous of prayers.
On the Prayer of Jesus
Ignatius Brianchaninov
Blunt and trustworthy advice about the right and wrong ways to approach the practice of the Jesus Prayer.
The Power of the Name
Kallistos Ware
A lecture given to a group of nuns which has become a classic exposition of the practice of the Jesus Prayer.
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On Fasting
If the primary aim of fasting is to make us conscious of our dependence on God and to enable us—as the Lenten Triodian puts it--to “draw near to the mountain of prayer,” the following books are hammers, saws and levels for the task.
Great Lent: Journey to Pascha
Alexander Schmemann
Especially helpful is the section titled “The Two Meanings of Fasting.”
When You Fast
Kallistos Ware
Maybe the all-time best use of the dollar—it’s actually an excerpt from the introduction to The Lenten Triodion.
Celebration of Discipline
Richard Foster
Foster’s chapter on fasting is excellent, like nearly everything he writes regarding spiritual discipline.
Thoughts Matter: The Practice of the Spiritual Life
Mary Margaret Funk
Funk’s thoughts on thoughts and their power to shape discipline are not to be missed. John Cassian and other desert masters are palpable throughout.
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On Almsgiving
As Tuesday’s matins in the first week of Great Lent sings:
Knowing the commandments of the Lord, let this be our way of life:
Let us feed the hungry, let us give the thirsty drink,
Let us clothe the naked, let us welcome the stranger,
Let us visit those in prison and the sick...
And You Welcomed Me
Amy Oden, ed.
A collection of letters, diaries and sermons from the earliest Christian centuries on the discipline of hospitality.
On Repentance and Almsgiving (Fathers of the Church Series)
St. John Chrysostom
The “Golden Mouth” lends substantial thought to the relationship between repentance and almsgiving.
Wealth and Poverty in the Teachings of the Church Fathers
James Thornton
A study of almsgiving in Byzantium—its failures and triumphs.
The Hungry Are Dying: Beggars and Bishops in Roman Cappadocia
Susan R. Holman
A public health nutritionist studies the poor in Cappadocia and how early Christians responded.
Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire
Peter Brown
Brown discusses the role of the Christian Church in revolutionizing the social imagination with the incarnational hope of social cohesion.
The Rise of Christianity
Rodney Stark
Stark shows how the moral precepts of the early Christians became “liberating and effective social organizations.”
The Orphans of Byzantium: Child Welfare in the Christian Empire
Timothy S. Miller
A history of orphans and the systems that cared for them. Modern forms of welfare, take heed.
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