'Give me a word, Father', visitors to early desert monks asked. The responses of these pioneer ascetics were remembered and in the fourth century written down in Coptic, Syriac, Greek, and later Latin. Their Sayings were collected, in this case in the alphabetical order of the monks and nuns who uttered them, and read by generations of Christians as life-giving words that would help readers along the path to salvation.
'Give me a word, Father', visitors to early desert monks asked. The responses of these pioneer ascetics were remembered and in the fourth century writ...
Professor-emeritus of the Pontifical Oriental Institute at Rome, Tomas Spidlak dedicated his scholarly life to studying and teaching the theology and spirituality of the Christian East in the hope of reconciling Eastern and Western Christian traditions. In this encyclopaedic overview of Eastern spiritual teaching he has created abridge by which Western Christians may pass over centuries of misunderstanding and obliviousness.
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Professor-emeritus of the Pontifical Oriental Institute at Rome, Tomas Spidlak dedicated his scholarly life to studying and teaching the theology a...
The Syrian monks of the fourth and fifth centuries led lives at the opposite extreme from the culture of graeco-roman cities. Unwashed, unkempt, often homeless, usually poorly educated, making a positive virtue out of physical deprivation, they shocked and appalled cultivated pagans. Even Christian townsmen had to overcome hellenic prejudices before they could see in these uncouth figures the spiritual paragons of the age. Yet the Christian laity of the day, led by their clergy, admired and revered them, and flocked to them to behold living examples of true perfection.
In his...
The Syrian monks of the fourth and fifth centuries led lives at the opposite extreme from the culture of graeco-roman cities. Unwashed, unkempt, of...
In No Moment Too Small, Vest focuses on three of the foundations of the Benedictine way: silence, the exploration of Scripture and other spiritual writings (lectio divina), and the hours of prayer. These essentials of Benedict's sixth-century rule of life offer a practical framework for spiritual growth in our own day, a path to God through the events and people of ordinary lives. In her discussion of lectio-on-life, for example, Vest provides insight on the reading of our lives as the "text" in which we find God's Word written in the ordinary events of daily life. Exercises for individuals...
In No Moment Too Small, Vest focuses on three of the foundations of the Benedictine way: silence, the exploration of Scripture and other spiritual wri...
'I have spent al my life in this monastery', wrote Bede from his isolated Northumbrian cell, 'applying myself entirely to the study of the Scriptures...I have made it my business, for my own benefit and that of my brothers, to make brief extracts from the works of the Venerable fathers on the holy Scripture, or to add notes of my own to clarify their sense and interpretation.'
From the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, Bede's authority as a scriptural exegete was second only to that of the Doctors of the Latin Church. His influence was enormous. Yet modern readers associate this...
'I have spent al my life in this monastery', wrote Bede from his isolated Northumbrian cell, 'applying myself entirely to the study of the Scriptur...
