Christ, Our Way and Our Life
by Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou
Description:
An examination of the theology of Archimandrite Sophrony. Some of the eight chapters include: The Mystery of the Ways of Salvation, The Path of Hesychasm, Prayer as the Fulfillment of Creation etc. Translated from the original Greek by Sister Magdalen. 275 pages.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Hypostatic Principle and its Realization in Human Life
1a) The meaning of hypostasis
1b) The primordial glory of man
1c) The delusion of an impersonal absolute
Chapter 2 The Kenosis of the Lord and the Salvation of Man
2a) The kenosis of the word of God
2b) The way of Thy commandments
2c) Love - to the point of self-hatred
Chapter 3 Separation and Restoration
3a) The greatness and nullity of man
3b) Death
3c) The grace of mindfulness of death
3d) Spiritual mourning and tears
3e) The despair which is pleasing to God
Chapter 4 The Mystery of the Ways of Salvation
4a) The grace of our call
4b) When grace is withdrawn
4c) Grace is regained
4d) Knowing the way
Chapter 5 Monasticism and Spiritual Fatherhood
5a) Monasticism as a gift of the Holy Spirit
5b) Fidelity to the monastic vows heals the estrangement brought about by original sin
5c) Spiritual fatherhood as a ministry of reconciliation between man and God
Chapter 6 The Path of Hesychasm
6a) The Jesus Prayer
6b) The practice of the Jesus Prayer
6c) Inner prayer
6d) The struggle against the imagination
Chapter 7 From the Psychological to the Ontological Level
7a) Repentance
7b) Ontological regenaration
7c) The vision of uncreated light
7d) 'Ontological' repentance inspires a two fold vision
7e) Ascetic humility and divine humility
7f) The ontological content of the person: freedom for self-determination
Chapter 8 Prayer as the Fulfilment of Creation
8a) Prayer as personal communion
8b) Pure prayer
8c) Prayer for the whole world as the manifestation par excellence of the hypostatic principle
u8d) Love for one's enemies as a criterion of truth
Epilogue
This book is available from Light & Life Publishing at
http://www.light-n-life.com/
by Archimandrite Zacharias
Description:
Inspired presentations on the nature and purpose of human experience in St. Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938) and Elder Sophrony of Essex (1896-1993) with an Appendix comprised of two lectures on monasticism. The author is a disciple of Elder Sophrony and a member of the monastery of St. John the Baptist, England. 254 pages.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Saint Silouan the Athonite and his disciple the elder Sophrony
Man's birth into eternal life
Keep thy mind in hell and despair not
God's work of salvation and man
Prayer the work of creation
On the Jesus Prayer
Spiritual fatherhood as a ministry of reconciliation between man and God
The presentation of Christ that justified God and man
Appendix
On Monasticism I
On Monasticism II
This book is available from Light & Life Publishing at
http://www.light-n-life.com/
by Archimandrite Zacharias
Description:
The cultivation of the heart as taught in Orthodox Christian anthropology. 193 pages
Table of Contents
Foreword by Bishop Basil Essey
Preface
Introduction: The Mystery of Man's Heart
Ch1 The Awakening of the Heart through Mindfulness of Death
Ch2 The Hour of Death
Ch3 The Awakening of the Heart through Fear of God
Ch4 The Awakening of the Heart through bearing Shame in the Sacrament of Confession
Ch5 The Building up of the Heart by Vigilance and Prayer
Ch6 Prayer as Infinite Creation
Ch7 The Building up of the Heart by the Grace of Repentance
Ch8 On Repentance
Ch 9 On Repentance and the Struggle against the Passions
Ch 10 On Repentance within the Body of the Church
Ch 11 The Building up of the Heart by the Crucifixion of the Mind
Ch 12 'Go in and you will find rest'
Ch13 The deep heart , new energies and true humility
Ch14 The Word of God, Divine Inspiration and Prophetic Life
Ch15 On the gift of Speaking in Tongues
Epilogue: Sermon for the Leave-taking of the Feast of the Meeting of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Temple
This book is available from Light & Life Publishing at
http://www.light-n-life.com/
by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov
Description:
In the autumn of 1892 a young Russian peasant named Simeon from the province of Tambov was drawn to that ancient repository of Orthodox spirituality, Mount Athos. He had done his military service and now came to the Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon, to embark on long years of spiritual combat lasting until his death in 1938. 504 pages. From the backcover.
Table of Contents
PART I
The Staretz's Life and Teaching
1. Childhood and early years
2. Arrival on Mt Athos
3. Monastic Strivings
4. Portrait of the Staretz
5. The Staretz Doctrinal Teaching
6. Pure Prayer and Mental Stillness
7. The Imagination and the Ascetic Struggle against its Various Aspects
8. Uncreated Divine Light and Ways of Contemplation
9.Grace and Consequent Dogmatic Consciousness
10. Spiritual Trials
11. 'Keep Thy Mind in Hell and Despair Not'
12. The Divine Word and the Bounds of Created Nature
13. On the purport of Prayer for the World
AFTERWORD
14. The Staretz Demise
15. Testimonies
Potscriptum
PART II
The Writings of Staretz Silouan
1. Yearning for God
2. On Prayer
3. On Humility
4. On Peace
5. On Grace
6. On the Will of God and on Freedom
7. On Repentance
8. On the Knowledge of God
9. On Love
10. We are Children of God and in the Likeness of the Lord
11. On the Mother of God
12. On the Saints
13. Concerning Shepherds of Souls
14. Concerning Monks
15. Concerning Obedience
16. Concerning Spiritual Warfare
17. Concerning Intrusive Thoughts and Delusions
18. Adam's Lament
19. Reminiscences and Conversations
20. Thoughts, Advice and Observations on Asceticism
This book is available from St Vladimir's Seminary Press and Bookstore at
http://www.svspress.com/
by Archimandrite Sakharov
Description:
"The book is permeated by the awareness that prayer is not just the cultivation of a particular spiritual state, not the investigation of an abstract Idea or dissolution in an anonymous Whole, but encounter with the personal Being, I AM, demanding in turn our own growth in personhood". 128 pages. From the backcover
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I
1. Knowledge of God
2. The Enigma of I AM
3. The Risk in Creation
4. The Tragedy of Man
5. Contemplation
6. Prayer of the Spirit
7. The Bliss of Knowing the Way
8. The Struggle in Prayer
9. Concerning Repentance and Spiritual Warfare
10. Through Dark to Light
11. Experience of Eternity through Prayer
12. Liturgical Prayer
13. The Prayer of Gethsemane
Part II
1. The Jesus Prayer
2. The Jesus Prayer: Method
3. The Jesus Prayer as the Prayer for all Conditions of Man
This book is available from St Vladimir's Seminary Press and Bookstore at
http://www.svspress.com/
by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov
Description:
"This collection of articles on prayer and the spiritual life, together with some of the author's own prayers, is a moving testimony to the relevance of Christ, who, for Archimandrite Sophrony is 'all and in all, the beginning and the ending of all things cf. Col. 3:11; Rev. 1:8.
208 pages.
Table of Contents
Part I
1. Prayer - An ever-new Creation
2. Prayer - The Way to Knowledge
3. Again, On Prayer
4. Spiritual Life
5. The Role of Father-Confessor
Part II
1. The Jesus Prayer
2. The Jesus Prayer: Method
3. The Jesus Prayer for all times and occasions
Prayers
This book is available from St Vladimir's Seminary Press and Bookstore athttp://www.svspress.com/
by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov
Description:
Fr Sophrony speaks (from the Prologue); "My path through life, my experiences may be somewhat out of the ordinary but their essential content I share with millions of souls worldwide. So perhaps this my confession - or, more accurately maybe my spiritual autobiography - will help others to interpret their own ordeals. Of a certainty no initiative of mine provoked the happenings in my inner life. But God of His providence, which is known only to him, vouchsafed to visit me and as it were communicate His eternal Being. His holy hand mercilessly cast me, His creation, into indescribable depths where stunned and appalled, I contemplated realities that transcended my understanding. This is what I shall attempt to write of now. 237 pages.
Table of Contents
Prologue
1. The Grace of Mindfulness of Death
2. On the Fear of God
3. Concerning Repentance
4. Spiritual Mourning
5. Wavering in Quest of the Unwavering
6. The Bliss of Knowing the Way
7. Summation of the Life of our Spirit
8. Concerning Spiritual Liberty
9. Inspiration
10. Emptiness: God has withdrawn
11. Love - to the Point of Self-hatred
12. The Uncreated Light
13. The Hypostatic Principle in the Godhead and in the Human Being
14. Prayer wherein God is revealed as Truth
Epilogue
This book is available from St Vladimir's Seminary Press and Bookstore at
http://www.svspress.com/
All amazing books!
ReplyDeleteI must say that St Silouan the Athonite by Elder Sophrony has deeply influenced my life and the way I see the world.
Great selection.