The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers PDF Author:
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0879079592
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
`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.

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers PDF Author:
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0879079592
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
`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.

The Desert Fathers

The Desert Fathers PDF Author: Benedicta Ward
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141907002
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
The Desert Fathers were the first Christian monks, living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. In contrast to the formalised and official theology of the "founding fathers" of the church, the Desert Fathers were ordinary Christians who chose to renounce the world and live lives of celibacy, fasting, vigil, prayer and poverty in direct and simple response to the gospel. Their sayings were first recorded in the 4th century and consist of spiritual advice, anecdotes and parables. The Desert Fathers' teachings and lives have inspired poetry, opera and art, as well as providing spiritual nourishment and a template for monastic life.

The Desert Fathers

The Desert Fathers PDF Author:
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472060085
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The words of the 4th-century monastics who founded the Desert Rule

The Desert Fathers

The Desert Fathers PDF Author: Peter H. Gorg
Publisher: Ignatius Press
ISBN: 1681494825
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
In the late third century, more and more people withdrew to the radical seclusion of the desert so as to live entirely for God under the direction of a spiritual father. Among these "Desert Fathers" one figure is especially preeminent: Saint Anthony the Hermit. This book takes the reader back to the hour when monasticism was born and describes the life of those revolutionary Christians who sought God in the Egyptian desert. The focus of the book is the life and work of Saint Anthony, whose experiences of the spiritual life have a timeless beauty and validity, even for those not called to live as a monk. The second half of the book presents other Desert Fathers, such as Paul of Thebes, Pachomius, and Simeon Stylites, as well as the great founders of the monastic communities in Western Europe who were inspired by them: John Cassian, Columban, and Benedict, for example. "The monk's self-denial begins radically in precisely those departments of life which have perennially seemed to be the most important: ownership, self-determination and sexuality. At the same time those who admonish so uncomfortably become the salt that lends Christianity its original flavor. . . . Just as the saints are God's specific answer to the needs of a given time, so too are the religious orders that have been founded over the course of the centuries." - Peter Görg

Desert Fathers and Mothers

Desert Fathers and Mothers PDF Author: Christine Valters Paintner
Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing
ISBN: 1594733732
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
Timeless and contemplative sayings from the earliest Christian sages of desert spirituality can be a companion on your own spiritual journey. The desert fathers and mothers were ordinary Christians living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Arabia who chose to renounce the world in order to deliberately and individually follow God's call. They embraced lives of celibacy, labor, fasting, prayer and poverty, believing that denouncing material goods and practicing stoic self-discipline would lead to unity with the Divine. Their spiritual practice formed the basis of Western monasticism and greatly influenced both Western and Eastern Christianity. Their writings, first recorded in the fourth century, consist of spiritual advice, parables and anecdotes emphasizing the primacy of love and the purity of heart. Focusing on key themes of charity, fortitude, lust, patience, prayer and self-control, the Sayings influenced the rule of St. Benedict and have inspired centuries of opera, poetry and art. This probing and personal SkyLight Illuminations edition opens up their wisdom for readers with no previous knowledge of Western monasticism and early Christianity. It provides insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that describes historical background, explains the practice of asceticism and illustrates how you can use their wisdom to energize your spiritual quest.

The Wisdom of the Desert

The Wisdom of the Desert PDF Author: Thomas Merton
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 9780811201025
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
"The ascetics of Scete and the Thebaid in the Egyptian Desert have been more often admired than known or understood. Translations by such scholars as Helen Waddell have done much to restore the true perspective. This new selection from the Latin 'Sayings of the Fathers' (Verba Seniorum) has been made by Thomas Merton with a special purpose. It is not only a translation and selection, but a new monastic redaction in the spirit of our own time. Merton has felt free, as a monk, to do what generations of monks before him have done. He has made a wholly independent and original use of material which is the traditional basis of Christian monastic spirituality." -- Dust jacket.

An Introduction to the Desert Fathers

An Introduction to the Desert Fathers PDF Author: John Wortley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108481027
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
An accessible guide to the lives and teaching of the earliest Christian monks, largely using their own words.

More Sayings of the Desert Fathers

More Sayings of the Desert Fathers PDF Author:
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108589944
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Most of the Tales and Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegms) have survived in Greek and most of them are now available in English, almost 2500 in number. A further six hundred items in six languages have been available in French for some time, but often in second- and even third-hand translations. These have now been newly translated directly from the original languages by scholars skilled in those languages and are presented, alongside an Introduction and brief notes, to the English reader who wishes to know more of those men and some women who rejected 'the world' and went to live in the desert regions of Egypt and elsewhere in the fourth to seventh centuries.

The Book of the Elders

The Book of the Elders PDF Author:
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0879077700
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
In the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from "the world" to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to "renounce the world" first had to find an "elder," a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abba—father) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba, he would receive provisions (as it were) for the road to virtue. In addition to the abba's own example of living, there was the verbal teaching of the elders in sayings and tales, setting out the theory and practice of the eremitic life. In due course, these sayings (or apophthegmata) were written down and, later, collected and codified. The earliest attempts to codify tales and sayings are now lost. As the collection grew, they were first organized alphabetically, according to the name of the abba who spoke them, in a major collection known as the Apophthegmata Patrum Alphabetica. A supplementary collection, the Anonymous Apophthegmata, followed. Later, both collections were combined and arranged systematically rather than alphabetically. This collection was created sometime between 500 and 575 and later went through a couple of major revisions, the second of which appeared sometime before 970. This second revision was published in an excellent new critical edition, with a French translation, in 1993. Now, in The Book of the Elders, John Wortley offers an English translation of this collection, based entirely on the Greek of that text.

The Departure of the Soul

The Departure of the Soul PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781945699009
Category : Athos (Greece)
Languages : en
Pages : 1112

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Book Description
This book is the first comprehensive presentation of the teachings of over 120 Orthodox Saints and dozens of holy hierarchs, clergy, and theologians on the subject of the soul¿s exodus to the next life. With over 750 pages of source material featuring many rare images and dozens of texts translated into English for the first time, The Departure of the Soul is unique as both the sole reference edition on the subject and a fascinating and spiritually profitable book for anyone seeking insight into one of the greatest mysteries of all. The book also reveals over 100 falsifications, misrepresentations, and errors contained in the publications of authors who oppose the teaching of the Church, thus definitively ending the 40-year controversy in the Church.