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Recommended Reading The following books are available at the Cathedral Bookstore |
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Rise up with a Listening Heart: Reflecting and Meditating with the Monks of New Skete So often in the rush and bustle of our busyness, we miss the best of life----the sights and sounds and silences that can breathe new meaning into our experience of the world. In this collection of soul-filling meditations and stunning photographs, the Monks of New Skete once again reach out and reawaken the warmest places of our hearts, offering profound but simple lessons in the art of living well. "A quiet call stirs the depths of who we are: Rise Up! Come then and rise up---with laughter and from sorrow, with good reading and with music. From doing nothing to catching the power of a breaking wave." Every awe-inspiring page of this book will give you fresh glimpses of the treasures of hope hidden in our daily lives. With their gentle guidance, the Monks of New Skete offer new strategies for turning sadness into meaning, loneliness into fulfillment, alienations into a renewed sense of belonging in this wondrous world. |
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In The Spirit of Happiness : A Book of Spiritual Wisdom by The Monks of New Skete The book invites the reader to emulate the life of a monk, particularly the uniquely vital and engaged version practiced at New Skete. The reader will come away with fresh insights into improving relationships with other people as well as new ways of connecting to the divine. Such spiritual practices as lectio divino, a daily form of meditation on the Bible, are easy for readers to incorporate into their own lives. Above all, the monks believe human beings were created to be happy, and that the elements of a monk's life - self-discipline, prayer, acts of love and forgiveness - are the pathways anyone can follow to achieve true happiness. |
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Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann Fr Schmemann writes, "The meaning of this journal is not so much a desire to record events, but a kind of visit into myself." They record, often with brutal honesty, his impatience and frustration with himself and events, but above all, his liberation and freedom "in Christ and His Church." We see a life replete with the effort to call people to live "higher and more openly," to become restored human beings. His love of God, deep faith and reverent love of family serve as an endless wellspring shaping his person. Reading these journals we are inspired, enlivened and renewed. | |||
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Celebration of Faith, vol. I: I Believe... by Alexander Schmemann This is a remarkable collection of Fr Alexander Schmemann's sermons delivered over the course of many years over Radio Liberty to listeners in the Soviet Union. Selected from over 3000 sermons, his broadcasts were widely acclaimed. The first of these sermons, under the title The Celebration of Faith uses the themes of faith, revelation, and the Nicene Creed as the symbol of faith. Though generally directed towards those in the church, these talks are unique in that they speak also to the person not in the church. |
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Celebration of Faith, vol. II: The Church Year by Alexander Schmemann There is no human society without celebrations, holidays and feasts. "The feast is part of man's inescapable rhythm of work and rest," observes Fr Schmemann. But beyond the need to rest from work, the development of celebrations in human culture has much deeper root in man's absolutely irrepressible need, not just for rest, but for joy, for meaning that we find the true source of celebration and its tenacity in human society. Feasts, in every culture, have become the repository and expression of a society's goals, ambitions, and worldview. As Fr Schmemann writes, "Tell me what you celebrate, and I will tell you who you are." This book, Volume II in the Celebration of Faith series, explores the Feasts and Celebrations of the Church Year. |
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Celebration of Faith, vol. III: The Virgin Mary by Alexander Schmemann This volume, the third in a collection of sermons by Fr Alexander Schmemann, is on a topic that was particularly close to his heart: the Virgin Mary. The "Theotokos," as Mary is usually referred to among the Orthodox, figures prominently in Byzantine liturgical worship. While no single service is without one or more references to her, Eastern Orthodox theological manuals have little to say about Mary beyond repeating the primarily Christological titles affirmed by the Third Ecumenical Council — "Theotokos," "Birthgiver of God." | |||
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The Eucharist by Alexander Schmemann The Eucharist is the crowning achievement of the well-known liturgical scholar, Alexander Schmemann. It reflects his entire life experience and thoughts on the Divine Liturgy, the Church's central act of self-realization. |
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The Incarnate God Catherine Aslanoff, ed. Intended as a sequel to the widely acclaimed and highly popular The Living God, these two volumes of The Incarnate God present a new catechetical model, derived from the Church's liturgical year. Utilizing scriptural readings, hymns, and icons of the feasts of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, the team of authors, comprised of Orthodox theologians and pastors, draws us deeply into the mysteries of the faith as experienced in the cycle of feasts and fasts which are lived out by the faithful each year. |
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The Orthodox Church by Kallistos Ware New revised edition. An excellent book on the history, liturgy, sacraments and teachings of the Orthodox Church written by an eminent spiritual leader and scholar. |
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Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian by Jordan Bajis Provides clear, stimulating answers to the challenging questions that American Christians typically put to Orthodox. But the book goes farther than this. Common Ground begins by showing how Christianity is inherently Eastern, and from there, gently challenges the Protestant and Roman Catholic reader to re-evalute his or her own views of Christianity against the Orthodox perspective. Common Ground is perfect for the Western Christian interested in Ancient Faith, the sincere student of Orthodoxy, and the mission minded Eastern Christian who desires to communicate his faith in a sensitive but compelling manner. |
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To Pray and to Love By Roberta C. Bondi To Pray and to Love is for all persons who want to pray but do not know how, who pray but feel uncertain about it, and who pray happily but want to grow more deeply. For those who have longing for prayer and yet have never prayed, the author offers some specific suggestions about attitudes, beliefs, and dispositions that get in the way of our prayer without us even noticing. Bondi also shares some of what the founders of early monasticism had to say about prayer and Christian love that she has found especially helpful over the years. | |||
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To Love as God Loves By Roberta C. Bondi Roberta Bondi brings the rich tradition of the early Church fathers and mothers into the 20th century, and invites us to learn anew what it means to love. She writes in a very engaging manner, making it easy to not only understand her writing, but sparking the desire to live it out. |
