Man & the God- Man

by Archimandrite Justin Popovich

“The mystery of Truth is not in things, not in ideas, not in symbols, but in Personhood, namely the Theanthropic Person of the Lord Christ who said, ‘I am the Tr

uth.’”(John 14:6) Rarely is theology so lucid as it is in the writings of Father Justin Popovich. This book gathers in essays and homilies from various times and sources to form a kind of meditation on Christ as fully God and fully Man and how this Truth influences culture, education, history, and is in fact the only true measure for humanity.

This impressive tome includes all 63 of St. Gregory’s Homilies together with indexes of scriptural references, names, subjects, Greek words and over 1000 notes and scholia. An earlier 2 volume edition of St. Gregories Homilies did not include any of these tools which transform this work into a valuable reference resource. 

Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica was one of the most renowned spiritual guides of Serbia in the twentieth century. As a novice he lived in obedience to Elder Ambrose of Miljkovo Monastery, a disciple of the Optina Elders. From him Fr. Thaddeus learned the Prayer of the Heart and the selfless love that came to characterize his whole ministry to the suffering Serbian people.  This book includes a short life and his writings, offerign valuable and wise guidance for those learning to guard their thoughts. We have already managed to sell out our first 10 copies of this book but will have more in soon.

THE PARTHENOMETOR

Presentation in a brief and concise way the Virgin Mary’s Life: Her early years, the engagement, the Annunciation, the Birth of our Saviour and all those events that took place in Her life afterwards until Her Assumption. Based on the Holy Scripture and the Fathers of Orthodoxy.

PRAYER: The GREAT PRIVILEGE

When man is given the opportunity to get to know the wonderful value of prayer – in relation with some other action which can be in the filed of science, arts, medicine, social and political action – it is not difficult to sacrifice material prosperity in order to enjoy the respite of conversing with God. Prayer is a great privilege which does not come to an end and which infinitelly surpasses the most  worthy achievementsof science, philosophy, art etc. At first the attempts to reach such a privilege may pose a disproportionate difficulty. However, the quest of freedom for prayer may become imperative.

The Hymn of Love

Based on St. Paul’s Hymn of Love in 1 Cor 13.

We don’t yet have The Law of God and the Man.

The devil sure hates this book. We’re deleting hundreds of comments attached to this book each week–and they all seem to have porn links in them.  This is the only book we carry that is being hit this way. 3/28/09

New from Greece, the second of five volumes of Spiritual Counsels by Elder Paisius of Mount Athos. The second volume of Elder Paisios’s Spiritual Counsels Consists of five parts:
The first part refers to the sense of indifference and irresponsibility prevailing in our time. In the second part, the elder kindles the zeal for spiritual work without confining us to a particular struggle. The third part refers to the short occupation of Satan, which will give Christians the opportunity to witness to Christ again. In the fourth part, which addresses divine providence, faith, trust in God and divine assistance, we are guided toward the source from which we can draw the strength to confront any adversity. Lastly, the fifth part focuses on the need for and power heartfelt prayer, a mighty weapon in combating the ever-increasing evil around us.

We have long awaited an English translation of this one.

by our Righteous God-bearing Father Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Themes from the Philokalia Number 1, this book, published in Greece,  is a good place to start for those looking to understand the main themes of the Philokalia.

Unbroken Circle published by the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black offers a collection of talks from the first five or so Ancient African Christianity/African American Orthodox Conferences. Authors include, Fr. Moses Berry, Orthodox Priest, pastor of Unexpected Joy Orthodox Church and founder of the African American Heritage Museum of the Ozarks, Dr. Albert Rabateau, Scholar, writer and professor at Princeton, Nun Katherine Weston, iconographer, Fr. Jerome Sanderson, iconographer, and pastor of the Christ the Saviour Orthodox Parish in Nashville Indiana, Fr. Paisius Altschul from St. Mary of Egypt parish and Reconciliation Ministries in Kansas City, among others. A worthy collection. After 14 confereneces, it’s time for another. Stay tuned: The conference will be in Indy next year.

If you only read one book this year, then it should either be this one or Elder Sophrony’s We Shall See Him As He Is. Better make it two books this year. This book contains a brief life of Elder Porphyrios , one of the “3 Ps” of modern Greece. (The other two being Elder Paisios the New and Elder Philotheos Zervakos) It also contains transcriptions of some of his talks. We’ve seen 4 or 5 different books on this elder. Most of them are simply lives with unending accounts of miracles. Wonderful as that is in itself, it isn’t an entry point for someone new to Orthodoxy. The life here also tells of many miracles and episodes of clairvoyance. But the Elders words are also very helpful in bridging the gaps that many beginners may have in their understanding of Orthodox praxis and spiritual life. Overall, one begins to understand that the overwhelming motivation for all Orthodox ascesis is the Love of God.

“Your most intense effort should be how you will encounter Christ, how you will be united to Him, and how you will keep Him in your heart.”–Elder Porphyrios

This is a really dangerous book. It could change your life. To simply call this book a biography is misleading. It is more than that. Elder Sophrony touches on the significant moments of his life’s journey and then launches into fascinating explanations about Orthodox spiritual life and what was going on within him at the time. So this book is a rare and fascinating phenomenon–the Elder’s own words and descriptions of his own life and his relationship with St. Silouan of Mt. Athos.