Recommended Reading

People sometimes ask me to recommend a good book. The answer is, "It depends." Here are some titles that come to mind:

Theology
The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, Vladimir Lossky
The Message of the Bible, Dr. George Cronk
For the Life of the World, Very Rev. Alexander Schmemman
The Orthodox Way, Bishop Kallistos Ware
Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume 1 : Revelation and Knowledge of the Triune God, Fr. Dumitru Staniloae
Orthodox Dogmatic Theology Volume 2: The World, Creation and Deification, Fr. Dumitru Staniloae
Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

Spirituality
The Life of Repentance and Purity, H.H. Pope Shenouda III
The Life in Christ, Nicholas Cabasilas
The Practice of the Presence of God, Br. Lawrence
In Thy Presence, Fr. Lev Gillet
Jesus: A Dialogue with the Savior, Fr. Lev Gillet
Ages of the Spiritual Life, Paul Evdokimov
God and Man, Met. Anthony Bloom
Living Prayer, Met. Anthony Bloom
Beginning to Pray, Met. Met. Anthony Bloom
Orthodox Spirituality, A Monk of the Eastern Church
Unseen Warfare, Lorenzo Scupoli
Communion of Love, Fr. Matthew the Poor (Matta al-Miskeen)
Orthodox Prayer Life, Fr. Matthew the Poor (Matta al-Miskeen)
Way of the Ascetics, Tito Colliander
The Way of a Pilgrim, anonymous Russian pilgrim
Counsels on the Spiritual Life: Mark the Monk (Popular Patristics)

Patrology/Patristics/Desert Fathers
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, St. John Climacus
Confessions, St. Augustine
On Wealth and Poverty, St. John Chrysostom
On Ascetical Life, St. Isaac of Syria
The Way to Nicaea (The Formation of Christian Theology, Vol. 1), Fr. John Behr
The Nicene Faith (Formation Of Christian Theology, Vol. 2), Fr. John Behr
The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death, Fr. John Behr
The Fathers of the Church, Expanded Edition, Mike Aquilina
Fathers Of The Church: A Comprehensive Introduction, Hubertus R. Drobner et al. (contributors)
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Benedicta Ward (translator)
The Holy Fire: The Story of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, Robert Payne (translator)
The Fathers of the Church: From Clement of Rome to Augustine of Hippo


Fiction
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie

Father Nicanor

In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, we're introduced to a priest invited to officiate a wedding in an isolated Mexican village. There are a few noteworthy things from the passages about him:

First Impressions

Father Nicanor Reyna...was an old man hardened by the ingratitude of his ministry. His skin was sad, with the bones almost exposed, and he had a pronounced round stomach and the expression of an old angel, which came more from simplicity than goodness.

You just didn't want to look at this man. How about us? Are we embittered by people's "ingratitude" to the point that a we almost permanently bear a worn, wounded countenance? I think of my own priest, whose face is almost always the polar opposite of this. I look back over the years he has served us and all the ingratitude he inevitably faced. As I get a little older and begin to make my first contacts with the adult world, I appreciate his gift of radiance more and more.

What Value to Do We Add?

Thinking that no land needed the seed of God so much, he decided to stay on for another week...They would answer him that they had been so many years without a priest, arranging the business of their souls directly with God, and that they had lost the evil of original sin.

Reading up to this point - and after it -in the novel, the reader knows that in fact that there was a lot of brokenness in the community. Sin, evil and their consequences had not been wiped away. We who serve the church in the world face the challenge of a world which feels that it's "OK" with God - or without Him. It is this same world that is - perhaps because of this very attitude - full of fragmentation, anxiety, brokenness and hurt. What do we do to enter into this situation - mindful of our own nueroses - as healers? Are we just shoveling something or are we truly serving God and people?

Wrong Focus

Tired of preaching in the open, Father Nicanor decided to undertake the building of a church, the largest in the world, with life-size saints and stained-glass windows...

Rather than courageously work with people intimately, the priest hides himself in a giant project. We see this today: from the mega-church phenomenon to the countless church organizations with their "exectutive boards" and "officers". To be sure, every group - whether secular or religious - needs a place to meet and feel a sense of community and needs some organizational structure. The scandal justifiably comes, though, when the places of meeting and the organizational structures become ends and bury the central message. Perhaps we would be better off with smaller churches and fewer titles.

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For a contrast from Father Nicanor, see an article I found on Archbishop Christodolus of Greece, who recently passed away.