The Reflections of Abba Zosimas: Monk of the Palestinian Desert

The Reflections of Abba Zosimas: Monk of the Palestinian Desert
Author: John Chryssavgis
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 55
Release: 2023
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0728303434

Fairacres Publications 145 Translated into English for the first time by John Chryssavgis, these Reflections present, with great simplicity, the day-to-day teaching and example of one of the great sixth-century eremitical Fathers of the Palestinian desert. For Abba Zosimas, obedience to the gospel implies a radical disposition of love for the neighbour in every thought, word and action. This is the key to freedom and joy.

The Reflections of Abba Zosimas

The Reflections of Abba Zosimas
Author: Zosimas (Abba)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2004
Genre: Desert Fathers
ISBN: 9780728301634

Translated into English for the first time by John Chryssavgis, these Reflections present, with great simplicity, the day-to-day teaching and example of one of the great sixth-century eremitical Fathers of the Palestinian desert. For Abba Zosimas, obedience to the gospel implies a radical disposition of love for the neighbour in every thought, word and action. This is the key to freedom and joy.

Embertide: Encountering Saint Frideswide

Embertide: Encountering Saint Frideswide
Author: Romola Parish
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2024-04-17
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0728303833

SLG Press Contemplative Poetry 14 St Frideswide, or Frithuswith, was an important saint during the medieval period and is patron of the City of Oxford. Her shrine was a place of pilgrimage but was destroyed during the Reformation and since then she has largely disappeared from view. Embertide is not a simple retelling of her biography, but engages with all the different versions of her life and seeks to understand her importance in the past and her significance today. It is liminal, elusive and delicately balanced; a kind of spiritual pilgrimage towards understanding elements of faith. Spiritual pilgrimage is a lifetime journey of rethinking and revisiting our perceptions and understanding, just as saints’ written lives have been refashioned to appeal to different audiences at different points in time. This poem is the outcome of one such spiritual pilgrimage, and each reader will encounter it differently, on their own terms. Our saints, in their afterlives, are still travelling, and we follow in their wake.

'In the image of the Image': Gregory of Nyssa's Opposition to Slavery

'In the image of the Image': Gregory of Nyssa's Opposition to Slavery
Author: Adam Couchman
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2023-07-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0728303590

St Gregory of Nyssa is the most important author of the fourth century in relation to theological anthropology, and was one of the most outspoken of the early Church Fathers on the subject of slavery. Gregory’s theology is built upon his perception that Jesus Christ was truly human; therefore, to be human is to be made in the image of Christ. We cannot justify slavery if we accept that humans are made in God’s image, because slaves are no less made in the image of God than those who are free. This book examines Gregory’s theology, how he understood and taught about the relationship of human beings to God, and how he applied this theology to the practical issue of slavery.

Anselm of Canterbury – A Monastic Scholar

Anselm of Canterbury – A Monastic Scholar
Author: Sister Benedicta Ward SLG
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2024-05-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0728304082

Fairacres Publications 62 Saint Anselm (1033–1109) was abbot of the Norman monastery of Bec, and later Archbishop of Canterbury under William Rufus and Henry I. In this short study of one of the most original thinkers of the earlier Middle Ages, Sister Benedicta discusses the relationship between Anselm’s scholarship and his life as a monk, showing how the one grew naturally out of the other. Anselm’s understanding of the inter-connections of reason and faith, thought and prayer, which can be traced throughout his writings, both theological and devotional, remains significant for Christian scholarship in any age. At the same time he was one of the most attractive, loving and compassionate of men. Simplicity, humanity and gentleness are joined in Anselm to the clear and sane mind of a great scholar.

THE WISDOM OF THE DESERT FATHERS SYSTEMATIC SAYINGS from the ANONYMOUS SERIES OF THE APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM

THE WISDOM OF THE DESERT FATHERS SYSTEMATIC SAYINGS from the ANONYMOUS SERIES OF THE APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM
Author:
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2012-03-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0728301091

Fairacres Publications 48 Sister Benedicta notes in her Introduction that ‘the virtues and obligations inherent in the gospel for all are presented in the literature of the desert in stark and vivid colours, like a poster in their clarity’. In this collection of Sayings from the desert tradition arranged under subject headings, the monks and nuns of fourth-century Egypt show us that the spirituality of the desert is for everyone. Their teaching speaks to any who follow the way of Christ; it is concerned more with action and behaviour than with mystical experience, with compassion, forbearance, self-knowledge and facing inner conflict.

Shem`on the Graceful

Shem`on the Graceful
Author: Mary Hansbury
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2020-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0728303019

Fairacres Publications 184 The late seventh century in the Syrian Church saw the flourishing of several noted monastic writers, amongst them Shem`on, a monk of an abbey in south-west Iran. Few of his writings remain, but this homily has been preserved as a model of instruction on the solitary life. Preached at the consecration of the cell of a monk embarking on the hermit life, it clearly states the disciplines required to live this form of asceticism, as well as the difficulties and dangers that will be encountered. Through this life of stillness (hesychia), the whole person lives centred on life in the resurrected Christ and in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the world.

The Letters of Ammonas

The Letters of Ammonas
Author: Derwas Chitty
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 50
Release: 1979-04-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0728303507

Fairacres Publications 72 This book contains the fourteen surviving letters of St Ammonas, one of the disciples of St Antony the Great. The main topics of these letters are the gifts of the Spirit, spiritual direction and discernment of the will of God. Derwas Chitty made a draft translation of these letters from the Greek and early Syriac versions; after his death, Dr Sebastian Brock carried out a thorough revision and added an introduction and a bibliography.

Anselm of Canterbury

Anselm of Canterbury
Author: Sister Benedicta Ward SLG
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2022
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0728303337

For those who study St Anselm, his prayers provide an intimate personal introduction to his thinking and his spirituality. For Anselm, who never considered himself a teacher of prayer, his prayers were simply personal devotions that he occasionally shared with others to encourage them to develop their own devotional style. Anselm would probably have been surprised to discover not only how widely his words were disseminated, but also the ways in which their translation and interpretation changed over the centuries. This brief study, by one of the leading scholars of early monastic life and thought, examines Anselm’s prayers as models and inspiration for mystics, saints and writers up to the present day.

Poet of the Word: Re-reading Scripture with Ephraem the Syrian

Poet of the Word: Re-reading Scripture with Ephraem the Syrian
Author: Aelred Partridge
Publisher: SLG Press
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2020-11-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0728303035

Fairacres Publications 187 Early Christians read the Bible somewhat differently from their modern counterparts. For example, St Ephraem’s layered approach to interpreting Sacred Scripture, especially the Old Testament, led him to delve below the literal words of the texts to uncover the rich vein of symbolic allusions that lay within them. Woven together, they formed a tapestry of spiritual wisdom. Ephraem transformed this tapestry into vibrant poetry in hymns, homilies and biblical commentaries that gesture towards the unfathomable mystery of God revealed in Christ. This brief essay examines the principles that guided Ephraem’s manner of biblical interpretation (his hermeneutics) and reveals why he is a Poet of the Word.