Eight Chapters on Perfection & Angels’ Song


Book Description

Fairacres Publications 85 Eight Chapters on Perfection is Hilton’s translation of a Latin text by the Aragonese Friar Dom Lluis de Font, and is the only surviving record of that manuscript. It is a text of great humanity and wisdom about the possibilities of friendship and love between those drawn to prayer. In Angels’ Song Hilton’s own spirituality is revealed as he considers how, in the spiritual life, the action of grace can be distinguished from pious illusion.




Where Grace Grows Ever Green


Book Description

SLG Press Contemplative Poetry 3 Middle English Lyrics are characterized by their brevity and intensity of expression. They were composed by men and women from both sacred and secular backgrounds and survive in numerous manuscript sources. This collection brings together works that examine and celebrate themes of personal faith and devotion, the mystery of God’s love and the hope of redemption, the harsh realities of daily life and personal piety. The poetry opens a window into the subtle and thoughtful world of Middle English literature, in which the impact of faith on daily life is presented with an immediacy and veracity that is deeply appealing.




Touchpapers


Book Description

SLG Press Contemplative Poetry 11 This anthology of thoughts seeks to be a various and portable nudger into the corners, plains and hilltops of all kinds of what might be called Wisdom. The poems and extracts selected here may be enough in themselves; kickers-on to bigger, longer, things, or no; touchpapers to bright thoughts either related or, in the end, unrelated to them; or a spur to read more of the same, be it poems or poets, or more writing of the thinking kind, philosophers and parsons. This collection of snippets is intended to stimulate, lead on to more. It is less an anthology, and more a trigger, leading the reader, as they dip and choose, read and leave, to whatever depth of thought in whatever area they might choose.




Journeying with the Jesus Prayer


Book Description

Fairacres Publications 186 In recent years more and more Christians in the West have been discovering the many blessings of the Jesus Prayer. This prayer originated among the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the Eastern Mediterranean around fifteen hundred years ago, and for centuries has inspired and enabled Christians of the Orthodox Church to find a deeper relationship with God through the continual rhythmic repetition of the short prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me’. In this book, James F. Wellington tells the story of his own journey with the prayer, highlighting the graces which he has received on his travels. These include unceasing prayer, inner watchfulness, stillness of heart, and perfect longing. He concludes with a celebration of what the Jesus Prayer has taught him, and is still teaching him, about the inner geography of the human heart.




A Companion to Marguerite Porete and The Mirror of Simple Souls


Book Description

Even with growing popularity in the United States, there existed no English-language scholarly introduction to Marguerite Porete or her sole-surviving work Mirror of Simple Souls until now. The study of Marguerite and her work touches on so many disciplines – from religious and secular histories to theological and literary readings of her book – that the scholarship had often been lost in the divides between the disciplines. Our contributors are chosen from both sides of the Atlantic and from an array of disciplines in order to bridge this geographical and linguistic divide. The interdisciplinary nature of the interest in Marguerite and the Mirror and the implications her book has on medieval scholarship make a collection such as this companion ideal. Contributors are Marleen Cré, Imke De Gier, Dávid Falvay, Sean Field, Geneviève Hasenohr (with Zan Kocher), Jonathan Juilfs, Zan Kocher, Joanne Robinson, Elizabeth Scarborough, Robert Stauffer, Wendy R. Terry, and Justine Trombley.




Lent With George Herbert


Book Description

Fairacres Publication 194 The poems of George Herbert (1593–1633) have nurtured the faith of countless Anglican Christians, and others, since their posthumous publication in 1633. Described by the poet as ‘a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master’, Herbert’s poetry weaves together recognition of the glory and diversity of God’s creation and of the ingenuity of human beings in their attempts to map and control that creation, awareness of human frailty and sinfulness, and awed realisation of the infinite love of God. The themes of frailty and forgiveness underlying Herbert’s poetry also mark the season of Lent. In recognition of this, Tony Dickinson takes eight of the poems that tackle these great themes (relevant as much to the twenty-first century as to the seventeenth) and week by week through Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day, unpacks the language in which George Herbert explores them; language that often appears direct and simple, but whose simplicity frequently conceals a depth and density of meaning that few other writers can match.




Prayer & Holiness


Book Description

Fairacres Publication 82 In five essays originally given as addresses to the Benedictine monks at the Monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium, the author gives us the essentials of his teaching on prayer. They are the fruit not only of personal experience and long familiarity with the hesychast writings of Orthodox monasticism, but also of the spiritual tradition of his native Romania. We are given the outline of an icon of restored humanity through texts which we can appropriate for ourselves to allow the love of God to live and work in us.




The Wisdom of Saint Isaac the Syrian


Book Description

Fairacres Publications 128 In recent decades there has been a notable renewal of interest in St Isaac the Syrian, a seventh-century master of the ascetic life. This selection of short sayings is part of Dr Brock’s work on a fuller, long-neglected manuscript which he is making available to English readers. Each sentence holds the mind steadily in the light of a truth about the spiritual life. St Isaac’s vivid images drawn directly from nature, husbandry and general human experience speak for themselves and draw us to penitence and prayer.




Gregory of Nyssa and the Sins of Asia Minor


Book Description

Fairacres Publications 203 St Gregory of Nyssa is known to theologians as one of the three great Cappadocian Fathers who are credited with the final clarification of the doctrine of the Trinity in the late fourth century. Few have ventured to study his role as a bishop who took pains to teach his flock the mysteries of the faith and how to lead a good Christian life. This short study delves into the moral teaching that St Gregory delivered to his audience by analyzing the specific sins about which he is teaching. Given that he preached all over Roman Anatolia, the details found in his homilies give us some insight into which sins were most notorious in the lands of Asia Minor and which, therefore, needed to be addressed.




Letters of Saint Antony the Great


Book Description

Fairacres Publications 50 These seven letters were addressed by St Antony (251-356 AD) to his disciples. This hermit of the Egyptian desert draws our attention to those things which are essential in the spiritual life. Among the main themes are the witness of the Holy Spirit in the conscience of each person, the need for self-knowledge, the call to follow Christ, the unity of the Church, and our mutual co-inherence as members of the Body of Christ.




Recent Books