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Title: The Desert Fathers by Basil Pennington, Helen Waddell ISBN: 0-375-70019-6 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 March, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Austerity of the cell
Comment: These earliest of monks take Christ's admonition "to sell everything and follow Him" to heart. With deep austerity, and prayer they follow a path utterly dedicated to a spiritual life. Despite their austerity, there are at times a surprising expressions of personality, and even community among the solitaire cells and companionship of the monks. There are stories of hermits with lions as companions, of sustainment of a few herbs or palm leaves, of them helping thieves stealing from them, or selling Gospels to help the poor. However these monks are humble in their faith, and a lesson often repeated in these stories is humility and compassion for temptations that they themselves feel. The temptations of women, and even a monks' expression of Pelagia "the harlots" beauty was surprisingly sensuous. It may seem impossible for us to be isolated like this, but we can quest for solitude as abbot Antony said "Who sits in solitude escapes from three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing"
Rating: 3
Summary: Not from the Latin, really
Comment: Intrigued by the listing title with its statement that it comprises "Translations from the Latin" I ordered this book only to find that save for the first selection from St. Jerome (originally written in Latin) all of the selections are indeed translations from the Latin but the Latin translations from which Waddell translates are translations of other authors from the original Greek. The Desert Fathers are much more appropriately presented by Faber & Faber in their series of volumes entitled Philokalia which comes in a three or four volume paperback edition and a one volume abridgement and is translated to English directly from the original Greek. I believe.
Rating: 4
Summary: Blooming in The Desert
Comment: Sayings of the early Christian monastics and stories of their lives of austerity and prayer in the Egyptian deserts have appeared as "flavoring" in books like Norris' Cloister Walk. This sturdy volume gathers up many of these tales and wisdom teachings in a clean, readable translation that also sports an encellent introduction which frames and contextualizes this ancient part of our Christian heritage. Waddell calls her book "a case book of spiritual direction, ironic and wise" (p 24), and indeed it can encourage and inspire the reader today. The abbess Matrona could be speaking to our modern urges and contradictions when she says, "It is better to have many about thee, and to live the solitary life in thy will, than to be alone, and the desire of thy mind be with the crowd" (page 72). If other stories strike the modern ear more harshly ("The abbot Arsenius said, "It sufficeth a monk if he sleep for one hour: that is, if he be a fighter" [p. 74]), they still provide the modern reader with the traditions and cultures that developed shortly after the Christian gospels were written. These stories also formed the backdrop for the moderation and carefulness of St. Benedict's Rule--still being followed by monastic orders like the Benedictines and Trappists today.
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Title: Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton ISBN: 0811201023 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women by Laura Swan ISBN: 0809140160 Publisher: Paulist Press Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks by Benedicta Ward ISBN: 0140447318 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers by Benedicta Ward ISBN: 0745939759 Publisher: Lion Pub Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: The Rule of Saint Benedict by St. Benedict ISBN: 037570017X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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