The gift of the fast

"Let us welcome gladly the gift of the fast," said Theodore the Studite in his homily at the start of Lent.

Though we may approach this season of repentance and fasting with at least some sense of dread, Bishop Kallistos Ware writes in The Lenten Triodian that abstinence leads not only to weariness and hunger, "but also to a sense of lightness, wakefulness, freedom and joy." 

Love is (or ought to be) the heart of our intention. In his classic ascetic treatise, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, St. John Climacus colorfully and skillfully paints "an icon of man's progression to perfection---or completeness---in the spiritual life which, in its fulness, is nothing less than union with and participation in the divine nature of the one true God, the Holy Trinity. But St. John warns us that there is only one proper motive for setting out on this path and that is love for God" (from the introduction to Remember Thy First Love).

And because we believe that love for God can be nurtured through the reading of good books, we (as a matter of course) have a list of suggestions. You may have seen these lists before, but books have been added or subtracted due to availability. As one book tends to lead to another, who knows what you might find next. 

We will post a list a day for the next few days, so as not to overwhelm. Please also browse our website or call the store if you have any questions. 

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[A bit more from Theodore the Studite's homily on Great Lent, Catechesis 53]

And so I ask, let us welcome gladly the gift of the fast, not making ourselves miserable, as we are taught, but let us advance with cheerfulness of heart, innocent, not slandering, not angry, not evil, not envying; rather peaceable towards each other, and loving, fair, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits; breathing in seasonable stillness, since hubbub is damaging in a community; speaking suitable words, since too unreasonable stillness is profitless; yet above all unsleepingly keeping watch over our thoughts, not opening the door to the passions, not giving place to the devil. If the spirit of the powerful one, it says, rise up against you, do not let it find your place. So that the enemy has power to suggest, but in no way to enter.