Books for Lent: The Fourth Part

[In a recent post, we mentioned some lists for Lenten reading. Read on for the fourth in the series.]

As Tuesday's matins in the first week of Great Lent sings:

Knowing the commandments of the Lord, let this be our way of life:
Let us feed the hungry, let us give the thirsty drink,
Let us clothe the naked, let us welcome the stranger,
Let us visit those in prison and the sick...

On Repentance and Almsgiving (Fathers of the Church Series)
(email or call for availability) 
by St. John Chrysostom
The "Golden Mouth" lends substantial thought to the relationship between repentance and almsgiving.

On Social Justice (email or call for availability)  
by St. Basil the Great
Selections from St. Basil’s homilies on wealth and poverty.

On Wealth and Poverty (email or call for availability)  
by St. John Chrysostom
Addresses the questions of wealth and poverty with clarity, insight, compassion and judgment.

On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom
(email or call for availability) 
by St. John Chrysostom
A selection of excerpts from the eloquent saint on the discipline of simplicity.

Loving the Poor, Saving the Rich: 
Wealth, Poverty, and Early Christian Formation
by Helen Rhee
Explores the issues of wealth and poverty and their relationship to Christian formation.

Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire
(email or call for availability)
by Peter Brown
Brown discusses the role of the Christian Church in revolutionizing the social imagination with the incarnational hope of social cohesion.

And You Welcomed Me: 
A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity
edited by Amy G. Oden
A collection of excerpts from early Christian documents toward a theology of hospitality.

The Rise of Christianity (email or call for availability)
by Rodney Stark
Stark shows how the moral precepts of the early Christians became “liberating and effective social organizations.”

The Orphans of Byzantium: Child Welfare in the Christian Empire
(email or call for availability)
by Timothy S. Miller
A history of orphans and the systems that cared for them. Modern forms of welfare, take heed.

The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire 
(email or call for availability)
by Timothy S. Miller
An excellent synthesis of the way in which Hellenic culture, the Christian church, monasticism, Roman law, and the medical profession participated in the formation and development of Byzantine hospitals.

Wealth and Poverty in the Teachings of the Church Fathers
(email or call for availability) 
by James Thornton
A study of almsgiving in Byzantium—its failures and triumphs.

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.