Devotional Literature that Inspired you?

[LastMinute]

When i was at university a long long time ago, i met a rather brilliant Greek PhD student, son of a truck driver coming from a working class family in Athens. He was a deeply pious Orthodox Christian, who enjoyed my company perhaps due to similar circumstance and the devotion i showed to my own faith.

Perhaps it was also the fact that we were alone in a sea of well… not so much opposition, but apathy toward anything beyond the sensible.

Toward the end of our time together, as he was moving off to an institute, he gifted me a copy of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. “Not high philosophy or technical understanding, but Faith” was what he said.

Since that time, i’ve picked up some other popular pieces of devotional literature here or there such as the Way of a Pilgrim, but for a variety issues mostly stuck to reading things that might be properly called theology.

Having recently stumbled over the Spiritual Psalter of St. Ephrem the Syrian, it got me thinking about devotional literature as its own category again.

So - are there any pieces of devotional literature, whether it be sayings or even homilies, that has played a strong role in your own journey to faith or in the lives of those that are part of your own community?

 

[ReaderT]

I agree with the Desert Fathers and the Spiritual Psalter. Another big one is the “Ascetic Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian”. The Philokalia is also a good resource.

 

[LastMinute]

The Philokalia is also a good resource.

Tried climbing that mountain once. LIke Aquinas Summa Theologica, I realized quite quickly i would need some more climbing gear and more importantly - time to digest. Its definitely on the “to-do” list, hopefully at a more quieter point.

the “Ascetic Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian”

Heard of it. I’ve actually been looking for a “complete works” of St. Isaac, although i was told that the second half of his writings was “recently” (~1980s) found and subsequently translated by Sebastian Brock as:

Isaac of Nineveh (Isaac the Syrian). The Second Part, chapters IV-XLI Syr. 224. (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium) (Syriac Edition): Brock, Sebastian: 9789068317084

 

[ReaderT]

Its definitely on the “to-do” list, hopefully at a more quieter point.

Yes. Same here. All things in their own time

i was told that the second half of his writings was “recently” (~1980s) found and subsequently translated by Sebastian Brock as:

Wow. I never knew that. I only have the “Green Brick” copy:

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