Need book suggestions

[BVM_1221]

I am in the process of transferring from a western to an eastern Catholic Parish. Any good book publishers out there that specialize in books for Eastern Catholics? Any specific books for beginners like me.?:juggle:

 

[5Loaves]

I am in the process of transferring from a western to an eastern Catholic Parish. Any good book publishers out there that specialize in books for Eastern Catholics? Any specific books for beginners like me.?:juggle:

I’m surprised you haven’t gotten a bunch of responses already to your question here.

Not by an Eastern Catholic, but I love Bread & Water, Wine & Oil: An Orthodox Christian Experience of God by Archimandrite Meletios Webber and highly recommend it. Here’s a review I haven’t heard yet and am about to listen to right now.

Eastern Christian Publications has lots of great material, and their companion media site Orientale Lumen TV has lots of good video. The three part Light for Life series is a basic catechesis. The Byzantine Rite: A Short History and Through Their Own Eyes: Liturgy as the Byzantines Saw It both by Fr. Archimandrite Robert Taft the most important living scholar on the Liturgy.

Before getting a bunch of books I would at least take a look at the many videos on the OLTV site-- Plenaries, Liturgies, Lectures, etc. And now yourwordfromthewise.blogspot is full of good material.

 

[Phillip_Rolfes]

There are two books in particular that I would recommend: “Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Tradition” and “Image, Symbol and Mystery”. Both were written by Fr. Lawrence Cross and both are available from Eastern Christian Publications ecpubs.com. They are wonderful basic introductions to the history, theology and spirituality of the Byzantine East, and are available in book or audio book format. I would also recommend anything and everything by Archbishop Joseph Raya. A good number of his writings are also available from Eastern Christian Publications.

 

[C_Alexander]

I went and looked over our bookshelves and the section that really stuck out to me was the prayer books. Not the books about prayer; the liturgical books. Morning prayers, evening prayers, the liturgy. I think that’s where I’d recommend a person start.

 

[DavidKays]

Hi! Aquinas and More is a Catholic web seller of all kinds of Catholic materials including a big section on Eastern Catholicism. Check it out! Publishers that may or may not help can include Light and Life Publications and SVS Seminary Press. One is Greek and the other is Russian. If you will like I will mention some books that can help dramatically your spiritual life. Someone asked me what is the difference between the Eastern Church and the Western Church. I said simply that it is easier been in the Western Church because there you are learning how to dance. In the East it is more like learning how to fix a car. There is a difference and when you have lived in both worlds one will understand what I am saying. The books are " The Communion of Love by Matthew the Poor, SVS Press, Orthodox Prayer Life by Matthew the Poor, SVS Press, The Living God,a catechism,2 vol. set, SVS Press, The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware, SVS Press, The Inner Kingdom by Ware, Father Arseny by Bouteneff, The Gift of Love by Berzonsky, all by SVS Press, On Living Simply, Liguori Pub., Living Prayer by Bishop Bloom,Templegate Pub., Papa-Nicholas Planas, Holy Transfiguration Monastery Pub., Symeon the New Theologian Cistercian Pub., God and You, This is My Beloved Son, These are the Sacraments and all 3 books are by Fr. Anthony Coniaris, Light and Life Pub. Hope these can be helpful.

 

[5Loaves]

I went and looked over our bookshelves and the section that really stuck out to me was the prayer books. Not the books about prayer; the liturgical books. Morning prayers, evening prayers, the liturgy. I think that’s where I’d recommend a person start.

I’d second that. My priest says the Liturgy is the catechesis. Have heard the same comment from Orthodox priests.

Our parish book club read The Winter Pascha: readings for the Christmas-Epiphany season By Fr. Thomas Hopko during Advent. One of the things we liked was the fact that about half the text is straight from services (and Sacred Scripture) Like wise his The Lenten Spring: Readings for Great Lent.

" The Communion of Love by Matthew the Poor, SVS Press, Orthodox Prayer Life by Matthew the Poor,

Our book group is about to start The Communion of Love by Matthew the Poor

 

[BVM_1221]

17 January 2011

My thanks to all who have replied. Checking my finances, I decided to purchase my first two books

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

1 G06 Face of God (by Archbishop Joseph Raya) $15.00 USD $15.00
1 R11H Liturgy - Hardbound $15.00 USD $15.00

Items: $30.00
Shipping: $4.00 (Standard Shipping Selected)
Tax: $0.00
Order Total: $34.00

Eastern Christian Publications

 

[5Loaves]

… I decided to purchase my first two books

Face of God (by Archbishop Joseph Raya)

Liturgy - Hardbound
Eastern Christian Publications

I have a number of books with the Liturgy and prayers… because our services are meant to be chanted I’m a fan of CDs. With Great Lent in the not so distant future if your bank account allows it consider Attend, O Heaven: Hymns of the Great Lent and Pascha which happens to be choirs of two local churches. There are so many wonderful choices… All Saints of North America- CD, sadly I find no audio clips for this, has an excellent selection :

A selection of hymns from Vespers and Matins sung by the combined choirs of St Tikhon’s Seminary and St Vladimir’s Seminary on the occasion of the bicentennial celebration of Orthodox Christianity in North America.

 

[Patchunky]

This is one of the best books around.

theobooks.org/product/a-guide-for-the-domestic-church-1319.cfm

Hope it helps…

 

[Cecilianus]

This was a really bad question to ask where I could see it. I’ll see if I can keep this as short as I can!

Lots of these you can find through the library or inter-library loan - a really good way to get books if you are an avid reader.

The Communion of Love, by Matthew the Poor
Russian Piety, by Nicolas Arseniev
Divine and Sacred Catechism, or Explanation of the Divine Liturgy, by Nicolaos Boulgaris
The Way of a Pilgrim (anonymous)
Prayer: The Spirituality of the Christian East, Volume 2, by Tomas Cardinal Spidlik (no need to read volume 1 first)
The Experience of God, by Dumitru Staniloae
We Shall See Him As He Is, by Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)
Homilies of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, translated by Cyril Mango
Iconastasis, by Fr. Pavel Florensky
The Vision of God, by Vladimir Lossky
Penthos: The Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East, by Irenee Hausherr SJ
Orthodox Spirituality, by A Monk of the Eastern Church (Fr. Lev Gillet)
For the Life of the World, by Fr. Alexander Schmemann
The Homilies of Pseudo-Macarius
Anything by St. Symeon the New Theologian and St. Gregory Palamas
The Prayer of Jesus, by Ignatius Brianchaninov

 

[Diak]

Cecilianus gives an excellent (but ambitious) list. I would start with the following “must reads”:
*Face of God *by Archbishop Joseph Raya (Introduction to Eastern Spirituality)
Year of Grace of our Lord by Fr. Lev Gillet (a.k.a. “Monk of the Eastern Church”, introduction to the Eastern Liturgical Year)
*Orthodox Way *by Archbishop Kallistos Ware (nice integration of Eastern theology)
*Origins of Christian Mysticism *by Olivier Clement (the best single-volume patristic summary yet written in my opinion)

For the place of the Eastern Catholic Churches the book suggested previously by Fr. Lawrence Cross,* Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Tradition *is excellent. If you can find the older Knights of Columbus publication in the Veritas series, The Eastern Catholic Churches by Bishop +Basil Losten (this is not the current publication in this series) it is also very good and far better than the current volume.

In addition some important Magisterial documents are helpful:
Orientale Lumen
Orientalium Ecclesiarum
Ut Unum Sint
Unitatis Redintegratio
Slavorum Apostoli
Apostolic Letter for the Fourth Centenary of the Union of Brest

 

[Vico]

Light for Life is a good introduction that I have used, mentioned by 5Loaves in post 2.

Light for Life ($13 per vol.):
Part One - The Mystery Believed
Pat Two - The Mystery Celebrated
Part Three - The Mystery Lived

There is also a sale of the three book set.

theobooks.org//site/search.cfm