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Tammy, that is a great book but very much on the deep end (emphasis on deep). Not to be discouraging, even in my seminary program that book was not suggested until the third or fourth year. I would recommend Ware's "Orthodox Way", Meyendorff's "Byzantine Theology", books by Lev Gillet, Archbishop Raya, Alexander Schmemann, etc. before you tackle Lossky.

Raya's book on marriage is called "Crowning: The Christian Marriage" and his book on the Incarnation is called "Abundance of Love".

He has a new book on the Divine Liturgy which I haven't read yet called "Celebration: Reflections on the Divine Liturgy" which I am sure will be another rare gem.

I think you can still purchase many of his books through Madonna House, where he is currently residing. They have a web site at www.madonnahouse.org [madonnahouse.org]

Also if you have trouble finding anything call Elaine at Icon and Book Service. She often has some of the Raya books around.

Also Pascha Books http://paschabooks.com had Raya's book "Crowning" still in stock a while back.

I recommend that if you are going to read the Ladder of Divine Ascent, you get a recent companion "Ascending the Heights" by Father John Mack from Conciliar Press. It is a simple guide made for lay people with practical pastoral suggestions for implementing the Ladder, since St. John was writing very obvoiously to monks.

And of course, a good solid Byzantine Prayer Book is a must; I use the one published by Holy Trinity Press in Jordanville.

Ascending the Heights is already on my wish list (I can only afford so many books at a time :rolleyes: ) and I already have The Byzantine Book of Prayer published by The Byzantine Seminary Press. Thanks.

I got my books in from amazon.com... I read the first couple of chapters of The Way of A Pilgrim, and I love it. So does my husband, so I'm letting him read it while I move on to other books, and I'll get back to it when he's done.

But when I started to read the preface to The Ladder of Divine Ascent I got very discouraged. The writer of the preface really emphasized asceticism to the point that I felt that in the married state I will never be able to achieve union with God in this lifetime. After twice working on the preface, I was so discouraged I wasn't able to finish the preface and move on to what St. John Climacus wrote. (Had to Confess despair, too )

They had Ascending the Heights on the shelf at Barnes and Noble (it wasn't there last week :p ) so I bought it, and I'm reading it first. It's making The Ladder much easier for me to handle.

I'm currently reading St. Theophane the Recluse's "The Path to Salvation" and finding it immensely helpful. He has a way of describing the spiritual life, especially the life of the sinner in need of repentence, in a way that I can completely identify with. I recommend it to all. It is especially good for all parents; the first section is practical and theoretical advice for raising children to be saints.

I followed Mor Ephrem's suggestion and have liked "Mountain of Silence" very much. It takes alot of eastern spirituality that I have read over the years and put it into words that I can understand more easily.

Also very good is St Theophan's "Being Attuned to the Spiritual Life" or something very similar. It is his letters to a young lady he was spiritual director for. My copy is all marked up with pencil. All the negative things we think are natural to human nature, he tells us are not natural. After all, the one Perfect Human did not have these negative problems hindering Him. We need to believe the Holy Spirit that we can become perfect, too.
denise

I checked Amazon's listing of Fr. Lawrence's book, and their edition is indeed out of print, but the book has since been published by Eastern Christian Publications. It is a very fine book and deserves to be better known than it is.

Eastern Christian Publications
PO Box 146
Fairfax, VA 22030-0146 Phone: 703-691-8585
USA Fax: 703-691-0513

http://www.ecpubs.com/htdocs/products/ecp.html

Vicki