Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
I was unable to leave a comment at your other site, so I will leave it here. You are correct that there is a lacunae in contemporary Catholicism concerning mystical prayer. In response to this, Bernanrd McGinn and Ewart Cousins and others initiated the series the Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, in 1977. There are some superb books in this series, such as the best edition I have ever read of Julian of Norwich and Catherine of Genoa. Good fonts and good translations, often from critical editions.
In regard to prayer, the oldest book on prayer outside of Scripture is Origen's found in the Ancient Christian Writers #19. But, I learned a lot of the basics of prayer from reading Evagrius of Pontus's work the Praktikos, found in the Ascetic Greek Corpus, Oxford 2006. Evagrius is the foundation of so much of our prayer life, I could babble all day about him, but I think he will be a great help to you.
the absence of commboxes on WUWTS is deliberate. You can reach me easily on Twitter or Facebook. I prefer not to have the two sites overlap too much. I am a big fan of the Classics of W.S. and have several of their books, particularly the German medieval mystics. I'm glad you mention Evagrius of P. and the ancient ascetics in general, since I think we will be focusing quite heavily on them in this endeavour.
I apologize in advance for this after reading your comment above but is there a better way to contact you without using Facebook or twitter? I have neither and man alive has that been a fortuitous choice. Your last post on WUWTS really struck a nerve. In times like this sometimes it seems like God gives a few people similar ideas. I think prayer may actually be the only thing left sometimes. That the only time wasted on prayer is worrying about prayer instead of doing it. Anyway, it's more like that but I'm not sure you would want it all here.
Hilary, Thanks for latest at WUWTS. Any particular book recommendations other than the Sayings of the Desert Fathers? I know there's Boylan, Simler, Lehodey, Frost (with whom I wasn't familiar), and many others. What about Evagrius? Is that a good place for the novice to start? Of course, my question is evidence of the problem you identify: worrying about praying, thinking about praying, reading about praying, instead of praying... Looking forward to where you're going with WUWTS.
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Miss Hilary,
ReplyDeleteI was unable to leave a comment at your other site, so I will leave it here. You are correct that there is a lacunae in contemporary Catholicism concerning mystical prayer. In response to this, Bernanrd McGinn and Ewart Cousins and others initiated the series the Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, in 1977. There are some superb books in this series, such as the best edition I have ever read of Julian of Norwich and Catherine of Genoa. Good fonts and good translations, often from critical editions.
In regard to prayer, the oldest book on prayer outside of Scripture is Origen's found in the Ancient Christian Writers #19. But, I learned a lot of the basics of prayer from reading Evagrius of Pontus's work the Praktikos, found in the Ascetic Greek Corpus, Oxford 2006. Evagrius is the foundation of so much of our prayer life, I could babble all day about him, but I think he will be a great help to you.
Thanks James,
ReplyDeletethe absence of commboxes on WUWTS is deliberate. You can reach me easily on Twitter or Facebook. I prefer not to have the two sites overlap too much. I am a big fan of the Classics of W.S. and have several of their books, particularly the German medieval mystics. I'm glad you mention Evagrius of P. and the ancient ascetics in general, since I think we will be focusing quite heavily on them in this endeavour.
Thanks for reading.
HJMW
I apologize in advance for this after reading your comment above but is there a better way to contact you without using Facebook or twitter? I have neither and man alive has that been a fortuitous choice.
ReplyDeleteYour last post on WUWTS really struck a nerve. In times like this sometimes it seems like God gives a few people similar ideas. I think prayer may actually be the only thing left sometimes. That the only time wasted on prayer is worrying about prayer instead of doing it. Anyway, it's more like that but I'm not sure you would want it all here.
Hilary,
ReplyDeleteThanks for latest at WUWTS. Any particular book recommendations other than the Sayings of the Desert Fathers? I know there's Boylan, Simler, Lehodey, Frost (with whom I wasn't familiar), and many others. What about Evagrius? Is that a good place for the novice to start? Of course, my question is evidence of the problem you identify: worrying about praying, thinking about praying, reading about praying, instead of praying... Looking forward to where you're going with WUWTS.