Reddit reviews The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way

No Man is an Island By Thomas Merton

Clowning in Rome By Henri Nouwen.

The Great Divorce By C.S. Lewis

Beginning to Pray By Archbishop Anthony Bloom

For the Life of the World By Fr Alexander Schmemann

Christ the Conqueror of Hell By Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev

Christ the Eternal Tao By Hieromonk Damascene

The Way of the Pilgrim

Marriage as a Path to Holiness-Lives of Married Saints By David and Mary Ford

On the Incarnation By St Athanasius

On Social Justice By St Basil the Great

The Ladder of Divine Ascent By St John Climacus

I'm currently trying to finish Fr Seraphim Rose- His Life and Works for the third time and despite my apparent inability to complete it, I really do enjoy it.

"The Orthodox Church" By Kallistos Ware. A very readable and comprehensive book by a well respected convert now bishop.

Byzantine Theology by John Meyendorff. He is one of the greatest contemporary Orthodox theologians.

The Way of the Pilgrim Author unknown. This is a classic of Eastern Christian spirituality that brings many people into the Orthodox way.

Hope these help!

I would be happy to! Christ the Conqueror of Hell does a fantastic job of explaining the Orthodox view on Hell. This book does a fantastic job of introducing Orthodoxy to Protestant and Catholic Christians. In fact, it was written by a Protestant. Because of that, he does a great job of explaining some unfamiliar terms or practices to his audience since he is coming from the same place. It's essentially a very well educated Western Christian explaining the Eastern Church to other Western Christians.

I can't recommend this book enough. It's an anonymous story describing the journey of a Russian Christian and his journey through the faith. It's really uplifting and surprisingly entertaining for a book written in 18th century Russia.

Finally, if you're looking for something deep, I would recommend this one. Vladimir Lossky was a brilliant Orthodox theologian who focused on the "mystical" side of Christianity vs. the more "scholastic" approach of the West. Really, anything by him is worth your time.

Let me know if these are what you're working for. If not, I may have a few more books I can recommend. I personally think these are a great place to start.

>Meditation in the matter? Certain qualities and things to ponder upon?

Try the "Jesus prayer" and maybe check out this book

The way of the Pilgrim: and the Pilgrim continues on his way

I feel like I'm linking a lot of books to amazon lately, it really makes me wonder if people need books or not.

Can I suggest reading something of the lives of the saints? Augustine's "Confessions" is pretty inocuous from a Protestant point of view. I really enjoyed Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux when I read it after my conversion.

Another good one to read, which I read before I re-converted (identified as a Christian again), was The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way.

Finally, I'm almost done with this book but it's awsome!!! If you can swing the price of the paperback it's probably better than the Kindle edition, but the Kindle edition is really affordable.

It's, Everyday Saints and Other Stories.

The Saints are the Gospel personified. They are they who the Church recognizes as having embodied Christ--lived the Gospel.

I also really got a lot out of this book: Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta

Hope some of this might help.

As Christians we have such a rich heritage.

Heh cool, i'm a snow boarder myself.

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First, I do not think it's the weight of your sins that you're feeling. I think if any of us really felt the weight of even a single sin it would kill us immediately. Christ took those burdens for us on the cross and his work is finished...

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I'm gonna para-quote Thomas Keating a semi-modern contemplative scholar, some will disagree with this... "If you feel bad for a sin that isn't on the level of murder, for more than a minute, it's neurotic sin guilt and it's not from God..."

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Personally, I agree with this. Because guilt never produces fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). In fact a huge part of overcoming fap isn't never fapping, it's not being so hard on yourself when you do... Because we fap in my presumption, when we're low in general, to falsely medicate our own every day mental health issues. Guilt never builds up, it only tears down, makes it harder to move forward again.

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This is why when i was in the throes of it, i would binge. If i gave in once it was gonna be a 3xer in a single sitting type deal. This is why out the end of the week when i was exhausted and fighting with my girlfriend and stressed with work I didn't stand a chance.... Crash.... fap... Then i wouldn't wanna meditate or pray because i'd only have images of what I had watched and done in my mind. This is the act of sin-guilt creating EVEN MORE distance between myself and God... ugh...

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9/10 Christian here worries about presuming forgiveness which is exactly what evil twists to it's advantage. Beating fap is about building oneself up, living a healthier and less stressful life in general. Taking good care of mind, body, and spirit. Guilt is not a part of this. We shouldn't fap because we know we're forgiven, that is presumption. But in an honest effort to quit it is indeed a chemical addiction, make no mistake. Chemical addictions take time to break and the guilt i think comes more from our upbringing and the stigma of society.

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Yes it can twist into something truly devious in ways other sins may not, although all sin is completely destructive in the end.. But even St Augustine, inventor of concepts like original sin and The Trinity struggled with lust far into his old age, and is famous for praying ~"Lord make me chaste, but not yet"

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We cannot make ourselves clean. Even when we beat fap we still have other sinful habits... anger, gossip, spiritual superiority, etc... So we will never be sin free and if you're guilty of a single sin, you're guilty of all (James 2:10). I'm not condemning you with this comment but for all of us, when we feel guilty it's faithlessness in our assured salvation in Christ.

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So... There's what you're feeling and there's what to do about it... I learned the hard way when they say, don't meditate without a coach or advisor. This is because meditation can lead you into worse depression and even to suicide. And I was definitely headed in that direction.

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Almost two years later I have yet to meet another Christian who really understands what it means to meditate and pray contemplatively. It's so sad because it was such a huge part of Christianity for so long but was seemingly lost as monasteries were shut down. The reformation went way to far in terms of nullifying experiential spirituality and the result is a bunch of people who don't know how to pray but they can quote theology with the best of them.

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And now where are we, secular meditation apps abound and big tech is rolling out mindful meditation programs to their hordes of workers.

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There are two tracks kind of... Western contemplative meditation coming from the Catholic church and from the Eastern orthodox we have instruction for constant prayer. Two sides of the same coin really, the literature written down throughout the last 2000 years is amazing. These studies is literally the study of psychology in a spiritual context, i've had a leading research psychologist / neuroscientist at a huge university, who was actually Buddhist, confirm this for me.

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Interestingly enough, the Christians who championed meditation and prayer are known as Desert Christians. Why is this? Because before monasteries were a thing, they wondered around in the desert to model Christ. And these old crusty dudes have all of us sized up to a T when it comes to human suffering, passions, desires, motivation, ego, etc...

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Some further historical context, the ancient hebrews and many other religions believed the deserts were where evil spirits live. Why did they think this? In my estimation it's because there's nothing to distract you from your own thoughts... whoa .... (lol)

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So you can see if I've pieced it together well enough, meditating IS entering the desert. IT is the literal practice of facing down the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that people work so hard normally to avoid. And if you don't have coaching, practice, and guidance you'll get annihilated by them. I had all kinds of memories come back to me throughout my life and realized at each step how I had been wounded, taken on additional burden, not received support from my parents, etc... It was overwhelming and i had no idea what to do with myself.

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But somehow I did persist and came out better on the other side although I wish I could find an advisor for myself. And when you get done facing your demons in the desert is when God can use you the most.

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I still get anxiety and angry etc... But before it was an unfair fight i didn't know i was fighting... And would just get my butt kicked... Then it became a fair fight... And now by God's grace alone i'm on top gound n pound style (if you're the UFC as well).... When you can be at peace in the desert is when you can beat fap once and for all but in my opinion and much more importantly, become the person God made you to be.

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So be careful. If this is your path, and all literature would say based on your curiousity it is, then commit to it. Doesn't mean you have to join a monastery but it should be a daily thing for you (takes time to develop of course), and you should always be pursuing further knowledge in the area.

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I'll suggest a starter book each for tradition... and if you wanna keep in touch now or in the future i'd be down not cause i'm some yoda-dude but if you don't have anyone else, even an untrained pastor, then me just being a sounding board for what experiencing could be really beneficial to you and for me... Maybe i'd finally have a meditation buddy to chew the fat with:)

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If not, i would totally understand as well!

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Western: https://www.audible.com/pd/Into-the-Silent-Land-Audiobook/B00FPUZHQM?qid=1556390754&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=K1GE3VFBJ20CMQEFNT7E

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Eastern: https://www.amazon.com/Way-Pilgrim-Continues-His/dp/0385468148/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+way+of+the+pilgrim&qid=1556390778&s=gateway&sr=8-2

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Scriptural references: Exodus 14:14, psalm 46:10, Jeremiah 33:3, Psalm 23:2-3

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Cheers!

Is this a good translation?