(Part 3) Best christian worship & devotion books according to redditors

> It should be noted that LordVoldemort continues to spew the same regurgitated material over and over again ad infinituim.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of ignorant people (Americans,Muslims) who were inculcated with a lot of the same ignorant ideas, and so it is necessary to repeat this information.

The Jewish population is vanishingly small, but their vocal, dogmatic igorance has been astoundingly devastating.

Even the Jewish physician-turned-anthropologist, Dr. Leonard Glick, agrees in his book, Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America:

> Glick shows that Jewish American physicians were and continue to be especially vocal and influential champions of the practice which, he notes, serves to erase the visible difference between Jewish and gentile males. Informed medical opinion is now unanimous that circumcision confers no benefit and the practice has declined. In Jewish circles it is virtually taboo to question circumcision, but Glick does not flinch from asking whether this procedure should continue to be the defining feature of modern Jewish identity.

.

> have thoroughly debunked his pseudoscience and nonsense numerous times in the past and can't be bothered to do it again.

I think others would agree that you are deluding yourself.

> Hopefully an examination or either this will preempt the naivete that is taking anything LordVoldemort says seriously.

I invite it.

Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics https://www.amazon.com/dp/090779162X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_QJ4EDbB3R1DCY

Secret Drugs of Buddhism https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692652817/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_wK4EDb733CREK

Entheogens, Myth, and Human Consciousness https://www.amazon.com/dp/1579511414/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_CM4EDb7WCZCJJ

The Effluents of Deity: Alchemy and Psychoactive Sacraments in Medieval and Renaissance Art https://www.amazon.com/dp/161163041X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_PN4EDbMCDQ1CQ

Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy https://www.amazon.com/dp/0892819979/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_gO4EDb3KYSGN5

The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist https://www.amazon.com/dp/089089924X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_FO4EDbH0C12RD

Krishna in the Sky with Diamonds: The Bhagavad Gita as Psychedelic Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00770DJRW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_2Q4EDb7AEKZ2F

You can check out:

• Darby's A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain
  
  
• Glick's Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America
  
  These two books provided a substantial amount of information as to the history of the practice. Aside from the religiously motivated, it only also occurred in the English speaking world, starting in the late 19th century peaking in the early mid 20th century and only really remains prevalent in the US at this point (aside from religious reasons). In those countries where it became a more common secular practice, the original reason was to prevent, reduce, masturbation which was colloquial described as keeping "clean".
  
  For /u/websterella too.
  
  

Clericalism is historically a very common accusation from the liberal catholics against the tradition (read Liberalism is a Sin from Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany for reference), and is still today, as we are seeing. The root of this accusation is that they want to equalise the priests with the laity, which is against Catholic doctrine. Ironically, in many occasions the same liberal clerics who condemns "clericalism" are the first to tell the laity to shut-up and obbey when they interests are questioned.

If you are Pentecostal, I'd reccomend that you read the poetry of St. Symeon the New Theologian as it is some of the most chrismatic Orthodox texts out there, although he is actually from the hieght of the Byzantine Empire and not the 1st century.



>Come, true light. Come, eternal life. Come, hidden mystery. Come, nameless treasure. come, ineffable reality. Come, incomprehensible face. Come, everlasting exultation. Come, unfading light. come, trusty expectation of all who are going to be saved. Come, awakening of those who sleep. Come, resurrection of the dead. Come, Might One who always creates, who re-creates and who transforms all things by his will alone. Come, invisible and untouchable, and in every way intangible. Come, You Who always remain immutable, and Who at every hour are wholly altered, and are coming to us who lie in hell, You Who are above the heavens. Come, most beloved name repeated again and again, a name entirely forbidden for us to speak or to know the very person You are, the kind of quality. Come, eternal joy. Come, imperishable crown. Come, purple of our great God and King. Come, crystalline cincture set with gems. Come, unapproachable sandal. Come, royal purple robe and truly autocratic right hand! Come, You Who separated me from everyone and made me alone on the Earth. Come, You Who have become desire itself in me and Who made me desire You, the utterly unapproachable one. Come, my breath and my life. Come consolation of my dejected soul. Come, my joy, and glory, and endless luxury.
>
>I think You because You have become one spirit with me, unmixing, unmoved, immutable God over all things, and because You yourself have become the all in all for me, utterly inexpressible food, and utterly without expense, food that is endlessly overflowing the lips of my soul , and gushing out in the fountain of my heart, garment flashing forth and burning up the demons, purification through incorruptible and holy tears that wash me out, tears that You give freely to those who You visit. I thank You because You have become an unfading light and an unsetting sun to me, You Who have nowhere to hide, Who fill the universe with your glory. For You have never been midden from anyone, but we always hide ourselves from You, not wishing to come to You. For where would You hide, You Who nowhere have a place of rest? Why would You hide? You Who never turn away anyone at all, and You do not turn from anyone of them. And so now Master, dwell in me and inhabit me, and remain continually, and inseparably in me you slave, until my death, Good One, so that I also may be found both in my departure and after my departure in You, Good One, and I shall reign with You, God over all things!
>
>Remain, Master, and let me not be alone, so that when my enemies come, always seeking to devour my soul, when the find You remaining in me, they shall flee entirely, and shall have no strength against me, when they see you Who are more powerful than everything , seated within the home of my humbled soul. Verily Master, When You remembered me, when I was in the world of my ignorance, and You yourself picked me out, and separated me for the world, and set me before the face of your glory. So now also keep within, always standing upright and immovable in your dwelling with me. So that watching You continually, I the corpse may live; and holding You, I, a poor hired man, will always be rich, even richer than all kings; and eating and drinking You, and every hour being vested wit You, I will be reveling in unspeakable holy things. For You are every good, and every glory, and every enjoyment, and to You glory is fitting, You the Holy, Consubstantial and life-giving Trinity. The Trinity in Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit venerated, and proclaimed, and worshiped and served by all the faithful now, and always forever and ever. Amen.
>
>- St. Symeon the New Theologian - The Mystical Prayer.

This book is a collection of 56 other poems like this with many of them being longer.

https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Eros-Theologian-Popular-Patristics/dp/0881413496

Agreed.

For Christians who are looking for something similar to the "popular" modern secularized presentations of Buddhist meditation (i.e. "mindfulness" stuff) and just want to get their feet wet with one easy book, I recommend Christian Meditation (James Finley) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060750642 - he learned from Merton, left the monastery after a few years, also investigated Zen but the book is not overtly Zen enough to scare anyone away (the fingerprints are there if you know what you're looking for.)

I'd recommend looking into candle magick. Its a fairly easy way to start.

Google and you'll find lots of links such as this one

Or check out books like this one if that's more to your liking

'Advanced Candle Magick: More Spells and Rituals for Every Purpose'

have you heard of this book before?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/019517674X

In my teenaged years, I spent my summers in rural Texas, where I had to put some effort to finding pianos for practice. Tiny Baptist churches were usually a safe bet for hosting some sort of piano-like machine, often with many working keys. One of those churches was full of shape-note hymnals, some of them this 1956 edition. It was a remote part of the world.

Sure, the one he uses the most is By Oak, Ash, and Thorn, though this is more Celtic shamanism, and in the Celtic tradition, it is quite unusual to have more than one spirit animal (according to my husband). I don't have anything specific to Native American shamanism unfortunately.

I'm glade to hear that and I'm sure that isn't a coincidence. If you like poetry, I'd really recommend this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Eros-Theologian-Popular-Patristics/dp/0881413496

Here is the first poem,

>Come, true light. Come, eternal life. Come, hidden mystery. Come, nameless treasure. come, ineffable reality. Come, incomprehensible face. Come, everlasting exultation. Come, unfading light. come, trusty expectation of all who are going to be saved. Come, awakening of those who sleep. Come, resurrection of the dead. Come, Might One who always creates, who re-creates and who transforms all things by his will alone. Come, invisible and untouchable, and in every way intangible. Come, You Who always remain immutable, and Who at every hour are wholly altered, and are coming to us who lie in hell, You Who are above the heavens. Come, most beloved name repeated again and again, a name entirely forbidden for us to speak or to know the very person You are, the kind or quality. Come, eternal joy. Come, imperishable crown. Come, purple of our great God and King. Come, crystalline cincture set with gems. Come, unapproachable sandal. Come, royal purple robe and truly autocratic right hand! Come, You Who separated me from everyone and made me alone on the Earth. Come, You Who have become desire itself in me and Who made me desire You, the utterly unapproachable one. Come, my breath and my life. Come consolation of my dejected soul. Come, my joy, and glory, and endless luxury.
>
>I thank You because You have become one spirit with me, unmixing, unmoved, immutable God over all things, and because You yourself have become the all in all for me, utterly inexpressible food, and utterly without expense, food that is endlessly overflowing the lips of my soul , and gushing out in the fountain of my heart, garment flashing forth and burning up the demons, purification through incorruptible and holy tears that wash me out, tears that You give freely to those who You visit. I thank You because You have become an unfading light and an unsetting sun to me, You Who have nowhere to hide, Who fill the universe with your glory. For You have never been hidden from anyone, but we always hide ourselves from You, not wishing to come to You. For where would You hide, You Who nowhere have a place of rest? Why would You hide? You Who never turn away anyone at all, and You do not turn from anyone of them. And so now Master, dwell in me and inhabit me, and remain continually, and inseparably in me you slave, until my death, Good One, so that I also may be found both in my departure and after my departure in You, Good One, and I shall reign with You, God over all things!
>
>Remain, Master, and let me not be alone, so that when my enemies come, always seeking to devour my soul, when they find You remaining in me, they shall flee entirely, and shall have no strength against me, when they see you Who are more powerful than everything , seated within the home of my humbled soul. Verily Master, When You remembered me, when I was in the world of my ignorance, and You yourself picked me out, and separated me for the world, and set me before the face of your glory. So now also keep within, always standing upright and immovable in your dwelling with me. So that watching You continually, I the corpse may live; and holding You, I, a poor hired man, will always be rich, even richer than all kings; and eating and drinking You, and every hour being vested wit You, I will be reveling in unspeakable holy things. For You are every good, and every glory, and every enjoyment, and to You glory is fitting, You the Holy, Consubstantial and life-giving Trinity. The Trinity in Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit venerated, and proclaimed, and worshiped and served by all the faithful now, and always forever and ever. Amen.
>
>- St. Symeon the New Theologian - The Mystical Prayer.

He has about 55 other hymns like this if you are interested. The St. Vladimir's printing of it includes all of the biblical citations (which I left out) in the hymns as well which is great for illuminating biblical imagery.

Just finished up Fortescue’s The Early Papacy, and now starting to dig into O’Brien's A History of the Mass and its Ceremonies in the Eastern and Western Church. Been on a bit of an early church kick lately.

The catch is you have to spend your whole life training and meditating to develop to a level anywhere close to chang's.

If your interested there are several resources I recommend. Spring forest qigong is a great place to start for basic concepts, robert bruce is a great author on energy work, there was a book called the tao of meditation written in the 80's which describes training similar to changs.
http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Meditation-Way-Enlightenment/dp/0804814651/

As someone else mentioned, Telushkin's books are very good.

For wedding specific books, when I was planning my wedding, I read both Anita Diamant's The New Jewish Wedding and The Creative Jewish Wedding Book. Both were very helpful.

The Reform movement's publishing arm has just published a new book about Jewish weddings called Beyond Breaking the Glass, and the one amazon review on it so far says it is very user friendly. I have also seen Meeting at the Well recommended for engaged couples.

I have not read it yet, since I just found out about it, but apparently Robert Alter's translation of the Torah is very poetic.

You should take a look at r/judaism's book list as well.

Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land. (And its sequel.)

James Finley, Christian Meditation.

Peter Torkington, The Hermit (and two remaining books in the trilogy).

A PCA minister named Patrick Curles did one a while back that was an updated version of the 1946 Book of Common Worship. It included daily and family prayers as well. It's also available on Kindle.

Shameless Plug for the books written on Icons by the former Archbishop.

Ponder These Things

The Dwelling of the Light

Anything by Thomas Merton is excellent. Contemplative Prayer and New Seeds of Contemplation can be good starts.

Richard Rohr, Henri Nouwen and Thomas Keating will also be good readings.

Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality
https://www.amazon.com/Taoist-Yoga-Kuan-Charles-Luk/dp/0877280673

Internal Elixir Cultivation: The Nature of Daoist Meditation
https://www.amazon.com/Internal-Elixir-Cultivation-Nature-Meditation/dp/1943155135/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478006245&sr=1-2&keywords=internal+elixir+cultivation

Healing Light of the Tao: Foundational Practices to Awaken Chi Energy
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594771138/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2P7K1FW99QSDG12HVPZA

Foundations of Internal Alchemy: The Taoist Practice of Neidan
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984308253/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5KF0N4TFRQQQ4PCVCH6F

The Tao of Meditation: Way to Enlightenment
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804814651/ref=pd_sim_14_25?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5KF0N4TFRQQQ4PCVCH6F

Fuckin hell, that's him. Are you him?

He didn't seem that old, but then again, this was many years ago.

Also, this was one of the books I strongly recall: https://www.amazon.com/Entheogens-Myth-Human-Consciousness-Carl/dp/1579511414

This was another: https://www.amazon.com/Apples-Apollo-Christian-Mysteries-Eucharist/dp/089089924X

Maybe this book could help you.

Get a Bible you would read. I like the RSV-CE, but you can also go with the Douay Rheims if you want archaic English or the NAB. Of the Bibles, the Navarre Bible (RSV) has commentary sections from Saints throughout the centuries. They have a single volume version of the New Testament that I use. (Also good, the Ignatius Study Bible, also New Testament only).

I recommend Thomas Howard's If Your Mind Wanders At Mass and Healing Through the Mass by Fr. Robert DeGrandis.

Get the Official Catechism of the Catholic Church, and get the helps put out by Ignatius Press (which contain the texts of all the footnotes). The Compendium is also good, if you want an abridgement.

For Philosophy, I recommend The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin. In that book he takes the writings of seven doctors of the Church and encapsulates them so that a layperson can follow them. You can use that as a springboard to discover your own readings about St. Augustine, St. John of the Cross, etc.

These are all affiliate links, but you do not have to use them.

Something like this?

The Human Condition by Thomas Keating. I've enjoyed other material from him. Thanks for sharing.

Absolutely nothing special about, honestly. It's completely usable though

Depends on the day. Very often not much at all. But I'm not a shining exemplar of the contemplative life. I'm more like a lackey wishing I could be as contemplative as, say, Thomas Merton, but meanwhile never take the time to actually doing any prayer.

But if you want to know about the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer and what it's all about I highly recommend Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation or Contemplative Prayer

You might want to take a look at Thomas Keating's The Human Condition he's a Christian first but recognizes many of the similarities in Buddhism.

I am moved by the stories of the Desert Mothers and Fathers. The common themes are solitude, silence, and prayer. Meditation can take us into the interior world of deep silence where we can indeed commune with the divine. Silence and prayer are supports for this.

There are some great wikipedia pages about them as groups and then also pages on individidual ascetics/saints linked at the bottom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Mothers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Fathers

There are some excellent books on the individual saints as well as their practices and sayings. Here are some that I value:

https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Mothers-Spiritual-Practices-Wilderness-ebook/dp/B00C122V7U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-2&keywords=desert+mothers

https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Desert-Mothers-Sayings-Christian-ebook/dp/B00DRE2BIA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-1&keywords=desert+mothers

https://www.amazon.com/Praying-Desert-Mothers-Mary-Forman/dp/0814615228/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-9&keywords=desert+mothers

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Heart-Spirituality-Fathers-Mothers-ebook/dp/B01GCBUP64/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1503763502&sr=8-11&keywords=desert+mothers

Well, I guess it would really depend on what tradition you come from, but coming from the SBC tradition and Missionary Baptist churches, I like a lot of the songs in the Heavenly Highway Hymns, The Heavenly Highway Hymnal (Second Edition), and The Church Hymnal for your general low church Hymnal. I don't like the whole "Mother" section in their topical indexes, but I do like the rest of the songs. For High Church or your "First Baptist", "First Presbyterian", etc. or even for use in Low Churches I like The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration or The Baptist Hymnal. These hymnals feature responsive readings, with the Hymnal for Worship and Celebration containing an extensive topical index and the Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, and a Contemporary or Modern Creed for use in service. One of my personal favorites, while it's extremely old, and you're lucky if you can find one, is the Northfield Hymnal. There's a lot of good old songs there, and it features a nice little topical index.

Edit: While I'm not very familiar with it, another which comes to mind is The Celebration Hymnal. It seems to be another favorite in High Church, or your "First 'insert denomination' Church" churches.

I understand that in your situation you feel it was necessary and you were glad it was done. That is no excuse to condone it, it is NOT an inconsequential, painless surgery. I recommend you watch this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1482347046642439341 Ugh.... every time I see this video it makes me fucking sick, and hearing people like yourself minimize the procedure on non-consenting infants even more so.

How is it not amputation?

Also, if you are interested in more about why circumcision is wrong, and a violation of human rights, you should read these books.

http://www.amazon.com/Marked-Your-Flesh-Circumcision-Ancient/dp/0195315944/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1301853812&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Circumcision-Hidden-Trauma-American-Ultimately/dp/0964489538/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

Do whatever you want to your own body, but never EVER condone the cutting of any baby's genitals for any reason.