"Prayer is a refuge of God's great mercy to the human race." The refuge is a place of inner stillness and peace where the heart is fully opened to the embrace of God's love. It is a return to the ancient paradise from which the human race, in Adam, had to depart because of disobedience to the command of God. The Refuge is an exposition of the concrete actions we should take if we truly desire to live with and in God. It weaves together meditations on scripture (from the Psalms in particular) and amplifies these with the wisdom of early Christian saints, in particular the ascetical writings of St John of the Ladder, St Macarius the Great and St Isaac the Syrian. It is an active exhortation for us to reacquire the original nobility with which God fashioned us in the beginning.

My Life in Christ has been read by millions, making it one of the most beloved modern works of Orthodox Christian spirituality. In this new edition, the English translation has been thoroughly revised and freshly typeset to make St John's own words more accessible to today's reader. The bite-sized reflections draw the reader in to the author's profound spiritual experience and love for Jesus Christ and the Church. This new hardcover edition is enhanced by a smyth-sewn gold-stamped cloth binding and grosgrain marking ribbon. This is the kind of book you will return to time and time again. Appropriate, relevant, and edifying reading for all Christians.

Metropolitan Anastasy was a leading figure of the Russian emigration following the Communist takeover of his country. He formed a bridge between two worlds -- the Imperial Court of the last Tzar and the transient 20th century Russian diaspora. These reflections are from his diary during the calamitous post-revolutionary period. They draw upon wisdom from sources as diverse as writers of classical antiquity, authors, composers and inventors of the age of enlightenment, offering unique perspectives.

Writing in the tradition of biblical exegetes, such as St John Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, the work of Archbishop Averky (Taushev) provides a commentary that is firmly grounded in the teaching of the Church, manifested in its liturgical hymnography and the works of the Holy Fathers. Analyzing all four Gospels chronologically and simultaneously, he allows readers to see the life of Christ as an unfolding narrative in accessible, direct language. Using the best of prerevolutionary Russian sources, these writings also remained abreast of developments in Western biblical scholarship, engaging with it directly and honestly. He approaches the Gospels first and foremost not as a literary work of antiquity, but as the revelation of Jesus Christ as God in the flesh. Archbishop Averky's commentaries on the New Testament have become standard textbooks in Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary and have been published in Russia to widespread acclaim. This present volume is the first translation of these texts into English and it is an indispensable addition to the library of every student of the Gospels.

"May our love for the Sun, the will of God, be as strong as the sunflower's, so that even in days of hardship and sorrow we will continue to sail unerringly along the sea of life, following the directions of the barometer and compass of God's will that leads us to the safe haven of eternity." This is a thoroughly practical manual of the spiritual life focusing on the central goal of every Christian: learning the will of God and struggling to mold our life to it, just as Christ "humbled Himself and became obedient." (Phil. 2:8) Even more fundamentally, St John addresses the question of why we should care about God's will. Finally, the reader will find eternal wisdom running through these writings on questions of theodicy, free will, and Divine Providence. This work is reminiscent of the classic textEUnseen WarfareEin its historical genesis as an Orthodox redaction of an originally Roman Catholic text. First published in 1627 asEThe HeliotropiumEit was the work of a German Jesuit writer Jeremias Drexelius. The future St John adapted this text for an Orthodox audience as a student and then teacher at the Kiev Academy in the 1670's but it was not published until 1714, just a year before the author's death. This is the first English edition of St John's text, further edited and abbreviated for the contemporary reader.

Many people today are uncertain about what they believe and how they should live. They seek for a tradition that demonstrates antiquity and possesses authenticity. This newly translated volume of the writings of the Orthodox spiritual teacher Ignatius Brianchaninov offers a vision of a life that flows from following Christ. The field is both a place of spiritual struggle and a garden in which to cultivate virtues. But are we willing to respond to the challenge of a life lived in accordance with the Christian Gospel? St Ignatius' writing is the Christian tradition at its deepest, intensely practical but also transcendent and mystical.

This book shares the story of the last Russian emperor and his family. Their life was not necessarily what one would expect; there was much more than fancy clothes and delicious food. They shared happy memories but also great hardships. They nursed the sick, ate porridge, kayaked along the Finnish coastline, and cared for chickens. Today we know them as the Royal Martyrs deeply pious Orthodox Christians. Accessible and thought provoking, this beautifully illustrated book is appropriate for children aged 7-12, or for parents to read to their children of younger age. who laid down their lives for the Faith and role models of Christian virtue who showed kindness even to the guards who taunted them. Accessible and thought provoking, this beautifully illustrated book is appropriate for children aged 7-12, or for parents to read to their children of younger age.

This third and final volume of Archbishop Averky's New Testament commentary elucidates the moral and pastoral aspects of the Pauline and Universal Epistles and the Book of Revelation. Discussion of each New Testament book is preceded by an analysis of the authorship, time and place of composition, and major themes within. The final commentary on the Apocalypse, in which Archbishop Averky relies heavily on the ancient commentary of St Andrew of Ceasaria, is provided in the popular translation by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose), together with the Scriptural text itself. The author's approach is thoroughly patristic, constantly turning to the Church Fathers for the elucidation of one or another particular verse, especially to the commentaries and expositions of St John Chrysostom, Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, and most particularly to the voluminous Scriptural commentaries of St Theophan the Recluse. The commentary has been copiously annotated with citations to primary sources, which did not appear in the original text. Archbishop Averky's commentaries on the New Testament have become standard textbooks in Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary and have been published in Russia to widespread acclaim. They are an indispensable addition to the library of every student of the New Testament.

Death is a great sacrament. It is the birth of a person from this earthly, temporary life, into eternity. In this third volume of St Ignatius’s collected works, published here in English for the first time, the saint examines the mystical boundaries that govern the life of a Christian: the one, between life and death; and the other, between the visible, physical realm and the invisible to most, but no less real, spiritual realm. Included in this volume is St Ignatius’s “Homily on Death,” one of his most popular works in his native Russia and often published separately. The reader will also encounter St Ignatius’s teachings on the nature of the soul and the essence of the incorporeal beings, the latter theologoumena being a point of contention between the author and his contemporary, St Theophan the Recluse. The text is complemented by a comprehensive scripture index and a short biography of the author.