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Teresa of Ávila · 1572 · Treatise
For readers of the Song of Songs: her meditations on a few of its verses, on peace and the love of God.
Read hereFreeAudioOriginal languageDemanding
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Leonard Ravenhill · 1959 · Book
Leonard Ravenhill's piercing examination of mid-twentieth-century Christianity emerged from his deep frustration with what he saw as the spiritual lethargy of the Western church. Writing in 1959 as both an evangelist and…
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Anthony Bloom · 1971 · Book
Meditations on a Theme emerged from Metropolitan Anthony Bloom's pastoral work among Russian Orthodox emigres in London during the 1960s. As Archbishop of Sourozh, Bloom encountered believers struggling to maintain authentic spiritual…
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Christian Meditation Christian Meditation: The Gethsemani Talks
John Main · 1977 · Book
Christian Meditation preserves a series of conferences that Benedictine monk John Main delivered to his fellow monastics at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky during the 1970s. Main had discovered the practice of mantra…
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John Main · 1984 · Book
John Main's "Moment of Christ" emerged from his years of teaching Christian meditation at his monastery in Montreal, where he had established a community devoted to the ancient practice of contemplative prayer.…
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John Main · 1993 · Book
Word Made Flesh represents John Main's mature synthesis of Christian meditation as both ancient practice and contemporary necessity. Drawing from his pioneering work establishing the World Community for Christian Meditation, Main addresses…
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Thomas Keating · 2000 · Book
Thomas Keating's exploration of the classical Christian understanding of spiritual maturity emerged from his decades of teaching contemplative prayer and spiritual direction. Writing at the turn of the millennium as the founder…
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Origen of Alexandria · 246–248 · Treatise
For readers who want the fullest early Christian answer to an educated pagan critic; long, but argued point by point and still lively.
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Basil the Great · 370–379 · Other
For the reader who wants to pray with Basil rather than read about him: the eucharistic liturgy still used in Lent in the Byzantine churches and daily by the Copts, its long anaphora a summary of the whole faith. Follow Hapgood's English; the Greek is for
FreeOriginal languageModerate
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Isaac of Nineveh · 680–700 · Treatise
The Third Part represents the most advanced and mystical portion of Isaac of Nineveh's spiritual writings, discovered only in recent centuries after being lost for over a millennium. This seventh-century Syrian monk's…
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Richard of St. Victor · 1150–1173 · Book
Richard of St. Victor stands among the most systematic and psychologically astute writers on contemplative prayer in the medieval West. A Scottish canon who became prior of the famous Abbey of St.…
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Bonaventure · 1250–1274 · Treatise
Bonaventure's "Tree of Life" stands as one of medieval Christianity's most sophisticated meditative treatises, written during his tenure as Minister General of the Franciscan order in the latter half of the thirteenth…
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Gertrude the Great · 1280–1295 · Treatise
The Spiritual Exercises emerges from the mystical flowering of thirteenth-century monasticism at Helfta, where Gertrude the Great wrote this treatise as a structured guide to contemplative prayer and union with Christ. Composed…
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Gregory Palamas · 1338–1341 · Treatise
Gregory Palamas composed this systematic defense of hesychast spirituality in response to fierce attacks from Barlaam of Calabria, a Greek-Italian monk who criticized the mystical practices of Mount Athos as crude and…
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Richard Rolle · 1340–1349 · Treatise
Ego Dormio stands as one of Richard Rolle's most accessible English treatises on the mystical life, written during the 1340s for a nun or recluse seeking guidance in contemplative prayer. The work…
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Richard Rolle · 1340–1349 · Treatise
Richard Rolle's Emendatio Vitae, written during the final decade of his life as England's most prominent hermit, represents his most systematic attempt to chart the path of spiritual transformation. Composed between 1340…
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Walter Hilton · 1390 · Letter
Walter Hilton's Epistle on the Mixed Life is a spiritual letter written around 1390 to a nobleman who sought guidance on balancing worldly responsibilities with contemplative devotion. The recipient, likely a lord…
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Francisco de Osuna · 1530 · Treatise
Francisco de Osuna's Ley de Amor, completed in 1530, represents the culmination of his mystical writings and his most systematic exposition of the spiritual life. Written as the fourth and final volume…
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Francisco de Osuna · 1554 · Treatise
Francisco de Osuna's Sexto Abecedario Espiritual represents the culmination of his influential series of spiritual alphabets, treatises that organized mystical instruction according to the letters of the alphabet. Writing in the flowering…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1562–1565 · Book
For any reader who wants to know Teresa: her own story of a divided life turned to God, with the image of the four waters of prayer; the best first book.
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Teresa of Ávila · 1567 · Other
For readers interested in how Teresa organised the reformed Carmelite life; a rule, not devotional reading.
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Teresa of Ávila · 1577 · Book
For readers ready for her mature teaching: the soul as a castle of seven mansions, from first conversion to union; read after the Life and the Way.
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John of the Cross · 1579–1585 · Treatise
For readers serious about the spiritual life who want the demanding, practical companion to the Dark Night: detachment from everything that is not God; not a first book.
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Robert Bellarmine · 1615 · Treatise
Robert Bellarmine's "De Ascensione Mentis in Deum" (The Mind's Ascent to God) stands as a devotional treatise written by the great Jesuit theologian in 1615, near the end of his distinguished career…
