One of the best books for getting to know the unique monastic, spiritual center of Mount Athos and the necessary companion of the pilgrim, with a multitude of images.

Contents

Publisher's Foreword 5
A few words about the 7th Edition 7

"Gate of Heaven" 11
"Like a cluster full of life" 15
"The Skete Monk Kallinikos" 19
The fall of the doctrine of faith 23
Decisive mental ascents 27
The lover mind and the beloved God 31
Under the gaze of the Portaitissa 35
"Let us make two tents..." 41
".. For whom the world was not worthy" 45
Silent hymn of beauty 48
Silence and Monasticism 52
Saint Anthony and Sociability 56
Us and our neighbor 61
"New wine in old wineskins?" 66
"Without silence it is impossible to be purified" 72
The commandments were given for our salvation 77
The monks and natural beauty 85
The metaphysics of beauty 89
Beauty in Christianity 93
"A heavenly scene in a copy" 97
The God-inspired Elder 101
"I was defeated by Christ" 106
"Physician, heal yourself" 110
Mark the ascetic and the "works" 115
Faith and love 119
"I have left the city life" 123
"Our heart demands Jesus" 130
"Nothing is sweeter than prayer" 135
The ark of faith and nation 139
"O Lord, our soul is restless" 144
Unique representations of religions 148
Approaching the divine "unknowingly" 153
Apology of the Areopagus 159
Orthodox Mysticism and Neoplatonism 164
"Alone, either a beast or God" 170
"Heralds of the coming kingdom" 177
My friend, the hermit Nikodemos 181
"The types of the sun" 185
"... if we die, we are the Lord's" 189
The "autobiography" 194
"I enjoy Your love and Your beauty" 198
"I behold my flesh..." 202
"An angel riding on a beast" 207
"One who falls morally also falls according to ideas" 211
Mystical elements 216
Hesychastic Mysticism 220
The framework of Mysticism 225
Catharsis and Thaborian light 229
The power of mystical union 233
"We do not have here a lasting city" 238
"Here Christ, the friend of the desert" 241
"Blessed are the pure in heart" 244
"Orthodoxy is essentially Monastic" 249
"... imitating the miserable struggles of the angels" 254
Freedom and limitations 259
General overview of Monasticism 263
Monasticism in the militant Church 268

Table of main images 273
Table of contents 277