Complete Works of Saint Ignatius Brianch

"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.

One of the most important and accessible texts of Eastern Orthodox Christian teaching on the spiritual life, this book draws upon the ascetic and mystical doctrine of the Greek Fathers and greats of the Orthodox Christian church. In an age alienated from spiritual culture and rooted in materialism, these teachings pose both a challenge and an invitation to those seeking heightened spirituality. This book is essential reading for anyone who desires a profound spiritual journey based upon an encounter with Christ as God.

Death is a great sacrament. It is the birth of a person from this earthly, temporary life, into eternity. Throughout human history the existence and nature of a world beyond that which is visible to our material eyes has been a subject of intense debate. In this third volume of St Ignatius' s collected works the saint addresses the widespread lack of comprehension of this unseen realm and expounds the necessity of understanding it correctly in accordance with the Truth that is the Orthodox Faith. He 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. He draws deeply on the patristic teachings of Christian saints of the first millennium, in particular St Basil the Great, St Isaac the Syrian, St John of Damascus, and St John of the Ladder. He weaves in quotations from the Psalms and other Scriptural texts as well as liturgical hymns. He exhorts his readers to prepare themselves to cross the threshold into their final heavenly home: to cross from earthly into eternal life. Included here is St Ignatius' s " Homily on Death," one of his most popular writings in its original language. The reader will also encounter St Ignatius' s teachings on the nature of the soul and the essence of 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, a subject index, and a short biography of the author.