I currently read In No Strange Land: The Embodied Mysticism of Saint Philip Neri and this book is a quasi-biography of St. Philip Neri and what factors contributed to him becoming a mystic. It doesn't offer a systematic approach, but an analytical in which his life, influences and practices are examined carefully. The premise of the book is People not Arguments to show that it is the person and not the rational argument that convinces us. I started it and like the different theological aspects it raises and what actually constitutes mysticism, quoting St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Henry Newman, William James etc. It focuses on the three development stages of holiness: purification, illumination, union; paralleled by baptism, confirmation, eucharist; and by the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. These stages are used for understanding Philip's way of life and how he became stronger in virtue and holiness.
After this one I planned to read Hymns on Paradise by St. Ephrem the Syrian. Here St. Ephrem gives a symbolical and perennial understanding of paradise and how the early accounts of Genesis are deeply connected to the Passion of Christ. I know this book from Jonathan Pageau and cannot believe that this way of reading the Bible is withheld from us; meaning nobody really talks let alone knows about how the Early Church Fathers interpreted the Holy Scriptures.
Post the books you read right now or have read by saints. Biographical, theological, literary works, everything.
After this one I planned to read Hymns on Paradise by St. Ephrem the Syrian. Here St. Ephrem gives a symbolical and perennial understanding of paradise and how the early accounts of Genesis are deeply connected to the Passion of Christ. I know this book from Jonathan Pageau and cannot believe that this way of reading the Bible is withheld from us; meaning nobody really talks let alone knows about how the Early Church Fathers interpreted the Holy Scriptures.
Post the books you read right now or have read by saints. Biographical, theological, literary works, everything.
