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Essays
I believe everyone should have a shelf of books they go to daily for inspiration, guidance, and refueling. It's so easy once outside the house to be distracted by the marketplace, the media, and work. Shambhala Publications has traditionally focused on Eastern religions, but with this work of aphorisms from early Christian mystics they have added to the current discourse between world religions. Thomas Merton edited a similar volume of sayings of the Desert Fathers in the sixties, which has remained on my meditation shelf. This new selection includes writings by meditatives from the first Christian millennium. Until the second century women were not allowed much access to advanced spiritual teachings, nor the opportunity to write their observations down, and this book reflects that lack. Only two women are represented. McGuckin's introduction describes the threefold path to growth, Pratikos (discipline practices), Theoretikos (inner searching), and Gnostikos (the state of knowing), which is used to organize the entries. He advises the reader not to take the book lightly, but to use it consciously and at a nurturing pace. Offered as a practical manual for contemplation it asks that the reader, as Hesychios instructed, "set your soul in quietness." McGulkin has done a great service in bringing these works back to light. As luminous as any Sufi story, or Zen koan, they clear a path in troubled times for thinking Christians, and for anyone in search of spirit in a fallen world. Makarios the Great once said: "Manifold are the patterns of grace, / and most varied are the ways it leads to the soul. / Sometimes, as God decides, / grace gives rest to the soul. / At other times it puts it to work." Those who have understanding of things greater are capable of what the East has always called "right action." What a different world this would be if we could all follow these directives.
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