The Vintage Spiritual Classics Series

The Vintage Spiritual Classics present the testimony of writers across the centuries who have pondered the mysterious ways, unfathomable mercies, and deep consolations afforded by God to those who call upon Him from out of the depths of their lives. These writers are our companions, even our champions, in a common effort to discern the meaning of God in personal experience.

"God is our home but many of us have strayed from our native land. The venerable authors of these Spiritual Classics are expert guides--may we follow their directions home." 
--Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The questions, discussion topics, and background information that follow are designed to enhance your group's reading of the six works that make up the first series in Vintage Spiritual Classics. We hope they will provide you with a variety of ways of thinking and talking about these ancient and important texts. We offer this word about the act of reading these spiritual classics. From the very earliest accounts of monastic practice--dating back to the fourth century--it is evident that a form of reading called lectio divina ("divine" or "spiritual" reading) was essential to any deliberate spiritual life. This kind of reading is quite different from that of scanning a text for useful facts and bits of information, or advancing along an exciting plot line to a climax in the action. It is, rather, a meditative approach, by which the reader seeks to taste and savor the beauty and truth of every phrase and passage. There are four steps in lectio divina: first, to read, next to meditate, then to rest in the sense of God's nearness, and, ultimately, to resolve to govern one's actions in the light of new understanding. This kind of reading is itself an act of prayer. And, indeed, it is in prayer that God manifests His Presence to us.

By the end of the fifth century, a pattern had emerged among early Christian communities in Egypt and the Middle East of men and women leaving their cities, towns, and villages to seek God through radical self-abnegation and solitude. These men and women became known collectively as The Desert Fathers. They were the forerunners of the monks who in succeeding centuries would form cenobitic monasteries--that is, communities of monks and nuns living no longer as hermits but under the rule and care of an abbot or abbess.

These saints were often sought out by pilgrims for their spiritual counsel and wisdom. From the extensive collections in Greek and Latin of their recorded words, Helen Waddell has here produced her own selection of some of the most memorable and insightful lessons, which together can help provide a plumb line for any one seeking to find his or her spiritual center.