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Wednesday, 13 March 2019

Mountain Of The Dead: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (Biography, Travel Literature) by Keith McCloskey

Paperback: In January 1959, ten experienced young skiers set out for Mount Otorten in the far north of Russia.

While one of the skiers fell ill and returned, the remaining nine lost their way and ended up on another mountain slope known as Kholat Syakhl (or 'Mountain of the Dead').

On the night of 1 February, something or someone caused the skiers to flee their tent in such terror that they used knives to slash their way out.

Search parties were sent out and their bodies were found, some with massive internal injuries but no external marks on them.

The autopsy stated the violent injuries were caused by 'an unknown elemental force'.

The area was sealed off for years by the authorities and the full events of that night remained unexplained.

Using original research carried out in Russia and photographs from the skiers' cameras, Keith McCloskey attempts to explain in his book, Mountain of the Dead (2013), what happened to the nine young people who lost their lives in the mysterious 'Dyatlov Pass Incident'.

About the author: Keith McCloskey grew up in Africa and has lived and worked in the Middle East, Africa and Argentina. Having had a lifelong interest in history and travel, he went to Ekaterinburg in Russia to search Mountain of the Dead: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013).

Tuesday, 12 March 2019

Season Of Repentance: Lenten Homilies Of Saint John Of Kronstadt

Paperback:  Come, be healed. All are welcome to come now and throughout Great Lent. Christ Himself receives each and every one.

Each year we begin anew the journey to the radiant feast of Pascha, entering the season of repentance known as Great Lent.

The homilies presented in this modest volume, from one of the spiritual giants of the Orthodox Church of Russia, can both encourage and inform us in this struggle of the Fast.

For the first time a selection of St John's Lenten sermons is presented in English translation.

They follow the thematic structure of the Lenten season in the Orthodox Church, from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee through to Great and Holy Friday.

A sermon for St Thomas Sunday, that follows Holy Pascha, is offered as an Epilogue.

Season Of Repentance (Holy Trinity Monastery, 2015) is translated from the Russian by Sergio Tancredo Sette Câmara e Silva.

About the Saint:  Ivan Ilyich Sergiev (1829-1908), known to his contemporaries as Fr John of Kronstadt, was the most revered figure of the Orthodox Church of Russia in the half-century leading up to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. In 1964, the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia formally glorified him as a Saint. St John of Kronstadt is best known through his spiritual journal My Life in Christ, that have been read by millions.

About the translator:  Sergio Tancredo Sette Câmara e Silva is a native of Brazil and a graduate of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, New York, USA. He is now a priest serving in South America.

Tuesday Wisdom

Monday, 11 March 2019

The Life Of Teresa Of Jesus: The Autobiography of Teresa of Ávila

Paperback: St Teresa of Ávila's books were written at the command of her confessors, and she dreaded writing. At first, she thought herself much better off at the spinning wheel. Irked, she said, "For the love of God, let me work at my spinning wheel and go to choir and perform the duties of the religious life, like the other sisters. I am not meant to write. I have neither the health nor the intelligence for it." And she proceeded to write. The most natural and human and unstuffy, unbounded books that also happened to be filled with genius and mystical experience - God's self-disclosure, share. - Gertrud Mueller Nelson

The Life of Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582) by Herself is the autobiographical account of Saint Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, a prominent 16th century Spanish mystic, Carmelite nun, and writer of the Counter Reformation.

In these pages is a life of "fire assuaged by water." Stream, rain, garden, enclosure - Teresa of Ávila uses these gentle images to tell the story of the life of her soul. But they are not alone. Flame, fire arrow, fuel - these passionate images complete this incomparable record of the spirit. Few have ever written of the love of God with such tender ferocity.

The time has come to consider anew this great sixteenth-century woman, Saint and Doctor of the Church. Like many of her writings her autobiography has a didactic tone as it intends to instruct the reader on how to live a more devout Christian life in the manner put forth by the Catholic Church.

A classic work of Christian mysticism, The Life of Teresa of Jesus is a must read for anyone seeking a more contemplative life and a closer and more spiritual connection with God through prayer and religious devotion.

It is a work of literary genius and heroic love.

It is the testimony of an epic life.

The Life Of Teresa Of Jesus is translated and edited from the Spanish by E Allison Peers.

About the Saint: Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), also called St Teresa of Jesus, was a Spanish nun, one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic Church, and author of spiritual classics. She was the originator of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of primitive Carmelite life. St Teresa was elevated to Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI, the first woman to be so honoured.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe: Knight of the Immaculata by Fr Jeremiah J Smith, OFM CONV

Paperback: Modern times are dominated by Satan and will be more so in the future. The conflict with Hell cannot be engaged by men, even the most clever. The Immaculata alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan. - St Maximilian Kolbe

St Maximilian Kolbe is famous as the saint of Auschwitz who volunteered to die of starvation and thirst in place of another prisoner. But his heroic death in 1941 in the worst of the Nazi concentration camps was only the culmination of an amazing life - for St Maximilian was fired by the supernatural ideal of conquering for Christ through Mary all souls in the entire world to the end of time!

Full of interesting stories, this little book describes his mischievous boyhood, his youthful prophetic vision of two crowns, his dream of matyrdom, his use of modern printing technology to further Our Lady's work, his agreement with St Thérèse of Lisieux, his "Cities of the Immaculata" (the one in Poland grew from 19 members to 762 and was the largest religious community in the world), his knowledge that he was fighting Satan, and his prison abuse for being a Catholic priest.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe: Knight of the Immaculata (1952) shows the amazing deeds which Our Lady will accomplish through a person who consecrates himself to her. It is a book to inspire many more Catholics to consecrate themselves to Mary Immaculate - confident that through them too she will do great things!

About the author: The Reverend Father Jeremiah J. Smith, O.F.M. CONV., was a priest and author of the twentieth century. His biography, Saint Maximilian Kolbe: Knight of the Immaculata, is full of fascinating tales of the saint's early youth, dream of martyrdom, and relationship with St. Thérèse of the Little Flower. Father Smith's book was originally published in 1952 by Conventual Franciscan Publications, New York, with the Nihil Obstat, Imprimatur, and Imprimi Potest. It was re-typeset and republished by TAN Books in 1998.