Lenten reading: some suggestions

Great Lent begins in four weeks, so now is a good time to think about suitable spiritual reading for the period of the fast. What follows is a short list of suggestions based on my own library:

The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St John Climacus is, after the Bible itself, the traditional volume of Lenten reading. However, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it for the average layperson. It was written for a sixth-century AD monastic audience, and it shows!

Great Lent: Journey to Pascha by Alexander Schmemann. This has become classic Lenten reading since its publication in 1969. Schmemann leads his readers through systematically through the preparation for Lent and the Lenten services before exploring the Lenten journey and it place in our life. A must read for anyone who has not already done so (and for anyone who has)!

The Lenten Spring: Readings for Great Lent by Thomas Hopko. This is a collection of forty short meditations for the days of Lent.

Thirty Steps to Heaven: The Ladder of Divine Ascent for All Walks of Life by Vasilios Papavassiliou. As the title suggests, this is a re-envisioning of The Ladder of Divine Ascent for twenty-first century laypeople. I must confess that I haven’t read this yet, but I decided to recommend it anyway because of how impressed I was by his Journey to the Kingdom: An Insider’s Look at the Liturgy and Beliefs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. 

First Fruits of Prayer: A Forty Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew by Frederica Mathewes-Green. Another book of meditations for every day in Lent. This one leads us through St Andrew of Crete’s great penitential canon, which is chanted on the first four evenings of Great Lent and again on Thursday of the Fifth Week.

The Way of the Ascetics: The Ancient Tradition of Discipline and Inner Growth by Tito Colliander. For some years, this has been my own personal choice as a modern substitute for The Ladder of Divine Ascent. In twenty-six short chapters, Colliander offers an Orthodox layman’s perspective on the spiritual traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy. What I particularly like about it is the way he combines insights from the Fathers of the Church with examples from everyday life.