During Great Lent, we celebrate the small compline with the Akathist to the Mother of God on Friday evenings. In recent years, we have added onto that with a Lenten meal and discussion of a spiritual book. In the past we have focused on a single book on the spiritual life, following it through chapter by chapter. This year, we will continue this tradition of having a spiritual discussion, and the book that we will be using is the Hungry Orthodox Christian Reader (available now in the parish bookstore). This book is an anthology of selections from the writings of the fathers, both ancient and recent, on the spiritual life. There are many more selections that we can address during the Lenten period and so we will focus only on eight selections. These selections are:

1. Spiritual Anthropology from St. Symeon the New Theologian (3/4)

2. The Path to Salvation from St. Theophan the Recluse (3/11)

4. The Unity of Christ’s Ideal from St. Hilarion Troitsky (3/18)

6. The Mystery of Knowledge from St. Justin Popovich (3/25)

10. A Sower Went Out to Sow His Seed from St. Greogry Palamas (4/1)

13. Treatise on Prayer from St. Symeon of Thessalonika (4/8)

18. Self-Restraint from St. Nikodemous the Hagiorite (4/15)

19. The War on Thoughts from St. Paisios the New of Mt. Athos (4/22)

There are many other chapters in the book, all worthy of reading, and I strongly recommend reading all the chapters, not just the ones to be discussed. In order to get all these discussions in before Pascha, we will begin during the pre-Lenten period with the first meeting on Friday March 4 at 7 p.m. in the parish hall.