One of the best books for getting to know the unique solitary spiritual center in the world, Mount Athos, and the essential companion of the pilgrim, with a multitude of images.

Contents:

Publisher's preface 5

A few words about the 7th Edition 7

“Gateway to Heaven” 11

“As a cluster full of life” 15

“The Skete-dweller Kalinikos” 19

The fall of the doctrine of faith 23

Apophatic mental ascents 27

The loving mind and the beloved God 31

Under the gaze of the Portaitissa 35

“Let us build two tents...” 41

“... for whom the world was not worthy” 45

Silent hymn of beauty 48

Silence and Monasticism 52

Saint Anthony and Community 56

We and our neighbor 61

“New wine in old wineskins?” 66

“Without silence it is impossible to be purified” 72

The commandments were given for vision 77

The monks and natural beauty 85

The metaphysics of beauty. 89

Beauty in Christianity 93

“Heavenly archetype of the tent” 97

The Elder God-loving. 101

“I was defeated by Christ” 106

“Physician, heal thyself” 110

Mark the ascetic and the “works” 115

Faith and love 119

“I left the urban distractions” 123

“Our heart demands Jesus” 130

“Nothing is sweeter than prayer” 135

Ark of faith and nation 139

“O Lord, our soul is restless” 144

Idiosyncratic imprints of religions 148

We approach the divine “unknowingly” 153

Apologetics of the Areopagus 159

Orthodox Mysticism and Neoplatonism 164

“Alone, or a beast or God” 170

“Heralds of the coming kingdom” 177

My friend the hermit Nicodemus 181

“The types of the nails” 185

“... if we die, we are the Lord's” 189

The “autobiography”.. 194

“I enjoy Your love and Your beauty” 198

“I bring under suspicion my flesh...” 202

“Angel driving on a beast” 207

“The one who falls morally falls also in his ideas” 211

Mystical elements 216

Athos' Mysticism 220

The frameworks of Mysticism 225

Purification and Taborian light 229

Power of mystical union 233

“We have no lasting city here” 238

“Here Christ the friend of the desert” 241

“Blessed are the pure in heart” 244

“Orthodoxy is essentially Monastic” 249

“... touching the miserable angels” 254

Freedom and limitations 259

General overview of Monasticism 263

Monasticism in the militant Church 268

List of major images 273

Table of contents 277