| Scott Cairns is the author of six collections of poetry. He is Professor of English at the University of Missouri and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006. In this alluring collection of adaptations and translations, he presents the short sayings and teachings of the mystical fathers and mothers of Christianity. From St. Paul to Saint Therese of Lisieux, Cairns covers the love that these theologians and saints had for God and their experience of hte manifold mysteries of grace, faith, and spiritual transformation. Here are two examples of the material found in this book: Capable Flesh by Saint Irenaeus "The tender flesh itself will be found one day - quite surprisingly - to be capable of receiving, and yes, full capable of embracing the searing energies of God. Go figure. Fear not. For even at its beginning the humble clay received God's art, whereby one part became the eye, another the ear, and yet another this impetuous hand. Therefore, the flesh is not to be excluded from the wisdom and the power that now and ever animates all things. His life-giving agency is made perfect, we are told, in weakness - made perfect in the flesh." Love's Purpose by Saint Issac of Nineveh "In love did He bring the world into being, and in love does He guide its difficult slow-seeming journey now through the arc of time. In love will He one day bring all the world to a wondrous, transformed state, and utterly in love will it be taken wholly up into the great mystery of the One who has performed these things - and all of this so that in love absolutely will the course and form and governance of all creation at long last be comprised." |
| Spirituality and Practice |
| September 2007 |
| Compass of Affection - New and Selected Poems A sacramental vision of the energy and agency of the divine in the world Our Price: $22.50 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deaths and Transfigurations: Poems This provocative collection of beautiful new poems - Paul Mariani's first in nine years - searches and develops the human themes of personal loss. His searching verse explores the deaths we experience, the quest for new life, and the transfiguring moments Our Price: $3.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
