Cloudy

more from Russell's Spiritual Classics (see my last two posts)

The Cloud of Unknowing

Who: Anonymous, an English Monk?, possibly a Carthusian
What:  spiritual guidebook, including translations of other religious texts ( such as Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th c. Syrian); a statement of apophatic mysticism
When:  14th century
Where:  England?
How:  original in English?
Why:  to approach God in prayer through love rather than rationality
Influenced: Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, some Trappist monks, Spinoza?, Kant, Kierkegaard

Hmm...  My experience of God is so grace-filled, so "in my face," that I am moved to approach God w/ the complete trust of a loved child, and because of this grace (where-in I KNOW I am loved), I approach God as One Who Knows Me and One Who Can Be Known because our communion is already in the flow of God's Love.

I would like to study this work someday; however, I'm not very attracted to the idea of the unknowableness of God.  I rather believe God makes Himself Knowable through Love.  And this is the best kind of knowing!!! :)

Desert Fathers

Spiritual Classics; the thinking person's guide to great spiritual books
edited by James M. Russell
Magpie Books. London
copyright 2009

Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Latin name: Apophthegmata Patrum
Time-frame: 3rd/ 4th centuries
Locale: desert regions of Egypt
Original Source(s): passed down from the Coptic Church

"The basic idea of the fathers -- that we can ascend to God through a mixture of self-sacrifice, abstinence, and meditation leading to spiritual progress -- became a fundamental model of Christian practice that is still influential today."

Collections:
Amazon lists over 1,000 collections edited by various writers; some of the 1,000 being multiple versions of one editor.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_16/185-7735205-4355945?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sayings+of+the+desert+fathers&sprefix=Sayings+of+the+d%2Caps%2C330#/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Asayings+of+the+desert+fathers&keywords=sayings+of+the+desert+fathers&ie=UTF8&qid=1334003114

Here is one of Merton's.

I'm not sure how I will choose my edition!!!  I always lean toward's Merton, but each collection has a unique vantage point.