By Metropolitan Anthony Bloom      114pgs.

About the concepts of time, honesty, when God is seemingly absent, and much more.  This is a very direct answer to many of our modern dilemmas.

Compiled by Johanna Manley

This book gives the New Testament readings for each day of the year and their commentary by one of the Orthodox Fathers.  A resource for daily use for every year.    1125 pgs. Hardcover

By Metropolitan Titus of Rethymnon   398 pgs. Hardbound 

A collection of Akathists hymns that are said in praise of God, the Mother of God, or the Holy Saints and recited reverently standing.  A practical resource for prayer when we wish to ask God and His Holy Ones to intercede for us. 

Trans by. Eric P. Wheeler

Another basic monastic text with a view of how to overcome pride and judgment.

by Victor Afanasiev- 833 pgs.

A refreshing biography of one of the 14 great Optina Elders whose teaching, spiritual foresight, and clairvoyance pierced the mysteries of God as they related to those they met or corresponded with.  This elder was a colonel in the Russian Army before his call to monastic life at 47, and shows in particular in its telling that the circumstances of our life are never by chance and have a most deep meaning that we can learn.

Prisoner, Priest, Spiritual Father

A modern classic about how the worst calamities can be transfigured into spiritual benefit if one has the eyes to see, and the ears to hear the Gospel. A great biography of a victim of Soviet persecution who made the Gulag the door into Heaven.

Liturgy and Life in the Orthodox Church, by Archimandrite Vasileios

About a unified and comprehensive view of the Mind of the Trinity as it is expressed in the Church and how to enter it.  The exact answer to where Christian unity lies.

By St.John Climacus

One of the basic texts on monastic life from a 6th century Saint and the Abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. He tells us how to ascend the ladder of ascent into Heaven with remarkable insight and clarity.

By Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy

The single best simple overview of the Orthodox Faith with lucid and profoundly simple explanations of the Church’s Feasts and Fasts, and It’s Orthodox practice.

This direct, very lively, and inspiring teaching is a part of this book about St. Seraphim and gives in a very few pages the very purpose of our life in the Church: the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.

By Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos

How the “Mind of the Church” is understood correctly, used in distinction to other forms of Christianity, and then applied to our daily life.  Important to counteract  modern concepts of faith that lack theological and practical clarity, respect for religious differences.  How to become truly Orthodox in thought, word, and deed.

By Kyriacos C. Markides - 256 pgs.

A contemporary story of how a modern non-practicing professor at an American University found Father Maximos, a striking figure of Orthodoxy from Mount Athos who spoke to his heart, and subsequently found that the faith of his Orthodox Cypriot heritage was alive and true.  A story of modern doubts and how to overcome them.

By Vladimir Lossky

An important tightly constructed tour through the basic mystical theology of the Orthodox Church which can rearrange our thoughts and constructs on how the universe, God and Man are defined and interrelated.  Bishop Kallistos Ware calls this and important work.

Discussion with a Hermit on the Jesus Prayer, by Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos

One of the best books on meeting a modern spiritual elder, and, in retelling that meeting, the importance and meaning of silent interior or hesychast prayer.

St. Basil the Great: from the Sunday Sermons of the Holy Fathers

126 pgs.

By Timothy [Bishop Kallistos] Ware

Although there is no perfect introduction to the history and the theology and practice of the Orthodox Church, this book, written by an English speaking convert, is probably the best and most approachable available.  Don’t neglect to read carefully the entire history, for the Church exists in space and time as well as in Eternity.

The Science of the Fathers, by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos

The basis for a healthy Christian understanding of the mind and the cure for what ails the soul, this profound work gives a true view of the inner working of the mind and heart from an Orthodox Christian perspective, rather than just modern speculations.

By Bishop Kallistos (Ware) 

This book is about the way that Orthodoxy thinks and feels, and it is not just of Earth and Earthly.  The very different understanding, that contact with this fulness of Life in Orthodoxy makes so manifest, can be tangibly felt in this book.

Vol. 9 of The Mount Athos Series by Archimandrite Vasileios

A wonderful long essay on this meaningful parable of the Lord and how we too are looking for reconciliation with Our Father Who is in Heaven.

A Manual of Spiritual Transformation, by St. Theophan the Recluse

Explains the journey of each person from birth to Heaven and the specific ways to live an Orthodox Christian life in every stage from cradle to grave.  Specifics on child-rearing and overcoming the passions and selfishness.  A modern saint wrote this.

Trans. By Holy Transfiguration Monastery

These are the hymns from the Holy Scriptures that King David sang to the Lord and are presented divided into how these psalms are read in the Orthodox liturgical during the services of Orthros (or Matins) and Vespers.  Many Orthodox cultures taught their children to first read from this book.  Almost every Orthodox Saint that has left us written instruction or words for edification draws upon these hymns often in their teachings.  Jesus Himself quoted them when He walked on Earth.

To learn of the Saints, we need to meet one to see how they act and how they live.  This is an intimate and inspiring portrait of a modern and most approachable Saint.

We truly begin to learn of the richness of Orthodoxy by the practice of prayer, for according to St. Paul, our prayer should precede all other activity.

The "Way of a Pilgrim" is considered a great classic of Russian Orthodox spirituality, specifically on the origin and practice of the Jesus Prayer.