The Monks of Mount Athos: A Western Monk's Extraordinary Spiritual Journey on Eastern Holy Ground
by M. Basil Pennington
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Book Summary Information
Author: M. Basil PenningtonForeword: Archimandrite Dionysios
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Special Edition
Published: 2003-04
ISBN: 1893361780
Number of pages: 305
Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing
Book Reviews of The Monks of Mount Athos: A Western Monk's Extraordinary Spiritual Journey on Eastern Holy Ground
Book Review: Acceptance by others might lead one
Summary: 4 Stars
An entry by Father +Basil on 2 July, while visiting Gregoriou Monastery on the Holy Mountain, discloses the author's humility and candor. These qualities are difficult to sustain throughout a single text. However, Father Basil nurtures less resistance within himself toward the Lord Christ and risks importune rejections by monks on the Holy Mountain thanks to his sober view. On July 2, Father Basil records his embarrassment over offending monks of Gregoriou Monastery.
Just one day prior he had reached Gregoriou, which is proximal to Simonas Petras Monastery to the south along the western coastline of the Holy Mountain. There he had met with the Hegumen (abbot of the Monastery), Father Georgias, from whom Father Basil learned of resistance among the Monastery's Elders to a non-Orthodox man visiting them. The details concerning resistance from the Elders provide sufficient information about their point of view without belaboring the historical events of the prior three centuries of Jesuit and Dominican incursions in Greece.
It is clear, in my opinion, that Father Basil provides details of this brief visit to Gregoriou according to how he actually witnessed his place in Christ's Church. He "slipped away" from Gregoriou to cross the coastal range and return northward to Simonas Petras after he "...assisted at Orthros from the porch." He writes that he did not want "...to cause any further embarrssment to my host," which is a reference both to the pleasant Hegumen and all monks of Gregoriou Monastery.
While historical details of Latin abuses are noteworthy by way of absence in Father Basil's journal entries of 01 and 02 July, the author reports a poignant summary of the Hegumen's recommendation when Father Basil asked on 01 July to remain at Gregoriou for a week. One or more of the Elders had noted to the Hegumen that Father Basil looked Orthodox on the surface, and wondered why Father Basil was not Orthodox inwardly as well.
Trust among Father Basil and Gregoriou monks was impaired by bias, which the generous Hegumen disclosed on 01 July. Acknowledged disparity between Christ's priestly prayer of John's Gospel and such bias as the author encountered at Gregoriou -- disparity strikes author and his reader as less than "the fullness of love" in Christ.
How does a man of 45 years age (at the time of the visit) muster acceptance as this? Father Basil recounted a succinct part of St. Paul's first letter to the Church at Corinth: "Love is kind, patient, bears all things." Indeed, Love cannot be counted in the age of one, but rather in the multitude of theosis at work.
Filled by Christ is how this work of Love from Father Basil of blessed memory transports penitent to Pascha. There dawns an eternal Pascha in this book. And all are invited.
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