Grace For Grace: The Psalter And The Holy Fathers

by Johanna Manley (Editor)

An anthology of commentary by the Church Fathers of meditations relating to the Psalms and scriptural odes. Extracts form Orthodox Christian festal and lenten services have been included as heuristic aides, as well as Old Testament passages from the Book of Kings. Also included is The Psalter According to the Seventy, a Septuagint version translated by Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Two appendices and glossary.

Genres: Religion

748 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[booklady]

February 6, 2018: Sadly, I need to put this on the back-burner for now. I so hoped to finish it, but too many other things I need to read.

November 6, 2017: Listen to this: 'How is justice greater than all the other virtues? The other virtues gratify the one who possesses them; justice does not give pleasure to the one possessing it, but instead pleases others. If I am wise, wisdom delights me; if I am brave, my fortitude comforts me; if I have been chaste, my chastity is my joy. On the contrary, justice does not benefit the one who has it, but all the wretched who do not have it ...''

And who does this sound like? To me, it sounds like something right out of the Republik, words from the mouth of Socrates, but no, it is from St. Jerome in Homilies, Vol 1: 1-59 on the Psalms, specifically, Homily 5 on Psalm 14.

Still reading...

[w gall · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is enlightening to read the insights of the early Church Fathers, as they see from another angle, and not through our current cultural assumptions. While it is true that they are addressing ancient Church situations and challenges which may not seem to touch our present challenges, we can benefit from the way they addressed them, and be encouraged by their spirit, their godly zeal and earnestness.

[Joan D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great truths are found in Grace for Grace. Each psalm is followed by writings from the Church Fathers and others. My favorites were by St. Nicholai Velimirovich. His writing is the most poetic of all, quite stunning. My favorite was. "The walls that stand between you and truth and loom up before you like colossal mountains, which you have been trying to cross by running to the point of exhaustion, are your own creation and are more fragile than the white foam on the lake. If only you could open your eyes wide enough not to see them. Truly, the existence of these walls depends upon your seeing them. If you did not wish to see them, they would not exist.
I once watched a chicken on top of a blackboard running around inside a circle that had been drawn on it with white chalk. I watched him for a long time as he ran to and fro and hesitated to jump over the white line which he probably perceived to be a living creature or a high wall.
This is like my soul, I said in sorrow, when she thinks that she is cut off from her freedom either by some mighty giants or by frightful towering walls. In actual fact, between her prison and her freedom there exists only an imaginary line thinner than a hair...
O Lord of Truth and Life, help my soul to prostrate herself before You and sob: "You are my Being, my Life and my Truth, O beloved Son of the Holy Trinity. You are my everything, and I surrender myself, naked and poor, to You. I no longer have anything to reject or to scorn or to despise, because nothing even exists except You. Have mercy on me, and receive me into Your arms' embrace."

Grace for Grace may be difficult to find at an affordable price. I hope you can get your hands on a copy.