Sts. Theophan and Ignatius Study Group

We have a Sts. Theophan the Recluse and Ignatius Brianchaninov Study Group at St. Nicholas.  This is an online discussion on Discord, with a live meeting every 2nd Tuesday via Google Meet. While the center of this study is Sts. Theophan and Ignaty, we incorporate other modern holy fathers and mothers with good instruction in the spiritual life.

If you would like to join the group, Click this link to join the Discord: https://discord.gg/TwnVnnwKcB

See the Online Church Calendar for dates and Google Meet Links.

Some handouts and notes will be downloadable in the Discord.

Here you can find materials used by the group.

Past and Upcoming Readings (roughly in order):

• Introduction to the Study Group (please read first)
• Jesus Prayer 101 by St. Theophan
• Jesus Prayer 101 by St. Ignaty
• Some Supplements:
  • Fr. Artemy Vladimirov on the Jesus Prayer
  • Do Not Resent, Do Not React, Keep Inner Stillness by Metropolitan Jonah
• The Path of Prayer: Four Homilies on Prayer by St. Theophan:
  • • Homily 1
    • Homily 2
    • Homily 3
    • Homily 4
• Unseen Warfare
  • Book (Amazon) (Free PDF)
  • Class by Fr. Jacob Myers of blessed memory (we will be listening in class)
• Homily on the Meeting of the Lord by St. Theophan. We will be looking at this when the group meets again.

Some summary texts on important topics:

• The Prayer Rule
  • The Rule for Attending to Oneself by St. Ignaty Brianchaninov
    Written for a Certain Layman As a Result of His Desire To Live A Vigilant Life In The World. This includes the prayer rule given by St. Ignaty
  • A Prayer Rule by St. Theophan the Recluse
• The Essence: Vigilance and Being Within
  • A Practical Spiritual Catechism from Mt. Athos (and other texts) by Bishop Emilianos, disciple of Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra monastery, Mt. Athos. Here is a text that distills the essence of spiritual life into a single persistent practice!
  • The essential practice
  • A Scattered Life and an Attentive Life by St. Ignaty Brianchaninov
  • Being Within  by St. Theophan
• Misc.
  • Sayings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

Books

Here are a list of books in the order in which we will study them with Amazon links. Before you order these, please do the following first:

• Do you shop on Amazon? Then the next time you do, start by clicking on this Amazon link first.
• Or go to smile.amazon.com instead, and select St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Saratoga, CA as your charity.  Then every time you use the smile site instead of the regular Amazon site, you make a donation to the church with every purchase!

Then click on the links below to order the books:

• The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it by St. Theophan
• The Field: Cultivating Salvation by St. Ignaty
• Kindling the Divine Spark by St. Theophan  (Only available used at the moment)
• The Arena: Guidelines for Spiritual and Monastic Life by St. Ignaty
• The Path to Salvation by St. Theophan: This is his magnum opus!
• The Refuge: Anchoring the Soul to God by St. Ignaty
• On the Prayer of Jesus by St. Ignaty