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Barsanuphius and John: Letters, Volume 1 is unavailable, but you can change that!

The complete text of the Letters of Barsanuphius and John appears here in English for the first time. John Chryssavgis’s faithful and deft translation brings vividness and freshness to the wisdom of a distant world, ensuring its accessibility to contemporary readers. Addressed to local monastics, lay Christians, and ecclesiastical leaders, these remarkable questions and responses (850 of them)...

Then the Scripture is fulfilled that says: “Deviate neither to the right hand nor to the left.”6 But give the body just a little less than it requires. Indeed, this is the way of the fathers: neither to be extravagant nor to be crushed in one’s discipline. As for approaching holy Communion, when this happens to you, not out of scorn but as a result of illness, then there is no condemnation. For the greatest physician personally visits those who suffer greatly and are ill, just as our Lord Jesus himself
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