Becoming Fire : Through the Year with the Desert Fathers and Mothers

The insights of the desert monks of the fifth and sixth centuries amaze, and startle, readers by their wisdom. Among other things, they teach "that the first step in overcoming our sinfulness is an honest perception of things as they are." By arranging these "words" in short daily readings, Tim Vivian invites modern readers to savor the monks' advice, as did those who collected these sayings, rather than dismiss them as a fascinating but irrelevant bit of history.