The Practice of Faith

• Paul Evdokimov, The Struggle with God (Sister Gertrude, OP, translator; Paulist Press, Glen Rock NJ: 1966) (entire book).
  
  This is a book I have read 12 times, and will read again. It's that good. Be aware that the translation was revised in 1998 by Michael Plekon and Alexis Vinogradov, and republished as Ages of the Spiritual Life (which was in fact its original title in French) by St Vladimir's Seminary Press. Unfortunately though, to my mind, the new version has little to recommend it: The revisers quoted large sections of Sr Gertrude's translation almost verbatim, but elsewhere just flattened its astonishing lyricism; they put roughly half the book into "inclusive language", while leaving the other half alone; and in some cases translated the opposite of what Sr. Gertrude's work, with results that occasionally don't even seem to make sense. Deadly. But read the 1966 translation: it sings. Like I say, I've read it twelve times, you should too.
• RM French (tr), The Way of a Pilgrim. This is the famous classic of Russian Spirituality, which exists now in four other English translations, I think. If you haven't read it— well, just do!
• Christos Yannaras, "In Praise of Marriage", INTAMS Journal for the Study of Marriage & Spirituality, Vol. 16/2, Autumn 2010. An illuminating comparison of the married and monastic vocations.
• John Burnett, "Marriage and Divorce Today and in the Bible", some preliminary notes in progress relating my thoughts about the difference between our situation today and the realities contemplated in the Scriptures and Canons of the Church. These were based largely on thoughts I had while teaching the relevant passages in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5.27-32), which are summarized in this pdf.
• St Mother Maria Skobtsova, "Types of Religious Lives": Essay written in 1937 and discovered in 1996.
  
  Mother Maria lucidly examines aspects of the inner life and the dangers of fascination with institutional structures, rituals, esthetics, and asceticism as ends in themselves. The author, who died martyrically at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, was recently canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
• Saint Mark the Ascetic (5th-6th c.), On Those who Think They are Made Righteous by Works: Two Hundred and Twenty Six Texts
  
  From The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. I, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth; translated from the Greek and edited by G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (Faber & Faber, London & Boston: 1979), pp. 125-146.
• Saint Issac the Syrian (ca 650 AD), Homily 51 of the Ascetical Homilies (Holy Transfiguration, Boston, 1984) pp 243-248. This is a chapter I come back to over and over:
  
  "As a handful of sand thrown into the great sea, so are the sins of all flesh in comparison with the mind of God. And just as a strongly flowing spring is not obstructed by a handful of dust, so the mercy of the Creator is not stemmed by the vices of His creatures."
• Christos Yannaras, "The Asceticism of the Church and Individual Virtue": Chapter 7 of The Freedom of Morality (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY: 1984), pp. 109-117.
• Christos Yannaras, "Pietism as an Ecclesiological Heresy": Chapter 8 of The Freedom of Morality (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY: 1984), pp. 119-136.
• Christos Yannaras, "The Church Canons and the Limits Set to Life": Chapter 10 of The Freedom of Morality (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY: 1984), pp. 173-193. (See also St. Gregory the Great on whether women should receive Communion during menstruation, and K.C. Hanson on Blood and Purity.)
• Fr. Georges Florovsky, "The Ascetic Ideal and the New Testament: Reflections on the Critique of the Theology of the Reformation": Chapter 1 of the Collected Works of Georges Florovsky, Vol. X, the Byzantine Ascetic and Spiritual Fathers (Buchervertriebsanstalt: Vaduz, Europa, 1987), pp. 17-59. This same chapter is duplicated in Vol. XIII, Chap. 3, pp. 102-133 under the title, "Reformation Theology and the New Testament".
• Stanley Hauerwas, Abortion, Theologically Understood. This is simply the most intelligent piece— if not the only intelligent piece— I've ever read on the topic of abortion. And that includes all pastoral pronouncements from any source whatever.
• Olivier Clément, "Purification by Atheism": Sobornost 5/4 (Winter 1966) 232-248. "The fundamental theological problem here is that of the freedom of man." —Read it! Read it! Read it!
• Metropolitan Georges (Khodr), Archbishop of Lebanon, A Call to Christians: "You also make the mistake of thinking that others can make no progress, as if labels had some meaning in themselves; as if Christ could not, with or without the aid of water, baptize in God anyone to whom he would grant his grace. Certainly, all comes from the Savior whom you worship: all truth, all purity, all greatness, all that is ideal. There is nothing good in this world that is not in some manner upheld by Christ. But the Lord acts wherever he pleases and you have no say in limiting his work." Metropolitan Georges speaks with a maturity that is wisdom and fresh air.