This small volume (114 pages) by an Orthodox archbishop is one of my very favorite books, and since it doesn’t seem to make into the church bookstores as much as I think it should, I’ll put in a word in time for Christmas buying.

The Amazon.com review of their book on tape version says: “Based on a 1970 book by a much loved archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain (who died last year at age 89), this audio is a splendidly narrated presentation of the author’s writing on mercy and hope.” That’s a good start, and I would love to try to fill in more, but I’m at a bit of a loss, and so I think I’ll just quote some of my favorite passages:

• On the “absence” of God:
  

  The day when God is absent, when He is silent — that is the beginning of prayer. Not when we have a lot to say, but when we say to God ‘I can’t live without You. Why are You so cruel, so silent?’ This knowledge that we must find or die — that makes us break through to the place where we are in the Presence. If we listen to what our hearts know of love and longing and are never afraid of despair, we find that victory is always there on the other side of it.”

• The “madness” of Christianity
  

  As Christians we are always in tension — the anguish and at the same time in bliss. This is mad, ridiculous. But it is true — accepting the dark night just as we accept the brilliance of the day … But, on the other hand, the Christian is like someone who lives in three dimensions in a world in which the majority of people live in two.

• Meeting God
  

  When we read the Gospel and the image of Christ becomes compelling, glorious, … do we ever say, ‘I am unworthy that He should come near me?’ Not to speak of all the occasions when we should be aware that He cannot come to us because we are not there to receive Him. We want something from Him, not Him at all. Is that a relationship? Do we behave in that way with our friends? Do we aim at what friendhsip can give us or is it the friend whom we love? Is this true with regard to the Lord?

And I’ll just mention that those excerpts are more or less at random. This is the sort of book you start highlighting and then just give up because you’d be marking up every line.