The Ascetic Life — Study Guide

St. Maximus the Confessor · Christ Bearer Press $6.99 Kindle · $10.99 Paperback Buy on Amazon → Companion to The Ascetic Life

Eight sessions to climb, step by step, from faith to the love that makes us like God.

Most of us want to love better. We just do not know where to begin, and the old resentments, the quick judgments and the restless thoughts keep pulling us back down. St. Maximus the Confessor drew a map for exactly this: a ladder that rises from faith, through the fear of God and self-control, to a heart at peace, to love, and at last to union with God. This study guide takes you up that ladder one rung at a time, alone or with others, so that his short chapters on love stop being something you read and become the way you live.

In every session you will find:

• A short overview that sets the scene before you read
• The key chapters of St. Maximus on that rung, opened up in plain language
• The Scripture passages he quotes or echoes, printed in full, with more for deeper study
• Boxes linking his teaching to the Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Discussion questions on three levels: understanding the text, living it, and thinking it through with the Church
• Questions for silent reflection, a closing prayer, and a ruled page for your own notes

This is a book to live with, not just to read. One week it asks what you would find hardest to give up if God asked it of you tomorrow. Another it walks you through how a single tempting thought grows into a sin, so you can learn where to stop it. Another it sets before you, gently, the person you still have not forgiven, and shows you that the grudge, not the person, is the enemy.

The sessions follow the rungs of the ladder. You begin at the doorway, with the question of why God became man. Then come the foundation of faith, the fear of God and self-control; the battlefield of the passions and the thoughts; the root of self-love and the healing of our love for our neighbor; the quiet threshold of a soul at peace; love itself, the summit of the virtues; the opening of the mind to God in contemplation; and finally the end of the whole ascent, our sharing by grace in the life of God.

Along the way you will keep company with St. Maximus and with the voices he loved: St. Paul, the Psalms, the prophets and the Gospels, and the Church's own teaching in the Catechism.

The eight sessions make a natural eight-week course; for Lent, combine two pairs and finish in six. Use it on its own or beside the companion translation, The Ascetic Life and The Four Centuries on Love. There is no need to answer every question; choose the ones that speak to your group or your heart.

If you are leading a group for the first time, do not worry. Each session has the same simple shape: read the overview, talk through a few questions, and close together in prayer.

Who it is for

• Parish study groups and adult faith formation
• Lent, Advent, or an eight-week course at any time of year
• OCIA and confirmation leaders who want something deeper
• Prayer groups, retreats and men's and women's groups
• Anyone who struggles with anger, resentment or judging others
• Personal weekly reading alongside the translation

"So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Come as you are. You do not need to know theology to begin; you only need to want to love a little more than you do today.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Where charity and love are, God is there.

Book details

Publisher: Christ Bearer Press · Paperback: 81 pages · ISBN 979-8-1870-3582-3 · Language: English

Part of The Christ Bearer Catholic Patristic Library. See all our books →