The list of books I am choosing are related to the Ammas of the Desert, the Midwives of Wisdom.
Ps-Athanasius. The Life of Blessed Syncletica. Part One: The Translation.
goodreads
amazon.com
Translated by Elizabeth Bryson Bongie. Part Two: A Study of the Life by Mary Schaffer. Toronto: Peregrina Publications, 2001. OR: Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2005.
Elm, Susanna. 'Virgins of God': The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity.
goodreads
amazon.com
Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
Gingras, George E., trans. Egeria: Dairy of a Pilgrimage.
goodreads
amazon.com
ACW 38. NY: Newman Press, 1970.
Petersen, Joan M, trans. Handmaids of the Lord: Holy Women in Late Antiquity & the Early Middle Ages.
goodreads: N/A
amazon.com
CS 143. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1996.
Ward, Benedicta, trans. Harlots of the Desert: Study of Repentance in Early Monastic Sources.
goodreads
amazon.com
CS 106. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987.
Ward, Benedicta, trans. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection.
goodreads
amazon.com
CS 59. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1975. (Ammas Sara, Theodora and Syncletica were included in this collection)
Brown Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity.
goodreads
amazon.com
Lectures on the History of Religions, N.S. 13 NY: Columbia University Press, 1988.
Forman, Mary. Praying with the Desert Mothers.
goodreads
amazon.com
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005.
Swan, Laura. The Forgotten Desert Mothers
goodreads
amazon.com
Day, Agnes. Light in the Shoe Shop: A Cobbler's Contemplation.
goodreads
amazon.com
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013
I also offer the following book review/recommendation:
A worthwhile read for anyone interested in communal life, or those already immersed, is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s slim volume, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community (NY: HarperCollins, 1993). Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), German pastor and theologian, offers profound insight into the depth, meaning, and significance of living in Christian community stemming from his experience in an underground seminary in Germany during the Nazi years. In five chapters, he addresses, ‘Community’; ‘The Day with Others’; ‘The Day Alone’; ‘Ministry’; and ‘Confession and Communion’. I offer here a few of my favorite quotations, which may serve as teasers.
‘Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it has sprung from a dream wish. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely we must be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves’ (p. 14).
‘He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial’ (p. 15).
‘Let him who cannot be alone beware community…Let him who is not in community beware of being alone’ (p. 84).
Happy reading!
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, by Benedicta Ward
goodreads
amazon.com
Sayings of the Desert Mothers, Benedicta Ward
goodreads: n/a
amazon.com: n/a
RB 1980 Rule of St Benedict, by Timothy Fry (Editor), Timothy Horner (Editor)
goodreads
amazon.com
The Cistercian Way André Louf
goodreads
amazon.com
Anger Thich Nhat Hanh
goodreads: n/a
amazon.com
Website for monastic books by monastic authors and scholars https://cistercianpublications.org
Here are some titles of books and authors that may be interesting for prospective women discerning a possible vocation:
The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen
goodreads
amazon.com
The Way of Simplicity by Esther De Waal
goodreads
amazon.com
Essence of Prayer by Ruth Burrows
goodreads
amazon.com
Community and Growth ( 12th Edition) by Jean Vanier
goodreads
amazon.com
Laudato Si by Pope Francis
goodreads
amazon.com
Seeking Spiritual Intimacy, ( Journeying deeper with Medieval Women of Faith) by Glenn E. Myers
goodreads
amazon.com
Pleading , Cursing, Praising, ( conversing with God through the Psalms) by Sr. Irene Nowell, OSB)
goodreads
amazon.com
Other books of interest include:
Adam, God's Beloved, by Henri Nouwen
goodreads
amazon.com
The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen
goodreads
amazon.com
Fully Human, Fully Divine by Fr. Michael Casey OCSO
goodreads
amazon.com
The Life You Save May Be Your Own, ( An American Pilgrimage) by Paul Elie
goodreads
amazon.com
