Bread & Water, Wine & Oil: An Orthodox Christian Spiritual Journey - Perfect for Prayer, Worship & Home Blessing Ceremonies

After the first couple chapters of Bread & Water, Wine & Oil by Archimandrite Meletios Webber--Fr. Mel to those he pastors--you are not quite sure if you are in an Esalen yoga retreat class or a Marin County spirituality workshop in the 70s. Yes, this is definitely a "get out of your head and into your heart" kind of book. At the same time it makes for classical eastern Orthodox scholarship. Though a down to earth book, those I feel will be attracted to this work are the rather heady, bookish sort. If so, this volume will serve as good medicine for the right folk.Webber starts out letting us know that the West got lost pretty much at the trailhead in matters of the head and heart. He translates nous as heart and not mind. He points us to a Philokalia directive of St. Markarios that the nous is indeed the "eye of the heart"; and of St. Diadochos (5th Cent.) that it is this nous business which is a key anchor point of our lives if our spirituality is to work--"innermost aspect of the heart". Here we plug into and stay connected to our true selves and into each other, how we best commune and communicate with self, our fellows and with God. Webber addresses well the disintegration, fragmentation and estrangement that plagues us and our often limping religiosity.His call for us to return to the heart and to experience and to mystery is accompanied by a parallel warning. Danger ahead is the bodiless mind embracing and theologically fatal path of dualism (body bad; spirit good) endemic in the West. The tone of Webber's book is refreshing, like the way he suggests that perhaps calling our bishop "your eminence" might be a bit dated.If you are an academic, you might be offended at his style as Webber works to keep things simple. He tells fun stories yet he is far from an Erma Bombeck protégé. Those under the author's tutelage will tell you he's a man of letters. He retired (in a ceremony hosted by Kallistos Ware, his mentor) in recent years as a parish priest to write. Yet God yanked him back into the pastorate to serve as head of a dozen or so monks at St. John's Monastery near Redding where he leads a group of rather bookish monks previously lead by the new Metropolitan of the OCA. Hopefully Achmandrite Webber's contemplative digs of late will yield many more such helpful books. Fr. Melitos has a Greek background yet as a Celtic redhead convert to the Eastern church he has a British humor and an Oxford head on his shoulders which brings a good mix that comes together well in his writing.I liked this book better than the one on sobriety and the 12 steps. In both Webber is at the same time simple and complex. This book on the Sacraments soulfully explores the mystical theology of the Eastern church. Not surprising as I'm told the predecessor and founder of the monastery Fr. Meletios now shepherds came to the East through Lossky 's book by that same title. This is good. I look for many other helpful titles from this Orthodox author.