An Ignatius Press Reprint

Ignatius Press Reprints are identical in content with the most recent print edition of the original title. In order to keep important titles available at reasonable prices, we reprint them digitally in small quantities. We use high quality, acid-free paper, but the books are not smyth-sewn as is customary with our offset press print editions.

The Fathers of the Church, deeply-rooted in the Scriptures, have left us a rich treasure as inheritance, not only of texts, but also of manners, forms and gestures of prayer. Today, western Christianity in a special way, needs to rediscover the intimate union which must exist - in prayer just as in any aspect of Christian life - between theory and practice, between contemplation and practical exercise. One learns how to pray by praying, and the whole of our being is called to participate in this work: the mind, the heart, but also the body, the gaze, the senses.

Fr. Gabriel Bunge, a hermit with great spiritual discernment and profound knowledge of the Fathers of the desert, presents with masterly coherence this important unity between what one believes and what one expresses in the practice of prayer: a fascinating rediscovery of the valuable treasure contained in the teachings of the Church Fathers on the practice of personal prayer.

"Father Gabriel has the rare gift of combining exquisite scholarship with spiritual depth and simple language. Earthen Vessels is a masterpiece of tradition-rooted guidance to the practice of prayer."
—Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna Author, Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church