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With twenty monasteries and thirteen sketes scattered across its sloping terrain, the Holy Mountain was the perfect place for Scott to seek out a prayer father and discover the stillness of the true prayer life. Told with wit and exquisite prose, his narrative takes the reader from a beach in Virginia to the most holy Orthodox monasteries in the world to a monastery in Arizona and back again as Scott struggles to find his prayer path. Along the way, Cairns forged relationships with monks, priests, and fellow pilgrims.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49575353647377,"sku":"GOR013596548","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50055941325073,"sku":"CIN1612617328G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50305312686353,"sku":"CIN1612617328VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50347332141329,"sku":"GOR011127901","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50988907135249,"sku":"NIN9781612617329","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52674178679057,"sku":"NLS9781612617329","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1612617328.jpg?v=1750960591"},{"product_id":"love-s-enormity-book-scott-cairns-9781557255259","title":"Love's Enormity","description":"From Saint Paul to Julian of Norwich, these original texts of the mystical fathers and mothers of the Church have been pored over, pressed for further revelation, and set in verse to provide readers with fresh encounters of their wisdom and provocations.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49726472028433,"sku":"CIN1557255253G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50094592917777,"sku":"CIN1557255253VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1557255253.jpg?v=1751341754"},{"product_id":"end-of-suffering-book-scott-cairns-9781557255631","title":"The End of Suffering","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural use for it. -Simone Weil\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike most people I, too, have been blindsided by personal grief now and again over the years. And I have an increasingly keen sense that, wherever I am, someone nearby is suffering now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor that reason, I lately have settled in to mull the matter over, gathering my troubled wits to undertake a difficult essay, more like what we used to call an assay, really--an earnest inquiry. I am thinking of it just now as a study in suffering, by which I hope to find some sense in affliction, hoping--just as I have come to hope about experience in general--to make something of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIs there meaning in our afflictions?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the thoughtfulness of a pilgrim and the prose of a poet, Scott Cairns takes us on a soul-baring journey through the puzzlement of our afflictions. Probing ancient Christian wisdom for revelation in his own pain, Cairns challenges us toward a radical revision of the full meaning and breadth of human suffering.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eClear-eyed and unsparingly honest, this new addition to the literature of suffering is reminiscent of The Year of Magical Thinking as well as the works of C. S. Lewis. Cairns points us toward hope in the seasons of our afflictions, because in those trials in our lives that we do not choose but press through--a stillness, a calm, and a hope become available to us.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49769102541073,"sku":"CIN1557255636G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50496308216081,"sku":"CIN1557255636VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50988561858833,"sku":"NIN9781557255631","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51696842211601,"sku":"GOR009037739","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52662612918545,"sku":"NLS9781557255631","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1557255636.jpg?v=1751150446"},{"product_id":"idiot-psalms-book-scott-cairns-9781612615158","title":"Idiot Psalms","description":"A new collection from one of our favorite poets. Fourteen Idiot Psalms, surrounded by dozens of other poems, make this his most challenging collection yet. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Idiot Psalm 1 \u003cbr\u003e O God Belov d if obliquely so, \u003cbr\u003e dimly apprehended in the midst \u003cbr\u003e of this, the fraught obscuring fog \u003cbr\u003e of my insufficiently capacious ken, \u003cbr\u003e Ostensible Lover of our kind--while \u003cbr\u003e apparently aloof--allow \u003cbr\u003e that I might glimpse once more \u003cbr\u003e Your shadow in the land, avail \u003cbr\u003e for me, a second time, the sense \u003cbr\u003e of dire Presence in the pulsing \u003cbr\u003e hollow near the heart. \u003cbr\u003e Once more, O Lord, from Your Enormity incline \u003cbr\u003e your Face to shine upon Your servant, shy \u003cbr\u003e of immolation, if You will.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49790913413393,"sku":"CIN1612615155G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50988903825681,"sku":"NIN9781612615158","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52666871546129,"sku":"NLS9781612615158","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1612615155.jpg?v=1751119074"},{"product_id":"compass-of-affection-new-and-selected-poems-book-scott-cairns-9781557255037","title":"Compass of Affection - New and Selected Poems","description":"In this provocative collection, rich with expression and dense with meaning, Scott Cairns expresses an immediate, incarnate theology of God's power and presence in the world.  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Praise for Scott Cairns' work    \"Scott Cairns [is] perhaps the most important and promising religious poet of his generation.\"-Prairie Schooner   \"The voice of Cairns is conversational and coaxing-confiding in us secrets that seem to be our own.\"  -Publishers Weekly","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50092984500497,"sku":"CIN1557255032VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50241037861137,"sku":"CIN1557255032G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1557255032.jpg?v=1751087446"},{"product_id":"philokalia-book-scott-cairns-9780970817730","title":"Philokalia","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50373882806545,"sku":"CIN0970817738G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0970817738.jpg?v=1750884919"},{"product_id":"anaphora-book-scott-cairns-9781612618388","title":"Anaphora","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50386370789649,"sku":"CIN1612618383VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50396726329617,"sku":"CIN1612618383G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51039171379473,"sku":"NIN9781612618388","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52454897418513,"sku":"NLS9781612618388","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1612618383.jpg?v=1750927165"},{"product_id":"short-trip-to-the-edge-book-scott-cairns-9780060843229","title":"Short Trip to the Edge","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50522753106193,"sku":"CIN0060843225A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50761305456913,"sku":"CIN0060843225G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0060843225.jpg?v=1751004688"},{"product_id":"figures-for-the-ghost-book-scott-cairns-9780820316017","title":"Figures for the Ghost","description":"These poems offer postmodern meditations on the problems of epistemology, interpretation and belief. 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In that spirit Cairns offers a mere taste of the bountiful feast that awaits any who would pursue a life of faith and prayer equipped with both the holy Scriptures and the holy tradition that surrounds them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50988906807569,"sku":"NIN9781612615202","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51417699451153,"sku":"CIN1612615201G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52334553465105,"sku":"NLS9781612615202","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1612615201.jpg?v=1750927164"},{"product_id":"slow-pilgrim-book-scott-cairns-9781612616575","title":"Slow Pilgrim","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50988906938641,"sku":"NIN9781612616575","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51842888597777,"sku":"CIN1612616577VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52143686549777,"sku":"NLS9781612616575","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1612616577.jpg?v=1751214586"},{"product_id":"love-s-immensity-book-scott-cairns-9781640605886","title":"Love's Immensity","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of America's finest living poets has breathed new life into the early Christian mystics.\u003c\/b\u003e From Saint Paul to Julian of Norwich, the original texts of these mystical fathers and mothers of the Church have been pored over, pressed for further revelation, and set in verse to provide readers with fresh encounters of their wisdom and provocations. At the heart of this undertaking is Scott Cairns' conviction that the words of the mystics sacramentally partake of the Word Himself, and as such are inexhaustible, generative powers. These particular selections cohere in their common claim that Love is the most compelling name of God, and also the most apt attribute of the Holy One in Whom we live and move and have our being. 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