"The Paradise of the Fathers" is the classic compilation of the lives and teachings of the early monastic saints. It has been translated from a Syriac manuscript discovered in 1888.

Cycle of daily Gospel and Epistle readings based on the movable calendar, which starts with Easter (Pascha), includes the fifty days after the Resurrection, Pentecost and the 37 weeks that followed, the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee, followed by the Triodion, which begins 10 weeks before Easter, and includes the Preparation for Lent, Graet Lent and Holy Week. This work is particularly addressed to those who set aside an hour daily for prayer and meditation. Appendices are added for Sunday matins, major fixed feasts such as Nativity, Theophany and other Feast days of Martyrsm saints. But since this volume is not arranged according to the fixed calendar which lists all the saints and fixed feasts for each day of the month, a suitable companion would be a Menaion, which provides a fuller treatment of the major feast days, and the flow of church seasons.

The Desert Fathers were the first Christian monks, living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. In contrast to the formalised and official theology of the "founding fathers" of the church, the Desert Fathers were ordinary Christians who chose to renounce the world and live lives of celibacy, fasting, vigil, prayer and poverty in direct and simple response to the gospel. Their sayings were first recorded in the 4th century and consist of spiritual advice, anecdotes and parables. The Desert Fathers' teachings and lives have inspired poetry, opera and art, as well as providing spiritual nourishment and a template for monastic life.

`Give me a word, Father', visitors to early desert monks asked. The responses of these pioneer ascetics were remembered and in the fourth century written down in Coptic, Syriac, Greek, and later Latin. Their Sayings were collected, in this case in the alphabetical order of the monks and nuns who uttered them, and read by generations of Christians as life-giving words that would help readers along the path to salvation.

Origen’s On First Principles is a foundational work in the development of Christian thought and doctrine: it is the first attempt in history at a systematic Christian theology. For over a decade it has been out of print with only expensive used copies available; now it is available at an affordable price and in a more accessible format. On First Principles is the most important surviving text written by third-century Church father, Origen. Origen wrote in a time when fundamental doctrines had not yet been fully articulated by the Church, and contributed to the very formation of Christianity. Readers see Origen grappling with the mysteries of salvation and brainstorming how they can be understood. This edition presents G. W. Butterworth’s trusted translation in a new, more readable format, retains the introduction by Henri de Lubac, and includes a new foreword by John C. Cavadini. As St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor of the Church, wrote: “Origen is the stone on which all of us were sharpened.”