An illumined and trustworthy instructor of Christian Truth is hard to find in this age of doctrinal relativity and spiritual insensibility. Thus, when one encounters the wisdom, inspired knowledge of Scripture, and authority with which Elder Cleopa (1912–1998) speaks, it is not hard to distinguish his discerning words from the myriad of opinions bantered about by so many today. As an inheritor of two thousand years of Apostolic Tradition, trained from his youth in the ascetic struggle against the passions, a man of continual prayer and fasting, and possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers, Elder Cleopa is an exceptionally qualified guide of the Christian Faith.
In nearly one thousand references and explanations of Holy Scripture, Elder Cleopa answers the questions of inquirers on such subjects as: the presuppositions of personal salvation, the study of Holy Scripture, the veneration of icons, relics, the saints and angels, the Virgin-Mary, and the True Cross, the offering of prayer for the dead, the Second Coming of Christ, His thousand year reign, speaking in tongues, and the keeping of the Lord’s feast on Sunday instead of Saturday.
Nineteen discourses, a preface by Athonite Abbot Joseph of Xeropotamou, a brief biography of the author, over thirty photos and icons and a scriptural index make this book an ideal introduction to the truth of our Faith for every seeker of Christian Orthodoxy.
