Description

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To the unstudied eye, St. Matthew's gospel can seem a terse narrative, almost a historical document and not the tremendously spiritual (and doctrinal) storehouse that it is. In his fourth and final volume of meditations on Matthew (chapters 26-28), Erasmo Leiva continues to show Matthew's prose to be not terse so much as economical, astoundingly so given its depth.

Each short meditation comments on a verse or two, pointing to some facet of the text not immediately apparent, but rich with meaning. Leiva's work is scholarly but eminently approachable by the lay reader. The tone is very much of "taste and see how good the Lord is" and an invitation of "friend, come up higher!"

The goal of the book is to help the reader experience the heat of the divine heart and the light of the divine Word, and aims at prayer as the final result of a fruitful encounter with the Word of God.

About the Author

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Father Simeon, O.C.S.O. (formerly Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis) obtained his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Theology from Emory University. Formerly a Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of San Francisco, he is now a Trappist monk at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Mass. In addition to Vols. 1, 2, 3 of Fire of Mercy, he is the author of several other books including The Way of the Disciple and Love's Sacred Order.