St. Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662) stands among the greatest spiritual masters of the Church. In The Four Centuries on Charity, written for his spiritual father Elpidios, Maximus gathers the wisdom of the Fathers into four sets of one hundred brief chapters, patterned after the four Gospels.
 
At the heart of this work is love—agapē—as the summit of the Christian life. Maximus shows that love is not a mere sentiment but a divine state of the soul, born of faith, purification, and the struggle against the passions. Each short chapter distills practical and theological insight, guiding the believer from moral discipline to contemplation of God.
 
Profound yet accessible, The Four Centuries on Charity offers timeless counsel for all who seek union with God through the way of love, uniting ascetic struggle with the mystery of divine grace.