Sacramental Life

If you are looking for an excellent, thoughtful, book on classical Christian spirituality, then Sacramental Life: Spiritual Formation through The Book of Common Prayer is it.

I recommend this to all pastors or clergy in any sacramental church because it so ably integrates theology, pastoral care, and spirituality. In fact, I wish this book had been required reading in my seminary curriculum.

The author, David Desilva, is a United Methodist pastor (a former Episcopalian), who examines the Christian spiritual life - the sacramental life - by engaging with The Book of Common Prayer, that great jewel of the Anglican (and Wesleyan) tradition, that has come to be used and loved among other Reformation churches as well as among Roman Catholics and Western-Rite Orthodox Christians.

Desilva focuses on the 4 liturgical services from the Prayerbook people are most likely to attend, Baptism, Holy Communion, Marriage, and the Funeral, and examines what they teach us - in their structure, prayers, and Bible lessons - about the Christian life, and how they form us in that New Life. It is really a great book to engage with the theology of the sacraments and the liturgy in a way that is immediately relevant to our practice of living the Christian life, our spirituality.

The style is perhaps not as elegant, humorous, or memberable as a CS Lewis or NT Wright, but on the whole this book is very solid and well worth the read. One strength of the book is that Desilva includes many practical stories from his ministry of people's spiritual struggles and growth. It also comes recommended by such luminaries as Richard Foster and Bishop Will Willimon.

Have you read any good books on Sacramental and Liturgical spirituality that I should check out?

What does Spiritual Maturity look like?

I have an audio recording of an interesting interview with Dallas Willard in which the question is posed: How can we tell if we are becoming spiritually more mature? Is there a way to measure spiritual maturity?

Dallas gave a wonderful answer 'off the cuff' noting the difficulty of measuring spiritual growth, but throwing out some suggestive counter-questions we might ask ourselves:

How easily do I become irritated? When I see a wreck on the side of the road, how quickly am I moved to prayer for those involved and the rescue workers?

In his 3rd discourse Upon our Lord's Sermon on the Mount John Wesley gives us (in his comments on 'purity of heart') a description of what the spiritual life of 'the pure in heart' might look like, and I would suggest that this is a nice addition to Dallas Willard's comments:


Such is the purity of heart which God requires of, and works in those who believe on the Son of His Love. And 'blessed are' they who are thus 'pure in heart: for they shall see God.' He will 'manifest Himself unto them,' not only 'as He doth not unto the world,' but as He doth not always to His own children. He will bless them with the clearest communications of His Spirit, the most intimate 'fellowship with the Father and with the Son.' He will cause His presence to go continually before them, and the light of His countenance to shine upon them. It is the ceaseless prayer of their heart, 'I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory'; and they have the petition they ask of Him. They now see Him by faith (the veil of flesh being made, as it were, transparent), even in these His lowest works, in all that surrounds them, in all that God has created and made. They see Him in the height above, and in the depth beneath; they see Him filling all in all. The pure in heart see all things full of God. They see Him in the firmament of heaven; in the moon, walking in brightness; in the sun, when he rejoiceth as a giant to run his course. They see Him 'making the clouds his chariots, and walking upon the wings of the wind.' They see Him 'preparing rain for the earth, and blessing the increase of it; giving grass for the cattle, and green herb for the use of man.' They see the Creator of all, wisely governing all, and 'upholding all things by the word of his power.' 'O Lord, our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the world.'

In all His providences relating to themselves, to their souls or bodies, the pure in heart do more particularly see God. They see His hand ever over them for good; giving them all things in weight and measure, numbering the hairs on their head, making a hedge round about them and all that they have, and disposing all the circumstances of their life according to the depth both of His wisdom and mercy.

But in a more especial manner they see God in His ordinances. Whether they appear in the great congregation, to 'pay Him the honour due unto His name,' 'and worship Him in the beauty of holiness'; or 'enter into their closets,' and there pour out their souls before their 'Father which is in secret'; whether they search the oracles of God (i.e. The Bible) or hear the ambassadors of Christ proclaim glad tidings of salvation: or, by eating of that bread, and drinking of that cup, 'show forth His death till He come' in the clouds of heaven, - in all these His appointed ways, they find such a near approach as cannot be expressed. They see Him, as it were, face to face, and 'talk with Him, as a man talketh with a friend' - a fit preparation for those mansions above, wherein they shall see Him as He is.

While we might want to press Wesley to also add some words about the 'Wilderness state' (which he does in a sermon by that name), in these words above he certainly lifts up hearts and quickens desire for a reverent intimacy with the Lord.

I recently heard a fellow pastor say that much of his prayer life is now no longer "God please grant this or that" but simply "Lord, help me know you better and more truly." I suspect that the prayer of the spiritually mature would run along those lines. May his grace bring us there in our own lives.

Dix on the Holy Sacrament

About Holy Communion the 20th Century Anglican theologian Gregory Dix (OSB) wrote:

"At the heart of Christianity is the Eucharist, a thing of absolute simplicity - the taking, blessing, breaking, and giving of [bread and] a cup of wine and water as these were done with their new meaning by a young Jew before and after supper with His friends on the night before he died. He had told His friends to do this henceforward with the new meaning for the recalling of Him, and they have done it always since.


Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century spreading slowly to every continent and country among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable need, from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacles of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugatives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of dogma or for a crop of good wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discovery America...

And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this..."

- Gregory Dix in The Shape of the Liturgy, London: Adam and Charles Black, 1945, pp 743-744.

I don't know about you, but that makes me eager for my next gathering at the Lord's Table. Of the elements that we include in Christian worship services, only a handful have direct Scriptural warrant - singing psalms hymns and spiritual songs; offering prayers for our leaders and for all the saints; hearing the teachings of the prophets and apostles, and things like these are mentioned in the epistles of the New Testament. The direct command of Jesus in the Gospels, however, gives us Holy Baptism and The Holy Supper. This is of course why the Church across the ages has historically elevated these practices.

One of my concerns about contemporary American evangelicalism is the great extent to which it is has de-prioritized the sacraments in favor of congregational singing and preaching. The danger is that under the influence of an entertainment-centric "i-culture", congregational singing may morph into a rock show and preaching the word may morph into a loosely Bible-based self-help peptalk. It seems to me that one of the benefits of a weekly sacramental celebration in our worship is that the use of the sacraments (and their accompanying liturgical prayers) inevitably keeps the shape and the content of our worship service theologically grounded and it guards our worship gatherings against a slide into something less true to the church's vocation.

A United Methodist Monastery?

Today is the feast of St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism. I've done a couple of quiet retreats in an Abbey down here in south Louisiana. In Tennessee I once went to the daily office at an Anglican monastery, and I've found the atmosphere of them to be quite peaceful and conducive to prayer and reflection.

Did you know that The United Methodist Church has an affiliated Benedictine monastery? I knew that the Anglicans and Lutherans had re-instituted classical monasticism, but I only recently heard about the formation (some 10 years ago) of St. Brigid of Kildare Monastery (now located in St. Joseph, Minnesota). They adhere to not only the Rule of St. Benedict, but also the liturgies and Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church (of which most of the brothers and sisters are members) and the writings of John Wesley. Members are both women and men, clergy and laity.

I think being United Methodist just got about 34 points cooler. And catholic. Here is a link to some info. There seems to be no official website or pictures anywhere. Also check Here.

Sermon for "Dependence Day"

The Reverend Dr. Samuel Wells, a minister of the Methodist Church of Great Britain, is the Dean of the majestic Chapel at United Methodist Church-related Duke University. Watch Rev. Wells' thoughtful sermon for Sunday, July 4 (the sermon starts around minute 30ish in the video). The comparrison between Thomas Jefferson's notion of "Independence" and that of Frank Sinatra is, I believe, very instructive for contemporary Americans:

WCC welcomes new Vatican Ecumenical chief

Find this story HERE.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is welcoming the Vatican's new top ecumenical officer. The WCC represents many of the world's Protestant and Orthodox Christians (the Patriarch of Constantinople was a founding member) and works closely with the Roman Catholic Church, which is not a member:

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has welcomed the appointment of Bishop Kurt Koch as new president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

"We rejoice at the appointment of Bishop Kurt Koch as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity", said Tveit commenting on the news. "We welcome his appointment and look forward to working with him for the visible unity of the church", he added.

Tveit said that "Bishop Koch is well known for his openness and deep ecumenical commitment. His book 'That all may be one; Ecumenical perspectives' is an excellent summary of the present state of ecumenical dialogue and relations".

Many believe that the "old-style ecumenism" of the WCC and similar organizations is dead or dying. I believe that if the leadership of such organizations recommits itself to the fundamental goal of Christian Unity, rather than social or political action (there are other good organizations for such laudable work), and if it returns to the task of seeking theological consensus (as we saw in such seminal documents as "Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry") then the WCC and similar national organizations can become useful again in Christ's cause "that we all may be one."