This book is a pastoral reflection. It quarries the wisdom of others. It asks: how best can we be equipped to bring the love of God to a fragile and threatened world, to empower all the baptised to become the missionary, synodal church of the first Christians and Popes Francis and Leo? Aren’t we doing that already? Yes and no.
It argues that a contemplative vision lies at the heart of Jesus. All Christians equally by virtue of their baptism are invited to imitate that love of the ‘Sacred Heart’. To cultivate a ‘loving personal relationship with Jesus’.
Yes – but how? We are to use prayer – personal, the Church’s prayers, the rosary, worship, the Eucharist, adoration, lectio divina, meditation.
Is anything missing? The book turns to the wisdom of the Church’s largely forgotten contemplative tradition and to the voices which are increasingly arguing for its restoration.
"By consciously reinstating, repositioning the contemplative vision, mind and practice (‘heartsight’) at the centre of the Church’s ‘mindsight’ (theology, teaching, beliefs), in its worship, life in parish and communities and crucially as the bedrock of its mission to the world, all these will be enabled to circle round, as planets round a sun, the gravitational pull of the love of God."
But what exactly does all that mean? The book tries to explain how by the steady practice of ‘letting go and letting God’, of silent ‘contemplative’ prayer, of letting God speak; in not talking or praying or thinking at all - we slowly adapt the contemplative spirit and mind. In that spirit Jesus bids us not only to love our neighbours but also our ‘enemies’. The Heart guides the Head. It was and is the Way of Jesus we are invited to follow.
The book turns for aid in this to the Church’s mystics and the contemplative tradition stretching back to Jesus to Paul, past the Desert fathers and Mothers to the monasteries, to the Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich, St Benedict, St Francis, St Therese of Lisieux and a whole chorus of others. Contemplative practice has broken out of the monasteries and religious houses. It has always existed unacknowledged in our pews. The book describes the growing number of organisations opening the contemplative door in ways to ‘realise the Sacred’ and thereby to anchor worship, parish life and mission securely in the search for union with God.
Lastly the book argues that this spirit lies behind the ‘conversations in the Spirit’ which underpins the synodal process. In the spirit of contemplation we listen, we are silent and only then do we speak –out of minds guided and unfused by that ‘heartsight’ which is Christ’s.
Read the book for the full explanation of this crucial theme. The author prays that in this way the ‘Sacred’ may truly be ‘realised’ - as the very definition of the Church we love, in its mission to the world we love in Christ.
David Jackson, from Shipley, has been a lifelong supporter of working for Justice & Peace and in more recent times has focussed on our Climate Change crisis and what we, as Church, should be doing about it.
Due to ill health, David had to retire from his role as Laudato Si animator for the Leeds Diocese. However, this has not stopped him from thinking about the Church and the importance of synodality.
David was born in Bradford. After ordination in 1964 he studied at Cambridge and Lancaster Universities and went on to teach in seminary. He married in 1973 and began a career in religious education. In 1985 he became the first Coordinator of the Bradford Interfaith Education Centre, a role he held until 2000.
From 2000-2011 David was the Coordinator for Inter-religious Relations for the Diocese of Leeds and a member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Committee for Other Religions.
In 2020 he ‘graduated’ as a Laudato ‘Si animator and also served on the diocesan Synodal Steering Group.
He writes:
Dear Friends /Relatives/ Contact on my Mailing list,
(Please excuse any mis categorisation - no offence intended).
I have spent the last 3 years or so writing a book:
'REALISING THE SACRED. The Ways of a Contemplative and Synodal Church.'
This may explain my state of near invisibility lately - that and old age and 'living with a cancer' (jaw and neck) - in remission after radiotherapy etc or/and the kind intercessions of St Winefride of Holywell!
How can the Church ensure that its worship, life and mission flow from an encounter with the God of love, mercy and faithfulness?
How can its members develop and sustain a loving personal relationship with Jesus?
How can it ensure that it places itself in all it does and thinks under the guidance of the Holy Spirit?
In other words how can it ‘Realise the Sacred’ both in the sense of ‘coming to know’ the Sacred and of ‘bringing it about’ – by turning to the ways of contemplation?
Can these ways bring unity to the rich diversity of the Church and hence hope and love to a fractured world?
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
