Sacramental Life

David DeSilva presents a thoughtful and reflective account of the rich applications that the Book of Common Prayer has for our daily spiritual formation in Sacramental Life: Spiritual Formation Through  the Book of Common Prayer.

This book does not have a full narrative flow, resembling a hybrid theology book, handbook, and collection of essays.  The chapters are more spaces for thought and further reflection on the three main sacraments of the Book of Common Prayer—Baptism, Communion, and Marriage—and how the liturgy of these sacraments applies to our daily spiritual formation.

The key to our liturgy in DeSilva’s thinking is that the sacraments should permeate our Christian life.  We are all in different places on our spiritual journey, but through our participation in the lifeblood of the church, which is our common prayer, we experience the foretaste of the sacraments, the sacraments themselves, and the aftereffects of the sacraments.  Even if we are not married, we can experience the spiritual formation of marriage in different ways, just as communion forms our spiritual outlook even when we are not receiving it on Sunday.  We live out the reverberations of communion on Thursday at midnight the same way we live out the immediacy of communion on Sunday at 10:30. In the same vein, the importance of baptism, especially our reaffirmation of our baptism throughout our life, is beautifully expounded on as DeSilva distills the essence of the Book of Common Prayer and gives us the desire to seek the sacramental presence of God in every facet of our lives.

DeSilva has created a handy source to the wealth of Christian devotion in the Book of Common Prayer and serves as a discerning and reflective guide.

Sacramental Life: Spiritual Formation Through the Book of Common Prayer
InterVarsity Press
David DeSilva
$12.24 (Amazon)