Sacramental Life

What happens when old meets new

As David deSilva has experienced the ancient wisdom of the Book of Common Prayer, he's been formed spiritually in deep and lasting ways. In these pages, he offers you a brand new way to use the Book of Common Prayer, that you too might experience new growth, new intimacy with God and a new lens through which to view the world.

Focusing on the four sacramental rites of baptism, Eucharist, marriage and burial, deSilva explores each one in depth through the prayers, liturgies and Scripture readings of the Book of Common Prayer, and then adds his own devotional exercises that help you immediately apply what you've reflected on. As you read and contemplate the material, you may notice old habits, wrong beliefs and negative patterns being replaced with new desires and perspectives that help you draw ever closer to God.

In this innovative and engaging resource David deSilva invites you in to a new way of being spiritually formed through an old book that has shaped thousands of disciples through the years. "I hope that, as you read and pray through this guide," he writes, "you will discover afresh the ways in which the rites contained in the Book of Common Prayer facilitate a genuine encounter with God, and a transforming experience of grace."



David A. deSilva (PhD, Emory University) is Trustees' Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary. He is the author of over thirty books, including An Introduction to the New Testament, Discovering Revelation, Introducing the Apocrypha, and commentaries on Galatians, Ephesians, and Hebrews. He is also an ordained elder in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Acknowledgments


Introduction


Part One: Baptism: Walking in Newness of Life


1. Christian Life as Baptismal Life


2. The Forgiveness of Sins


3. New Birth, New Life


4. Union with Christ


5. A New Exodus


6. We Renounce All That Is Not from God


7. We Reach Out for All That Is from God


8. We Journey Together Toward Christlikeness


9. We Promise to Live Out Our Baptism in ?Real Life?


10. A Sevenfold Prayer for the Baptismal Life


Part Two: Holy Eucharist: Nourishment for the New Life


11. Encountering Jesus in the Eucharist


12. Remembering


13. The Host Who Is the Feast


14. A Family Meal


15. An Appetizer


16. Self-Examination and Confession


17. The Confession of Sin


18. Solidarity in Sin, Solidarity in Forgiveness


19. Prayer and Intercession


20. The Collects of the Day


21. Prayers of the People


22. The Lord?s Prayer


23. Adoration


24. Idolatry, Then and Now


25. What Gift Shall We Bring?


26. Through the Open Door


27. Shaped by the Story of God?s Self-Giving


28. The Nicene Creed


29. The Great Thanksgiving


30. Send Us Out


Part Three: Christian Marriage


31. Marriage Made in Heaven


32. Made to Reflect God?s Love for His People


33. Made Within Community, Made for Mission


34. Bringing the ?New Person? to the Marriage


35. Bringing God to the Marriage


Part Four: The Gate of Eternal Life


36. Facing Death As a People of Hope


37. In the Shelter of the Most High


38. Growing Through Grief


39. Reminders of Our Mortality


40. Some Dead Ends


41. Smashing Down the Wall


42. Living Like You?ll Live Forever


43. Affirmation Worth Seeking


44. Freed for Costly Discipleship


45. Dying As Those Who Go Forth to Live


Appendix A: The Apostles? Creed


Appendix B: The Nicene Creed


Notes