The Heart in Pilgrimage (Library of Anglican Spirituality) by Christopher Bryant

The Heart in Pilgrimage (Library of Anglican Spirituality) Reviews

• 
  Anne Hamilton

  Lyrical and poetic, this book's chapters are framed around a poem called Prayer by George Herbert.
  
  Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
  God's breath in man returning to his birth,
  The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
  The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
  Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
  Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
  The six-days world transposing in an hour,
  A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
  Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
  Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
  Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
  The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
  Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
  The land of spices; something understood.
  
  The intensity of imagery here pervades Bryant's observations of pilgrimage and allows him to build profound insights. With prose both subtle and robust, this is a beautiful journey which takes its time to savour small delights by the wayside. This is not to say I agreed with everything, particularly Bryant's views on Jung and that branch of psychology. Yet his views on the consecration of time are significant.
  
  Other ideas he mentioned I would like to record:
  the ancient name of sloth is accidie, a "deadly sin" which ultimately refers to boredom with life.
  undue self-blame implies that I am wiser, stronger and more able to help myself than in fact I am.
  he refers to "unitive way" without explaining what it is.
  without prudence, love, however well-intentioned, is likely to degenerate into sentimentality or idle talk.
  happiness, sought directly, eludes us; enjoyment, sought directly, is apt to leave us with a sense of wasted time - what Shakespeare called "the expense of spirit in a waste of shame".
  metanoia, the redirection of mind and heart which the following of Christ demands, is not a once-for-all happening. (p122)
  the elegant story of non-possessive warmth about the three Arab brothers who had to divide 17 camels according to their deceased father's wishes, a task that seemed impossible. (p127)
  Jesus prayed for the cup of agony to be taken away; what He received was the strength to drink it.
  Jim Glennon's story of the healing of the hunchback boy. (p164)