St. John of the Cross

Today, for the memorial of John of the Cross, we provide an excerpt from the deeply inspiring collection Prayer and Prophecy: The Essential Kenneth Leech. Kenneth Leech is an Anglican priest, Christian socialist and community theologian from London, England. Leech believes that spirituality must be deeply rooted in compassion and justice; otherwise it becomes “mere spirituality.”

Leech, “St. John of the Cross“

From David Bunch and Angus Ritchie, ed., Prayer and Prophecy: The Essential Kenneth Leech (New York: Seabury Books, 2009). Copyright © 2009, Seabury books, reprinted with permission. (Amazon info here.)

Other Voices

Please leave a reply.

Comments

2 responses to “St. John of the Cross”

  1. Rita Ferrone

    I remember reading a book by Leech many years ago: Spiritual Direction. It was good but didn’t have this edge to it; this is more challenging, better. A good reflection for this day.

    Reply
  2. Brendan Kelleher SVD

    Rita
    If your reading of Kenneth Leech stopped at “Soul Friend”, his book on spiritual direction, and based on lectures given to Anglican ordinands, then you haven’t really heard his full voice. Leech is one of the major prophetic voices in post-WWII Anglicanism, renowned for his work with youth and later with the marginalized, backed up by a strong incarnational and sacramentally focussed faith and theology.
    Having read most of his major works, while the anthology “Prayer and Prophecy” is a good taster, his books “True Prayer”, “True God” (in the USA – ‘Experiencing God’), “The Social God”, among others all reward close and prayerful reading. And if you are looking for something to read during Holy Week, you can’t find much better than his “We Preach Christ Crucified”.
    Sadly voices such as Leech are heard less frequently from the contemporary Anglican Church, and evenmore so from the Roman Catholic Church. I am currently waiting for Ellsberg’s edited selection of the letters of Dorothy Day, which I ordered once I knew they were available. If only we could find a way also for such voices to be heard in our liturgies.

    Reply

Posted

in

,

by

Other Voices

Tags:

,

Discover more from Home

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading