Living in the Eighth Day: The Christian Week and the Paschal Mystery

""I came that you may have life and have it in all its fullness"" (John 10:10). In this book, Revd Dr. Steven Underdown presents the paschal mystery–the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus–as the means by which the Son first realized that utter fullness of life which God had always intended for humankind. He also argues that it is only in and though the paschal mystery that human beings find their fulfillment. Only insofar as someone is open to be given in love is that person open to receive fullness of new life. The book explores some of the ways by which, under God's grace, the church can establish patterns of life and worship which will enable growth into the paschal mystery. It focuses in particular on a weekly pattern of life established in various parish and monastic communities in which every week is celebrated as a kind of ""Holy Week in miniature."" This pattern–termed the Pattern of the Week–is seen as providing a context for life-giving response to the divine initiative. Steven Underdown is Resident Chaplain and Co-ordinator of Ministry at Burrswood Health and Wellbeing, Kent, UK. His background is in philosophy and science, and for twenty years he was a member of an Anglican contemplative monastic community before moving to work in a parish and in hospital and hospice ministry.