Surprised by Hope

In Surprised by Hope, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe shines a fresh light on how to be a missionary, synodal Church in our crucified world.

The Synod on Synodality gathered Catholics from all over the world to listen, pray, and reflect on a new way of being Church. Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, the official retreat master and spiritual advisor for this assembly, was appointed by Pope Francis to deliver a series of retreat talks and meditations to the delegates during the assembly of the synod. In Surprised by Hope, he reflects on the radically transformative process begun at the general assembly of the Synod on Synodality with a new focus for today: “How to be a synodal Church on mission?”

Surprised by Hope is the collection of Radcliffe’s retreat talks along with five additional, post-synodal reflections. In these reflections, he focuses on the encounter of the disciples with the Risen Lord in Saint John’s gospel to help us prepare for our encounter with the Lord, with other cultures and each other, in silence and in prayer, and in conversation and mutual attention. Through each reflection, Cardinal Radcliffe shines a fresh light on how to be a missionary, synodal Church in our crucified world.

Timothy Cardinal Radcliffe, OP, retreat master and spiritual advisor for the Synod on Synodality, is a member of the community at Blackfriars, Oxford, and was master general of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001. He is the only member of the English Province of the Dominicans to have held the office since the Order's foundation in 1216. He is the author of Listening Together: Meditations on Synodality, as well as a number of popular books on theology, including his book with Lukasz Popko Questioning God (Bloomsbury, 2023). He is an editorial advisor and contributor to Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press.