The first thank you in the notes for Songs of Innocence is “to Jack Heaslip, our North Star.” We don’t hear much from Heaslip, but he’s been a constant presence in U2’s life since meeting the boys when they were high schoolers at Mount Temple Comprehensive School and he was working there as a guidance counselor and chaplain.
Now, you can read a brief meditation by him in Disquiet Time, a great collection of honest, profound and quirky “rants and reflections on the Good Book by the skeptical, the faithful, and a few scoundrels.” Editors Jennifer Grant and Cathleen Falsani collected over 40 devotional writings from various pastors, friends, and cultural figures to encourage everyone to approach the Bible with the freedom to ask whatever is on their minds. “God can take it. Really. We promise,” they write.
Heaslip’s devotional is called “A Tale of Two Mottoes,” and though it’s not about U2, it begins by reflecting on a verse from Psalm 127 that was posted at Mt. Temple, and which he and U2 would have seen in the school’s assembly hall. Heaslip is described in the authors section this way: “He has been the spiritual advisor for the band U2, traveling with them as they have toured worldwide.”
I enjoyed getting a little more insight into Heaslip’s thoughts in Disquiet Time, and the other devotionals are great too. Buy the book to read Heaslip and more, and get one for a friend too. ‘Tis the season for giving (and ranting), after all.