This is a book to accompany the readings in year B of the Lectionary. It aims to help individuals and groups to understand and use Mark's Gospel. There are two other books that will follow this one: Journeying with Luke in Year C and Journeying with Matthew in Year A. This book's unique slant is that it asks readers to use their imagination 'to bring the Gospel to life.' It asks readers to visualize themselves in the scenes that Mark describes in order see Mark's Gospel in a fresh and exciting way.

The central thesis of this book is that there is a distinctive Wesleyan Eucharistic spirituality. Looking at the Wesleys' Eucharistic practices, theology and sources for these, the writer identifies a spirituality that has three themes. These revolve around the dynamic encounter with a personal Christ, the grace-filled life, the therapeutic growth towards holiness and wholeness. They provide a way of looking at life and the formation of characters which may conform to the image of the Christ. While there were several reasons for the decline of Wesleyan Eucharistic spirituality after the death of the Wesleys, the writer maintains that this spirituality can be rediscovered, revived and communicated in new forms so as to impact Methodists around the world who are facing the challenges of the 21st century.

This collection of ten essays constitutes the proceedings of a two-day conference held at Harvard in October 2007. The conference focused on three medieval manuscripts of Ambrosian chant owned by Houghton Library. The Ambrosian liturgy and its music, practiced in and around medieval Milan, were rare regional survivors of the Catholic Church s attempt to adopt a universal Roman liturgy and the chant now known as Gregorian. Two of the manuscripts under scrutiny had been recently acquired (one perhaps the oldest surviving source of Ambrosian music), and the third manuscript, long held among the Library s collections of illuminated manuscripts, had been newly identified as Ambrosian.

The generously illustrated essays gathered here represent the work of established experts and younger scholars. Together they explore the manuscripts as physical objects and place them in their urban and historical contexts, as well as in the musical and ecclesiastical context of Milan, Italy, and medieval Europe.

Those who make their home in God, Who wrap themselves in the blanket of God, Can cling to a deeper peace. The Faithful One provides warmth within, Sanctuary, from the fears that chill. FROM PSALM 91 A wellspring of prayer and praise for thousands of years, the Psalms give voice to every human emotion from intense joy to anger and disorientating sorrow. They are eternal soul songs that lift our hearts and address the same concerns and questions we face today, with fearlessness and acceptance. In this book, Lezley J. Stewart reimagines key Psalms in strikingly beautiful contemporary language and incorporates them into ready to use liturgies that focus on central themes in the Psalms: refuge, lament, refreshment and more. Let Everyone Find Their Voice offers a wealth of exquisitely crafted and sensitive worship resources that will enrich personal prayer and public worship, and will readily lend itself to multiple pastoral contexts.

The Church of Jerusalem, the 'mother of the churches of God', influenced all of Christendom before it underwent multiple captivities between the eighth and thirteenth centuries: first, political subjugation to Arab Islamic forces, then displacement of Greek-praying Christians by Crusaders, and finally ritual assimilation to fellow Orthodox Byzantines in Constantinople. All three contributed to the phenomenon of the Byzantinization of Jerusalem's liturgy, but only the last explains how it was completely lost and replaced by the liturgy of the imperial capital, Constantinople. The sources for this study are rediscovered manuscripts of Jerusalem's liturgical calendar and lectionary. When examined in context, they reveal that the devastating events of the Arab conquest in 638 and the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009 did not have as detrimental an effect on liturgy as previously held. Instead, they confirm that the process of Byzantinization was gradual and locally-effected, rather than an imposed element of Byzantine imperial policy or ideology of the Church of Constantinople. Originally, the city's worship consisted of reading scripture and singing hymns at places connected with the life of Christ, so that the link between holy sites and liturgy became a hallmark of Jerusalem's worship, but the changing sacred topography led to changes in the local liturgical tradition. Liturgy and Byzantinization in Jerusalem is the first study dedicated to the question of the Byzantinization of Jerusalem's liturgy, providing English translations of many liturgical texts and hymns here for the first time and offering a glimpse of Jerusalem's lost liturgical and theological tradition.

In Moses the Egyptian, Herbert Broderick analyzes the iconography of Moses in the famous illuminated eleventh-century manuscript known as the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch. A translation into Old English of the first six books of the Bible, the manuscript contains over 390 images, of which 127 depict Moses with a variety of distinctive visual attributes. Broderick presents a compelling thesis that these motifs, in particular the image of the horned Moses, have a Hellenistic Egyptian origin. He argues that the visual construct of Moses in the Old English Hexateuch may have been based on a Late Antique, no longer extant, prototype influenced by works of Hellenistic Egyptian Jewish exegetes, who ascribed to Moses the characteristics of an Egyptian-Hellenistic king, military commander, priest, prophet, and scribe. These Jewish writings were utilized in turn by early Christian apologists such as Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea. Broderick's analysis of this Moses imagery ranges widely across religious divides, art-historical religious themes, and classical and early Jewish and Christian sources. Herbert Broderick is one of the foremost historians in the field of Anglo-Saxon art, with a primary focus on Old Testament iconography. Readers with interests in the history of medieval manuscript illustration, art history, and early Jewish and Christian apologetics will find much of interest in this profusely illustrated study.

Who will mourn with me? Who will break bread with me? Who is my neighbor? In the wake of the religious reformations of the sixteenth century, such questions called for a new approach to the communal religious rituals and verses that shaped and commemorated many of the brightest and darkest moments of English life. In England, new forms of religious writing emerged out of a deeply fractured spiritual community. Conflicts of Devotion reshapes our understanding of the role that poetry played in the re-formation of English community, and shows us that understanding both the poetics of liturgy and the liturgical character of poetry is essential to comprehending the deep shifts in English spiritual attitudes and practices that occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The liturgical, communitarian perspective of Conflicts of Devotion sheds new light on neglected texts and deepens our understanding of how major writers such as Edmund Spenser, Robert Southwell, and John Donne struggled to write their way out of the spiritual and social crises of the age of the Reformation. It also sheds new light on the roles that poetry may play in negotiating-and even overcoming-religious conflict. Attention to liturgical poetics allows us to see the broad spectrum of ways in which English poets forged new forms of spiritual community out of the very language of theological division. This book will be of great interest to teachers and students of early modern poetry and of the various fields related to Reformation studies: history, politics, and theology.

Written centuries before Christ, the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible have been prayed by Christians since the founding of the Church. The early church fathers expounded the psalms in the light of the mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection, and his saving redemption. In this book, a Benedictine monk examines the Christian praying of the Psalms, taking into account modern and contemporary research on the Psalms. Working from the Hebrew text, Fr. Laurence Kriegshauser offers a verse-by-verse commentary on each of the one hundred and fifty psalms, highlighting poetic features such as imagery, rhythm, structure, and vocabulary, as well as theological and spiritual dimensions and the relation of psalms to each other in the smaller collections that make up the whole. The book attempts to integrate modern scholarship on the Psalms with the act of prayer and help Christians pray the psalms with greater understanding of their Christological meaning.The book contains an introduction, a glossary of terms, an index of topics, a table of English renderings of selected Hebrew words, and an index of biblical citations. "Praying the Psalms in Christ "will be welcomed by students of theology and liturgy, by priests, religious, and laypeople who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and by all Christians who seek to pray the Psalms with greater profit and fervor.

"It is no easy task to combine devotion with scholarship. From the introduction onwards this book breathes a prayerfulness that lifts the heart to God. With contemporary linguistic, literary, and theological scholarship, it joins the rich tradition of the Church expressed over the centuries in the writings of the Fathers. Each psalm is given a striking image as a sort of 'logo' and then discussed for itself. A special feature of the book is the appreciation that the prayer of the psalms in Christ is interwoven, threads of one bringing richness to another." --Dom Henry Wansbrough, Master Emeritus of St. Benet's Hall, Oxford

"In "Praying the Psalms in Christ," Fr. Kriegshauser has given us a form of reading the psalms that runs very close in intention to that ancient practice of "lectio divina" where the text of the bible is read prayerfully as a form of contemplative prayer. His prayerful study is made all the more rich by the abundant cross references to other places in the bible, both Old and New Testaments, that add richness to the text. The result is an informative and spiritually nourishing companion to reading the psalms." --Lawrence S. Cunningham, University of Notre Dame

"Clear, accessible, and rooted in the tradition, "Praying the Psalms in Christ"""guides us into the ancient prayers of Israel and the Church. The result is a fresh contribution to the great Christian tradition of spiritual commentary." --Russell R. Reno, Creighton University

Liturgy was the first and most significant subject taken up by the Second Vatican Council. The Council produced a document on the liturgy, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, that would give shape to Catholic worship for years to come. By calling for the revision of all the rites according to the principles set forth in The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Council set in motion the most comprehensive liturgical reform in Catholic history. This new book explains and puts into context the background of the new translation of the Mass, only now approved by the American bishops. It presents a useful schema of the contents of The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy by identifying seven essential themes of the document. No book in recent years has selected these themes or presented them with such clarity. It evaluates critically the "reform of the reform" movement, and other groups that currently propose a radical revision of the church's liturgy. It links the theoretical to the practical by asking concrete, pastoral questions about where the church stands today with respect to all of the key elements of the Constitution, making the book especially useful for pastoral practitioners. It offers a positive evaluation of the reform overall, while clearly focusing on the question of ongoing renewal. Finally, the unique annotated bibliography for further reading will appeal to a diverse readership by offering a stimulating variety of subjects, writing styles, and perspectives on the issues.

An all-round companion for everyone involved in the ministry of serving. Servers play a key part in the celebration of the Eucharist and knowing what to do is only half the story, - how to serve in a dignified way that adds to worship and doesn't detract from is equally important. This guide includes instruction on: relating to the clergy and the congregation, and working as a team; how to cultivate one's own spiritual space; knowing your way round the sanctuary;tools of the trade; movement, posture and processions, the Eucharist step-by-step;the liturgical year, and prayers and personal preparation for serving.

Michael Brown's book helps to explain why Christians throughout the ages have interpreted texts differently, especially cultic texts. Beginning with an imagined Greco-Roman auditor of the Lord's Prayer, Brown demonstrates how a Greco-Roman's understanding of the prayer would have been different from that of a Hellenized Jew in Palestine. Brown takes the reader into discussions of early Greco-Roman Christians regarding prayer in general and the Lord's Prayer in particular. Focusing on cultic didachai of Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, The Lord's Prayer through North African Eyes is a window into the turbulent and sometimes confusing world of second century Christianity in Africa.

God cares for you in many ways! He offers help, calms your fears, guides you and strengthens you. In this ten session LifeGuide(R) Bible Study, Ruth Ann Ridley helps you explore the Psalms, showing how these songs of God's people reveal the character, love and care of God. By reading, studying and praying Psalms--and by applying their teaching to your life--you will discover how God offers true salvation and deep satisfaction for you. This revised LifeGuide Bible Study features additional questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, together with expanded leader's notes and a "Now or Later" section in each study. For over three decades LifeGuide Bible Studies have provided solid biblical content and raised thought-provoking questions--making for a one-of-a-kind Bible study experience for individuals and groups. This series has more than 130 titles on Old and New Testament books, character studies, and topical studies.

"Common Prayer" explores the relationship between prayer and poetry in the century following the Protestant Reformation. Ramie Targoff challenges the conventional and largely misleading distinctions between the ritualized world of Catholicism and the more individualistic focus of Protestantism. Early modern England, she demonstrates, was characterized less by the triumph of religious interiority than by efforts to shape public forms of devotion. This provocatively revisionist argument will have major implications for early modern studies.
Through readings of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet, " Richard Hooker's "Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie," Philip Sidney's "Apology for Poetry" and his translations of the Psalms, John Donne's sermons and poems, and George Herbert's "The Temple, " Targoff uncovers the period's pervasive and often surprising interest in cultivating public and formalized models of worship. At the heart of this study lies an original and daring approach to understanding the origins of devotional poetry; Targoff shows how the projects of composing eloquent verse and improving liturgical worship come to be deeply intertwined. New literary practices, then, became a powerful means of forging common prayer, or controlling private and otherwise unmanageable expressions of faith.

In this gift-size book, Cameron shares beautiful prayers of empowerment followed by potent declarations on the nature of creativity that extend beyond affirmations to facilitate a powerful awakening of the artistic child within and revitalize fading dreams, while lending encouragement and compelling reminders that we can all tap into the creative spirit. Heart Steps is certain to ignite the creative spark, drawing readers inward toward the fire of their own creativity. Whether read in one sitting or savored over time, Heart Steps is a book no creative being will want to be without. Index.

Most histories of Christian worship are written as if nothing significant in liturgical history ever happened in North America, as if cultural diversities were insignificant in the development of worship, and as if most of what mattered were words the priest or minister addressed to God. This book is a revisionist work, attempting to give new direction to liturgical history by treating the experience of worship of the people in the pews as the primary liturgical document. It means liturgical history written facing the other way--that is, looking into the chancel rather than out of it. Relishing the liturgical diversity of recent centuries as firm evidence of Chritianity's ability to adapt to a wide variety of peoples and places, Professor White shows that this tendency has been apparent in Chrisitian worship since its inception in the New Testament churches. Instead of imposing one tradition's criteria on worship, he tries to give a balanced and comprehensive approach to the development of the dozen or more traditions surviving in the modern world.

Eucharist is a detailed history of the Christian Eucharistic formularies. Bouyer gives a thorough analysis of the Jewish meal prayers, the berakoth, to which he traces the origins of the eucharistic rite, and ends with the recent addition of new eucharistic prayers to the Roman rite. He also includes the history of the various forms of the early Christian liturgies, of the Byzantine, Gallican, and Mozarabic Eucharists, of the changes introduced during the Reformation, and of developments in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions.

To a deplorable extent, Christians accept Church rituals as sacred but baffling heirlooms from the Church's past. It is to remedy this situation that Father Danielou has written this book. The Bible and the Liturgy illuminates, better than has ever before been done, the vital and meaningful bond between Bible and liturgy. Father Danielou aims at bringing clearly before his reader's minds the fact that the Church's liturgical rites and feasts are intended, not only to transmit the grace of the sacraments, but to instruct the faithful in their meaning as well as the meaning of the whole Christian life. It is through the sacraments in their role as signs that we learn. So that their value will be appreciated, Danielou attempts to help us rediscover the significance of these rites so that the sacraments may once again be thought of as the prolongation of the great works of God in the Old Testament and the New.

This cultural history of mainline Protestantism and American cities--most notably, New York City--focuses on wealthy, urban Episcopalians and the influential ways they used their money. Peter W. Williams argues that such Episcopalians, many of them the country's most successful industrialists and financiers, left a deep and lasting mark on American urban culture. Their sense of public responsibility derived from a sacramental theology that gave credit to the material realm as a vehicle for religious experience and moral formation, and they came to be distinguished by their participation in major aesthetic and social welfare endeavors. Williams traces how the church helped transmit a European-inflected artistic patronage that was adapted to the American scene by clergy and laity intent upon providing moral and aesthetic leadership for a society in flux. Episcopalian influence is most visible today in the churches, cathedrals, and elite boarding schools that stand in many cities and other locations, but Episcopalians also provided major support to the formation of stellar art collections, the performing arts, and the Arts and Crafts movement. Williams argues that Episcopalians thus helped smooth the way for acceptance of materiality in religious culture in a previously iconoclastic, Puritan-influenced society.

Psalm Prayers is a devotional companion to the Psalms and a practical resource for creating prayers for public worship. It is particularly helpful for those who lead services of Evensong from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, where the reading of the psalms and extemporary prayer are integral parts of the service. Stephen Cherry introduces each of the 150 Psalms and lays out its central theme before offering a prayer in response. Crafted with care in a traditional style that complements the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, these prayers are nevertheless fresh and immediate, vividly reflecting the concerns and pressures of today's world. These prayers have been developed and used over many years' experience in parish and cathedral ministry, and latterly in King's College, Cambridge, and are suitable for both choral evensong in cathedrals and college chapels or simple, spoken services in local churches.