This book presents the complete texts of the gospel readings for every Sunday throughout the three-year cycle of the Sunday lectionary in the Catholic Church during the season of Ordinary Time, and for the solemnities and feasts which fall on Sundays. It may be used for personal study to enhance understanding and appreciation of the Sunday gospel. Each reading is accompanied by a short commentary, two questions for personal reflection and two prayers, to enable the gospels to be read in the contemplative tradition of Lectio Divina. These reflections have been written by the Revd Dr Adrian Graffy, a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. The gospels are from the Revised New Jerusalem Bible, a bold new rendition of the scriptures designed for study and proclamation, and acclaimed for the richness, accuracy and inclusivity of its language. A companion to this volume, The Sunday Gospels for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, is to be released in November 2021.

This study investigates the influence of medieval liturgy on the literary work of Occitan poets during the 12th and 13th centuries. It focuses on the diverse effects emanating from metrical hymn structure, sacraments, prayers, and the veneration of the saints, and additionally explores the specific impact of liturgical metaphors on the language of the troubadours.

The Oxford Book of Common Prayer, Economy Edition is a beautifully constructed and reasonably-priced prayer book, making it a perfect choice for wide distribution in schools and for use as a pew prayer book.
All Oxford Prayer Books are bound with the same attention to detail and commitment to quality that have made Oxford Bibles famous the world over. The Economy Edition includes the Revised Common Lectionary and covers are embossed with an elegant gold cross.
Well-constructed, compact, yet comprehensive, this prayer book is an inexpensive and cherished resource for Episcopalians everywhere.

First published in 1896, this book presents the complete surviving Latin text of the Sacramentarium Leonianum, which was discovered in the Chapter library at Verona by Joseph Bianchini during the first half of the eighteenth century. The text includes a detailed introduction, extensive editorial notes and three photographs from the manuscript. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in sacramentaries and the history of Christianity.

An Anthology of Writings from 1483 to 1999 Firmly I Believe and Truly celebrates the depth and breadth of the spiritual, literary, and intellectual heritage of the Post-Reformation English Roman Catholic tradition in an anthology of writings that span a five hundred year period between William Caxton and Cardinal Hume. Intended as a rich resource for all with an interest in Roman Catholicism, the writings have been carefully selected and edited by a team of scholars with historical, theological, and literary expertise. Each author is introduced to provide context for the included extracts and the chronological arrangement of the anthology makes the volume easy to use whilst creating a fascinating overview of the modern era in English Catholic thought. The extracts comprise a wide variety writing genres; sermons, prayers, poetry, diaries, novels, theology, apologetics, works of controversy, devotional literature, biographies, drama, and essays. Includes writings by: John Colet, John Fisher, Thomas More, Robert Southwell, Philip Howard, Edmund Campion, John Gother, John Dryden, Mary Barker, Alexander Pope, Richard Challoner, Alban Butler, John Milner, Elizabeth Inchbald, Nicholas Wiseman, Margaret Mary Hallahan, A. W. N. Pugin, John Henry Newman, Henry Edward Manning, Frederick William Faber, Bertrand Wilberforce, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Vincent McNabb, Hilaire Belloc, Maurice Baring, G. K. Chesterton, R. A. Knox, J. R. R. Tolkien, Caryll Houselander, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, John Bradburne, Cardinal Hume

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was a French abbot and theologian who was the main founder of the Cistercian order. Originally published in 1910, this book contains a selection from his letters, meditations, sermons, hymns and other writings, translated into English. Covering a variety of themes, it will be of value to anyone with an interest in Saint Bernard and his works.

The Reformation changed forever how the sacrament of the Eucharist was understood. This study of six canonical early modern lyric poets traces the literary afterlife of what was one of the greatest doctrinal shifts in English history. Sophie Read argues that the move from a literal to a figurative understanding of the phrase 'this is my body' exerted a powerful imaginative pull on successive generations. To illustrate this, she examines in detail the work of Southwell, Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan and Milton, who between them represent a broad range of doctrinal and confessional positions, from the Jesuit Southwell to Milton's heterodox Puritanism. Individually, each chapter examines how Eucharistic ideas are expressed through a particular rhetorical trope; together, they illuminate the continued importance of the Eucharist's transformation well into the seventeenth century - not simply as a matter of doctrine, but as a rhetorical and poetic mode.

This 2009 book provides a comprehensive historical treatment of the Latin liturgy in medieval England. Richard Pfaff constructs a history of the worship carried out in churches - cathedral, monastic, or parish - primarily through the surviving manuscripts of service books, and sets this within the context of the wider political, ecclesiastical, and cultural history of the period. The main focus is on the mass and daily office, treated both chronologically and by type, the liturgies of each religious order and each secular 'use' being studied individually. Furthermore, hagiographical and historiographical themes - respectively, which saints are prominent in a given witness and how the labors of scholars over the last century and a half have both furthered and, in some cases, impeded our understandings - are explored throughout. The book thus provides both a narrative account and a reference tool of permanent value.

This volume offers the first critical edition of the vast Commentary on the Pentecostal iambic canon (traditionally ascribed to St John the Damascene) composed by Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica. The attribution of the hymn to the Damascene was, in principle, called into question by Eustathius himself, who eventually suggested to have it adopted into Damascene's paternity only out of ecclesiastical obedience. The Commentary is probably the last text Eustathius wrote. It can be regarded as the summa of his method of work, his style of exposition, his scholarly interests and literary tastes. Moreover, it can be read as the first Byzantine attempt to create a fusion between a method of work which originated from the exegesis of classical texts and the modes of theological interpretation connected in turn with liturgical experience and pastoral practice. The edition of the text is accompanied by three apparatuses, a complete range of indices, and exhaustive Prolegomena where the editors shed light on the Commentary as such - its genesis and date, its audience, its discussion of the traditional attribution, its sources - and on history of its manuscript tradition, with a special focus on the Constantinopolitan didaskaleion of Prodromos-Petra.

God calls humans to be creative. The human drive to represent transcendent truths witnesses to the fact that we are destined to be transfigured and to transfigure the world. It is worth asking, then, what truthful representations, whether in art, spirituality, or theology, teach us about the one who is our truth, the one who made us and the one in whose image we are made. All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology is an experimental and constructive aesthetic Christology sourced by close readings of a wide array of artistic works, canonical and popular-including poems, films, essays, novels, plays, short stories, sculptures, icons, and paintings-as well as art criticism and passages from the Christian Scriptures. From first to last, these readings engage in conversation with the deep, broad wisdom of the Christian theological tradition. The liturgical calendar guides the themes of the book, beginning with Advent and Christmas; carrying through Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension; and ending with Pentecost and Ordinary Time. Chris Green brings together these readings to create a mosaic-like impression of Jesus as the one through whom God graces and gives nature to all things, his life and death redeeming the whole creation, including human creativity and artistic endeavor, and transfiguring it into the full, free flourishing that God has purposed. This vision of Christ holds promise for artists and theologians, as well as preachers and teachers, revealing how our compulsions to create-and the meanings with which we endow our creations-become a site of the Spirit's presence, opening us to the goodness and wildness of God.

This 2009 book provides a comprehensive historical treatment of the Latin liturgy in medieval England. Richard Pfaff constructs a history of the worship carried out in churches - cathedral, monastic, or parish - primarily through the surviving manuscripts of service books, and sets this within the context of the wider political, ecclesiastical, and cultural history of the period. The main focus is on the mass and daily office, treated both chronologically and by type, the liturgies of each religious order and each secular 'use' being studied individually. Furthermore, hagiographical and historiographical themes - respectively, which saints are prominent in a given witness and how the labors of scholars over the last century and a half have both furthered and, in some cases, impeded our understandings - are explored throughout. The book thus provides both a narrative account and a reference tool of permanent value.

Study of surviving Anglo-Saxon kalendars and pontificals contributes to our understanding of 10th-century England. `His work demonstrates the importance of these neglected sources for our understanding of the late Old English church.' HISTORY An important book of immense erudition. It brings into the open some major issues of Late Anglo-Saxon history, and gives a thorough overview of the detailed source material. When such outstanding learning is being used, through intuitive perception, to bear on the wider issues such as popular devotion and the reception of the monastic reform in England, and bold conclusions are bing drawn from such minutely detailed studies, there is no doubt that David Dumville's contribution in this area of study becomes invaluable. The sources for the liturgy of late Anglo-Saxon England have a distinctive shape. Very substantial survival has given us the possibility of understanding change and perceiving significant continuity, as well as identifying local preferences and peculiarities. One major category of evidence is provided by a corpus of more than twenty kalendars: some of these (and particularly those which have been associated with Glastonbury Abbey) are subjected to close examination here, the process contributing both negatively and positively to the history of ecclesiastical renewal in the 10th century. Another significant body of manuscripts comprises books for episcopal use, especially pontificals: these are examined here as a group, and their associations with specific prelates and churches considered. All these investigations tend to suggest the centrality of the church of Canterbury in the surviving testimony and presumptively therefore in the history of late Anglo-Saxon christianity. Historians' study of English liturgy in this period has heretofore concentrated on the development of coronation-rites: by pursuing palaeographical and textual enquiries, the author hassought to make other divisions of the subject respond to historical questioning. Dr DAVID N. DUMVILLE is Reader in the Early Mediaeval History and Culture of the British Isles at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Girton College.

This book is concerned with the central act of Christian worship, call it Eucharist, Holy Communion, Liturgy, Last Supper or Mass. First it investigates in some detail the New Testament accounts of its institution at the Last Supper, dealing with the problems of scholarship involved. Professor Kilpatrick argues that Mark XIV and I Corinthians XI are basic, Mark being more archaic. Secondly, the book examines three themes of the Eucharist which are foreign to Western thinking of today: sacrifice, the sacred meal and the pattern of charter story and ritual. This pattern is common ground to anthropologists and biblical scholars. It is argued that the observance is not a Passover but a sacrifice in Biblical terms and certain features which we find in Biblical sacrifice have parallels in the religion of ancient Rome and Greece. The bearing of these conclusions on present-day liturgical revision is then discussed.

When changes happen to the Catholic Mass, opinions are strong and diverse. Everyone feels in some way that the Mass is theirs. It is. Or is it? Whose Mass is it? And what should people do to claim it? Whether or not adult Catholics attend Mass regularly, they strongly bond with it. Within a single generation, English-speaking Catholics experienced the Second Vatican Council's authorization for the first overhaul of the liturgy in four hundred years, and then, in 2011, they prepared for and implemented a revised vernacular translation. Each of these two events awakened strong feelings as people gradually became aware that someone else's decision was going to affect the cornerstone of their spiritual life. In Whose Mass Is It? Paul Turner examines the impact of the Mass, the connections it makes, and its purpose in the lives of believers.

An unintimidating guide to understanding the Catholic Mass

Throughout the centuries, the liturgy of the Church has taken a variety of regional and historical forms, but one thing has remained constant: the Mass has always been the central form of Catholic worship.

"Catholic Mass For Dummies" gives you a step-by-step overview of the Catholic Mass, as well as a close look at the history and meaning of the Mass as a central form of Catholic worship. You'll find information on the order of a Mass and coverage of major Masses.Covers standard Sunday Mass, weddings, funerals, holiday services, and holy days of obligationProvides insight on the events, symbols, themes, history, and language of the MassTranslations of a Mass in Castilian and Latin American Spanish

If you're a Catholic looking to enhance your knowledge of your faith, an adult studying to convert to Catholicism, a CCD instructor, or a non-Catholic who wants to understand the many nuances of the Catholic Mass, this hands-on, friendly guide has you covered.

Another great collection of seasonal resources from Ruth Burgess. Winter is a liturgical resource book that covers the months of November, December and January. It includes prayers, stories, responses, songs, poems, reflections, liturgies and meditations for the major Christian festivals of All Saints', Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, as well as for Remembrance, Blue Christmas, Christingle, New Year, Christian Unity and other occasions. The material is written by Iona Community members, associates, friends and others.

Donald Davie is the foremost literary critics of his generation and one of its leading poets. His career has been marked by a series of challenging critical interventions. The eighteenth century is the great age of the English hymn though these powerful and popular texts have been marginalized in the formation of the conventional literary canon. These are poems which have been put to the text of experience by a wider public than that generally envisaged by literary criticism, and have been kept alive by congregations in every generation. Davie's study of the eighteenth-century hymn and metrical psalm brings to light a body of literature forgotten as poetry: work by Charles Wesley and Christopher Smart, Isaac Watts and William Cowper, together with several poets unjustly neglected, such as the mysterious John Byron.

Pack of 10: 16-page easy-to-read booklet introducing everyone to the importance of prayer in our daily lives. What is prayer really all about? Have you ever wondered what prayer is about and why people bother? Maybe at times you've wanted to connect with God - but didn't know how? Everyone can pray. It's simply a conversation with God. So why not take a look at how prayer can be a part of your daily life?

Here, for the first time, is a comprehensive survey of the history of the original Book of Common Prayer and all of its descendants throughout the world. The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer shows how a classic text for worship and devotion has become the progenitor of an entire family of religious resources that have had an influence far beyond their use in Anglican churches. The tale begins with the creation of the first Prayer Book in 1549. The Guide surveys how the Prayer Book developed and took root in English culture. The story then describes how Anglican missionaries and others brought the Prayer Book to far corners of the British Empire. In the twentieth century, Anglican churches throughout the world began to develop their own, unique versions of the Prayer Book to serve the needs of their local communities. The Guide describes the development of indigenous Prayer Books in Africa, the nations of the Pacific, Asia, North and South America, and Europe. It explains how, in the dozens of Prayer Books in current use, the same basic texts - Daily Prayers, the Eucharist, Marriage and Funerals, and many others - resemble each other, and differ from each other. Finally, a brief look at the future of "electronic Prayer Books" offers a glimpse at how this story of development and adaptation may continue. John Donne, Samuel Johnson, Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, and P. D. James, among many others, worshiped from the Prayer Book, giving it immense literary influence. The Prayer Book family has created worship language that remains within Anglican tradition, while adapting to very different cultural contexts. Prayer Books in New Zealand, for example, incorporate Maori elements, and ones in Myanmar use Buddhist prayer forms - just a few of the fascinating facts in this rich and varied history. In this Guide any reader, Anglican or not, can learn why The Book of Common Prayer is a classic of liturgy and literature.

This unique new book records and celebrates the extraordinary wisdom and genius of Frederick William Dwelly, the first Dean of Liverpool. His creativity in the use of poetry, of music, of the commissioning of art, and in the use of the Great Space of Liverpool Cathedral set him apart from his peers and won huge admiration from all quarters. Above all, his liturgy was always centred around the value of the human being and he fostered worship that was dignified, imaginative and relevant for the thousands of people who attended services. Peter Kennerley's lively account of the work of a true master of liturgy is set in the context of the story of the cathedral itself, to create this highly readable, beautifully illustrated and fascinating volume.

In this book the 2000 year history of Christian worship is viewed from a sociological perspective. Martin Stringer develops the idea of discourse as a way of understanding the place of Christian worship within its many and diverse social contexts. Beginning with the Biblical material the author provides a broad survey of changes over 2000 years of the Christian church, together with a series of case studies that highlight particular elements of the worship, or specific theoretical applications. Stringer does not simply examine the mainstream traditions of Christian worship in Europe and Byzantium, but also gives space to lesser-known traditions in Armenia, India, Ethiopia and elsewhere. Offering a contribution to the ongoing debate that breaks away from a purely textual or theological study of Christian worship, this book provides a greater understanding of the place of worship in its social and cultural context.

This important work engages with a long historical debate: were the earliest Christians under the direction of ordained ministers, or under the influence of inspired laypeople? Who was in charge: bishops, elders and deacons, or apostles, prophets and teachers? Rather than trace Church offices backwards, Burtchaell examines the contemporary Jewish communities and finds evidence that Christians simply continued the offices of the synagogue. Thus, he asserts that from the very first they were presided over by officers. The author then advances the provocative view that in the first century it was not the officers who spoke with the most authority. They presided, but did not lead, and deferred to more charismatic laypeople. Burtchaell sees the evidence in favor of the Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican view that bishops have always presided in the Christian Church. At the same time he argues alongside the Prostestants that in its formative era the Church deferred most to the judgment of those who were inspired, yet never ordained.

The sanctus (the "thrice holy" of Isaiah 6.3) is found in almost all eucharistic prayer, ancient and modern, and comprises the prayer recited over the bread and wine at the communion service. The origin of the sanctus as a constituent element in the eucharistic prayer is one of the unsolved mysteries of Christian liturgy, and the author of this study makes a careful investigation into its background and the instances of its occurrence in early Christian literature.

This Homiliary provides a comprehensive guide to doctrinally based preaching for the entire Church year, presented in the Dominican tradition: a preaching of Scripture which takes doctrine as guide to the clarification of the Bible's main themes. Doctrine is necessary to preachers because in its absence the Scriptural claims and themes do not easily hang together. The grace the Word imparts always has a reference to the Mystical Body which mediates all the grace that is given by Christ as the Head. So, precisely as a fruit of grace, preaching is necessarily related to ecclesial awareness. Doctrine ensures that preaching does not fall short of its true dimensions - expressing the biblical revelation, the faith of the Church. The second, third, and fourth volumes of Year of the Lord's Favour cover between them the Temporal Cycle of the Church of the Roman rite: this third volume furnishes texts for Sundays through the Year; the second for the Privileged Seasons - Advent, Christmastide, Lent and Eastertide; the fourth for Weekdays through the Year. Preaching about the lives of the saints provides the subject matter of the first volume of the Homiliary.