This timely and provocative book asks whether the widespread falling away of the appeal of religious worship is connected with the simplification of liturgical practice over recent decades. Has a well-meant policy of making the language and style of worship more accessible resulted in a loss of the sense of mystery - and has this accelerated the decline? The author, who was involved with the development of Common Worship, surveys five hundred years of change in the Anglican tradition against the wider backdrop of the Catholic and the Orthodox traditions. He explores what the search for re-enchantment might mean in a post-modern society where the corporate practice of religion is in decline and where religious language and religious worship have lost much of their appeal. ANDREW BURNHAM is the Bishop of Ebbsfleet He was formerly Vice-Principal of St Stephen's College, Oxford, and served on the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England. He is the compiler of A Manual of Anglo-Catholic Devotion. JONATHAN BAKER is the Principal of Pusey House Oxford and the author of Consecrated Women? He is currently a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England.

Cardinal Yves Congar is universally known and respected as the great ecclesiologist of Vatican II whose seminal ideas helped to reconfigure the landscape of Catholic theology following the council. Less well known is his role in contributing far-reaching insights to the emerging liturgical movement in the church. This collection represents several of Congar's decisive contributions. Reading them makes possible a deeper and more cogent reception of the key ideas of the council documents. These texts are at once both erudite and exciting, both essential and pastorally incisive. There has never been a better time to disseminate these critically important liturgical insights than the present moment.

"Cardinal Yves Congar, OP, who died in 1995, was a French Dominican widely recognized as one of the most important Roman Catholic theologians of the twentieth century and a major influence upon the theology of the documents of Vatican II. Congar drew from biblical, patristic, and medieval sources to revitalize the discipline of contemporary theology. He was an early advocate of ecumenism and also contributed to shaping the theological agenda of the twentieth-century liturgical movement."

"Pal Philibert, OP, is a retired professor of pastoral theology who has taught in the United States and abroad. He is a Dominican friar of the US Southern Province. His 2005 Liturgical Press book, "The Priesthood of the Faithful: Key to a living Church, " reflects the theology of these essays of Cardinal Yves Congar. His translation of Congar's masterpiece, "True and False Reform in the Church, "will soon be published by Liturgical Press."

It is by means of worship that man recognizes his absolute dependence upon God, comes into His presence, and gains practical knowledge of His goodness and sovereign majesty.
Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, founder of the Congregation of St. John and one of the twentieth century s most profound theological and pastoral minds, takes us back to the First Commandment, back to the primacy of worship, in You Shall Worship One God. For only by recognizing the singular importance of worship, of making ourselves an offering of love before God, can we hope to fulfill the other commandments and develop a deep and lasting spiritual life.
Divine revelation, says Father Philippe, presents true worship to us in the form of sacrifice. The Old Testament stories in which goods and lives are offered to God, and the holocausts and oblations of the Jewish Temple, train God s people to express their love and fidelity and penitence through sacrifice. In so doing they also prefigure and prepare us for the Passion of Our Lord on Calvary, the perfect and lasting sacrifice that completes and gives meaning to all the others. Christ s offering of Himself is at root a sacrifice of filial worship, glorifying the Father in the truest way possible and thereby effecting the greatest spiritual fruits.
You Shall Worship One God is a fascinating study of the development of sacrificial worship throughout salvation history, a rich meditation on the mystery of the Cross, and a necessary reminder to our busy world that the heart of Christianity is found not in service to our fellow man, but in recognizing the Lord s supreme majesty before all. Such worship is essential to salvation, says Father Philippe, for it makes us die to ourselves in order to proclaim that God is first.

New from Saint Benedict Press.

Pam Rhodes is best known as the familiar face of the BBC's Songs of Praise, and here she brings together her personal selection of carols, poems, Bible readings and other inspirational passages from a wide range of sources. As well as the usual old favourites - from Hark the Herald Angels Sing to the stories of the shepherds and the wise men visiting the baby Jesus - there are plenty of lighter moments, with excerpts from Gervase Phinn's memoirs and funny poems by modern writers. Alongside the items themselves Pam shares some of her own Christmas reminiscences and explores the resonance of the Christmas story for all our lives in her trademark inviting and heartwarming style. There is something here for everyone, from those wanting to enjoy dipping in for a taste of Christmas to those needing a sourcebook to inspire selections for Christmas services. Enjoy!

These worship resources are inclusive in reference to God and humanity, and reflect concern for justice and peace in the world. They are also theologically sound, scripturally based, and well written. They are contemporary yet dignified and graceful in tone, and full of rich imagery for use in the context of worship.

This second title by outstanding authors in the field, will provide a major new study of Eucharistic spirituality and liturgical formation. With many new rites recently introduced or in development, the time is opportune for a fresh look at Eucharistic theology and practice. It provides invaluable guidance to clergy, ordinands, Eucharistic ministers, study groups and individuals who wish to understand the Eucharist more fully.

This is a serious, scholarly of liturgy analysis combining historical, philosophical, musicological and liturgical. The volume, like the series, will be aimed at moving the debate about liturgy out of the narrow confines of either 'pastoral liturgy', 'reform of the reform' or nostalgia and bemoaning of the ruination of liturgical tradition to an entirely higher plane, of serious, scholarly, measured analysis combining historical, philosophical, musicological and liturgical. This book advances a provocative and controversial set of proposals for the development of future liturgical reform in its attempt to re-engage with a traditional sense of the Roman Rite. The author is uniquely placed to make the case he does. A mediaevalist and musicologist of unparalleled experience and breadth, Dobszay combines - almost uniquely - a profound knowledge of the history of the development of the Roman Rite - especially the Antiphonary - with a personal interest and passionate concern for the lived experience of the rite itself. The result is a lively and vigorous text based around the idea of the actual liturgical sense of the Roman Rite - meaning a respect for its integrity as an historical tradition that found multiform expression across Europe and also across at least 1600 years, combined with a sympathy for the fact that the rite is still a living entity with a long future ahead of it. "T&T Clark Studies in Fundamental Liturgy" offer cutting edge scholarship from all disciplines related to liturgical study. The books in the series seek to reintegrate biblical, patristic, historical, dogmatic and philosophical questions with liturgical study in ways faithful and sympathetic to classical liturgical enquiry. Volumes in the series include monographs, translations of recent texts and edited collections around very specific themes.

This is a serious, scholarly of liturgy analysis combining historical, philosophical, musicological and liturgical. The volume, like the series, will be aimed at moving the debate about liturgy out of the narrow confines of either 'pastoral liturgy', 'reform of the reform' or nostalgia and bemoaning of the ruination of liturgical tradition to an entirely higher plane, of serious, scholarly, measured analysis combining historical, philosophical, musicological and liturgical. This book advances a provocative and controversial set of proposals for the development of future liturgical reform in its attempt to re-engage with a traditional sense of the Roman Rite. The author is uniquely placed to make the case he does. A mediaevalist and musicologist of unparalleled experience and breadth, Dobszay combines - almost uniquely - a profound knowledge of the history of the development of the Roman Rite - especially the Antiphonary - with a personal interest and passionate concern for the lived experience of the rite itself. The result is a lively and vigorous text based around the idea of the actual liturgical sense of the Roman Rite - meaning a respect for its integrity as an historical tradition that found multiform expression across Europe and also across at least 1600 years, combined with a sympathy for the fact that the rite is still a living entity with a long future ahead of it. "T&T Clark Studies in Fundamental Liturgy" offer cutting edge scholarship from all disciplines related to liturgical study. The books in the series seek to reintegrate biblical, patristic, historical, dogmatic and philosophical questions with liturgical study in ways faithful and sympathetic to classical liturgical enquiry. Volumes in the series include monographs, translations of recent texts and edited collections around very specific themes.

Would many believers consider a wake or funeral an act of worship? What does it mean to say that in anointing the sick or administering Viaticum to the dying humans are healed? Such questions plumb the biblical and traditional depths of the paschal mystery. Just as Jesus' ministry at the social-religious margins revealed the center of his faith in God' s reign, so also the church's ministry to sickness and death reveals much about the baptismal and Eucharistic worship so central to its entire life.

"In Divine Worship and Human Healing" Bruce Morrill turns to the rites serving the sick, dying, deceased, and grieving to show why sacramental liturgy is so fundamental to the life of faith. Readers will appreciate both his compelling narratives from actual pastoral experience and his engagement with biblical, theological, historical, and social-scientific resources. Morrill invites readers to discover how the liturgical ministry of healing discloses God's merciful love amid communities of faith.

Jesuit Father Bruce Morrill discusses new book on Liturgical Theology from Jesuit Conference USA on Vimeo.

"Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, holds the Edward A. Maloy Chair of Catholic Studies in the divinity school at Vanderbilt University where he is also Professor of Theological Studies. In addition to numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reviews, he has published several books, most recently" Encountering Christ in the Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, and Sacrament "(Paulist Press, 2012). His most recent book with liturgical Press is" Divine Worship and Human Healing: Liturgical Theology at the Margins of Life and Death "Pueblo/Liturgical Press, 2009).""

Christians are identified by their participation in liturgy. In this primer, Catherine Vincie introduces readers to current liturgical theology by providing them with the foundational themes of the field. She explains that liturgy draws us into the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, that it should create a space in which we attempt to name toward God by employing an abundance of metaphors and images, and that the sacraments are communicated and understood through the use of symbols. Vincie is grounded in the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. As such, "Celebrating Divine Mystery" seeks to draw readers into full, conscious, and active participation" in the liturgy by informing them about recent scholarship and challenging them to enter the divine mystery as informed and engaged participants.

"Catherine Vincie, RSHM, PhD, is professor of sacramental and liturgical theology at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. She is also author of "The Role of the Assembly in Christian" Initiation and many articles on initiation, Eucharist, and liturgy and justice. As a practicing liturgical musician, she is also interested in the role of the arts in past and current liturgical celebration.""

Intercessions for Daily Prayer offers patterns of intercessory prayer for every day of the church year, including weekdays. It is ideal for anyone, lay or ordained, who carries out the discipline of Daily Prayer and who seeks inspiration and structure to improve their prayers for the Church and the world. Arranged season by season, it provides sets of intercessions, with appropriate responses, for each day of the week during: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Ascension-Pentecost, Ordinary Time (two sets) and All Saints.

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.

Few can argue with the power of music to touch the heart. Voices shared in worshipful song allow us to honor God in a truly beautiful way. In "Hymns for Today," renowned hymn writer Brian Wren helps us understand why this is so. Wren surveyed hundreds of hymns written since the 1960s to compile this discussion of forty hymn poems and to share the insights they provide for Christian faith. These contemporary hymns are analyzed for how they express Christian faith and traditional themes in fresh ways. Questions for discussion are included for each chapter, making this book an excellent group study resource.

The For Today series was designed to provide reliable and accessible resources for the study and real life application of important biblical texts, theological documents, and Christian practices. The emphasis of the series is not only on the realization and appreciation of what these subjects have meant in the past, but also on their value in the present--"for today." Thought-provoking questions are included at the end of each chapter, making the books ideal for personal study and group use.

Let us bring our prayers to the Lord."

Each week when the community comes together for Mass, we gather to listen to the Word, to partake of the Eucharist, and to pray. The Prayer of the Faithful is marked by the same needs from week to week, but it is always an opportunity to approach God collectively in a way that reflects the richness of our particular celebration. This series of prayers by Father Michael Kwatera is rooted in the present moment: the liturgical season, lectionary readings, and the needs of the church. He draws on the readings, as well as the significance of feasts and of other celebrations. He is also attuned to the many ways we approach God, in language that is clear and attentive to the oral quality of the prayer.

"To place prayerful words on human lips and in human hearts is a most sacred work," writes Father Kwatera in the introduction. The fruit of this work is a set of texts that invites the community to draw near to God each week in prayer.

"The Collegeville Prayer of the Faithful-"a convenient compilation of the previously published volumes, with additional feasts added-includes a CD-ROM of intercessions that can be easily adapted for parish use. Each prayer is provided in a Word file that allows users to easily personalize the intercessions for their own parish.

"Father Michael Kwatera, OSB, PhD, is Director of Oblates and Director of Liturgy for Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota. He is also a teacher and practitioner of Christian Liturgy and is the author of several Liturgical Press books, including "Come to the Feast: Liturgical Theology of, by, and for Everybody "(2005), and the coauthor of "To Thank and Bless: Prayers at Meals "(2007).""

Myra Nagel has written a resource to help readers grow in their faith as they "journey to the cross" during the season of Lent. Using the Gospel of Mark, this thoughtful guide invites the reader to "Come to the Story", "Reflect on the Story", and "Live the Story". The themes for each week of reflections are as follows:

Week 1

Teacher, Let Me See!

Week 2

She Has Done What She Could

Week 3

You Will All Fall Away

Week 4

Do This, Remembering Me

Week 5

Not What I Want, but What You Want

Week 6

Crucify Him!

Week 7

Their Eyes Were Opened

This Lenten resource will inspire its users to recall the biblical story of Christ's death and resurrection in a new and engaging way. Study questions are provided for individuals and groups.

This first volume focuses on the basic order of service - the classic fourfold shape of gathering, word, sacrament and sending. In simple, non technical language leading writers in the field get to the heart of the matter and provide invaluable guidance to clergy, ordinands, Eucharistic ministers, study groups and individuals who wish to understand the Eucharist more fully. Subsequent volumes will focus on Engaging with Scripture, Entering into Communion, Modes and Moods of Prayer and Celebrating the Christian Year.

In a brief introductory chapter, the author addresses the question of why we need to confess our sins, and offers three reflections in response: Sin as Pride, Sin as Violation of Boundaries, Sin and the Possibility of Forgiveness. The book includes seventy prayers of confession and words of assurance, with accompanying liturgies and music suggestions (Scripture and hymn indexes included!). The prayers are offered in three sections, confession and pardon related to: The Human Condition, The Holy Scriptures, The Liturgical Year. The Just in Time! Series offers brief, practical resources of immediate help for pastors at an affordable price.

This is a quality prayer book in the tradition of Catholic primers and devotional manuals. For each day of the year there is a scripture reading and an inspiring example from the lives of the many men and women in history who have made holiness visible lead into prayers of thanksgiving and intercession. Each month has a particular focus and is introduced by the leading Catholic laywoman, the Duchess of Norfolk. The foreword is provided by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor.

Nicholas Taylor provides an Anglican theological approach to the controversial questions surrounding the demand for allowing lay ministers to preside at the Eucharist. This is a pressing issue thoroughly reviewed and addressed.The demand for allowing lay ministers to preside at the Eucharist has become a pressing issue in many churches, not only in Anglicanism. Within the Anglican Communion, this issue seems to be potentially divisive as most provinces refuse to accept lay presidency, but some - as the Archdiocese of Sydney - are discussing schemes to introduce it.In "Lay Presidency at the Eucharist" an Anglican theological approach to controversial questions is articulated. Taylor investigates in particular what allegiance to Scripture entails, and how its authority is to be applied in the Church today. The evidence of the New Testament and early Church on the Eucharist and ministry, and how critical scholarship relates to the authority of Scripture in the life of the Church, are explored, whilst the Reformation and subsequent developments in Anglican theology and Eucharistic practice are considered. Pressure to authorize lay presidency is largely a response to a shortage of clergy to meet demand for Eucharistic worship, and alternative provision for this need is discussed, before going on to consider specific schemes. The theological issues, to do with the Church, the Eucharist, and the ministry, are reviewed, and outstanding questions identified."Affirming Catholicism" is a progressive movement in the Anglican Church, drawing inspiration and hope from the Catholic tradition, confident that it will bear the gifts of the past into the future. The books in this series aim to make the Catholic element within Anglicanism once more a positive force for the Gospel, and a model for effective mission today.

Based on the Revised Common Lectionary and broadly ecumenical, this addition tothe Just In Time " "series provides: Sitting with the Text: Scripture commentary for each of the three lectionary years; Worship and Preaching Themes; Creating the Environment: ideas for decorating and preparing the worship space; Shaping the Worship Service: prayers, liturgies, dramas, music suggestions; Scripture Index; and more.

Beginning with Ash Wednesday, "Lenten Services" aids the reader in planning and implementing transformative worship services throughout the Lenten journey."

In these pages Archbishop Piero Marini reveals the Vision, courage, and faith of the pastors and scholars who struggled to implement the Second Vatican Council's teachings on the liturgy. While in some circles it is fashionable to propose a reform of the liturgical reform, any such revision needs to take into account the history of the consilium 'the organism established by the Holy See to carry out the initial liturgical changes. This story of the work of the consilium offers a fascinating glimpse into the struggles and tensions that accompanied the realization of the council's dream to promote the full, conscious and active participation" of the faithful in Roman Catholic worship.

"Piero Marini was ordained on June 27, 1965. He became the personal secretary for Archbishop Annibale Bugnini in 1975 and in 1987 was appointed the head of the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, a position he currently holds. In 1998, Marini was appointed Titular Bishop of Martirano, Italy, and was ordained bishop the following month. In 2003, Marini was appointed Titular Archbishop of Martirano. He also served as the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations from 1987-2007.""

"2009 Catholic Press Association Award Winner "

A decade after the untimely death of renowned Scripture scholar Father Raymond E. Brown, SS, he continues to inspire and inform scholars and preachers, students and pastoral ministers, lay and ordained. It was only days after Father Brown's death that his final book was published by Liturgical Press. That book, "Christ in the Gospels of the Ordinary Sundays, " completed his six-volume series on preaching the Scriptures, a series that had begun in the mid-1970s with the publication of his popular "An Adult Christ at Christmas." Those six volumes are collected here in one convenient commemorative edition to mark the tenth anniversary of Brown's death. Brown's work is left largely untouched, and readers will find that his wisdom is lasting. Yet Brown, being a scholar's scholar, would recognize the need for some enhancement in a work being republished some thirty years after the first volume appeared. Appropriately, then, this edition contains introductory essays by Brown's colleagues and friends John R. Donahue, SJ, and Ronald D. Witherup, SS, as well as useful indexes and a bibliography of resources for preaching the word of God in the context of the lectionary.

As Witherup notes in his preface, Brown had the rare capacity to simplify complex biblical studies in a manner that did not 'dumb down ' the material but allowed it to be understood by a wide audience. . . . He did this in a fashion that was both inspiring and educational. That very broad audience 'those who grew up with Brown, so to speak, as well as a whole new generation of readers and preachers of the word 'will find this book to be a source of inspiration and knowledge that they will turn to again and again.

"Raymond E.Brown, S.S., (1928 -1998) was the Auburn Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was author of some forty books on the Bible and past president of three of the most important biblical societies in the world. By appointment of two popes (Pal VI in 1972, John Paul II in 1996) Brown was a member of the Roman Pontifical Biblical Commission. "Time" magazine called him probably the premier Catholic Scripture scholar of the U.S."