Liturgical Renewal Research Articles

Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred by Uwe Michael Lang

Reviewed by: Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred by Uwe Michael Lang Robert P. Imbelli Uwe Michael Lang Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015 177pages. Paperback. $17.95. Father Lang’s new book appears on the fiftieth anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council and constitutes a significant contribution to the ongoing appropriation of the Council and, in particular, of Sacrosanctum Concilium. As one expects of the author, the book is clearly written, cogently argued, and impressively informed. Though composed from a distinct perspective, it is admirably balanced in its presentation, recognizing the legitimate concerns of those with whom it may disagree. The book opens with a chapter that explores the “Anthropological Foundations” for an understanding of ritual and the sacred, drawing significantly upon the work of Victor Turner. Then, what for this reviewer is a crucial chapter, Lang discusses the sacred in contemporary Catholic theology—treating concisely, but insightfully, the contributions of Edward Schillebeeckx, Karl Rahner, Louis Bouyer, and Joseph Ratzinger. Having laid the cultural anthropological and theological foundations, the author proceeds, in the following chapters, to apply the principles gleaned to the areas of sacred architecture, [End Page 66] sacred art, and sacred music. The chapter on sacred architecture is enhanced by eight pages of photographs that provide concrete examples of efforts in this regard. Lang concludes with a succinct but incisive “Epilogue: Ongoing Liturgical Renewal and the Problem of Ritual Change.” A key conclusion that Lang draws from his examination of cultural anthropology is that “Christian faith cannot do without such a sense of the sacred, even if it significantly transforms and transcends it” (17–18). For this reason he finds the approach to sacramental theology in the works of Schillebeeckx and Rahner problematic. Though sympathetic with Rahner’s concern to overcome a dichotomizing of sacred and profane, Lang judges that Rahner’s “Copernican turn in sacramental theology” risks collapsing their distinction. He maintains that, in Rahner, “the notion of ‘sacramentality’ is extended to such a degree that the Church’s sacraments are considered nothing more than manifestations, albeit significant ones, that make explicit what already takes place in the world” (45). This Rahnerian “always/already” optic compromises the newness of the Christian dispensation and the call to transformation that it entails. In its stead, Lang endorses the theological approach of Bouyer and Ratzinger with their emphasis on the eschatolological “already/not yet” as the constitutive rhythm of Christian faith and liturgy. He recapitulates Ratzinger in asserting that “the distinction between the sacred and the quotidian still holds, even if this distinction is not conceived of as an absolute separation.” In this way “the dynamic character of the sacred is highlighted: through it the whole world is to be transformed into the worship and adoration of God, but this will only be fully realized at the end of time” (61). However, it was the Rahnerian vision that too often prevailed in the 1970s and 1980s as the post-conciliar liturgical reforms were being enacted. Sadly, Rahner’s influential writings did little to counter the attenuation of the sense of the sacred already operative in an increasingly secular culture. Thus, for example, prominent contemporary church architects insisted that their approach was spiritual rather than specifically religious; that they aspired to a universality not narrowed to the parameters of the distinctively Catholic. What Lang finds wanting here (and mutatis mutandis in his assessment of similar approaches in sacred art and sacred music) is a vital appreciation for, and concrete embodiment [End Page 67] of, the distinctively Christian sense of the sacred and the paschal “logic” of its liturgical celebration. In expounding this logic, Lang turns to magisterial teaching: in particular Sacrosanctum Concilium, supplemented by documents such as Pius X’s Tra le Sollicetudini, Pius XII’s Mediator Dei, and Benedict XVI’s Sacramentum Caritatis. From these he culls principles of discernment to govern judgments about what most fittingly serves the primary liturgical function of sacred art in the Church. It is worth stressing that, though firm in his criteria, Lang is not rigid. Honoring the depth grammar of the faith...

“That Word ‘Liturgy’ is So Unfortunate”: Learning the Mystical Body and Practicing Catholic Action in the U.S. Liturgical Movement (c. 1926-1955)

During the liturgical movement era in the United States (c. 1926-1955), advocates of liturgical renewal relied upon both the Mystical Body of Christ theology and the methods of Catholic Action to describe and legitimize a fundamental re-visioning of how “liturgy” should be taught and interpreted: liturgy was not an object or something to be observed, but a dynamic and ritual event in which the faithful actively participated. The liturgical experience simultaneously taught individual women, men, and children how to act as Christians in the world, and formed these same faithful into a corporate identity through their sacramental and liturgical participation in the Mystical Body of Christ. Intersecting with a renewed Catholic intellectual life and modern social concerns, the liturgical movement, with its goal of advancing a spiritual and social renewal in the modern world, inspired the faithful to adopt and apply the Mystical Body of Christ theology and Catholic Action initiatives in a variety of particular contexts, both private and public.

Anglican Liturgy and Community: The Influence of the Experience of Community on the Experience of Liturgy as a Challenge for Liturgical Renewal and Formation

Anglican Liturgy and Community: The Influence of the Experience of Community on the Experience of Liturgy as a Challenge for Liturgical Renewal and Formation

The Musical Image of the Eucharistic Congress in Ljubljana in 1935: Between Liturgical Renewal and External Effect

The IInd Eucharistic Congress in Yugoslavia (Ljubljana 1935) can be observed as the culmination of endeavours to revive Eucharistic life as well as to promote the organizers (themselves). Those in charge of the musical programme availed themselves of the event with the aim of carrying into effect practical reforms in church music. In spite of their determination to eliminate secular tendencies from the music performed within and during the religious congressional festivities, the congress programme could not evade the influences of the profane music idiom to the full.

Doing It Rite: Specialized Catholic Action and Liturgical Renewal in Quebec, 1930s–1960s

This investigation of the intersection of Specialized Catholic Action and liturgical renewal in Quebec from the 1930s to the early 1960s analyzes the theological foundations of liturgical renewal and explores the ways in which these ideas were communicated and received. What emerges is an important source for Catholic Action spirituality that complements influences such as personalist thought, yet it is too often overlooked in scholarship on Quebec. Liturgical renewal was shared with other segments of the Church in Quebec, was actively encouraged by the hierarchy, and embodied the connection between activities internal to the Church and the Church’s role in society.

The relationship between the traditional and contemporary elements in the church architecture of the Western Christian countries in the 20th century

Church architecture has been developing continually within Western Christianity since the 4th century, It gradually becomes less important from the end of the Middle Ages, especially with the advent of the ideas of Reformation and Enlightment, going almost out of the focus of contemporary architecture with the advent of modernism in the 20th century. The most important factors for the development of this building type in the 20th century, were the emergence of modernism in architecture and strengthening of the movements of liturgical renewal. It was a time in which the diametrically opposed concepts - radically modernizing and conservatively traditional - were expressed to the extreme, with many transitional forms, Striving to active participation of believers can lead to completely different results - strengthening the liturgical assembly, on one hand, and radical desacralisation of worship, on the other. There is a large number of architectural solutions, some of which share common characteristics concerning spatial organization and the distribution of laity and clergy, but with a great diversity of other architectural characteristics and different relations of traditional and contemporary elements. The experiences of Western Christian countries can be of use, to some extent, in the research of contemporary Orthodox church architecture.

Odnowa liturgiczna pięćdziesiąt lat po ogłoszeniu soborowej konstytucji Sacrosanctum Concilium w metropolii Szczecińsko-Kamieńskiej

Odnowa liturgiczna pięćdziesiąt lat po ogłoszeniu soborowej konstytucji Sacrosanctum Concilium w metropolii Szczecińsko-Kamieńskiej

The Receding Sea of Catholic Faith: Collective Memory and Common Worship

This article offers an interpretation of ongoing changes in Catholic worship as seen in relation to the whole process of ecclesial reception of Vatican II in a changing world. The context is a weakening of common Catholic identity and collective memory. The reasons for this are explored, as well as the reasons why participation in Church life waned. As other changes took place, the implementation of the liturgical renewal mandated by Vatican II meant a transition for many from a ritual of devotion to active participation in liturgical ritual. The difficulties inherent to such ritual change are discussed and placed in relation to the deeper cultural and historical challenges to keeping memory of the Christ Event. New modes of expressing collective memory and collective identity are now being sought. There is no single path to follow; some look to a retrieval of popular piety and some to an interpersonal search for truth through scriptural reflection. This latter is often done in different kinds of small communities, allowing attention to be given to the personal and social quest of participants, to freedom of expression and to the cultural diversity of interpretation. This appeal to different modes of prayer has implications for the ongoing development of common worship and the retrieval of a common memory.

Liturgical Renewal through History

Liturgical Renewal through History

A Prayer Book for the Twenty-first Century?

In the more than thirty years that have passed since the authorization of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, scholars and practitioners of its liturgical vision have mined the riches of its “baptismal ecclesiology,” its variety of texts, and its permissive rubrics; they have also raised new questions about its inconsistencies and shortcomings. Anglican and ecumenical partner churches have adapted and improved upon material found in the BCP in their own new liturgical resources, suggesting directions for further liturgical renewal, and the Episcopal Church itself has authorized supplemental texts in its Enriching Our Worship series, which began publication in 1998. Questions concerning expansive language, the relationship between baptismal ministry and its expression in holy orders, and the contextualization of liturgy in a multicultural church have come to the fore as primary concerns of the church in the twenty-first century, with important implications for the celebration of liturgy. The authors contend that attention to these questions, particularly regarding the language of prayer and the relationships among the ministers within the assembly, requires a more comprehensive discussion of liturgical renewal in the church, including the revision of the Book of Common Prayer itself. “… may be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of …”1

Byzantine Liturgical Texts and Modern Israelogy: Opportunities for Liturgical Renewal in the Orthodox Church

Byzantine Liturgical Texts and Modern Israelogy: Opportunities for Liturgical Renewal in the Orthodox Church

Beyond Sacrosanctum Concilium: The Future of Liturgical Renewal in the Asian Catholic Church

Beyond Sacrosanctum Concilium: The Future of Liturgical Renewal in the Asian Catholic Church

The Liturgy and the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States: Change through the Decades

A wide range of factors impacted the development of the liturgy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States. The nineteenth century’s burgeoning immigrant Ukrainian population in the United States and the Ukrainian Catholic Church’s dependence upon the homeland in the first decades after immigration formed the Ukrainian liturgy’s earliest U.S. identity. Attempts at latinization, owing to the influences of the Catholic Church’s Latin rite, both in the United States and in Europe, brought departures from the Ukrainian Church’s Byzantine liturgy. As the Ukrainian Church matured and moved toward independence, a highly educated native clergy brought liturgical renewal. The unfortunate events in 1945 and 1946, forcing Ukrainian Catholics in the homeland underground, led the faithful in the United States to continue without significant leadership from Ukraine. In the last fifty years, influenced by the Second Vatican Council and the Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Catholic Churches , the Ukrainian Church has achieved modest liturgical change.

Celebrating the Eucharist: Sacrifice and Communion. Proceedings of the Fifth Fota International Liturgical Conference, 2012 ed. by Gerard Deighan

320 ANTIPHON 18.3 (2014) Gerard Deighan, Editor Celebrating the Eucharist: Sacrifice and Communion. Proceedings of the Fifth Fota International Liturgical Conference, 2012 Fota Liturgy Series, 5 Wells: Smenos Publications, 2014 270 pages. Hardbound. €20.00. This volume contains the papers delivered at the Fifth Fota International Liturgical Conference in Cork, Ireland in 2012. As the editor, Fr. Gerard Deighan, indicates in his preface, the conference aimed at presenting “a full and balanced understanding of the Eucharist” (7) as both sacrifice and communion. This is a timely and necessary contribution, because in the last half-century the understanding of the Mass as a sacrifice has diminished considerably not only in pastoral practice but also in theological reflection. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that “[t]he Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord’s body and blood” (no. 1382). However, articulating the sacrificial character of the Eucharist is not a straightforward undertaking and less accessible to contemporary minds than the aspect of communion. Hence it is not surprising that most of the papers face the question of the Eucharistic sacrifice. By doing this from a variety of perspectives, the book takes a significant step towards redressing the balance between sacrifice and communion. The book opens with a study by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke on the Eucharist as a sacrifice in the canonical discipline of the Church, with special reference to the work of the noted canonist Pietro Gasbarri, principal editor of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Several papers explore the scriptural foundations of the Eucharist , in particular the biblical concepts of the sacrifice. Although the Jewish sacrificial system came to an end with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, its memory was sustained by its presence in the Sacred Scriptures and hence decisive for the early Christian theology of the Eucharist. Gerard Deighan provides a concise and lucid overview of sacrifice in the Old Testament as a background for understanding the sacrificial nature of the Last Supper and of the Mass. Robert Abyneiko analyses the fundamental contribution the Letter to the Hebrews makes 321 BOOK REVIEW to seeing the Eucharist as the action of Christ the Eternal High Priest. Klaus Berger explores liturgical themes in the Book of Revelation . The studies of Daniel Jones on Augustine of Hippo (drawing on the inexhaustible book ten of the City of God), of Patrick Gorevan on Thomas Aquinas and of Neil Xavier O’Donoghue on the idea of the Eucharistic sacrifice in pre-Norman Ireland open up historical perspectives on the question. The volume contains highly informative presentations of more recent theological reflection on the Eucharist: Michael Stickelbroeck on the eminent nineteenth-century German divine Matthias Joseph Scheeben, Joseph Murphy on the notable, but little known twentieth-century Italian theologian Divo Barsotti, and Thomas McGovern on the Eucharist in the Magisterium of St John Paul II. In a paper dedicated to Joseph Ratzinger’s theology of the liturgy, Mariusz Bliniewicz highlights the key role of the Apostle Paul’s concept of “reasonable worship” (logike latreia, Rom 12:1). Of particular interest is Manfred Hauke’s overview of the debate on the “basic structure” of the Eucharist, which had considerable impact on liturgical renewal in the last century. Finally, D. Vincent Twomey reflects on the importance of rubrics from the perspective of ritual studies (drawing especially on the work of Victor Turner) and on the basis of the liturgical theology of Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI. The multi-disciplinary character of this scholarly volume makes it a stimulating contribution to an ongoing theological conversation with significant practical implications and a valuable resource for further research. Last but not least, the publisher is to be commended for producing a high-quality book at a very reasonable price. Uwe Michael Lang Heythrop College University of London, UK ...

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN? REFLECTIONS ON LITURGICAL REFRAMING

This article reflects on the phenomenon of a growing dissatisfaction and restlessness with traditional forms of worship as well as on some conceptions of the notion of liturgical renewal. It proposes that a fundamental liturgical reframing is indeed needed, grounded on the theological locus of the Christ-event. A brief description is given of the liturgical importance of this event, followed by some liturgical implications, inter alia, the need for a responsible liturgical reframing of anthropology and our understanding and expectation of the encounter with God.

THE LIMINALITY OF LITURGY

This paper proposes that the church cannot be edified without taking cognizance of the role and function of liturgy. Whilst liturgical experimentation seems to be the rule of the day, a plea is made for responsible liturgical renewal that does not follow the opportunism of fashionable liturgical cosmetics. This entails a deepened understanding of the liminality of liturgy, especially in this time of transition in South Africa. Some key concepts of a liminal liturgy are expanded on, namely: lament, re-framing, and anticipation.

FIDES QUAERENS IMAGINEM: THE QUEST FOR LITURGICAL REFRAMING

This article proposes that the theory of reframing, as developed within the context of a philosophically based theory of change, and consequently adapted by psychologists and neurological change theorists, can be useful in the quest for liturgical renewal. It elucidates this theory from an aesthetical viewpoint, referring to art works by Duchamp, Dali, and Cilliers, and distinguishes between reframing as relabeling, re-figuring, and re-signifying. Some implications are drawn in view of liturgical reframing, implementing key concepts such as re-creation, repetition, the other and wise foolishness.

Shepherds’ and Advent Fast: Liturgical Renewal in English and Castilian Pastoral Drama of the Late Middle Ages

One of the characteristic features that reveal the new spiritual state of the shepherds in medieval Nativity plays is that they are able to envisage the coming of Christ in the light of Old Testament prophecies. A contemporary reader or spectator must have found such prophetic announcements rather surprising, particularly because they are spoken by rustic characters. This article analyzes this religious renewal in a series of English and Castilian plays in the light of the liturgical texts set aside for Advent and Christmastide. This religious renewal is clearly evident when the rustics recite a comprehensive account of messianic prophecies after the Annunciation. It is the purpose of this work to study the characters’ emphasis on prophecy and typology as well as their previous behaviour and practices, which seem to be is incongruous with such a learned attitude, although they lend themselves to a liturgical interpretation.

Pope Benedict XVI on the Postconciliar Liturgical Reform: An Essay in Interpretation

Pope Benedict XVI on the Postconciliar Liturgical Reform: An Essay in Interpretation William H. Johnston Fifty years ago the Second Vatican Council, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “launched the most extensive renewal of the Roman Rite ever known.”1 What was Pope Benedict’s assessment of and response to that renewal and the way it was carried out in the Church in the years since the Second Vatican Council? Many see that assessment as fundamentally negative. Shortly after Cardinal Ratzinger (later to become Pope Benedict XVI) published in 2000 his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, John Baldovin described it as a “powerful indictment of the last thirty-five years of Roman Catholic liturgy,” finding that “almost no aspect of liturgy escapes his wrathful pen.”2 More recently, Massimo Faggioli portrayed Pope Benedict’s establishment of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite through the 2007 Motu proprio on the liturgy, Summorum Pontificum, as “not far from renouncing Vatican II as such, stopping every pastoral effort aimed at receiving the liturgical reform and Vatican II through the liturgy.”3 James Sweeney also interpreted Summorum Pontificum as an action “reversing the thrust of the liturgical renewal.”4 Helen Hull Hitchcock held that Cardinal Ratzinger (and John Paul II) 1 Benedict XVI, Video Message for the Closing of the Fiftieth International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin (June 17, 2012), available at http://www. vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/pont-messages/2012/documents /hf_ben-xvi_mes_20120617_50cong-euc-dublino_en.html. 2 John Baldovin, “‘Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice’: On the Seriousness of Christian Liturgy,” Antiphon 7 (2002) 10–17, at 13. 3 Massimo Faggioli, True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2012) 144. 4 James Sweeney, “How Should We Remember Vatican II?” New Blackfriars 90 (2009) 251–260, at 254. Antiphon 17.2 (2013): 118–138 119 Pope Benedict XVI on the Postconciliar Liturgical Reform: An Essay in Interpretation judged “the post-Conciliar liturgical reform” in need of “a thorough re-evaluation.”5 The list could be lengthened. Are these views sound and accurate? It is certainly true that various of Joseph Ratzinger’s writings and statements, especially before but also after becoming pope, communicated a critical judgment regarding the liturgical reform. In his memoirs, for example, he described “the crisis in the church” in the postconciliar era as due “to a large extent…to the disintegration of the liturgy.”6 A search through his body of work for words describing results of the liturgical reform or features of its implementation can produce a strikingly negative lexicon, ranging from “banality,” “superficiality ,” and “deficiencies” to “fragmentation,” “frightening impoverishment ,” “wretchedness,” “deformation,” “disintegration,” “destruction,” “devastation,” “anarchy,” “chaos”—and the like.7 Many strong words, all pointing in the same direction. 5 Helen Hull Hitchcock, “Pope Benedict XVI and the ‘Reform of the Reform,’” in Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy, ed. Neil J. Roy and Janet E. Rutherford (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010) 70–87, at 81. 6 Joseph Ratzinger, Milestones: Memoirs 1927–1977 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998) 148. 7 For “banality,” see Joseph Ratzinger, The Feast of Faith: Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986) 100, 120–121; idem, A New Song for the Lord: Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today (New York: Crossroad, 1996) 39, and elsewhere; “superficiality,” idem, New Song, 198; “deficiencies,” idem, “The Spirit of the Liturgy or Fidelity to the Council: Response to Father Gy,” Antiphon 11 (2007) 97–102, at 99; “fragmentation,” idem, “Assessment and Future Prospects,” in Looking Again at the Question of the Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger, ed. Alcuin Reid (Farnborough: Saint Michael’s Abbey Press, 2003) 145–153, at 148; “frightening impoverishment,” Joseph Ratzinger and Vittorio Messori , The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1985) 128, also Joseph Ratzinger, “Zur theologischen Grundlegung der Kirchenmusik,” in idem, Theologie der Liturgie: Die sakramentale Begründung christlicher Existenz, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 11 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2008) 501–526, at 503; “wretchedness,” idem, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000) 130; “deformation,” idem, New Song, 174; “disintegration ,” idem, Milestones, 148; “destruction,” idem, “Assessment and Future Prospects...

Włoska eklezjologia okresu przedsoborowego

In this article has been shown the ecclesiology of the pre-council period in Italy. The twentieth century called the century of the Church. The biggest event at the time was the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II was not a random event, but preceded by a renewal, which goes back to the early twentieth century. Also in Italy, an important role to fulfill the liturgical renewal, biblical movement, the activity of the lay faithful. In the period preceding the publication of the encyclical of Pope Pius XII on the Mystical Body of Christ, distinctive theology of the Italian representatives are: Giuseppe Siri, Francesco Chiesa, Antonio M. Vellico and Grazioso Ceriani. New impetus in the development of ecclesiology has become encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (29.06.1943) Pope Pius XII. For example, taken by Pietro Parente (1891–1986) Mysterium Ecclesiae study with the intent to recover its original splendor to bind legal structure of the hierarchical Church, with its inner nature. Disclosure by Pope John XXIII on 25 January 1959, just three months after his election to the See of Peter, the convening of a general council, and then consult widely on the subject of proceedings has contributed significantly not only to revive interest in the Church, but also to take the very important issues related. In developing a new concept of the Church, that is more in line with the spirit of the period immediately preceding the ecclesiology of Vatican II, the priest put a significant contribution to the Diocese of Alba Natale Bussi (1907–1988), whose lectures were recorded and issued the first time already in 1961. Also noteworthy is the emphasis on the ground of Italian interest in the phenomenon of sanctity and the cult of saints. The overall look of the ecclesiology of the Italian twentieth century, which precedes the Second Vatican Council should be noted that it is not as discovery and pioneering, as ecclesiology German or French.