Memory And Liturgy

Memory is a major factor in the composition and practice of liturgy. Recent research into how the brain and memory function points the way to how liturgy can best meet the needs of worshippers. In Memory and Liturgy, Peter Atkins draws on the fruits of his research into the process of the brain and our memory and applies it to liturgical worship. His extensive experience in writing and using liturgy keeps this book rooted in reality. In its ten chapters the author applies the functioning of the brain and the memory to our remembrance of God in worship; God's memory of us through Baptism; our remembrance of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; the corporate memory of the community created through worship; the healing of memories of sin and pain through forgiveness; three aids to help us worship; the process of continuity and change in liturgy; and the connection between memory, imagination and hope. The conclusion summarizes the main practical issues. This provides a check-list for those serving on Liturgical Commissions and those involved in the teaching of the practice of liturgy. This book is a positive contribution to the ongoing search for suitable liturgical worship and music for the 21st century.

Memory is a major factor in the composition and practice of liturgy. Recent research into how the brain and memory function points the way to how liturgy can best meet the needs of worshippers. In Memory and Liturgy, Peter Atkins draws on the fruits of his research into the process of the brain and our memory and applies it to liturgical worship. His extensive experience in writing and using liturgy keeps this book rooted in reality. In its ten chapters the author applies the functioning of the brain and the memory to our remembrance of God in worship; God's memory of us through Baptism; our remembrance of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; the corporate memory of the community created through worship; the healing of memories of sin and pain through forgiveness; three aids to help us worship; the process of continuity and change in liturgy; and the connection between memory, imagination and hope. The conclusion summarizes the main practical issues. This provides a check-list for those serving on Liturgical Commissions and those involved in the teaching of the practice of liturgy. This book is a positive contribution to the ongoing search for suitable liturgical worship and music for the 21st century.

This anthology surveys the development and theology of the liturgical year in the order of its historical evolution: From Sabbath to Sunday"; "From Passover to Pascha" (Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost); and "From Pascha to Parousia" (Epiphany, Christmas, and Advent). In addition, introductory essays on the meaning of the liturgical year and a short concluding section on the sanctoral cycle ("From Parousia to Persons") are also provided. While written as a companion to standard works in the field, beginning with graduate students in liturgy and seminarians, this book is intended for all - pastors, liturgists, catechists, religious educators - who seek to live according to the Church's theology of time as it is reflected in its calendar of feasts and seasons. Through feast and fast, through festival and preparation, the liturgical year celebrates the presence of the already crucified and risen Christ among us today. Between Memory and Hope shows that to live between past and future, between memory and hope, is to remember Christ's passion as we encounter his presence among us now and as we await his coming again in glory. Articles and their contributors are "The Liturgical Year: Studies, Prospects, Reflections," by Robert F. Taft, SJ; "Liturgical Time in the Ancient Church: The State of Research," by Thomas J. Talley; "Day of the Lord: Day of Mystery," by H. Boone Porter; "Sunday: The Heart of the Liturgical Year," by Mark Seale; "The Frequency of the Celebration of the Eucharist Throughout History," by Robert F. Taft, SJ; "History and Eschatology in the Primitive Pascha," by Thomas J. Talley; "The Origins of Easter," by Paul F. Bradshaw; "The Three Days and the Forty Days," by Patrick Regan, OSB; "The Veneration of the Cross," by Patrick Regan, OSB; "Holy Week in the Byzantine Tradition," by Robert F. Taft, SJ; "The Origin of Lent at Alexandria," by Thomas J. Taley; "Preparation for Pascha? Lent in Christian Antiquity," by Maxwell E. Johnson; "The Fifty Days and the Fiftieth Day," by Patrick Regan, OSB; "Making the Most of Trinity Sunday," by Catherine Mowry LaCugna; "Constantine and Christmas," by Thomas J. Taley; "The Origins of Christmas: The State of the Question," by Susan K. Roll; "The Appearance of the Light at the Baptism of Jesus and the Origins of the Feast of Epiphany," by Gabriele Winkler; "The Origins and Evolution of Advent," by Martin J. Connell; "On Feasting the Saints," by John F.Baldovin, SJ; "The Marian Liturgical Tradition," by Kilian McDonnell, OSB; "Forgetting and Remembering the Saints," by James F. White; "The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary: a Lutheran Reflection," by Maxwell E. Johnson; and "The Liturgical Year: Calendar for a Just Community," by John F. Baldovin, SJ.

Anamnesis as Dangerous Memory explores the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz to discover how Christian memory is prophetic both in its revelation of extraordinary circumstances of injustice and the challenge and hope it poses to those who join in solidarity with the oppressed. Liturgical theologian Alexander Schmemann then elaborates how the liturgy reveals the kingdom of God and empowers believers to witness to it. The meeting of these theologies results in a rich eschatology, a life shaped y the vision of a future that fulfills the promises of the past.

In 1921, Anton Baumstark delivered two lectures on the development of the Roman Rite to a gathering at the Abbey of Maria Laach. Abbot Ildefons Herwegen offered to publish those lectures, but Baumstark decided to write a book on the topic instead, which was published two years later as On the Historical Development of the Liturgy. It would be another sixteen years before he produced Comparative Liturgy, for which he is better known. Together the two books lay out Baumstark's liturgical methodology. Comparative Liturgy presents his method; On the Historical Development of the Liturgy offers his model. For nearly a century, On the Historical Development of the Liturgy has been valued by specialists in the field of liturgical studies, both for its description of comparative liturgy and for the portrayal of patterns Baumstark discerns in liturgical development. Also significant are the hypotheses Baumstark proposes and the evidence he brings to bear on problems in liturgical history. In this annotated edition, Fritz West provides the first English translation of this work by Anton Baumstark.

EVERY MOMENT HOLY, Vol. 2: DEATH, GRIEF, & HOPE, is a book of liturgies for seasons of dying and grieving--liturgies such as "A Liturgy for the Scattering of Ashes" or "A Liturgy for the Loss of a Spouse" or "A Liturgy for the Wake of a National Tragedy" or "A Liturgy for the Weighing of Last-Stage Medical Options." These are ways of reminding us that our lives are shot through with sacred purpose and eternal hopes even when, especially when, suffering and pain threaten to overwhelm us. -over 100 liturgies for seasons of dying and grieving -beautiful leather-bound hardcover -over 20 illustrations by Ned Bustard -silk bookmark -gilded edges

In Liturgy, Books and Franciscan Identity in Medieval Umbria, Anna Welch explores how early Franciscan friars produced the missals essential to their liturgical lives, and reflects on both the construction of ritual communal identity and historiographic trends regarding this process.

"Ritual Memory" brings together two areas of study which have hitherto rarely been studied in comparison: liturgy and the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. The book gives an analysis of the liturgical celebration of the apostles in the medieval West and examines the incorporation of the apocrypha in practices of ritual commemoration. It reveals the role that liturgy played in the transmission of the apocryphal Acts and visualises the way these narrative traditions developed and changed through their incorporation into a ritual context. The result is a dynamic picture of the ritual reception of the extra-canonical Acts in the Latin Middle Ages, where the apocryphal legends about the apostolic past were approached as memorable traditions on the origins of Christianity.