Turning Toward the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical PrayerIntroduction by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) Turning towards the Lord presents an historical and theological argument for the traditional, common direction of liturgical prayer, known as "facing east", and is meant as a contribution to the contemporary debate about the Catholic liturgy. Lang, a member of the London Oratory, studies the direction of liturgical prayer from an historical, theological, and pastoral point of view. At a propitious moment, this book resumes a debate that, despite appearances to the contrary, has never really gone away, not even after the Second Vatican Council. Historical research has made the controversy less partisan, and among the faithful there is an increasing sense of the problems inherent in an arrangement that hardly shows the liturgy to be open to the things that are above and to the world to come. In this situation, Lang's delightfully objective and wholly unpolemical book is a valuable guide. Without claiming to offer major new insights, Lang carefully presents the results of recent research and provides the material necessary for making an informed judgment. It is from such historical evidence that the author elicits the theological answers that he proposes. |
From inside the book
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... Eucharist. Where this was for some reason not possible, they would at least turn towards the image of Christ in the ... Eucharistic Prayer, is addressed to the community of the faithful:'Sursum corda'— 'Lift up your hearts', high above ...
... Eucharist the priest leads the people in prayer and is turned, together with the people, to- wards the Lord. For this reason, Jungmann argued, the common direction of priest and people is intrinsically fitting and proper to the ...
... Eucharist should not be played off against its character as a sacred banquet.11 It would seem obvious to me that there is. and A. Join-Lambert ~Fribourg:Univ.-Verl., and Geneva:Labor et Fides, 2001!, 197–217; and 'Versus orientem—versus ...
... Eucharist is fully developed by theologians such as Theodore of Mopsuestia and Narsai. I have suggested a combination between priest and people facing each other for the Introductory Rites, the Liturgy of the Word, parts of the ...
Orientation in Liturgical Prayer Michael Lang. the fore during the eucharistic liturgy (excepting the distribution of Holy Communion), when the congregation under the leadership of the priest is before the Lord to offer the sac- rifice ...