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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... holy Sacraments, he points us in the right direction and draws our hearts upwards. —Pope Benedict XVI Homily for the EasterVigil 22 March 2008 CONTENTS Foreword, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger 9 Acknowledgments 13 Introduction.
... Holy Spirit. The Congregation's response should thus make for a new, more relaxed discussion, in which we can search for the best ways of putting into practice the mystery of salvation. The quest is to be achieved, not by con- demning ...
... Holy Communion), when the congregation under the leadership of the priest is before the Lord to offer the sac- rifice of Christ and of the Church.15 I The Reform of the Liturgy and the Position of. 15In his very personal attack on ...
... holy Church as a whole ('ad laudem et gloriam nominis Dei, ad utilitatem quoque nostram, totiusque Ecclesiae suae sanctae'). Theologically, the Mass as a whole, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, is directed at ...
... Holy Spirit. Evidently, it is most desirable that this theology should be expressed in the visible shape of the liturgy.26 Cardinal Ratzinger is equally emphatic that the celebration of the Eucharist, just as Christian prayer in general ...