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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... Jerusalem. The seven-armed menorah and the sacrifice of Isaac could be depicted above this Torah shrine, as in the great synagogue of Dura-Europos from the first half of the third century Among Christians, it became a general custom to ...
... Jerusalem, or, more precisely, towards the presence of the transcendent God (shek- inah) in the Holy of Holies of the Temple. For instance, Daniel in Babylon 'went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open to Jerusalem ...
... Jerusalem for prayer was kept in the liturgy of the synagogue. Thus Jews have expressed their eschato- logical hope for the coming of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the gathering of God's people from the Diaspora. The ...
... Jerusalem, the hope for the Parousia became detached from the Mount of Olives, while the eastward direction of prayer was retained and developed into a general principle. There is some disagreement about the interpretation of the ...
Orientation in Liturgical Prayer Michael Lang. to Jerusalem as a fulfilment of the apocalyptic prophecies of Zechariah 9-14': (1) The central point of his Jerusalem ministry was the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14.4). (2) He obtained a colt ...