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
Results 1-5 of 30
... rites' (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 36.1). There is nothing in the Council text about turning altars towards the people; that point is raised only in post- conciliar instructions. The most important directive is found in paragraph 262 of ...
... Rites, signs, symbols, and words can never exhaust the inner reality of the mystery of salvation. For this reason the Congregation warns against one-sided and rigid positions in this debate. This is an important clarification. It sheds ...
... Rites, the Liturgy of the Word, parts of the Communion Rite, and the Concluding Rite, and a common direction of prayer for the Liturgy of the Eucharist in the strict sense, especially the canon. This proposal has been criticised from ...
... Rite of Mass that was carried out after the Second Vatican Council has significantly altered the shape of Catholic worship. One of the most evident changes was the construction of freestanding altars. The versus popu- lum celebration ...
... rites the turning to the east was 'handed on and entrusted to us by the High Priest and his sons',. 41Melito of Sardis, Fragment 8b, 4; ed. and trans. S.G. Hall, 73. 42Cf. Dölger, Sol salutis, 157–70, with many references. 43Origen, De ...