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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Orientation in Liturgical Prayer Michael Lang. In the early Church there was a ... East, to- wards the rising sun, the sign of Christ returning, whom we go to ... Prayer, is addressed to the community of the faithful:'Sursum corda'— 'Lift ...
... Prayer, Liturgy, and Church Architecture in the Early Church 35 1. Facing East: The Christian Direction of Prayer 35 2. The Direction of Prayer and the Position of the Celebrant at the Altar 61 3. Liturgy and Church Architecture 71 III ...
Orientation in Liturgical Prayer Michael Lang. with me from evaluating my ... praying com- munity. Thus there can be no question that, in an age when man has made himself ... east. The latter is often perceived as merely artificial, though ...
... prayer has been a consistent tradition in both the East and the West. Second, I should like to argue, relying on the thought of contemporary theologians, that the permanent face-to-face position of priest and people is not beneficial ...
Orientation in Liturgical Prayer Michael Lang. The statement of the Congregation for Divine Worship already quoted ... east and, at the same time, towards the people (altare sit ad ori- entem, versus populum). This is indeed the state of ...