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 29
... eastward prayer and the Cross, which is evident for the post-Constantinian period at the latest. In contemporary synagogues, the corner with the receptacle for the Torah scrolls indicated the direction of prayer (qibla) towards ...
... direction of prayer was thus inseparably bound up with the messianic expectation of Israel.7 Georg Kretschmar sees a connection between the development of the eastward direction of prayer and a local tradition of the primitive Church in ...
... eastward direction of prayer was retained and developed into a general principle. There is some disagreement about the interpretation of the sources for this local tradition of belief concerning the Second Coming. Objecting to ...
... eastward direction in prayer (which must already have been the custom among the Christians of Palestine and Syria) and prescribed the direction towardsJerusalem.22Wallraffconsidersthecleardistinctionsug- gested by Epiphanius between ...
... eastward direction for worship is not explicit. Even so, tradition has found many biblical references for this symbolism, for instance, the sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2), the feet of the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives, which lies ...