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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... eschatological deficit.6 A similar note is struck by Andreas Heinz: The direction of prayer should point towards the transcendent addressee of prayer. Hence the question of the focal point of the presidential prayer needs to be ...
... eschatological events on the basis of their interpretation of various Old Testament prophecies (Ezek 11:23, 43:1-2, 44:1-2, and Zech 14:4). Kretschmar notes that in the Synoptic Gospels Jesus' messianic entrance into Jerusalem begins on ...
... eschatological 'day of the Lord' (Zech 14:1): “Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the ...
... eschatological events to take place in Jerusalem.13 Although Theißen does not make the connection explicit, the expectation of these events would seem to be related to the Zechariah prophecy and the hope for the Lord's return on the ...
... eschatological hope. In the New Testament, the special significance of the eastward direction for worship is not explicit. Even so, tradition has found many biblical references for this symbolism, for instance, the sun of righteousness ...