Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical PrayerTurning 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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... important directive is found in paragraph 262 of the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani , the General Instruction of the new Roman Missal , issued in 1969. That says , ' It is better for the main altar to be con- structed away from ...
... important clarification . It sheds light on what is relative in the external symbolic forms of the liturgy and resists the fanaticisms that , unfortunately , have not been un- common in the controversies of the last forty years . At the ...
... important argument in favour of the al- tered direction of the celebrant . The Council wanted to bring home the ... importance of the Paschal Mystery for the life of the Church is beyond doubt , but the Council's emphasis on this central ...
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Contents
The Reform of the Liturgy and the Position of the Celebrant at the Altar | 21 |
Direction of Prayer Liturgy and Church Architecture in the Early Church | 35 |
The Direction of Prayer and the Position of the Celebrant at the Altar | 56 |
Liturgy and Church Architecture85 | 67 |
The Common Direction of Liturgical Prayer Its Theological and Spiritual Contents | 89 |
Turning to the LordThe Theological Dimension of Liturgical Practice | 100 |
The position of the celebrant and the sacrificial character of the Mass | 109 |