When things go bad in a family, organization, religion, or society, the tendency is to look for a change that occurred before things started to crumble. It is difficult to deny the tumultuous situation within the Church at the present time, … [Read more...]
Questions Regarding the Use of Latin in Celebrating the Mass
January 15, 2016 by Robert L. Kinney III
Sacred Liturgy: Great Mystery, Great Mercy
Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick Lecture, Kenrick Glennon Seminary, St Louis, MO, October 8, 2015
November 16, 2015 by Bishop Peter J. Elliott
Reflecting on the state of divine worship in the Church, I believe that this is a good time for Catholics of the Roman Rite, a very good time. Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council initiated a liturgical reform in the Constitution on … [Read more...]
The Great Catholic Music Debate
“Post-Vatican Folk” vs. “Reformist Retro”
August 9, 2015 by Bill Kassel
A funeral I attended recently illustrates a musical dilemma that fuels the ire of Catholics on Facebook whenever the subject of liturgy comes up. To set a tone of solemnity, two women chanted a Latin prelude as mourners entered. The … [Read more...]
What’s Changed?
A Comparison of Self- and Divine-Referential Pronoun Usage in Hymns Written Pre- and Post-Vatican II
July 12, 2015 by J.E. Sigler
“He that sings praise, not only sings, but also loves him of whom he sings.”—St. Augustine Noticeable Change in Pre- & Post-Vatican II Hymns Some HPR readers may be unaware that people have been arguing about the language of Church hym … [Read more...]
Kneeling Ban: Good Liturgy or Loss of Religious Freedom?
July 12, 2015 by Fr. Regis Scanlon, OFMCap
Some religious leaders in the Latin Rite are pressuring Catholics not to kneel at the Consecration, or to genuflect at their reception of the Eucharist. This trend has gained a great deal of traction in recent years, and is causing alarm … [Read more...]
The Solemnities of June
Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart of Jesus
June 13, 2015 by Stephanie A. Mann
This June is a very solemn month. There are six solemnities on the liturgical calendar: Pentecost Sunday, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles. … [Read more...]
The Thrill of Anticipation: Encountering God in the Eucharist
May 31, 2015 by Sr. Teresa Benedicta Block, OP
How Previous Ages have seen the Eucharist At one point during the Communist takeover in China, the Communists came to a remote village where Catholicism was lived with great vigor. They imprisoned the local priest in his own rectory, … [Read more...]
Summer Reading for June 2015
May 31, 2015 by Book Reviews
Our Father, Who Art on Earth: The Lord’s Prayer for Believers and Unbelievers. Jose Tolentino Mendonca, with a Foreword by Enzo Bianchi. (Mahwah, New Jersey/New York: Paulist Press, 2012) 114 pages; $14.95. (Reviewed by Brandon H … [Read more...]
Catholic Identity: More than the Tip of the Iceberg
April 27, 2015 by Dr. Jay Boyd, PhD
It is becoming more and more difficult to deny that there is a crisis in the Church. Statistics are available that show a decline in the Church in practically every measurable way, from Sunday Mass attendance, to priestly and religious … [Read more...]
Spring Reading for April 2015
April 27, 2015 by Book Reviews
The Charism of Priestly Celibacy. Edited by John C. Cavadini (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2012) 184 pages; $13.25. (Reviewed by Fr. Jeffrey Kirby) --------- The Classical Moment: Selected Essays on Knowledge and Its Pleasures. Fr. … [Read more...]
The Homiletic Directory
A Guide for Catholic Preaching
April 15, 2015 by Fr. Shane Crombie, CC
In response to a request made by the 2008 Synod of Bishops, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments recently published the Homiletic Directory. The Directory was commissioned to assist homilists in their … [Read more...]
Rediscovering Preaching within the Liturgy of the Hours
February 12, 2015 by Colleen R. Vermeulen
For most Catholics in the United States, the terms “homily,” “sermon,” and “preaching” nearly exclusively evoke the occasion of a priest or deacon preaching as part of Mass.[1. The use of the specific terms, “homily,” “sermon,” and “preachin … [Read more...]
The “Sanctus”: A Catechetical Signpost for the Mass
February 12, 2015 by Dr. Michael Brummond
The Eucharistic Liturgy is “the source and summit of the Christian life.”[1. CCC 1324; Cf. Lumen Gentium 11. ] Active participation in these mysteries constitutes the “foremost and indispensible font” for acquiring the Christian Spirit.[2. S … [Read more...]
Preaching, Music, and Acoustics
February 12, 2015 by Deacon W. Patrick Cunningham
The work of the New Evangelization is identical to the work of evangelization in every age: to communicate to those who are unaware of the saving work of the Son of God those things that will bring them to accept the gift of faith, and come … [Read more...]
Liturgy in Bede’s World
January 29, 2015 by Daniel J. Heisey, OSB
Time-honored ritual; a space often ornate, if not opulent, used almost exclusively for this purpose; seating by hierarchy; candles; a prayer, perhaps in Latin, perhaps in English; ceremonial robes; a bevy of trained servers; wine; elegant, … [Read more...]
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