A study of Pope Francis’s example and teaching on relating the liturgy to living the mission of the liturgy in the world through holiness and mission.

In this commentary on Pope Francis’s letter on liturgical formation, Desiderio desideravi, Rita Ferrone takes readers on a journey of discovery to the very heart of the mystery we celebrate in the liturgy. Along the way, it draws attention to particular elements readers might otherwise miss, and illuminates the many rich expressions and affirmations contained within the pope’s letter. Questions for reflection and discussion are provided at the end of each section, making this commentary a useful tool for both personal reflection and group discussion.

In Liturgy and the New Evangelization, Timothy O'Malley provides a liturgical foundation to the church s New Evangelization. He examines questions pastoral ministers must treat in order to foster the renewal of humanity that the New Evangelization seeks to promote. Drawing on narrative, as well as theological concepts in biblical, patristic, and systematic theology, O'Malley invites readers into a renewed experience of the liturgical life of the church, learning to practice the art of self-giving love for the renewal of the world.

Jesus’ saving Paschal work continues today in the liturgy and sacraments. They have the power to sanctify and beatify those who engage the liturgy with proper minds and hearts. In this comprehensive and accessible book, Christopher Carstens opens up the ritual elements mystagogically: that is, he leads participants from what they can sense—a calendar day, a musical instrument, and word—to what is otherwise undetectable: Jesus Christ. He examines the core meaning of each liturgical element in creation, in the culture, in the Old Testament, in Christ, and in heaven. This book is an excellent resource for pastors, seminarians, permanent deacons and deacon candidates, lay ministers, and parish liturgy coordinators.

Often when we think of Christ’s presence in the liturgy, we think of his risen presence in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Sacrosanctum concilium, the first document of the Second Vatican Council, presents the four-fold presence of Christ in the liturgy as well as in the Body of Christ, the Church. This resource explores these modes of Christ’s presence and calls us to deepen our understanding and experience of how Christ is present to us both in the liturgy and in the world. With biblical and theological foundations, it provides an opportunity for Catholics to engage with the symbols of the liturgy so as to deepen their relationship with God and with each other.

In July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued Summorum Pontificum, designating two "uses" or "forms" of the Roman Rite, declaring the Missal of Paul VI to be the "ordinary form" and the 1962 Missal of John XXIII to be its "extraordinary form." On the same day, the pope also published a letter to bishops, Con Grande Fiducia, to accompany and offer commentary on this motu proprio. In Care for the Church and Its Liturgy, William H. Johnston offers analysis and commentary on both documents, exploring their meaning, context, purposes, implementation, and implications. Johnston carefully attends to the multiple purposes of the documents themselves and to the various questions related to their implementation, as well as to the complex postconciliar dynamics in the Catholic Church. His approach throughout is appreciative, critical, and constructive. Johnston’s study embodies respect for dialogue, unity, and charity. It will provide much food for thought and discussion among both academics and pastoral leaders in the years ahead as the church discerns its liturgical way forward, and all those with educational or pastoral responsibility for the liturgy will find it an informative resource and valuable guide for understanding and assessing this still constitutive feature of the Roman Rite.

In 1923, Romano Guardini’s Liturgie und Liturgische Bildung was published in German and later in Italian. For the first time, this overlooked but foundational resource is available in English. In Liturgy and Liturgical Formation, Guardini presents the specific task of the liturgy, and by extension, the ways in which the liturgy forms us to respond to sacramental signs and to understand our place in the community. Pope Francis drew upon Guardini’s insights from Liturgy and Liturgical Formation in his recent apostolic letter, Desiderio Desideravi, highlighting how, as Guardini wrote, the liturgy forms us “to relate religiously as fully human beings.” Guardini’s efforts to shine a light on liturgical formation continue to this day. The ongoing formation and education of the assembly is essential, and Liturgy and Liturgical Formation provides a lens through which this formation can be realized. Despite the changing times, Guardini’s insights continue to have value for how liturgical formation can enrich our celebration and participation in the liturgy.

This book is based on the principle that the liturgy is the enactment of “the work of our redemption” through the raising up, acknowledging and revering elements of the cosmos, the earth, and our “fellow creatures” in our common home. It is inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si (On Care for Our Common Home) (in its entirety, not “just” the sections on the Eucharist and liturgy) because it presents a world view and requires respecting and caring for all creatures who share this planet. It is illuminated by research into the history of sacramental theologies and the contemporary context of concern for the environment. In effect, there is no such thing as one Roman Catholic theology of the sacraments, and ‘more often than not differing contexts in the life of the church and the world required differing contents for sacramental theology. The author argues that concern for the environment is a traditional Catholic premise based on the goodness of creation and that God is creator of “heaven and earth.” He also argues that an ecological approach to sacramental theology can help to understand underlying factors and principles in the enactment of the liturgy of the sacraments about how and where God is discovered in the world in general and in the liturgy and sacraments in an intense and focused way through engagement with all who dwell in our common home.

An anthology of 70 essays and articles by prelates and pastors, theologians and canonists, philosophers and cultural figures-including: Cardinal Walter Brandmüller • Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke • Cardinal Gerhard Müller • Cardinal Robert Sarah • Cardinal Joseph Zen • Archbishop Thomas Gullickson • Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò • Bishop Rob Mutsaerts • Bishop Athanasius Schneider • Msgr. Charles Pope • Dom Alcuin Reid • Abbé Claude Barthe • Fr. John Hunwicke • Michael Brendan Dougherty • Ross Douthat • Edward Feser • Michael Fiedrowicz • Peter A. Kwasniewski • Phil Lawler • Martin Mosebach • George Neumayr • Joseph Shaw • and many others Already on July 16, 2021, the reactions to Pope Francis's severe restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass in Traditionis Custodes were like a river in full flood: articles, essays, interviews, podcasts-everywhere and from every point of view. An emotional, spiritual, intellectual dam had broken and the waters of discourse poured forth across the world. The sheer volume of writing occasioned by Traditionis Custodes is unlike anything seen in the history of papal documents-testimony to a neuralgic subject on which arguments proliferate and passions run high. The two-month period following the release of the motu proprio gave proof that the traditionalist movement was no fringe phenomenon, but something that had gained significant strength and sympathy during the relatively peaceful years from 2007 to 2021 (the "Pax Benedictina" to which the book's title refers). The purpose of this volume is to gather in one convenient place some of the finest and most appreciated essays and articles published in the period from mid-July through September of this fateful year, 2021-not only from America and England (although these predominate), but also from other nations: France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Poland, Kazakhstan, and China. This book is not, and makes no pretense of being, a presentation of "both sides of the argument." It offers a variety of critiques of this profoundly unwise and unpastoral decree, which suffers from incoherent doctrinal foundations, grave moral and juridical defects, and impossible ecclesiological implications.

A Living Sacrifice focuses on the inherent relationship between eschatology and the liturgy in light of Ratzinger’s insistence upon the primacy of logos over ethos. When logos is subordinated to ethos, the human person becomes subjected to a materialist ontology that leads to an ethos that is concerned above all by utility and progress, which affects one’s approach to understanding the liturgy and eschatology. How a person celebrates the liturgy becomes subject to the individual whim of one person or a group of people. Eschatology is reduced to addressing the temporal needs of a society guided by a narrow conception of hope or political theology. If the human person wants to understand his authentic sacramental logos, then he must first turn to Christ the incarnate Logos, who reveals to him that he is created for a loving relationship with God and others. The primacy of logos is the central hermeneutical key to understanding the unique vision of Ratzinger’s Christocentric liturgical theology and eschatology. This is coupled with a study of Ratzinger’s spiritual Christology with a focus on how it influences his theology of liturgy and eschatology through the notions of participation and communion in Christ’s sacrificial love. Finally, A Living Sacrifice examines Ratzinger’s theology of hope, charity, and beauty, as well as his understanding of active participation in relationship to the eschatological and cosmic characteristics of the sacred liturgy.