Romano Guardini's The Spirit of the Liturgy "helped us to rediscover the liturgy in all its beauty, hidden wealth, and time-transcending grandeur, to see it as the animating center of the Church, the very center of Christian life.... We were now willing to see the liturgy as the prayer of the Church, a prayer moved and guided by the Holy Spirit himself, a prayer in which Christ unceasingly becomes contemporary with us, enters into our lives." — Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote that liturgical reform and renewal must accord with what they called "the spirit of the liturgy". But what did they mean by this? Popes had written and spoken about this spirit in the decades before the council, but another important source is the 1918 book The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini, which Pope Benedict XVI credits with sparking the liturgical movement in Germany. The Seven Gifts of The Spirit of the Liturgy is a study of Guardini's watershed text. With contributions from Bishop Arthur Serratelli, Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., Michon Matthiesen, David Fagerberg, Daniel Cardó, Bishop James Conley, Emery de Gaál, and Susan Benofy, as well as Christopher Carstens, it analyzes each of the seven core features of the liturgical spirit as Guardini defined it: objective, corporate, universal, symbolic, meaningful, beautiful, and logical. The Second Vatican Council saw each of these seven characteristics as integral to authentic liturgical reform. Too often they remain absent from liturgical celebrations even today, when subjectivism and individualism take the place of an objective, corporate spirit; when custom-made liturgies neglect the dimension of universality; when frivolous, anemic symbols stand in for a robust symbolism that truly manifests Christ; when beauty and seriousness fade into the background. We hold back the spirit of the liturgy if we don't know what it is, if we don't desire it, and if we don't work to let it animate liturgical prayer and practice. For this reason, nine experts on the liturgy recall in this book Guardini's key spiritual insights, showing how these can deepen our liturgical understanding and practice today.

Originally published in 1997, Medieval Liturgy is a unique and interesting collection of nine essays that explores medieval liturgy from three distinct perspectives: historical, liturgical, and theological. The book includes contributions from eminent scholars of the time and discusses the development of 9th to 11th century ordines, the meaning of the Mass in the 12th and 13th centuries, medieval preaching, ordination practices, popular penance practices, marriage rites, the role of music in Eucharistic liturgy, and the relationship between liturgical architectural space and theology.

Catechetical Sessions on Liturgy and the Sacraments begins by familiarizing participants with the nature of liturgy and the liturgical year. An introduction to the properties of signs, symbols, and rituals sets the groundwork for studying individual sacraments. Four sessions address the sacraments of initiation, two sessions cover the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, and the final session covers the sacraments at the service of Communion. The sessions share some of the history of the sacraments, their meaning, the significance of symbols, and the nature of the rites. The participants are invited to actively study the sacraments, to make connections between the sacraments and their own lives, to reflect prayerfully on the meaning of the sacraments, and to take some sacrament-related actions.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

God is literally indescribable: "not-able-to-be-written-down". How can we do dogmatics when there is an absolute difference between the Creator and the creature? How dare we say anything about God without his permission? God is incomprehensible, but he is not unapproachable. He gives access to himself in the liturgy he has given us. There, what dogma stammers to state, liturgy celebrates in mystical participation; what knowledge cannot fasten together, love unites. Liturgical Dogmatics examines dogma in light of liturgy. It is not a theology of liturgy, because it does not look at liturgy; rather, it looks through liturgy to see the whole sweeping saving activity of God, which dogma describes. Through this lens, the author illuminates thirty-six classic dogmas in a readable and sometimes imaginative way. He shows that while dogma protects the mystery of divine love from heretical corruption, its final goal is achieved when the believer is united to that mystery in liturgical worship.

Liturgies of the Word for years A, B, and C.

Since the Second Vatican Council the place of Mary in theology and generally in the life of the Church has been at times muted. This is perhaps understandable given the debates concerning Mary's "place" in the documents of Vatican II. In an ecumenical age, it was argued, the church needed a less triumphalist Mariology and piety with a greater focus on Mary as model disciple. In certain respects this has led to a dichotomy between the continued Marian piety of many faithful (and, truth be told, the piety of the post-conciliar popes) and a theological timidity concerning Mary. This collection of chapters seeks to address the current situation of Mariology. Taken as a whole these chapters represent a welcome call for renewal and reawakening in Mariology. The collection is also delightfully eclectic, both in terms of topics covered and in terms of the denominational and academic backgrounds of the authors.