The Prayer of the Faithful is a fundamental part of the liturgy. It offers the congregation an opportunity to respond to the Word of God by offering prayers for the salvation of all and to approach God as a community of the faithful. This collection offe
Inspired by her daily contemplation and meditation on the Scriptures, Carmelite Sister Mary Grace Melcher offers this book of deeply meaningful prayers of the faithful for every day of the year. Cycles A, B, and C for Sundays and the two-year cycle for weekdays are all included. These beautiful intercessions echo the grace of the day indicated by the Scripture readings and have been prayed in her monastic community for years. Enrich your community's liturgy with these beautiful and inspiring intercessions. Mary Grace Melcher, OCD, is a cloistered Carmelite nun at the Carmelite Monastery of Terre Haute, Indiana. She has been a member there since1981.
The Deacon’s Ministry of the Word will offer both scriptural and theological resources, as well as strategies and approaches, for effectively communicating the word of God. The book will focus primarily on the homily—but the ideas and skills can be readily applied by deacons in any presentation in which the word of God is central, including RCIA meetings and retreat conferences.
From USCCB Publishing, this revision of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) seeks to promote more conscious, active, and full participation of the faithful in the mystery of the Eucharist. While the Missale Romanum contains the rite and prayers for Mass, the GIRM provides specific detail about each element of the Order of Mass as well as other information related to the Mass.
Intercession is an essential element of both public and private prayer. Using the Book of Common Prayer and the major elements of the Prayers of the People, Plater explains the construction of everyday litanies, collects, and petitionary prayers, as well as the composition of intercessions for church seasons, holy days, and special occasions. Plater begins by looking at the roots of intercession in the Bible, history, and ancient belief and practice, and goes on to offer practical advice for creating corporate intercessions in the local community. Intercession is a useful aid for liturgical study and planning for priests, pastors, deacons, lay ministers, and worship committees. Small prayer and intercessory groups will find it helpful for free-form prayer that is creative and flexible, yet grounded in prayerbook principles.
Fifty liturgical scholars - Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran - have authored these intercessory prayers for each Sunday of the three-year cycle to expand the resources available to local pastors. The authors have been guided by the traditional pattern of prayers of the faithful. All language is inclusive.
Words and Gestures in the Liturgy is a call to attentiveness. What do the various movements in the liturgy mean? How do words affect and effect liturgical actions? Antonio Donghi explains that these gestures emerge from the experience of prayer; they are a response to the invitation to relationship with God. This revised and expanded edition of Actions and Words: Symbolic Language and the Liturgy (1997) pulls readers into an active and knowledgeable participation in the worship of God.
As musicians, we routinely witness — and personally experience — the powerful influence music has over our bodies, emotions, and minds. As parish musicians, our task is to wield this power in service of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus on the altar. Indeed, your music, by speaking to humanity in a language deeper than words, can save our world by drawing souls to Christ where He most longs to encounter them — in the Eucharist. Nothing can spark and fan the flames of desire — of longing, love, awe, and reverence — quite like music can when it is skillfully directed to the task. That’s why I’ve written Music and Meaning in the Mass — to guide you carefully through the principles that help draw congregants into active participation in the Mass. Rather than advocating any particular musical style in the liturgy,
The Eucharist originated at the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. It is based on the prayer of thanksgiving that Jesus pronounced over the bread and wine at that meal. “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving”, “praise”, and “blessing”. The Church celebrates the Eucharist as a memorial of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is more than a remembrance of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of our redemption becomes present sacramentally. In the past, dogmatic theology has treated the meaning of the Eucharist while disregarding the form of its liturgical celebration, whereas liturgical studies have been content with only the latter. Yet the two cannot be separated, any more than liturgy and dogma or pastoral practice and doctrine can be understood without the other. The Church’s liturgy is not something external to Christian revelation, but rather, as Joseph Ratzinger said, “revelation accepted in faith and prayer”. In this work Helmut Hoping combines the approaches of dogmatic theology and liturgy while examining the Eucharist from a historical and systematic perspective. This new English translation of the second German edition of this major work, revised and expanded, includes a comparative analysis of the Second Eucharistic Prayer and a chapter on the theology of the words of institution.