The Spirit of the Liturgy
by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
from Ignatius Press
Considered by Ratzinger devotees as his greatest work on the Liturgy, this profound and beautifully written treatment of the "great prayer of the Church" will help readers rediscover the Liturgy in all its hidden spiritual wealth and transcendent grandeur as the very center of our Christian life.
In his own foreward to the book, Cardinal Ratzinger compares this work to a much earlier classic of the same title by Romano Guardini because Ratzinger feels that his insights here are similar with what Guardini achieved in his time regarding a renewed understanding of the Liturgy.
"My purpose here is to assist this renewal of understanding of the Liturgy. Its basic intentions coincide with what Guardini wanted to achieve. The only difference is that I have had to translate what Guardini did at the end of the First World War, in a totally different historical situation, into the context of our present-day questions, hopes and dangers. Like Guardini, I am not attempting to involve myself with scholarly discussion and research. I am simply offering an aid to the understanding of the faith and to the right way to give the faith its central form of expression in the Liturgy."
—Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Celebration Hymnal
from Word Entertainment Music
The Celebration Hymnal. Songs and Hyms for Worship. Hard Cover - Dark Blue Edition 865 pages
The Book of Common Prayer 1559: The Elizabethan Prayer Book
by John E. Booty
from University of Virginia Press
John E. Booty's edition of The Book of Common Prayer, 1559, first published by the University Press of Virginia for the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1976 and long out of print, is now being reissued in the same handsome format as the original edition. In her foreword to the 2005 reissue, Judith Maltby writes, "It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of the 1559 Prayer Book. . . . Shakespeare was clearly shaped by a culture in which the vernacular was remarkably vigorous."
Booty's text derives from a rare copy of the Elizabethan Prayer Book printed by Richard Jugge and John Cawode in 1559, now part of the Josiah Benton Collection of the Boston Public Library. Booty modernized spelling and punctuation, but took care not to distort the style and cadence of the Elizabethan text. To place the Prayer Book in its original cultural setting, he wrote a lengthy critical essay that traces the book's history and use during the sixteenth century. Helpful bibliographical notes enable readers to appreciate all the nuances of particular services and their contents. Particularly useful are the general index and the index of biblical passages, features unavailable in other editions of the Prayer Book.
Through this magnificent document one begins to understand not only the Anglican church but also the Elizabethan culture in which Shakespeare lived, for this was one of the books that helped shape Renaissance England in all of its vitality and greatness. As Booty reminds the reader in his preface, each Sunday "in the parish churches and in the cathedrals the nation was at prayer, the commonwealth was being realized, and God, in whose hands the destinies of all were lodged, was worshiped in spirit and in truth."
The Church's Most Powerful Novenas
by Michael Dubruiel
from Our Sunday Visitor
African American Heritage Hymnal: 575 Hymns, Spirituals, and Gospel Songs
from Gia Publications
Meeting Mystery: Liturgy, Worship, Sacraments (Theology in Global Perspective)
by Nathan D. Mitchell
from Orbis Books
Praying in the Presence of Our Lord : Prayers for Eucharistic Adoration
by Benedit J. Groeschel
from Our Sunday Visitor
Hymnal 1982 According to the Use of the Episcopal Church
from Church Publishing
The Night Offices: Prayers for the Hours from Sunset to Sunrise
by Phyllis Tickle
from Oxford University Press, USA
Phyllis Tickle's inspirational trilogy The Divine HoursTM was the first major literary and liturgical reworking of the sixth-century Benedictine Rule of fixed-hour prayer--an age-old discipline of saying prayers at certain times of the day. This highly regarded trilogy has become one of America's best-loved and most frequently consulted manuals for observing this ancient form of Christian worship.
Now, in The Night Offices, Tickle offers the perfect complement to The Divine HoursTM, bringing together prayers, psalms, hymn texts, religious poetry and other readings not included in the original trilogy, covering the offices for the hours from late evening (Compline) to early morning (Prime). Fans of the Divine HoursTM will recognize Tickle's simple, elegant format, her use of a modern calendar rather than a liturgical one, and the single ribbon in the binding, to track one's progress through the year. As in the trilogy, Tickle makes primary use of the Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers, and she draws all the scriptural readings from the Revised Standard Version. The book includes a set of Matins, Lauds, and Prime specific to each day of the week and varied only by month. Thus, the Monday reading for January would be used every Monday in January, but Monday in February would have new offices for it. The cumulative total, being 84 Matins, 84 Lauds, and 84 Prime (252 offices), fits neatly into a single, nightstand edition, a small, compact book that can be comfortably held in the hand.
Easy to use, poetically rich, with a superb sampling of devotional works, The Night Offices will be welcomed by a broad readership, Christian and non-Christian alike.
The Book of Common Prayer
from Church Hymnal Corporation
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