Search Results (34)

This essay provides a fine-grained analysis of selected passages of Giulio Aleni (艾儒略 1582–1649)’s translation of Catholic liturgy into classical Chinese in late imperial China. It focuses on the hitherto underexplored relationships between Aleni’s resort to medieval Aristotelianism and Thomism, as well as his translation-based introduction of Catholic Eucharistic theology into China. The case studies here revolve around Aleni’s Chinese translation of Aristotelian-Thomistic hylomorphism, with a focus on his interpretation of “anima” (i.e., the soul, which corresponds largely to linghun 靈魂 in Chinese), which is a multifaceted Western concept that pertains simultaneously to Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy and Eucharistic theology. It is argued that in his overarching project of introducing Western learnings (i.e., 西學) to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century China, Aleni’s attention is centered primarily on the body-soul and form-matter relationship. This is, as understood here, motivated to a great extent by his scholarly awareness that properly informing Chinese Catholics of the Aristotelian-Thomistic underpinning of Western metaphysics enacts an indispensable role in introducing Catholic liturgy into China, notably the mystery of the Eucharist and Transubstantiation that would not have been effectively introduced to China without having the Western philosophical underpinnings already made available to Chinese intellectuals. Aleni’s use of medieval European cultural legacy thus requires more in-depth analysis vis-à-vis his translational poetics in China. Accordingly, the intellectual and liturgical knowledge in Aleni’s Chinese œuvres shall be investigated associatively, and the medievalism embodied by Aleni offers a valid entry point and productive critical prism. Full article

With good reason, Vatican II encourages the Eastern ecclesial realities to preserve and, if necessary, to rediscover their own traditions (also, even if not only, for ecumenical reasons). There are, however, certain aspects of the heritage of the Eastern Churches that require urgent revision in a spirit of consistency with the teachings of the Council. This is undoubtedly the case with regard to the anti-Jewish elements so specific to the entire Christian tradition (more or less generalised insults and judgments; substitutionary and appropriative perspectives; a purely instrumental use of the Jewish scriptures) and, in the absence of full reception of the Council, still reflected in the public prayers of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, to the detriment of that spirit of respect, fraternity, and dialogue theoretically embraced throughout the Catholic world today. In the light of Nostra aetate §4 and the subsequent developments that flowed from it, I shall try in this contribution to outline some possible criteria for reforming the offices of Holy Week, aiming to show that—at least in this particular case—it is not enough merely to refer to the OE, let alone to use it to justify a comfortable tendency towards inertia. Apart from the fact that it is this very Decree that speaks of a possible and necessary organic progress, we cannot ignore the more general spirit of renewal of the Council and its other documents (the NA, the SC, the DV, the GS). The challenge would be to engender a creative fidelity, which—while preserving the best of tradition—surpasses certain of its contingent elements. Full article

Within the Catholic liturgy and devotion, there exists a seemingly paradoxical notion of spirituality through materiality, religious practices that are equally tangible and intangible, concurrently present and absent. This paper explores the concept of ‘absent-presence’ in early modern Catholic devotional practices, with a focus on the Order of St John during the Counter-Reformation. Drawing on case studies from Malta and across the Hospitaller world, it investigates how religious materiality (sacred objects, spaces, and rituals) expresses divine agency. Anchored in the kinetic approach to religious history, the study examines how the movement of relics, the staging of processions, and the construction of sacred spaces fostered emotional and spiritual transformation among devotees. While belief may be elusive for historians, the devotional actions of the Hospitallers demonstrate a faith deeply intertwined with motion, matter, and memory as external forces that sought to move the soul through tangible forms. Full article

The relationship between Scripture and the Liturgy remains one of the most extensively debated subjects in theological discourse. In the wake of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, a divided Christendom witnessed the rise of a dichotomy between Scripture and Liturgy, as well as between the Word and the Sacrament. This dichotomy, however, is absent from the patristic thought, which perceives the unity and complementarity between Scripture and Liturgy, owing to their shared belonging to the one life of the Church—broadly defined as Tradition—and to the way they are understood and experienced as interconnected modes through which the singular Mystery of Jesus Christ is communicated to the faithful. The present study aims to demonstrate this unity by drawing on a substantial body of patristic writings, highlighting the fact that the life of the Church is one and is lived both as the rule of faith and the rule of prayer, and that through it, one and the same Christ communicates Himself to the faithful both through the Word and through the Holy Sacraments. For the Church Fathers, the Christian faith is not an abstract doctrine about Christ, but a real and personal encounter and communion with Him in the life of the Church. This patristic approach may offer a starting point for contemporary Christianity in addressing the current liturgical crisis and in rethinking and renewing future ecumenical dialogue. Such renewal presupposes a movement beyond secular formalism and nominalism, which have fostered excessive conceptualization and an antithetical view of Scripture and Liturgy, Word and Sacrament. Full article

This article explores the transformative changes in Catholic liturgy during the twentieth century and their implications for the stability of religious meaning and cultural identity in the West. In critical dialogue with Chantal Delsol’s diagnosis of the decline of Christianitas, this study argues that the reform of ritual following the Second Vatican Council, rather than political entanglements, played a decisive role in weakening the public credibility of Catholic truth claims. Drawing on Roy A. Rappaport’s theory of ritual as a stabilizer of cultural meaning, the author analyzes how this postconciliar liturgical reform altered the semiotic structure of Catholic worship—shifting communication from indexical to symbolic forms and reorienting the liturgy from a vertical–concentric order to a more decentralized horizontal dynamic. The chosen method combines theoretical reflection with liturgical anthropology to assess how changes in the Roman Missal, ritual posture, and spatial arrangement disrupted the transmission of canonical messages. The conclusion suggests that this semiotic transformation undermined the liturgy’s capacity to ritually confirm the truths of faith, contributing to the broader civilizational disintegration observed by Delsol. Ultimately, this article contends that any future revitalization of Catholic culture will depend less on political influence and more on recovering the liturgy’s ritual capacity to sustain belief in transcendent truth. Full article

The liturgy of the Catholic Church adopts and reframes passages from Scripture in manifold ways. At times a passage is proclaimed or sung in the liturgy exactly as it appears in the Bible; at other times, a prayer or antiphon draws from one or more verses of the Scripture for inspiration. In order to demonstrate this twofold practice, this article presents a single example of a random day on the liturgical calendar, the Second Sunday of Lent. It will explore the uses of Scripture in the revised entrance and communion antiphons, the restoration of long-neglected ancient presidential prayers, the composition of a new collect and preface, the three-year cycle of readings, and the intersection of biblical references between the Roman Missal and the Liturgy of the Hours. By examining a single example, the reader will come to a deeper appreciation of the depth of the interplay between the Bible and liturgy on every day of the calendar. This article will cite the present and previous Roman Missals, the Roman Gradual, the context for the structure of the Lectionary for Mass on this day as the revisers conceived it, and unique features from the Liturgy of the Hours. It will also show how particular biblical references on one day reappear in other liturgical celebrations, expanding the reader’s appreciation of the specific application of biblical texts to a variety of liturgical events. Full article

This paper examines the emergence of vernacular liturgies in Latin America, particularly through the incorporation of folk music in Nicaraguan Masses following the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). In response to the Romanization of the Catholic liturgy in the nineteenth century, folk songs in local languages became a form of theological and cultural resistance, offering an alternative to the Latin-dominated liturgical tradition. Despite Vatican disapproval of certain Mass settings due to their non-traditional texts, these vernacular liturgies transcended their missionary origins, enriching both devotional practice and theological discourse. The study explores key Vatican II documents on liturgical participation, examines the role of liberation theology in framing vernacular and multilingual Masses as tools for social and religious transformation, as well as historical precedent as a lens for understanding the progression of change in the setting of the Mass, particularly in Latin America. Using the Misa Campesina, by Carlos Mejía Godoy, as a case study, the paper demonstrates how Nicaraguan folk Masses embody the intersections of ecclesial reform, cultural identity, and social justice within the broader context of Latin American liturgical innovation. Full article

The Catholic Church in the United States is no longer a Euro-American church receiving immigrants. Rather, it is an immigrant church, the cross-cultural Body of Christ. Serving such a diverse church is difficult and complex, providing both prophetic and pragmatic challenges for pastoral leaders seeking to build the parish as a dynamic, relational, multicultural community, living out the Gospel of Christ. The challenges of creating vibrant parishes in the light of growing diversity was the subject of a qualitative research study that interviewed more than 500 Catholic pastors, staff, and parishioners, from 40 parishes across the US. This study discovered that, while parishioners from different cultures want the same things—good liturgy, leadership, community, and faith formation—they want it in culturally distinct ways. This has created challenges not previously encountered by parish leaders. Effective leaders in these communities exhibited the skills of adaptive leadership, learning to put aside biases and assumptions, in a synodal style of ministry in which they listen deeply, and respond to, the needs of their faith community while using intercultural competencies. Together, pastoral leaders are becoming bridges, bringing together the faithful across cultures, enriching the life of the community. Full article

Communion Under Both Kinds in the Lublin Frescoes and Gregory Tsamblak’s Liturgy at the Council of Constance. The aim of this publication is to draw attention to the fact that a rather lengthy discussion of the peculiar depiction of the Communion of the Apostles in the krthodox paintings of the Roman Catholic chapel of Lublin Castle has overlooked the fact that the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev Gregory Tsamblak, who was an envoy of the founder of the frescoes, i.e., King Władysław Jagiełło of Poland, to the Council of Constance, gave Communion under two forms during the liturgy he celebrated there and that this was recorded in the annals of the Council. Several issues are worth considering here—the depiction of this Communion in a Roman Catholic Church, its unusual form and the fact that Tsamblak celebrated this liturgy at the Council, which gave separate attention to the question of Communion under both kinds. Metropolitan Tsamblak appeared at the Council in 1418, the same year in which the Lublin paintings were made. It is likely that it was Tsamblak who may have worked with King Władysław Jagiełło to set their programme, just as they both united their efforts to create a framework for Christians of different denominations to coexist within one state organism. Thus, it also seems important to recall this remarkable person and the role he played at a key moment after the unification of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Full article

This sociological study describes the exceptional qualities of the 2016 Notre Dame liturgies. My criterion of evaluation is authenticity, defined as faithfulness to a transcendent purpose in liturgical performances. The four areas of prayer, singing, participation, and visualization at Notre Dame are first compared to those of Papal Masses, a Protestant celebration, Sunday masses during the pandemic, and the daily 30-min Masses on American television networks. At Notre Dame, all the aspects of the liturgy were choreographed by the rector-master of ceremonies and visualized through theological concepts. The entrance procession was different each week, ranging from only two acolytes and the celebrating bishop to about fifty priests and several bishops. The performance of the choir was adapted to the needs of the weekly liturgies. The participation of the congregation was encouraged by professional singing leaders, and visualization through vertical and horizon images conveyed a sense of pilgrimage toward eternity. Is this a model for the universal Church, or specific to the French Church? The election of a pope from the Global South suggests that Catholicism has moved away from European models toward greater engagement in the world. Full article

The Seven Victories is one of the most influential works in Catholic literature from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The seven victories spiritual cultivation contained therein is the result of the localization of the practice of the Christian faith in the West. It is still a living tradition in the Christian religion and even in Western culture. Since the end of the Ming Dynasty, The Seven Victories has aroused significant repercussions in the ecclesiastical and academic worlds. Some scholars converted to Catholicism because of The Seven Victories and wrote preambles in response to it; some scholars wrote essays criticizing the ethical ideas of The Seven Victories; and some scholars were inspired by The Seven Victories to write about Confucian ideas of sin, the work of reform, and the liturgy of repentance. Together, these constitute the history of the reception of The Seven Victories in China. Through Confucian culture integration, Chinese Christian scholars have developed a localized interpretation of the seven victories spiritual cultivation, resulting in a localized Chinese spiritual cultivation of sin. Full article

The liturgical professional development project for pastoral workers and clergy in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart has been developed in collaboration with the Department of Liturgical Studies at the University of Tübingen. The concept of biographical learning is the innovative element that explores a new type of liturgical formation (Bildung) where the learning content explores the participant’s unique biography of learning, faith development, and theological education and the impact of these on their understanding of the liturgy and their liturgical practice. The learning process aims to equip professional pastoral theologians to reflect on and be responsive to the liturgical–pastoral contexts in which they work. The Department of Liturgical Studies provides the learning structure and context, while the diocese provides the teaching space and enables the participants to attend. The learning outcomes are unrelated to a specific professional or employment structure or associated with a points system, management, or career progression process. The project provides a learning process rather than a program of learning, distinguishing itself from many traditional approaches to liturgical formation. The challenge for the teaching team is to provide the participants with conceptual or theoretical material to reflect on their biographical narrative of theology and then apply this concept of biographical learning in their specific and diverse pastoral contexts. As part of the biographical learning process, participants contribute to “feedback loops” to the diocese and the teaching team. This paper does not address the competency framework for career development, employment assessment, or learning comprehension. All evaluations of professionalism, role attainment, career development, and competency are employment matters and are the purview of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. However, the learning process provides participants with frameworks for self-assessment and feedback loops to evaluate the teaching team, the process, and the content. Full article

Prayer in human life enables directing attention to God and a transcendent goal beyond Earthly life. Singing has been present in the life of Israel since the oldest times, which is proved on the pages of the Holy Scriptures, in the Books of Exodus and Psalms. In the New Testament, there is a lot of encouragement to sing the glory of God in psalms and songs, as well as praising God Most High in Revelation. The Catholic Church is concerned with the quality of liturgical music through a number of recommendations and requirements defining the pieces that may become a part of the liturgy. Liturgical choir singing is a special form of common prayer. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effect of prayer by choral singing on human flourishing. The aim was achieved by analyzing recommendations of the Church on liturgical music, presenting the assumptions of the theoretical model investigating the effect of art on human flourishing, and then conducting empirical studies. Sixteen in-depth interviews were carried out with members of fourteen choirs. There were four groups of respondents according to their gender and family status. All obtained codes were organized into five main themes with four subcategories. They confirmed the assumptions of the model presented in the theoretical part and made it possible to identify the effect of choral singing on the performers’ health and the improvement of their skills. In addition, they showed a direct relation between prayer and spiritual well-being when singing in a choir, a coherence of activities with values as well as the striving for happiness. Full article

The Catholic pilgrimage from Sali (island of Dugi Otok, Croatia) to the island of Piškera is embedded in the historical connections between these two locations, as Piškera was inhabited by fishermen from Sali for nearly three centuries. While sailing through the archipelago that no longer belongs to them, the pilgrims from Sali sing. During Mass, they perform a sung liturgy rooted in polyphonic folk singing; after Mass, the singing usually continues up until they depart. In this article, I argue that this community embodies its presence in the archipelago and creates a certain atmosphere through singing, while simultaneously inscribing meaning into the pilgrimage itself. Full article

This article addresses the need for liturgical formation that Pope Francis recently highlighted for the whole Catholic Church in his apostolic letter Desiderio Desideravi. The current American Eucharistic Revival encourages engagement in this. Based on a detailed spiritual–liturgical reading of the Emmaus account (Lk 24:13–35), the article develops guiding principles for liturgical catechesis and considers their practical applications with a particular focus on families. The first principle underscores the connection between liturgy and life, which makes catechesis relevant for daily life, e.g., by including testimonies of parents. A second principle outlines the pivotal importance of symbols and suggests methods to enhance their understanding. Fostering active participation in the liturgy, the third principle, is a practical consequence because the celebration itself forms the participants. Moreover, liturgical catechesis connects explanation and experience, as the mystagogical catecheses of the Church fathers demonstrated. Along with Pope Francis, this article also highlights Sunday as a gift and discusses ways of integrating families in the Sunday Eucharist. Finally, the last principles shed light on the task of the priest as the “catechist of catechists”. This article both explains the biblical basis of these principles and outlines practical ways to implement liturgical catechesis for families in parishes. Full article