In the Missa Solemnis, Beethoven’s titanic subjectivity seems chastened by suffering and transformed by his engagement with the graced objectivity of liturgical text and tradition. Continue Reading »
The Christian faith does not terminate in propositions about God. This conviction comes through loud and clear in James K. A. Smith’s recently completed three-volume work, Cultural Liturgies. Smith’s trilogy may be read as a friendly yet firm word of caution to his Reformed . . . . Continue Reading »
Fifty years ago, the Catholic Church marked the First Sunday of Advent with the universal implementation of the revised Roman Rite of the Mass. The liturgy wars have not abated since. Continue Reading »
An icon of the Annunciation appears on the central altar doors of every Orthodox Christian church. The “royal doors” are double doors, so the icon is a diptych, with Gabriel on the left and Mary on the right. As a young child, I found the movement of this icon mesmerizing as the doors opened and . . . . Continue Reading »
Una Voce: The History of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce by leo darroch gracewing, 504 pages, $35 In 1965, Evelyn Waugh wrote to the archbishop of Westminster of the growing tide of liturgical changes: “Every attendance at Mass leaves me without comfort or edification. I shall . . . . Continue Reading »