Summary of Ecclesia orans 38, no. 1 (2021)
Founded in 1984, Ecclesia orans is the official periodical of the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy. Its principles and objectives are founded on Sacrosanctum Concilium (the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), with particular emphasis on articles 15, 16, 23 and 44. Subscribe to Ecclesia orans here.
STUDIES
Un discorso sulle fonti delle esequie nella tradizione liturgica romana
Francesco Bonomo
Ordo Romanus 49 constitutes the first source for funeral liturgies. By way of analyzing the structure handed down in the Vatican Apostolic Library manuscript, Ott. lat. 312, f. 151v, the present study seeks to take the subject of the sources of funerals in order to consider ritual data and interpret how the early medieval Church celebrated the Risen Lord in the face of the death of one of its members. Structural analyses of the rite, consideration of the euchological patrimony of funerals and theological considerations make OR49 a rich source yet to be exhausted thanks to numerous questions that it still raises.
Die Postcommunio. Zu Frühgeschichte und Charakter eines eucharistischen Gebetes
Harald Buchinger
Among the orations of the Mass beyond the Eucharistic Prayer, the postcommunion prayer stands out in terms of age, structure, and contents: attested earlier than the other minor prayers, the postcommunion prayer of the Mass, originally eminently Eucharistic in character, appears in early sources as the functionally transformed heir of the post-prandial prayer of the Eucharistic symposium; this prayer, often also addressed terminologically as „thanksgiving (εὐχαριστία/gratiarum actio)“, only became a minor prayer at all due to the emergence of a consecratory Eucharistic Prayer in the course of the development of the Mass-type of the Eucharistic celebration. Contents and form of the earliest extant testimonies reveal a close relationship with oldest traditions of Eucharistic praying.
Hic et nunc virtuales: Cuestiones de antropología litúrgica, parte I
Gonzalo Guzmán
The pastoral need in a pandemic led many to take the various applications and social networks offered by the internet as a natural liturgical platform. The question, however, is not so simple. With the turn given by the Second Vatican Council and its anthropological approach to liturgical celebration, this new virtual scenario raises fundamental questions. In this case, starting from the so called “hic” of celebration, a foundation will be made of the corporeal necessity as a condition of possibility for the sacramental liturgical celebration, trying to understand what type of presence offers the virtuality and why this is not yet compatible with the sacramental celebration.
Prayers after communion in the Gothic Missal
Thomas Krosnicki
Dr. Thomas Krosnicki contributes to the present ongoing study of the 7th century Gothic Missal with an investigation specifically focused on the Prayers After Communion which it offers. Although the Missal contains only 77 Masses, there are 15 Masses which include designated Post Communion Prayers—from the Christmas Vigil to six specific Sunday Mass texts. Curiously, the 29 prayers are of two kinds: some constitute invitations to pray whereas others are Prayers After Communion proper, as traditionally known. The author explores these texts in terms of their liturgical significance, variant nomenclature, structure and content. Due attention is given to the study of these medieval texts in terms of the theological statements they proffer, the Eucharistic vocabulary they employ and the liturgical elements which shape their structure: address forms, specific petitions offered, and final end forms.
NOTES
La messe télévisée: ce qui fait écran
François Wernert
The author, a specialist in pastoral theology (liturgical and sacramental) is a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg (Faculty of Catholic Theology). His research interests focus on the future of Catholic ecclesial communities. This contribution considers once more the proposal of the televised Mass which, in France, is gaining a larger number of supporters. Such a proposal may well be of spiritual benefit to the elderly, sick and isolated, but it also raises questions such as the social detachment of the able-bodied and keen supporters of the televised Mass who are disillusioned with the liturgy in their own parishes; growing religious individualism, etc. Televised Masses are not representative of the everyday life of Christian communities. The author also highlights the excessive ‘normativity’ of the televisual model which gives a voice to people outside the ecclesial communities. Here François Wernert is advocating a wider range of proposals for Sunday worship, in particular celebrations of the Liturgy of the Word.
REVIEWS
Richard M. Tambwe reviews Icons in the Western Church: Toward a More Sacramental Encounter, by Jeana Visel, OSB. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780814646601.
Juan Javier Flores Arcas reviews Francisco de Asís y la liturgia, by Mariosvaldo Florentino. Ed. Franciscanas Arantzazu: Vitoria, 2019.
Aurelio García Macías reviews La explicación de los sacramentos en los teólogos hispanos de los ss. XVI-XVII: Síntesis y comentario, by Dionisio Borobio. Salamanca: Publicaciones Universidad Pontificia, 2019. ISBN: 9788417601058.
Stefan Geiger reviews Geheimnis des Glaubens: Einführung in die orthodoxe dogmatische Theologie, by Metr. Hilarion Alfeyev. Münster: Aschendorff, 2019. ISBN: 9783402122211.
Andrea Longhi reviews Arquitectura religiosa del siglo XXI en España, by Esteban Fernández-Cobián. Universidade da Coruña, 2020. ISBN: 9788497497596.
Giuseppe Piccinno reviews Le corps humain dans la liturgie: 65e semaine d’études liturgiques, Paris, Institut Saint-Serge, 2-5 juil. 2018, by André Lossky. Münster: Aschendorff, 2019. ISBN: 9783402122297.
Rocco Ronzani reviews Studi agostiniani: Trenta saggi fra retorica ed esegesi, by Marcello Marin. Bari: Edipuglia, 2019. ISBN: 9788872288832.
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