Summary of Questions liturgiques 102, no. 1-2 (2022)
Founded in 1910 by Dom Lambert Beauduin, Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy welcomes scholarly contributions (i.e. articles, notes, book essays etc.) in the fields of liturgical theology, the historical study of liturgy and the sacraments, sacramentology, symbol theory, ritual studies, the phenomenology of devotional practices, the anthropology of religion and cognate disciplines. Although the review is rooted in the Catholic tradition, it encourages ecumenical, comparative and interreligious approaches. Subscribe to Questions liturgiques here.
ESSAYS
The Interrogation in Egyptian Baptismal Rites: A Further Consideration
Alistair C. Stewart
In response to Alistair C Stewart, Maxwell Johnson has presented arguments for continuing to see an interrogation in the original Egyptian baptismal rite. This article takes a fresh look at the question, suggesting that the evidence cannot lead to a certain conclusion on this point. Nonetheless, the form of the stipulatio, introduced into Egypt in the third century and previously unknown there, tends to indicate that the interrogatory baptismal rite, which employs this form, is a western phenomenon. It is possible that the interrogation entered Egyptian baptismal rituals as a result of the widespread Egyptian adoption of the stipulatio.
The Post Sanctus Texts in the Missale Gothicum
Thomas A. Krosnicki
The seventh-century Missale Gothicum includes 24 distinctly marked prayer texts referred to as Post Sanctus or Collectio post Sanctus. Thomas A. Krosnicki, SVD, STL applies the principles of analytic textual research (ATR) to study these liturgical compositions in terms of their number, title, function, composition, scriptural and theological content. Remarkable for their diversity, the two dozen prayers are examples of the eclectic process of selection, characteristic of sacramentaries compiled during the early Middle Ages. Krosnicki first utilized the ATR method of liturgical research in crafting his 1973 volume titled Ancient Patterns in Modern Prayer, published in The Catholic University of America Studies in Christian Antiquity series, edited by the late Dr. Johannes Quasten.
Le kyrie, eleison de la messe romaine: Un rite en quête de sens
Fergus Ryan
The author demonstrates that the penitential act and the Kyrie eleison are two distinct moments in the celebration of the Roman Mass according to the Roman Missal since the introduction of the penitential act in 1969. After first examining the precise meaning of the two moments, he then considers their sources in the Roman Mass before the Second Vatican Council in order to uncover their meaning in an earlier context. Studying the formation of the new Ordo Missae after the Council he attempts to clarify the significance of the two parts of the celebration given by those involved in the work of liturgical reform. He concludes by suggesting a direction for bringing to light the theological and liturgical meaning of the Kyrie as a rite in itself at the beginning of the Roman Mass.
Gloria Laus: Singing on the Road to the City of God
Ger van der Werf
Around 820, Theodulf of Orléans (ca. 745-820) composed the hymn Gloria laus in thirty-nine elegiac distiches, intended for the procession on Palm Sunday in Angers. He derived his theme from the texts for Palm Sunday that can be found in the Old Spanish liturgical books. The hymn was soon to be found in liturgical books, and is sung in the Latin liturgy to the present day. In Gloria laus the author stressed the meaning of the procession as a celebratory event that referred back to the historical entry and forward to the end of times, because Christ’s passage through death lies behind us. In this article, the Latin text of the hymn is provided with translation, followed by an analysis of the text: Theodulf’s theological interpretation of the commemoration of the entry and the form of the procession in Angers described in this hymn. Finally, the findings are situated in the historical context of the development of the Palm Sunday ritual in Francia.
The Privilege of Love and the Work of God:
The Liturgy of the Hours in Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality
Christopher M. O’Brien
This paper explores the liturgical spirituality of the Camaldolese Benedictines by examining the Camaldolese practice of the Liturgy of the Hours and putting it into conversation with the spiritual writings that ground the Camaldolese community. Special attention is paid to the ways in which the four-fold Camaldolese identity – Christian, post-Vatican II Catholic, Benedictine/monastic, and Camaldolese – is concretized through the community’s liturgical praxis. This study employs historical, theological, spiritual, and ritual analyses to reveal the multifaceted reality that is Camaldolese liturgical prayer. In addition to treatment of the liturgical text, attention is paid to the impact of liturgical time, liturgical space, and liturgical gesture on the prayer and spirituality of the community. Particular emphasis is given to the practices of the monks at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California in order to show how the identity and spirituality of the community is manifested in its concrete liturgical praxis.
La renaissance des homélies autour du Concile Vatican II:
Étude de prédications de quelques prêtres belges
Arnaud Join-Lambert
The Second Vatican Council profoundly renewed the meaning of the homily and its insertion in the liturgy. In concrete terms, the bishops restored the homily ‘from the sacred text’ and ‘as part of the liturgy itself’ (in the words of the constitution on the liturgy). How have the people primarily concerned, parish priests and other priests, received this change and modified their practices? In order to contribute to the beginning of an answer, the article presents an analysis of the preaching of three Belgian priests. Around these three figures, a typology of the emergence of the Word of God in preaching between 1945 and 1975 is sketched out. Finally, new issues are raised.
Mass Antiphons and the Dialectic of Liturgical Genre and Translation
Jason J. McFarland
Translation is a key dimension of ongoing liturgical renewal and reform. In the 2010 English-language edition of the Roman Missal (title in italics), the translation process was guided by the Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam issued in 2001 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Though often and justly criticized, the document’s principles are useful and insightful in terms of the preservation and transmission of the ancient antiphon tradition of the Latin Rite. This paper delineates these principles, introduces the complex and often overlooked antiphon tradition, and analyses several key antiphons of the Roman Missal to explicate the importance of understanding the liturgical-textual genre of antiphons, and indeed any other liturgical text, in the process of translating Latin texts into the vernacular. In the dialectic of genre and translation, genre must be an equal partner. If not, crucial aspects of the tradition are eclipsed in vernacular editions of liturgical books and local liturgical praxis.
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