Current Contributors

Frederick Bauerschmidt

Frederick Bauerschmidt is a professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland and a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, assigned to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.

Dr. Timothy Brunk is Associate Professor of Liturgical and Sacramental Theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University.  He holds a doctorate from Marquette University, a Master of Arts degree in pastoral studies from Seattle University, a Master of Arts in theology from Boston College, and a Bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.  He is the author of fifteen journal articles and two books, including The Sacraments and Consumer Culture (Liturgical Press, 2020), which the Catholic Media Association recognized at its annual meeting as the first-place winner in the category of books on the sacraments. 

Lucas Lynn Christensen is a doctoral candidate in Theology at the University of Notre Dame with a concentration in Liturgical Studies specializing in sacred arts: homiletics, architecture, and iconography. He is graduate research fellow on the Templeton Religion Trust project: “Assessing the Impact of Sacred Art on Individual Experience, Memory, and Spiritual Understanding;” he also serves as Assistant Director of the Compelling Preaching Initiative program at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. His publications include, “The Deifying Sacrifice: Thysia in the Eucharistic Prayers of Byzantine Basil,” and the forthcoming, “The Church as Type and Image: Maximos the Confessor’s Ecclesiastical Mystagogy in Light of Carthaginian Church Architectunre.” Lucas is a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (Ecumenical Patriarchate) and lives in South Bend, Indiana with his wife and children.  

Nicholas Denysenko serves as Emil and Elfriede Jochum Professor and Chair at Valparaiso University. He previously taught at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles (2010-2017). Denysenko is a graduate of the University of Minnesota (B.S. in Business, 1994), St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2000), and The Catholic University of America (Ph.D., 2008). His most recent books are The People’s Faith: The Liturgy of the Faithful in Orthodoxy (Rowman and Littlefield), and The Orthodox Church in Ukraine: A Century of Separation (Northern Illinois University Press). He is a deacon of the Orthodox Church in America, ordained in 2003.

Rita Ferrone is an award-winning writer and frequent speaker on issues of liturgy and church renewal in the Roman Catholic tradition. She is currently a contributing writer and columnist for Commonweal magazine and an independent scholar. The author of several books about liturgy, she is most widely known for her commentary on Sacrosanctum Concilium (Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium, Paulist Press). Her most recent book, Pastoral Guide to Pope Francis’s Desiderio Desideravi, was published by Liturgical Press.

Ingrid Fischer has studied psychology and human biology as well as theology (liturgical studies) in Vienna, with a doctoral dissertation on “The Liturgy of the Three Days before Easter.” Since 2001 she has been a member of the scholarly-pedagogical team of the THEOLOGISCHE KURSE (the oldest institution of theological adult education in the German-speaking world) teaching liturgical studies and church history. Her main concern is to understand the development of liturgical expressions past and present, which is foundational for a mature faith. As program director of the AKADEMIE am DOM, she wants to bring people and convictions closer together – in a catholic manner which is respectful of those who think differently.

James Hadley is a priest in the Church of England currently serving in the Diocese in Europe as pastor of Holy Cross Anglican Church (Palermo, Italy). He previously taught Liturgical Art and Architecture, as well as church design, at the Catholic University of America, Rome Campus. He lectured in Faith and Culture for the Rome summer program of the Australian Catholic University. He has published in Anaphora, Studia Liturgica, Ecclesia Orans, Material Culture Review, as well as the Irish Theological Quarterly. In addition to his parish ministry he works as a liturgical artist and designer. James has a special interest in immigration issues in Europe, traveling regularly to the island of Lampedusa with clergy and students to raise awareness of human trafficking.

Katharine E. Harmon, Ph.D., is Project Director for the Obsculta Preaching Initiative at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota.  A Roman Catholic pastoral liturgist and American Catholic historian, Harmon is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s liturgical studies program.  She has contributed over a dozen articles and chapters to the fields of both liturgical studies and American Catholicism.  She is the author of  There Were Also Many Women There: Lay Women in the Liturgical Movement in the United States, 1926-1959 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2013) and Mary and the Liturgical Year: A Pastoral Resource  (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2023). She edits the blog, Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom. 

Paul Inwood is an internationally-known liturgist, author, speaker, organist and composer. He was NPM’s 2009 Pastoral Musician of the Year, ACP’s Distinguished Catholic Composer of the year 2022, and in 2015 won the Vatican competition for the official Hymn for the Holy Year of Mercy, His work is found in journals, blogs and hymnals across the English-speaking world and beyond. 

The Rev. Canon Dr. Lizette Larson-Miller is professor of liturgy and sacramental theology at Bexley Seabury Seminary in Chicago, IL, and emeritus Huron Lawson Professor of Liturgy at Huron University College (Ontario, Canada). She is also the Canon Precentor of the Anglican Diocese of Huron, and past president of Societas Liturgica and the IALC (International Anglican Liturgical Consultation). Her particular interests (manifested in her publishing) span liturgical history (especially late antiquity and early medieval liturgical developments), rites and rituals with the sick, the dying, and the dead, and contemporary sacramental theology and sacramentality. She holds two degrees in music, an MA in liturgical studies from St. John’s University (Collegeville), and a PhD in liturgical studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Her most recent book was Sacramentality Renewed: Contemporary Conversations in Sacramental Theology Liturgical Press, 2016).

Liborius Olaf Lumma studied theology and philosophy in Munster (Germany), Munich (Germany), and Innsbruck (Austria). He holds the degrees of Doctor theologiae and Privatdozent (habilitation) and is assistant professor in Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at Innsbruck University. His major research fields are Gregorian Chant, Liturgy of the Hours, and Ecumenical Theology. He is a member of the Ecumenical Commission of the Austrian Bishops’ conference and board member of the German section of the International Association for Studies of Gregorian Chant (AISCGre).

Bruce Morrill, S.J., holds the Edward A. Malloy Chair in Roman Catholic Studies at Vanderbilt University, where he is Distinguished Professor of Theology in the Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters covering a range of topics in sacrament-liturgical theology, his books include Practical Sacramental Theology: At the Intersection of Liturgy and Ethics (2021), Divine Worship and Human Healing: Liturgical Theology at the Margins of Life and Death (2009), Encountering Christ in the Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, and Sacrament (2012), and Anamnesis as Dangerous Memory: Political and Liturgical Theology in Dialogue (2000). A past president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, he has lectured widely and held visiting chairs and fellowships in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John’s Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John’s University School of Theology-Seminary. He is the founder of the National Catholic Youth choir. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the local county jail and the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.

Rev. James “Jim” Wetzstein is the Executive Director for the Institute of Liturgical Studies. He came into this position following two decades of service at Valparaiso University in the role of University Pastor, a position he continues to hold.

Jim is a Ph.D. candidate in Liturgical Studies at Notre Dame. His research involves the work of the 20th-century Lutheran liturgical sculptor, Ernst Schwidder, and questions regarding the role of art and design in communication and spiritual formation. 

He studied at the Institute for Liturgical Design Consultants at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and has since consulted with dozens of congregations, helping them identify the core values and programming needs that will drive renovations to their liturgical spaces. His work with Immanuel Lutheran Church in Valparaiso on their immersion font earned the 2008 Art and Architecture Award sponsored by the Lutheran Church Extension Fund. More recently, Jim was the liturgical design consultant for the chapel at the International Lutheran Center in Wittenberg, Germany.

His published work has focused on the vocation of the artist to provide places of beauty in support of Christian formation.

On the lighter side, Jim is the author of the long-running self-published lectionary comic strip, Agnus Day.