Re-Inventing the Liturgy

About the Book

The liturgy in celebrating its faith in the living, creative Word, message and work of God incarnate should adapt its message of hope to a continuing change in the human condition. In our times, there are many voices maintaining that this means a re-invention, not merely a reform or a renewal, of the liturgy.

The author of The Spirit of the Liturgy, published in 1920, Romano Guardini, and one of the leaders in the ongoing liturgical movement, sent this message to a liturgical congress which he was billed to address a short time before he died in 1964: 'Instead of talking about renewal, ought we not to consider how best to clelebrate the sacred mysteries so that modern man can grasp their meaning through his own approach to truth'. A few years later, soon after the Second Council of the Vatican, Yves Congar, theologian turned Christian anthropologist, made the same point but witha greater emphasis, with the liturgy seemingly in a deeper impasse: 'adaptation of the liturgy is no longer the issue: re-invention is called for in the changed circumstances of the times'.

About the Author

Born 27.05.1915

Ordained for the Archdiocese of Westminster 06.06.1939

National Chaplain, Young Christian Workers Movement 1945-1949

Parish Priest, New Town, Hemel Hempstead, 1949-1957

Resigned from parish to study human relations and worked for Richmond Fellowship, rehabilitaion of young alcoholics, drug addicts, schizophrenics, and for counselling at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation.

Published 'Requiem for a Parish' in 1965, 'Living the Virtues' in 1972, 'REV' in 1973, 'The Silence of God' in 1985, and for various Catholic periodicals.

Died 09.09.2003