The Monk's Tale is the story of a Benedictine monk of St. John's Abbey by the name of Godfrey Diekmann, editor of Orate Fratres/Worship; organizer of and participant in national and international Liturgical Weeks; outstanding teacher; popular and gifted speaker; sought-after retreat preacher; consulter to the Pontifical Preparatory Commission on the Liturgy, which prepared for the Second Vatican Council; Council peritus fro 1963-1965; a member, from its founding, of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL); and a consultor to the Consilium for th Implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy. A man of contagious, childlike effervescence and rock-solid faith, Farther Godfrey's life intersects and illumines some of the most fascinating events of contemporary Church history. - Provided by the publisher.

As a social history of the liturgical movement, "Unread Vision" introduces readers to the movement's pioneers and promoters and to the issues that emerged from 1926-1955. "Unread Vision" explores the foundational years and their major themes and discusses how the movement's goals and principles were received by the broader community of American Catholics.

Where are the women in liturgical history? In considering the influential liturgical movement in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century, Katharine E. Harmon reveals that the reality is analogous to Matthew's account of the crucifixion of Jesus: "there were also many women there" (Matt. 27:55). In this groundbreaking study, Harmon considers women's involvement in the movement. Here, readers explore the contributions of Maisie Ward, Dorothy Day, Catherine deHueck Doherty, Ade Bethune, Therese Mueller, and many others. Harmon shows how movements and institutions such as progressivism, Catholic women's organizations, Catholic Action, the American Grail Movement, and daily Catholic family life played a prominent role in the liturgical renewal. The historical record is clear that women were there, they ministered to the Mystical Body, and their important work must be recognized.

Intro -- Titlepage -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Resurgent Body: Mystical Body of Christ Theologies in Interbellum Europe -- Chapter 2 Journeyed Body: The Case of Virgil Michel -- Chapter 3 Receded Body: Mystical Body of Christ after Mid-Century -- Chapter 4 Vestigial Body 1: The Contours of the French Stream -- Chapter 5 Vestigial Body 2: Chauvet and the (Mystical) Body -- Conclusion -- Bibliography

The Roman Catholic Church has always been concerned with the quality of the music used in the liturgy, and the essays in this volume trace the church's efforts, during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, to cultivate a more appropriate liturgical music for its Latin Rite. The task of restoration - expressed, for example, in the chant revival associated with the monks of Solesmes, the efforts of the Cecilian movement, and Pius X's determination to reform sacred music in the universal church - is a recurring theme in the book. Meanwhile resistance, particularly to the reforms decreed by the pope's 1903 motu proprio, also finds a voice in the volume. The essays collected here describe selected scenes and episodes from the unending story of imperfect human beings trying to express in their music the perfection of God.

How has the Liturgy of the Roman rite developed and changed in history before and after the Council of Trent? What principles have determined the boundaries of legitimate liturgical reform over the centuries? What was the Liturgical Movement? Did Guéranger, Beauduin, Guardini, Parsch, Casel, Bugnini, Jungmann, Bouyer and the Movement's other leaders know and respect these principles? And what is to be said of the not insignificant liturgical reforms carried out by Saint Pius X, Popes Pius IX and Pius XII and Blessed John XXIII in the course of the twentieth century? In The Organic Development of the Liturgy, Dom Alcuin Reid examines these questions systematically, incisively and in depth, identifying both the content and context of the principle of "organic development"-a fundamental principle of liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium-making a significant contribution to the understanding of the nature of the Liturgical Movement and to the ongoing re-assessment of the reforms enacted following the Council.

The early 1960s were a heady time for Catholic laypeople. Pope Pius XII’s assurance “You do not belong to the Church. You are the Church” emboldened the laity to challenge Church authority in ways previously considered unthinkable. Empowering the People of God offers a fresh look at the Catholic laity and its relationship with the hierarchy in the period immediately preceding the Second Vatican Council and in the turbulent era that followed. This collection of essays explores a diverse assortment of manifestations of Catholic action, ranging from genteel reform to radical activism, and an equally wide variety of locales, apostolates, and movements.

Even before Vatican Council II, individuals like Virgil Michel and Catholic social movements like the National Catholic Rural Life Conference attempted to promote greater social justice by reconnecting rural life in the United States with the liturgical life of the church. Efforts to remedy this dislocation between agrarian life and church liturgy meshed the liturgical year with the rural agricultural cycle. The introduction of devotions, sacramentals, ritual, music, dance, poetry, and dramatic performances helped farmers rediscover the sacramental character of the soil and all the elements of agrarian life that emerge from it. Those interested in issues of social justice, sacramental engagement, and even the development of the vernacular in the liturgy will explore these and other topics in this unique archival investigation.

The Use of Hereford, a local variation of the Roman rite, was one of the diocesan liturgies of medieval England before their abolition and replacement by the Book of Common Prayer in 1549. Unlike the widespread Use of Sarum, the Use of Hereford was confined principally to its diocese, which helped to maintain its individuality until the Reformation. This study seeks to catalogue and evaluate all the known surviving sources of the Use of Hereford, with particular reference to the missals and gradual, which so far have received little attention. In addition to these a variety of other material has been examined, including a number of little-known or unknown important fragments of early Hereford service-books dismembered at the Reformation and now hidden away as binding or other scrap in libraries and record offices.

Following the death of H. A. Reinhold in 1968, Godfrey Diekmann referred to him as a liturgical prophet." Diekmann, a liturgical giant in his own right, called on others to follow in Reinhold's steps and "take up his mantle in the thorny task" of pastorally implementing the liturgical changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council. Over forty years later, that task remains every bit the challenge it was in Reinhold's day. As cries for social justice resound, liturgy more than ever must be the tie of relevance that binds the church to the world. It is this essential link 'between liturgy and social justice 'that Julia Upton discovered in Reinhold and that she wonderfully retrieves in tracing his life and legacy. In doing so, she takes up H. A. Reinhold's prophetic mantle and inspires us to do so as well. Julia Upton, RSM, is a member of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. She holds a doctorate in theology from Fordham University and is professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John's University (NY), where she currently serves as university provost. "