The primary purpose of Prophetic Liturgy is to inquire into the prophetic dimension of the liturgy. Some questions addressed in the book are: How can a liturgy be prophetic? How can liturgy form and transform individuals and communities? In which sense does the liturgy facilitate a living participation in socio-political-economic life? How does the sacramental practice challenge the church to mediate God's gifts of grace, love, justice, and mercy to the world? Possible answers for these questions begin to emerge as we develop an understanding of religious praxis as an active and dynamic prophetic action, in which the community of faith claims its identity, promotes an engaged faithful Christian life, and affirms the sacramental life of the church as a source of formation and inspiration for prophetic praxis, mediating God's gift for the life of the world. There is risk in presenting an option for prophetic praxis, in that it may go beyond the comfort zone of a community and engender spiritual and political alienation. The most challenging ethical hope of this book is to provide the worshiping community with prophetic awareness of socio-economic injustice, while at the same time preserving the community's historical-cultural identity, its religious values, and its sacramental spirituality.

Throughout the year, readers proclaim and assemblies hear the words of the prophets in the liturgy. Who were they and what made them so urgent? This brief but deep and sympathetic introduction to the prophets will help readers proclaim the prophets’ words with more empathy and understanding. It will fascinate Bible study and Scripture sharing groups, and it will help interested assembly members appreciate more fully the meaning of the prophets’ messages—for their audience and for us.

The primary purpose of Prophetic Liturgy is to inquire into the prophetic dimension of the liturgy. Some questions addressed in the book are: How can a liturgy be prophetic? How can liturgy form and transform individuals and communities? In which sense does the liturgy facilitate a living participation in socio-political-economic life? How does the sacramental practice challenge the church to mediate God's gifts of grace, love, justice, and mercy to the world? Possible answers for these questions begin to emerge as we develop an understanding of religious praxis as an active and dynamic prophetic action, in which the community of faith claims its identity, promotes an engaged faithful Christian life, and affirms the sacramental life of the church as a source of formation and inspiration for prophetic praxis, mediating God's gift for the life of the world. There is risk in presenting an option for prophetic praxis, in that it may go beyond the comfort zone of a community and engender spiritual and political alienation. The most challenging ethical hope of this book is to provide the worshiping community with prophetic awareness of socio-economic injustice, while at the same time preserving the community's historical-cultural identity, its religious values, and its sacramental spirituality.

A life of consecration prefigures what Christians hope for by calling into question the value of power, sexuality, and material possessions. Religious life challenges the idea that these things alone bring happiness and shows that we can be more fulfilled, happier, and more whole without being attached to them. Furthermore, detaching ourselves from these desires allows others to live with more dignity and greater ease, as well. Consecrated life, then, is a prophetic witness to the joy of the eschatological call of Christianity. In the words of Pope Francis to religious men and women leading up to the Year of Consecrated Religious, “Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living!”

This investigation into the prophetic dimension of the Psalms shows how the postexilic period and especially the world of the Chronicler around 300 BCE provide the main setting for the Psalms, even royal psalms. The Levitical singers of the Second Temple 'made up for the silence of the classical prophets': an idealized David, musician and prophet, is depicted as leader of the cultic prophets and of the entire inspired community. In this way theophanic descriptions and oracular material in the style of the classical prophets were developed and preserved through the Psalms.

The American church avoids lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Soong-Chan Rah's prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church's relationship with a suffering world. Hear the prophet's lament as the necessary corrective for Christianity's future.

All year long the prophets speak to us at Mass, often beginning their message with “Thus says the Lord.” They thunder. They comfort. They scold. They encourage. They sometimes speak in beautiful poetry, often sounding urgent, sometimes sounding strange. Their purpose was to reveal to the people what God expected, and now, over two and a half millennia later, they are still fulfilling that purpose. Although we can usually catch connections between the readings from the Old Testament prophets and the readings of the New Testament, most of us don’t know much about the actual situations the prophets were responding to when they wrote, or what it was like to be a prophet in the ancient world. Old Testament scholar Richard J. Clifford sj has written this book to help us understand the prophets and so draw more meaning from their words in the liturgy. He begins with what we hear at Mass—with the way the lectionary presents the prophets to us now, in contrast to the way they were heard (seldomly) before the Second Vatican Council. The author explains how we can best interpret the prophets—in their own context and within the Christian tradition. Professor Clifford takes us into the ancient near east to explain the calling of the prophet. He introduces us to those who prefigured the prophets, such as Abraham and Moses, then to those we know from the many stories about them—Elijah and Elisha. He moves on to the many prophets who wrote as well as preached (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Baruch, Amos, and so forth), and then he zooms in on Isaiah, the prophet we hear from most often in the liturgy. In this survey, the author explains what is known about each prophet and the situation in which he worked, then discusses how the text associated with him is structured, its distinguishing features, and what parts of it appear in the lectionary. Finally, we learn how the prophets communicated effectively in their oral society, how they understood their mission, and how they understood God's purpose. This brief but deep and sympathetic introduction to the prophets will help readers proclaim the prophets’ words with more empathy and understanding. It will fascinate Bible study and Scripture sharing groups, and it will help interested assembly members appreciate more fully the meaning of the prophets’ messages—for their audience and for us.

An annual resource for parish ministers, liturgists, pastors, and planning committees, Living Liturgy offers a practical means for reflection on and celebration of Mass for Sundays and solemnities as well as select other days. Living Liturgy integrates spirituality and celebration, catechesis and pastoral practice, the ministry of the assembly and other ministries so that celebrating and living go hand-in-hand. Written by a pastorally experienced team with expertise in Scripture, spiritual direction, liturgy, and liturgical music, Living Liturgy teaches that we learn from each other of the fullness of God's mystery, and by learning and worshiping together we enrich each other. Living Liturgy helps people live a liturgical spirituality. This is a way of living rooted in liturgy, which opens their vision to their baptismal identity as the Body of Christ and shapes their living according to the dying and rising rhythm of the paschal mystery. The paschal mystery is the entire saving mystery of Jesus Christ--his life, mission, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, sending of the Spirit, and promised second coming--and our participation in this mystery. Liturgy enacts in the here and now Christ's mystery and sends each one of us forth to live this mystery. Anyone involved with liturgical planning and preparation will benefit from using this resource, including pastoral ministers, liturgy directors, musicians, and liturgy committee members. Living Liturgy also assists those who serve the community in the visible liturgical ministries--presiders, deacons, music ministers, hospitality ministers, altar ministers, lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion--because it clearly shows thateach ministry deserves not only practical preparation but, even more important, spiritual preparation. Further, catechumens, candidates, and sponsors use Living Liturgy to support and deepen their liturgical journey within the RCIA. Members of faith-sharing groups use this resource as the focus of weekly prayer and reflection together. Parents and teachers will find that Living Liturgy can be simplified and shared with younger members of the liturgical community.

A critical issue in modern Catholic theology has been the relationship between the doctrine of revelation and the church’s liturgical and sacramental practice. This volume argues that although in the twentieth century Catholic theology increasingly recognized the centrality of Christology—particularly the person of Christ—as the locus of revelation and drew out the crucial implications of Christ as the revelation of God, it was slow to connect this revelatory dynamic with the encounter that occurs within the sacramental space of the liturgy, most notably the Eucharist. Taking the decline of the neoscholastic enterprise in Catholic theology and the challenges posed by modernism as his point of departure, Philip Caldwell traces the evolution of the Catholic theology of revelation in the twentieth century and the vital role played by the liturgical and sacramental renewal movements in reimagining this pivotal theological category. Examining the specific contributions of René Latourelle, Avery Dulles, Salvatore Marsilli, and Gustave Martelet against a background of pre-conciliar ressourcement theology, this volume provides a comprehensive account of why a Trinitarian and Christological construal of liturgy and sacraments as revelation is key to the vision that informed Vatican II and offers constructive theological and ecclesial possibilities for the future.

This is the fifth annual volume of the remarkably popular journal of biblical theology edited by Scott Hahn and his St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. This volume features important new works by Hahn, Brant Pitre, Matthew Levering, and Robert Barron, among others. The issue explores the biblical themes of Church and state; idolatry and power; religion and violence; worship and sacrifice; the Kingdom of God; and the Eucharist. Highlights include Hahn's new essay on the prophetic historiography of 1 and 2 Chronicles; and Pitre's essay on Jesus, the Messianic Banquet, and the Kingdom of God. The journal, which always seeks to reprint classic texts alongside groundbreaking new works, this time includes a new translation of St. Thomas Aquinas' Lectures on 2 Thessaloniansthe first time this work has been translated into English. Also included are an influential work by Louis Bouyer on Satan and Christ in the New Testament and Early Tradition. The volume concludes with a classic homily by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI on the morality of exile.