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From the NOR Dossiers

Liturgy, Liturgical Rites & Devotions

What Makes the Catholic Mind Unique?
December 2020The Catholic world is an enchanted world, filled with theophanies of a God who longs to be our All in all.
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Will the Coronavirus Lockdowns Usher in a Mustard-Seed Church?
September 2020The willful suppression of the sacraments by Catholic leaders could portend the diminution of the Church in both numbers and influence.
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Making Sense of Our Liturgical Morass
December 2019We need a clearer understanding of the Church’s relationship with her past and her tradition that will help guide us along the uncharted road ahead.
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O Death, Where Is Thy…Tickle?
December 2019Everything in the old Requiem Mass forced us to consider death and God’s judgment, Christ’s mercy and our complacency.
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On Lutefisk, Latin & Liturgy
April 2019There is something undeniably bittersweet about the sublimation of a distinct culture into the flat, American consumerist anti-culture touted as an improvement.
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What & Where Is the Holy Grail?
December 2018Its contents were what made the Grail holy. In that sense, just as every confessional is Chapel Perilous, so too is every adoration chapel a Grail Chapel.
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Off with His Head!
July-August 2018A writer wants Cardinal Sarah fired from his post as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship because he "does not speak for the mainstream of the church."
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The Latin Mass After a Year's Attendance
December 2016The extraordinary form has a depth of imagery that the post-Vatican II revisers of the Mass simply eschewed, especially as regards the eucharistic sacrifice.
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The Beginning of the End?
May 2015A recently installed pastor's decision to allow only boys to serve at the altar has made headlines throughout the San Francisco area and across the nation. Salvatore Cordileone is his archbishop.
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Hidden Treasures from the Middle Ages
April 2014A review of A Sense of the Sacred: Roman Catholic Worship in the Middle Ages
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The Revolution That Wasn't
March 2013There is a group in the Church that has noticed your smooth transition to the new missal — and is still peeved about the whole thing.
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Understanding the Biblical Basis of the Mass
November 2012A review of A Biblical Walk Through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy
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Undone by the "Permanent Workshop"
June 2012A review of A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Carmel Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes
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The Three Natural Laws of Catholic Church Architecture
September 2009If a Catholic church building doesn't reflect Catholic theology, the worshiper risks accepting a faith that is foreign to Catholicism.
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The Charismatic Appetite
November 2008The charismatic quest for paranormal experiences of God is also a contrived pseudo-communion of ecstatic emotional dissolution.
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An Interview With a Carmelite
July-August 2008A Carmelite monastery in Wyoming is an exciting new element in the Church in America, and has proven to be fecund ground for vocations to the consecrated life.
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Church, Women & Pants
January 2008Difficulties arise when women wear tight or revealing pants to Church: Men start seeing them as a collection of titillating body parts.
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The Love of God Is Like...
June 2007Heaven is often compared to a lavish banquet. But somehow we can't imagine that it involves toilet paper and balloons.
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The Hidden Treasures of Byzantine Catholicism
September 2002The heavenly aesthetic of the Byzantine Liturgy is "celebrant-proof." I have never seen it done badly. By contrast, I have seldom seen the Novus Ordo done well.
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An Outsider's Impressions of the Modern Mass
March 2002It is a non-negotiable fact about me (and probably many others as well) that I do not sing where even friendly strangers can hear.
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Bow Down & Worship Me!
February 2001It's all the rage now among liberal Catholics to say that Jesus is present in the congregation.
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A Baptist Meets a Mutant Mass
February 2001The way most Baptists (and evangelicals) normally celebrate Communion -- a practice that Christ commanded us to repeat to evoke His sacrifice -- is a scandal.
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The Stage-Managed Emotionalism of Today's "Worship Experience"
January 2001Modern man wants a form of worship that is both understandable and predictable. And, because grace is the fruit of worship, this implies he wants his grace without mystery.
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On Bending the Knee to Receive Holy Communion
September 2000The lowering of oneself in humility is a statement about the Blessed Sacrament, not about you.
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The Liturgical Pogrom
July/August 2000The Hebrew-ness of Catholicism is a critical element of it. When we excise Hebrew elements from our prayers, we sever roots that feed our religion.
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Surprised by Tradition
June 2000When the Church stripped the liturgy of its grandeur, she cheapened the meaning of priesthood and is now reaping a predictably poor harvest.
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The Liturgy as Catechism
May 2000Our major training in the Faith still comes principally from what we see and hear at church on Sunday.
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On the Power, Misuse & Neglect of Liturgical Symbolism
May 2000To all the people not theologically schooled, a definite message has been communicated about the meaning (or lack thereof) of the Eucharist.
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A Real Folk Mass
January 2000The Western Church surrendered its own true folk Mass — the traditional sung Mass — in favor of contrived and artificial ones.
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Emotionalism or Ritualism - Or the Best of Both?
December 1999The liturgy does not try to create or evoke emotions but expects them to grow from our recognizing and feeling the truths the ritual expresses.
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Liturgical Theology & Priestly Identity
December 1999Just settling the question of “presider” or “priest” could spark resolution of a host of issues — authority, salvation, and more.
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The Dubious Pedigree of Touchie-Feelie Catholicism
November 1999Modern Catholic liturgists have tried to graft the “fellowship experience” onto the Mass, but it hasn’t worked.
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Turning Catholics Into a Stiff-Kneed People
July/August 1999Our kneelers make our gesture of worship an obeisance without making it a physical punishment. That seems legitimate.
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God Be in My Hand -- or on My Tongue?
June 1999In Church law, the communicant has the right to receive on the tongue or in the hand, and the further right to receive standing or kneeling.
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Making the Holy Mass a Generic Worship Service In a Generic Worship Space?
June 1999We should take the Catholic adage ‘what you pray is what you believe’ as an urgent warning.
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The Language of the Body & the Mass
February 1999We may stand for someone we decidedly do not revere. Kneeling, however, is a clear signal of reverence and even worship.
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Post-Vatican II 'la la la' Music: Unworthy of the Catholic Church
October 1998The Church seems to choose to appear as in decline artistically, liturgically, and inspirationally.
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Rebuilding Our Liturgy & Civilization
June 1998Pope Gregory’s program was really quite simple: To return to the people of Rome a sense of sin and a sense of the sacred.
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The Suppression of Popular Devotions In Today's Catholic Church
May 1998Leadership in a revival of Catholic devotions might be an appropriate role for those who are not priests but who are ordained: deacons.
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Lessons to Be Learned From the Ecclesiastical Battle Over "Inclusive Language"
February 1998 VIEW ARTICLE



“Do This In Memory of Me”
June 1995Review of Meditations Before Mass and The Eucharist: Our Sanctification
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A Bold Venture in Liturgy
July-August 1985Now in our time an edition of the BCP has appeared under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, which does what none of its predecessors did or could do.
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