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Visible Words: The Image Is The Message, Sandra Essex

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

From our earliest existence, we have been creators. We have made images, art, with our hands. We drew on the walls of our cave homes. We formed clay into pottery and decorated it. We took metal from the earth and hammered it into objects of beauty and objects for adornment.

Celebrants Or Celebrities, Worship Or Suicide, David Kocka O.F.M.

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

The North American Roman Catholic bishops have suggested that our present age is one of "supreme crises." If this be the state of things, then such a statement goes to reassert the challenging aspect that Christ presented to his hearers. He referred to the scribes and pharisees as "hypocrites," that is "under-thinkers" or rather those who were concerned with the "pseudo-crises," over and against the "supreme crisis." Christ's incarnation caused his hearers to make a judgment whether to live either the "kingdom" or "history." If an age is faced with a similar "Supreme Judgment," then part of that judgment …

Good Stuff To Read This Year, Kathleen R. Mullen

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

Reading: "the very word is like a bell/that tolls me back from thee to my sole self." Actually, Keats wrote "Forlorn," but where I wrote "Reading" on the first line of this clean yellow sheet, the rest of Keats' line came unbidden, and since I'm not by nature one to ignore the unbidden, I thought I'd better write it down. Now, why did it come? Well, I'll go with ''words like bells" -and I can think of all kinds of bells: reading's a school hell-as in "I've got to get the reading done" or in "That was a great …

It Does Matter What You Do: How Practical Choices Reflect Theology, John O. Nelson

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

We would all, I trust, agree with the centrality of baptism for Lutheran theology and its importance for Lutheran liturgical renewal. Yet, how many of us are from parishes where baptisms, if done during the Sunday assembly at all, are at small, out of the way fonts, with a few drops of water, no candles or oil, and little or no congregational involvement? Certainly, the baptism is valid, but is it salutary? Have we done any more than meet the "lifetime minimum requirement of grace"? Have we lost a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the richness of grace poured out …

Preaching At Weddings And Funerals, Jerald W. Pipping

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

In his book, Grace Notes and Other Fragments, Joseph Sittler wrote: "Most ministers are aware that it is a tough and delicate labor to insert the lively power of the Word of God into the rushing occupations and silent monologues of human beings." (p. 64) Two occasions at which the insertion of the lively power of the Word of God into the lives of people is a particularly tough and delicate labor are weddings and funerals. In the assemblies gathered to mark these life passages the pastor will, in many cases, be encountering a significant number of persons, perhaps …

Holy Things: Foundations For Liturgical Theology, Gordon Lathrop

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

Christian corporate worship has biblical foundations. This is so, of course, in the most obvious ways: at the heart of the meeting the book called the Bible is read and then interpreted as having to do with us. Sometimes, as ceremonial preface to that reading, the book is carried about, even enthroned. Furthermore, the text of the Bible provides the source of the imagery and, often, the very form and quality of the language in prayers, chants, hymn texts, and sermons. Psalms are sung as if that ancient collection were for our singing. Snatches of old biblical letters are …

Lutheran Theology And Liturgical Acculturation, Karen M. Ward

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

The Lutheran churches in the United States have historically reflected Teutonic and Scandinavian culture and heritage. This was a natural phenomenon due to the fact that the earliest Lutheran settlers in this country were of Teutonic and Scandinavian background.

Assisting Ministers: Enlisting, Training, And Leaming From The Diversity Of Gifts, Donald H. Williams

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

God of majesty, whom saints delight to worship in heaven and on earth: Bless the ministry of those who serve your people, that we may know the joy of your presence and may worship to the glory of your holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (adapted, Occasional Services) To serve God by serving his people is the lovely keeping of the Law. Called to love the world, the Church gathers each Lord's Day and Holy Day and as often in addition as desired, to hear again the community's story which proclaims God's victory over evil and the …

Diaconalogue, No. 26, Lutheran Deaconess Association, Inc.

Diaconalogue

No abstract provided.