THE DYNAMICS OF THE LITURGY

One of the foremost champions of the liturgical reform movement here eloquently pleads with the clergy and the laity to partake of the spiritual riches obtainable through fuller participation in the format worship of the Church. Brilliantly -- frequently with humor -- Father Reinhold demolishes the more widely advanced arguments raised by opponents to changes in the liturgy while dramatizing positively how these are to come about. Here, in a relatively short book, a respected priest-scholar who writes clearly and forcibly -- The American Purish and the Roman Liturgy, Bringing The Mass to the People, The Soul Afir -- describes in exciting terms the history of the movement in Europe and the United States, and points to the way the people can help bring about desirable changes. Debunking the pietistic but well intentioned understanding of traditional practices, Father Reinhold gives illustration after illustration of the Christian vitality which the liturgy has to offer the faithful. Published at a time when the Holy See has made changes in the Breviary and in minor ways in the Mass, Father Reinhold's book will be welcomed by liturgists as a timely compendium of the case for further reforms. For the laymen and unconvinced clergy the book will illustrate the spiritual grandeur which can be theirs from fuller understanding of the liturgy.