Lex orandi lex credendi

€ 20,00 - pp. 576 - carta india

The liturgical reflection that we have been pursuing for many years also has its origin in our being an ecumenical community born in the years of the Council and of its liturgical reform. To develop a liturgy of the hours rooted in the great tradition of the Church and at the same time aware of the signs of the times and of today’s church life has meant for us to seek new words for old texts, to work out new spaces and modalities for common prayer

The liturgical reflection that we have been pursuing for many years also has its origin in our being an ecumenical community born in the years of the Council and of its liturgical reform. To develop a liturgy of the hours rooted in the great tradition of the Church and at the same time aware of the signs of the times and of today’s church life has meant for us to seek new words for old texts, to work out new spaces and modalities for common prayer, to rediscover also at the liturgical level the non-clerical dimension of ancient monasticism, to bring out the proclamation of the Word in the assembly of believers. Thus, after having devised already thirty-five years ago our Book of Daily Prayer and having more than once adapted and enriched it so as to make it ever more usable for Christians of all confessions, we have continued to publish texts of liturgical reflection and, at the beginning of this year, we have published a new translation of the Psalms and Biblical canticles for recitation and for singing in choir, the Bose Psalter.

Our attention to the quality and to the possibilities of the liturgy has also found a fertile exchange with persons and institutions that in the Church exercise a specific liturgical ministry. Thus, for some years now in collaboration with the National Office for the Liturgical Heritage of the Church of the Italian Bishops’ Conference we have been organizing an International Liturgical Conference, which focuses on themes that draw on the synergy between sacred architecture and liturgy. From 5 to 7 June 180 participants ? liturgists, architects, bishops, pastors, monks from many countries ? reflected on and discussed the Holy Assembly: forms, presence, presiding minister; this was the natural outcome of a series that in preceding years had treated of Altar, Ambo, Orientation, and Baptistry. As br. Enzo Bianchi observed, “every architectural space shapes a certain form of assembly, which in turn expresses a particular idea of church”. Especially welcome, among others, was the fraternal presence on this occasion of Piero Marini, now the president of the Pontifical committee for the international Eucharistic congresses, who continues to give us evidence of his affinity and friendship. The choice by the Association of professors and students of liturgy of our monastery for its annual study week in August, which was dedicated to Liturgy and Ecumenism, seems to us to be a confirmation of the course we have taken in these years and an encouragement to favor the liturgical dimension as a fertile space for ecumenical dialogue.