Liturgy Resources

When Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year was published in the 1970s, it was the very first comprehensive commentary on the three-year lectionary in relation to the Sacramentary/Missal as these were revised following the Second Vatican Council. Expressed on nearly every page was Nocent's conviction that the liturgy and the Word of God proclaimed within it have something important to say to real people of every culture and time. He constantly returns to the question: What does this passage have to say to us today?

Now this extraordinary work of applied, postconciliar liturgical scholarship has been revised and annotated by one of today's top liturgical scholars. Paul Turner has provided many helpful explanatory notes on history, culture, language, and, of course, liturgy. He has also updated the liturgical texts to conform to The Roman Missal, Third Edition. The result is a resource that promises to enrich and inspire a new generation of presiders, preachers, liturgy planners, and students.

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium, encounter the vibrant scholarship and pastoral wisdom of Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year again or for the first time!

Volume 3 covers all of the Sundays of Ordinary Time.

Author: Adrien Nocent

Details: 416 pgs, 6 X 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 11/07/2013

When Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year was published in the 1970s, it was the very first comprehensive commentary on the three-year lectionary in relation to the Sacramentary/Missal as these were revised following the Second Vatican Council. Expressed on nearly every page was Nocent's conviction that the liturgy and the Word of God proclaimed within it have something important to say to real people of every culture and time. He constantly returns to the question: What does this passage have to say to us today?

Now this extraordinary work of applied, postconciliar liturgical scholarship has been revised and annotated by one of today's top liturgical scholars. Paul Turner has provided many helpful explanatory notes on history, culture, language, and, of course, liturgy. He has also updated the liturgical texts to conform to The Roman Missal, Third Edition. The result is a resource that promises to enrich and inspire a new generation of presiders, preachers, liturgy planners, and students.

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium, encounter the vibrant scholarship and pastoral wisdom of Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year again or for the first time!

Volume 2 covers Lent, the Paschal Triduum, and the season of Easter.

Author: Adrien Nocent

Details: 516 pgs , 6 X 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/21/2014

Joyce Ann Zimmerman's The Ministry of Liturgical Environment has served as a reliable and inspiring resource for parish liturgy committees, liturgy directors, and clergy for more than a decade. It is an insightful and practical guide to preparing an inviting sacred space that reflects and enhances the community's valued principles. Contemporary and complete, it considers the physical location of our worship, from assembly seating, color usage, and liturgical accouterments to ministers' and assembly's dress. This fully revised edition includes new content, a new structure, and updates based on ecclesial documents published since the publication of the previous edition. Anyone involved in liturgical ministry will want to keep it close at hand.

Author: Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS

104 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/19/2016

The Ministry of Servers is a simple and concise, yet comprehensive, guide for altar servers and their instructors. This book will be easily understood by children who fulfill this essential ministry to God and God's people.

Author: Michael Kwatera, OSB

48 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/19/2016

The Ministry of Communion offers practical advice and vital theology for eucharistic ministers. Updated with the latest liturgical laws and norms, and with an expanded section on leading Communion services, this book is an excellent guide for both those who serve God's people and those who help them prepare for the ministry.

Author: Michael Kwatera, OSB

56 pgs , 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/18/2016

The Ministry of Cantors has long been a valuable resource for music ministry formation. This new edition includes valuable insights from Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship. The revised edition addresses more fully the distinction between the roles of psalmist and cantor, suggests further concrete ways a paschal mystery spirituality must undergird both roles, and offers practical insights for helping one discern the call to be a cantor. New content also explores the power of the psalms to transform those singing into the kind of persons God is calling them to be.

As with the first edition, this new book does not present the "how-tos" of vocal technique, warm-up exercises, diction principles, etc. Instead, The Ministry of Cantors focuses on what the cantor is doing beneath vocal technique: surrendering self to the dying and rising of the paschal mystery. The aim of the book is to help cantors delve more deeply into who they are and who they are becoming through their ministry: the Body of Christ pouring self out in voice, breath, and prayer for the life of the world.

Author: Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN

96 pgs , 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/19/2016

Ministering as a catechist is one of the highest callings within the church. Your "yes" to this calling for whatever reason needs to be affirmed and supported by an understanding of the ministry of catechesis, your role as minister, the audience to whom you are ministering, and the art of this ministry. Carrie Sallwasser offers an overview of the ministry of religious education for novice and veteran catechists alike that will aid in their ongoing formation as catechists in the ministry of forming disciples.

Author: Carrie Sallwasser

88 pgs, Paperback

Publication Date: 03/15/2016

Many who come to Sunday Mass or other liturgical celebrations are not one of the formal ministers (presider, greeters, acolytes, lectors, etc.). This book is about helping everyone at liturgy understand that being there and serving one another so that liturgy is fruitful for all is a ministry. This is what we may call the ministry of the assembly.

In some respects the ministry of the assembly is the most important ministry of all because it makes visible the church, the Body of Christ, by its very gathering together as one Body. As liturgical assembly, it makes present the celebration of the paschal mystery and Christ's ongoing mystery of salvation. Being a liturgical assembly is a privilege of our baptismal identity and the first way we live it out. The Ministry of the Assembly is a new book in the Collegeville Ministry series. Its five chapters address the being of the liturgical assembly, what the assembly does during liturgy, why being a liturgical assembly is so important, the configuration of the liturgical assembly in its own place, and a spirituality of the liturgical assembly.

Author: Joyce Ann Zimmerman

80 pgs , 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/09/2016

Instead of being a dour task on the checklist, what if the process of homily prep renewed you? Instead of feeling insecure about your message, what if your skills made you confident to preach a consistently clear message of Good News, authentic to you, relevant to your listeners, holding their attention and inviting transformation? Backstory Preaching: Integrating Life, Spirituality, and Craft shows you how.

By integrating your life and spirituality with the practical skills necessary for effective preaching, you can move beyond the boredom, stress, or insecurity of preaching so it is no longer you who preach but Christ who preaches in you. By connecting with God in the midst of your sermon prep, the Gospel will be spread deeper and further. God's joyand yourswill be made complete.

Author: Lisa Cressman

172 pgs , 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 05/23/2018

Whether you preach from a pulpit or sit in a pew, you hope (and pray) for a homily that connects the Good News with life. But what does it mean to connect? In a world that buzzes with the synapses of technological "connection," can the human touch of preaching make a difference anymore?

Connecting Pulpit and Pew is a fresh look at the conundrum of Catholic preaching, asking six key questions:

• Why does Sunday preaching matter and to whom?
• Why is Catholic preaching such an uphill climb?
• How can we connect the Gospel message with our young people?
• What are the struggles of clergy-on-the-ground in preaching?
• What is going on in the listener's head during the homily?
• And finally, what can each of us do to help "connection" in preaching become more common?

New research speaks to those questions from the voices of youth, the experiences of lay leaders, and the words of priests and deacons. Karla Bellinger offers concrete ways to connect the pulpit and the pew so that preaching becomes an act of love within a community of caring. This practical book breaks open an important and necessary conversation.

Author: Karla J. Bellinger

Details: 190 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 05/08/2014

In June of 2012, an astounding 360 people gathered at the University of Notre Dame for a major conference on Catholic preaching. With contributions by a wide variety of theologians and practitioners, We Preach Christ Crucified gathers the fruits of those days spent reflecting on the importance of the preaching ministry. Its release is timely, given the US bishops' promulgation of a new document on preaching, Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily (January, 2013), and the renewed emphasis on preaching by both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

The challenges facing Christian preachers in our time are many and formidable ones. The authors in this collection take a fresh look at the task, the resources at hand, the contemporary context, and the preacher. The result is a refreshing and stunningly hopeful reconsideration of an ancient ministry.

We Preach Christ Crucified includes:

• Preface by Michael E. Connors, CSC
• We Preach a Living Word by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, MSpS
• Feasting at the Table of the Word: From Dei Verbum to Verbum Domini by Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP
• New Perspectives on Preaching from Verbum Domini by Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, OSB
• Preaching from and for the Liturgy: A Practical Guide by Fr. Jan Michael Joncas
• Preaching and Catechesis: Mending the Rift between Scripture and Doctrine by John C. Cavadini
• The New Evangelization and the New Media by Fr. Robert Barron
• The Challenge of Fulfilled in Your Hearing to Interpret Life in the Light of the Word by Theresa Rickard, OP
• "This Intimate Link"-The Ecumenical Contribution of Fulfilled in Your Hearing by Craig A. Satterlee
• Unfulfilled in Our Hearing, or, Why Can't Our Newly Ordained Priest Preach? by Fr. Tom Margevicius
• Preaching Hope in Times of Polarization by Susan McGurgan
• African American Contributions to Our American Catholic Preaching Challenge by Maurice J. Nutt, CSsR
• Becoming a Cross-cultural Preacher by Kenneth G. Davis, OFM Conv
• Preaching Among the Poor: A Panel of Holy Cross Priests by Fr. Joseph Corpora, CSC; Fr. Bill Wack, CSC; and Fr. Ronald Raab, CSC
• New Directions in the Funeral and Wedding Homily: The Preacher as the Minister of Hospitality of the Kingdom of God by Guerric DeBona, OSB
• Preaching and Children by Ann Garrido
• The Challenges Ahead for Catholic Preaching in the Twenty-first Century by Archbishop Robert J. Carlson
• Afterword: A Living Word of Hope for the Whatever Generation by Michael E. Connors, CSC

Editor: Michael Connors, CSC

Details: 252 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 02/04/2014

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has encouraged, inspired, and delighted those who have heard him preach. Especially fascinating have been his plain-spoken and insightful weekday morning Mass homilies. He has also offered the church a substantial contribution on the theory and practice of homiletics in a large section of his first major teaching document, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). In The Preaching of Pope Francis, Gregory Heille, OP, introduces readers to the pope's preaching, his insights about the preaching vocation of the ordained, and his call to all the baptized to go to the margins as missionary disciples and evangelists of the Word.

Heille, a highly regarded professor of homiletics and preacher himself, offers an inspiring and practical resource for priests, deacons, and anyone involved in the ministry of preaching. He shares the pope's vision and example for the preparation and delivery of effective and engaging homilies and for laity invested in the church's ministry of the Word in a post-Vatican II pastoral context.

Author: Gregory Heille, OP

Details: 96 pgs, 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 02/19/2015

What should preachers aim for in Sunday preaching? In 1982, the USCCB document Fulfilled in Your Hearing: The Homily in the Sunday Assembly answered this question. Here, in a pastoral commentary on Fulfilled in Your Hearing, several Catholic scholars in homiletics, liturgy, and biblical studies both appreciate the abiding insights of Fulfilled in Your Hearing and also propose areas for continuing reflection. Following the four sections of the Bishops' document, The Assembly, The Preacher, The Homily, and Homiletic Method, this commentary emphasizes the document's continuing importance for the initial and ongoing formation of Catholic liturgical preachers, while also inviting conversation about present-day cross-cultural, liturgical, and communication concerns for Catholic preaching.

Priests, deacons, seminarians, bishops, and all others engaged in the preaching task are invited to deepen their appreciation of the homily's unique role in the liturgical life of the church and to stir their enthusiasm for preaching and preaching preparation.

Edited by James A. Wallace, CSsR

Details: 136 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 11/01/2010

Thomas Scirghi, SJ, has trained priests, deacons, and lay ecclesial ministers in the art and theology of preaching for decades. In Longing to See Your Face, he makes his insights and experience accessible to a much wider audience.

Scirghi begins with a discussion of the purpose of preaching and offers a theological sounding on proclamation, taking up several descriptions of the role of the preacher in relation to the congregation. He also addresses current theological issues for the contemporary preacher. The second part of the book discusses the practical matter of preparing to preach and proposes a method of preparation by following a pattern of reflection, research, writing, and rehearsing. The third part focuses on two specific sacramental celebrations: funerals and weddings.

Author: Thomas Scirghi, SJ

Details: 130 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 03/08/2017

In Good News, Darrin Snyder Belousek explores the meaning of salvation in the Gospel of Luke. Through biblical reflections on the stories and songs of Luke's telling of the coming of Jesus the Messiah, this book explains the manifold message of "good news." Fully accessible to laypersons yet substantially informed by biblical scholarship, keenly aware of spiritual concerns and passionately engaged with social issues, this book offers a vision of salvation that is grounded in grace and nurtured by prayer, relevant to both the spiritual and the social, and inseparable from doing justice and seeking peace.

Author: Darrin W. Snyder Belousek

Details: 154 pgs, 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 04/07/2014

The Lectionary is made up of selected passages from the Bible, placed within a literary and liturgical context. This new context calls for a consideration of the liturgical character and setting of the Lectionary readings. Preaching the New Lectionary: Year C, offers readers that interpretation.

Preaching the New Lectionary is unique. First, it employs a literary-liturgical way of interpreting all the readings of each Sunday and major feast of the liturgical year, including the often overlooked responsorial psalm. Second, it explicitly situates the interpretation of each day within the theology of its respective liturgical season. This theology is drawn from the specific themes of the readings that comprise that particular year rather than from more general themes associated with the season. The meaning of the entire season becomes the context for understanding the individual parts of it. Third, the lections are also read in sequential order from the first Sunday of that season to the last. This reading interprets the function of the literary forms, thus providing yet another way of interpreting the riches of the readings.

This way of reading and understanding the Lectionary has potential for liturgical ministry. It can quicken the religious imagination of homilists, thus providing fresh new possibilities for liturgical preaching. It offers creative insights for those involved in the liturgical preparation for the celebration of feasts and seasons. It can also act as a valuable resource for liturgical catechesis. The insights included in Preaching the New Lectionary contribute toward enhancing the liturgical lives of the faithful.

Author: Dianne Bergant, CSA, with Richard N. Fragomeni

Details: 456 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 08/01/2000 

What are Vespers? Where have the consecration bells gone? Why do some liturgical ministers vest and others don't? Blinking sneakers on altar servers, Christmas trees in January . . . what is that all about? These are some of the candid questions that Catholics and others often wonder about the liturgy. In What's the Smoke For?, expert liturgist Johan van Parys offers helpful and engaging answers. Based on church teaching and rooted in sound theology, Johan's responses invite inquiring minds to continue to think about what is happening in the church and to be engaged in learning more about liturgy and the arts.

Author: Johan van Parys

Details: 168 pgs, 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 07/07/2014

More than half a century after its introduction into the Easter liturgy, the rite of the washing of feet on Holy Thursday goes to the heart of what it means to take part in Christian liturgy as well as to live a Christian life. In Washing Feet: Imitating the Example of Jesus in the Liturgy Today, Thomas O'Loughlin explores the significance of mutual footwashing in early Christian communities and in the rituals of churches today.

Washing Feet is a sound and engaging combination of liturgical theology, historical exploration, and practical pastoral guidance. Clergy, liturgy committees, and RCIA leaders involved in Holy Week liturgies will find this a useful and accessible resource for understanding how this practice is a key to how ordinary Christians understand the nature of the church and their relationship to others within their particular communities.

Author: Thomas O'Loughlin

Details: 144 pgs, 5 x 7 

Publication Date: 12/07/2015

Since its initial publication in 2006, Paul Turner's Let Us Pray has become a valuable resource for understanding, planning, and celebrating the Eucharist. This new edition, thoroughly updated by the author to be in full continuity with the Revised English Translation of The Roman Missal, will be one that priests, liturgical ministers, planners, and students will want to keep close at hand.

Turner offers helpful explanations for the principal rubrics for a typical Sunday Mass. He reflects on the place of ritual within the context of Catholic piety and then explores the regulations governing the furnishings, vestments, and ministers. He carefully walks readers through the entire Mass from the entrance procession to the dismissal. The book is cross-referenced to answer most questions about the Sunday ritual.

Author: Paul Turner

Details: 184 pgs, 6 x 9 

Publication Date: 09/01/2012

The Collegeville Ministry Series offers inexpensive, yet comprehensive, training on the various liturgical roles. Each booklet is 5 3/8" x 8 1/4" in size and prepared by a specialist in the field and provides down-to-earth suggestions for making ministry more meaningful for the ministers and those who serve.

Rites of Passage is a much-needed, practical homiletic resource for priests and deacons who preach Christian baptisms, weddings, and funerals. The three authors, a religious priest, a diocesan priest, and a permanent deacon, draw from the scriptural and liturgical resources available to the preacher for these three important ritual moments to suggest ways to build an effective homily. This book will serve as a helpful and engaging resource for priests and deacons in parish life and as a blessing to the faithful.

296 pages, 6" x 9" Paperback

Publication Date: 09/15/2018

The Psalms' insights are remarkable, unexpected, eye-opening. They have vital things to say to us if we listen intently to the ancient wisdom, much of which has been lost to modern ears.

Using the insights of the "shape and shaping of the Psalms" work done by Psalms scholars over the past twenty-five years, James Chatham presents an inviting study for non-experts to explore the interactions that various psalms have with one another. The book invites us to listen in on several psalm conversations, to realize how contemporary they are, and to join them. Chatham encourages us to immerse ourselves in the mind, heart, and world of the Psalms editor, to get to know that editor well, and to realize that that editor's world was, in important ways, very much like ours. Through this process, the messages spoken by the Psalms editor emerge with words of faith about everyday issues in human living, both then and now.

144 pages, 6" x 9" Paperback

Publication Date: 08/24/2018

Text by Inos Biffi. A beautifully illustrated overview of the Church's liturgical year, starting with Advent and ending with the last Sunday in Ordinary Time. The text features explanations of all the celebrations with their scriptural underpinnings and the richly-hued art, by Franco Vignazio, manages to combine a medieval style with a modern sensibility. Paperback cover.