Teacher Resources

978-1-56854-009-2 | Paperback | 8 3/8 x 10 7/8 | 176 pages | Language: English

This second volume of a three volume series, includes liturgical images for Year B that will enliven your bulletins, handouts, programs, and orders of service. Original art is drawn from the Sunday readings of each year of the Lectionary, from the great feasts and seasons. There is also a handy subject index and pieces for the national holidays. Suggestions for using the art are given in the introduction. Secretaries, parish staffs, musicians, worship coordinators, principals, and teachers will find top-quality illustrations for many different projects.

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life Leader's Guide by Trish Sullivan Vanni

Participating at Sunday Mass is the most important action of the week for Catholic Christians. From Mass to Mission deepens our understanding of the Mass and how it shapes us to live as Christ's disciples in the world. Developed for three different age groups (adults, teens, and children), the From Mass to Mission series includes booklets and Leader's Guides that offer the entire parish the opportunity to grow deeper in their understanding and participation in the liturgy.

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life for Children, Leader's Guide provides parish catechists and Catholic school teachers with the tools for teaching children about the Mass. A companion DVD-ROM provides a variety of downloadable materials that will enhance your lessons and assist with advertising and connecting with parents and guardians.

This Leader's Guide will help you:

• Catechize children about the Mass
• Lead lessons on the liturgy
• Use creative methods and ideas to teach
• Adapt material for intergenerational sessions

Inside you will find:

• Five videos on the parts of the Mass
• Session outlines
• Activities and games
• Materials for children, parents, and guardians
• Promotional ideas and supplemental resources

978-1-61671-301-0 | Book with disk | 8 1/2 x 11 | 32 pages | Language: English

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life by Trish Sullivan Vanni and Paul Turner

Every Sunday, Catholics gather together to attend Mass in memory of Christ, worshipping God by giving him thanks and praise. We hear his Word, receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Communion, and are charged with an important mission to be like Christ in the world.

This resource is an insightful exploration of the Mass and its importance for our life of faith and Christian discipleship. Each chapter explores the parts of the Mass, helping you understand the meaning of the prayers, responses, acclamations, gestures, signs, and symbols. From Mass to Mission will inspire you to participate more fully in the Mass and to carry out your mission as Christ's disciple, bringing forth his light to a world in need.

978-1-61671-300-3 | Saddlestitched | 5 3/8 x 8 3/8 | 48 pages | Language: English

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life for Teens Leader's Guide by Trish Sullivan Vanni

Participating at Sunday Mass is the most important action of the week for Catholic Christians. From Mass to Mission deepens our understanding of the Mass and how it shapes us to live as Christ's disciples in the world. Developed for three different age groups (adults, teens, and children), the From Mass to Mission series includes booklets and Leader's Guides that offer the entire parish the opportunity to grow deeper in their understanding and participation in the liturgy.

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life for Children, Leader's Guide provides parish catechists and Catholic school teachers with the tools for teaching children about the Mass. A companion DVD-ROM provides a variety of downloadable materials that will enhance your lessons and assist with advertising and connecting with parents and guardians.

This Leader's Guide will help you:

Inside you will find:

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life for Teens by Trish Sullivan Vanni

Every Sunday, Catholics gather together to attend Mass in memory of Jesus Christ. At Mass we give God our thanksgiving, praise, and worship. We hear his Word, receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and are charged with an important mission to be like Christ in the world.

This resource is an insightful exploration of the Mass and its importance in our life of faith. Filled with illustrations, photos, activities, and questions for reflection, this resource explores the parts of the Mass to help teens understand the meaning of the prayers, responses, acclamations, gestures, signs, and symbols. Additionally, From Mass to Mission will inspire teens to more actively participate in the Mass and carry out our mission as Christ's disciples in the world.

978-1-61671-296-9 | Saddlestitched | 5 3/8 x 8 3/8 | 48 pages

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life for Children Leader's Guide by Joyce Donahue

Participating at Sunday Mass is the most important action of the week for Catholic Christians. From Mass to Mission deepens our understanding of the Mass and how it shapes us to live as Christ's disciples in the world. Developed for three different age groups (adults, teens, and children), the From Mass to Mission series includes booklets and Leader's Guides that offer the entire parish the opportunity to grow deeper in their understanding and participation in the liturgy.

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life for Children, Leader's Guide provides parish catechists and Catholic school teachers with the tools for teaching children about the Mass. A companion DVD-ROM provides a variety of downloadable materials that will enhance your lessons and assist with advertising and connecting with parents and guardians.

This Leader's Guide will help you:

Inside you will find:

978-1-61671-299-0 | Book with disk | 8 1/2 x 11 | 32 pages

From Mass to Mission: Understanding the Mass and Its Significance for Our Christian Life for Children by Joyce Donahue

Every Sunday, we go to Mass to pray with our family, friends, and members of our parish. Going to Mass is the most important thing we do as Catholic Christians. Mass gives us time to praise God and to thank him for all the blessings in our life, to hear his Word, and to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Going to Mass helps us to become better people. This booklet explains the meaning of the Mass and will help you understand why going to Mass on Sunday is so important for our faith.

Children will learn:

• Why Mass is important
• What Catholics believe about Christ
• The parts of the Mass
• Why we stand, kneel, sing, and listen
• Prayers, responses, and acclamations
• Vocabulary Words
• How Mass helps us to be more like Jesus

From Mass to Mission may be used with children from grade three to six in the classroom and with parents. This booklet is filled with fun activities, illustrations, photographs, and simple explanations. An accompanying leader's guide for teachers and catechists is available.

978-1-61671-298-3 | Saddlestitched | 5 3/8 x 8 3/8 | 48 pages

Baptismal Ecclesiology and the Order of Christian Funerals by Stephen S. Wilbricht, csc; Foreword by H. Richard Rutherford, csc

Throughout this work, Fr. Stephen S. Wilbricht, csc, emphasizes the link between Baptism and death, assisting Christians in grasping who we are called to be in this life as disciples and who we are promised to become in eternal life as saints. As the author points out the centrality of baptismal identity to the funeral liturgy, he makes apparent that the union established at Baptism continues until all reach Christ. Such an appreciation for life in the Body of Christ will help the community recognize both their responsibilities at the death of a member and the union that remains with that member as all journey to the divine. Wilbricht explores the Church's theology of Baptism and death, and provides pastoral suggestions that will encourage communities to carry out their commitment to care for the grieving and bury the dead.

978-1-61671-443-7 | Paperback | 6 x 9 | 224 pages

La Vigilia por el difunto y el rito exequial Guia da oracion by Danielle Noe

The Vigil for the Deceased and the Rite of Committal Worship Aid by Danielle Noe

Vigil for the Deceased and the Rite of Committal prayer card will help those who take part in these rites of the Order of Christian Funerals. This easy-to-use worship aid guides the mourners through the liturgy and provides their responses, and it includes a few well-known hymns to encourage singing. Its simple, dignified design is suited to the solemnity of the rites it supports.

978-1-61671-440-6 | Prayercard | Language: English

The Funeral Mass Worship Aid by Danielle Noe

The Funeral Mass prayer card is designed to help those who attend the Funeral Mass, including those who are unfamiliar with Catholic worship, to follow and participate in this liturgy. This easy-to-use worship aid guides the mourners through the liturgy and provides their responses to the prayers and readings. Its simple, dignified design is suited to the solemnity of the liturgy it supports.

978-1-61671-439-0 | Prayercard | Language: English

The Liturgy: Source and Summit of Our Christian Life by Corinna Laughlin.

The Catholic Church teaches that the celebration of the liturgy is the source and summit of the Christian life" (Lumen gentium, 11). Participating in the liturgy the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, the sacramental rites, blessings, and other official rites is the most important act of Catholic Christians, for it is through the liturgy that the faithful give praise to God, thank him for his blessings, and go forth strengthened and challenged to life as Christ's disciples in the world.

This easy-to-read resource explores what it means to call liturgy source and summit." It will help the Catholic faithful to understand the meaning of the liturgy and its importance to our life of faith, experience Christ's four-fold presence in the various Church rites, come to a deeper relationship with God, and reflect on the transforming power of the liturgy to change the world.

978-1-61671-425-3 | Paperback | 5 3/8 x 8 3/8 | 80 pages | Language: English

Signs and Symbols of the Liturgy: An Experience of Ritual and Catechesis by Michael Ruzicki, Victoria M. Tufano, D. Todd Williamson, and Terry Navarro.

Catholic liturgy is a rich language composed of music, spoken word, silence, symbols, signs, postures, gestures, and ritual actions. Each of these elements serves to open our hearts, minds, and bodies to the presence of God, allowing us to deepen our participation in the mystery we celebrate. This resource will help participants explore the various elements of the liturgy.

Give groups in your parish a reverent, artful, and interactive experience of the symbols of the liturgy followed by time to reflect on their meaning. The symbols common things of nature and human craft such as water, candlelight, oil, book, and cross, are the very language through which we encounter the mysteries of our faith, and they cannot be understood through words alone.

Signs and Symbols of the Liturgy will help parishes break open the signs and symbols of the liturgy in their most basic forms. It explains how to prepare a ritual and catechetical experience of the signs and symbols in which participants can interact with the symbols as they are presented, one by one.

This resource includes:

• Instructions for gathering and training a team, arranging an appropriate space, selecting music, and rehearsing the choreography
• A video to show you how the experience looks and sounds
• Commentary on the video to advise you on the nuances of delivering an artful and reverent experience
• Scripts with the poetic texts
• Checklists of items needed
• Diagrams of room arrangements
• A promotional flyer
• Reflection questions and advice for helping participants process their encounter

It is a wonderful resource for catechists and liturgists to use with Christian initiation groups, sacramental preparation sessions, adult formation programs, youth group meetings, and retreats for liturgical ministers.

978-1-61671-437-6 | Book with disk | 8 1/2 x 11 | Language: English

Liturgy with Style and Grace Third Edition Revised by Gabe Huck

This book presents the basics of liturgy for parish liturgy committees and planning teams, liturgical ministers, and anyone interested in learning more about the way we worship. It offers planners and ministers a way to gain a sense of all the ways liturgy expresses the life of a parish.

Whether read from beginning to end or simply selected by a particular topic, these articles assist with teaching and learning about the liturgy. Discussion questions and helpful quotations from a variety of sources are available for individual use or group study. The new revision includes updated quotes from liturgical documents and texts as well as revised study questions and sidebar quotes.

978-1-61671-436-9 | Paperback | 8 3/8 x 10 7/8 | 144 pages | Language: English

Connecting the Liturgy with Our Lives: Print and Digital Resources for Faith Formation by Kathy Kuczka

Through images and stories that come from daily experiences, these faith formation inserts provide insights on the parts of the Mass, gestures and postures that are part of the liturgy, rites and symbols, and the liturgical year. As parishioners read these short pieces, they will relate to the mysteries we celebrate at Mass. Parishes will want to distribute these pieces during particular seasons of the liturgical year The 63 inserts can be downloaded from the CD-ROM or from the resource's website.

978-1-61671-485-7 | Book with disk | 8 1/2 x 11 | 80 pages | Language: English

A deep strain of tribal politics is dividing societies around the globe. Organized religions are also coping with scandals, disappointments, and polarizing ideologies. The history of Christianity reveals that such frictions deeply wound the church. Fr. Richard S. Vosko recognizes that liturgical buildings are metaphorical expressions of the people of God. He proposes, in a relational way, that when all physical and psychological boundaries in a place of worship are removed people will discover a common ground. Building on theological foundations and design principles, Vosko envisions what an egalitarian "servant church" can look like. In a bold but thoughtful manner, he presents progressive insights into the fields of church art and architecture.

Author: Richard S. Vosko

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814684719
Details: 252 pgs , 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 paperback
Publication Date: 09/15/2019

This book provides a paragraph-by-paragraph commentary on the Catholic Church's Order of Celebrating Matrimony. Readers will learn about the history and theology of the elements of the rite and of the pertinent texts in the Roman Missal. Paul Turner provides translations of reports of the study group that revised the ceremony after the Second Vatican Council. The book also covers the Spanish translations used in the United States, Mexico, and Colombia, and variations permitted in Australia and in England and Wales, as well as in French-speaking Canada. This in-depth commentary serves as an invaluable resource for practitioners and students of Catholic weddings.

Author: Paul Turner

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814663530
Details: 324 pgs , 6 x 9 
Publication Date: 02/02/2017

Maxwell Johnson has made multiple contributions to our understanding of liturgical history and liturgical theology. This volume honors his work by offering a set of important essays by respected scholars that bridge the distance between scholarship and praxis, to be accessible and relevant to both pastoral ministers and academic theologians.

It is organized according to three categories: liturgical year, Christian initiation, and Eucharist. Within these categories, the contributors are especially attentive to three important aspects of liturgical history:

• the role that important figures in liturgical history played as liturgical pastors
• how liturgical history has been used in shaping contemporary liturgical rites and prayers
• how liturgical history informs contemporary understandings and beliefs

Ultimately, the book pays tribute to Johnson's contributions to the life of the church by exploring ways that the study of liturgical history might help the church remain faithful to God and to the sacramental worldview that continues to define and characterize classic Christianity.

Subtitle: On the Intersection of Liturgical History and Pastoral Practice
Author: David A. Pitt, Stefanos Alexopoulos, and Christian McConnell (editors)

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814662434
Details: 288 pgs , 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 
Publication Date: 10/01/2012

The principal liturgies of Holy Week underwent a series of revisions between 1951 and 2011. In this book, noted liturgist Paul Turner charts the rubrics and prayers of the current rites paragraph by paragraph, explaining the historical development of individual components, how and why the post-Vatican II liturgical reform made its revisions, and where the Roman Missal, Third Edition has added nuances. This book will help ministers, liturgists, catechists, and all the faithful enter more deeply into the mystery of the cross of Christ, their glory and their hope.

Subtitle: Holy Week in the Third Edition of The Roman Missal
Author: Paul Turner

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814662427
Details: 192 pgs , 6 x 9 
Publication Date: 12/01/2011

2009 Catholic Press Association Award Winner!

Perhaps no liturgical scholar of our time is better able than John Baldovin to write with clarity and accuracy about the meaning of the church's liturgy and the history of its development in the last half century. In this summary volume on the reform of the liturgy since the Second Vatican Council, Baldovin pinpoints and assessesboth sympathetically and criticallythe objections to changes in the liturgy since the council, focusing on philosophical, historical-critical, and theological questions. After addressing each criticism in turn, in a final chapter he assesses the critique of postVatican II liturgy as a whole, affirming what is accurate and necessary, rejecting what is backward looking, and proposing a set of principles to guide future development. No one who studies or participates in liturgical action in the twenty-first century can afford to overlook this book.

Subtitle: A Response to the Critics 
Author: John F. Baldovin, SJ

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814662199
Details: 192 pgs , 6 x 9 
Publication Date: 11/01/2008

Each year, many adults who have never been baptized become Catholic. In the United States, these adults are outnumbered by baptized Christians of other denominations who seek to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church. In the minds of many Catholicsindeed, in many parish preparation programsthere is little difference between the two groups. Baptized and catechized Christians are often placed in programs with those who have not been baptized. Just as often, the two groups are welcomed into full membership alongside one another during the Easter Vigil, thereby obscuring further the distinction between them. Imagine that a high school senior transfers schools and is subsequently placed in middle school classes. Imagine no one thinking this change in status odd.

Turner seeks to clarify and confirm the status of baptized persons who enter into full communion of the Catholic Church. In addition, he explores the rites of reception in the early church and the Second Vatican Council call for ecumenical dialogue and looks to the reception rites of other Christian communities to gain added perspective. Turner historical and ecumenically sensitive analysis will help members of catechumenate teams think more carefully about the baptismal unity of all Christians. Drawing on that foundation of unity, they will find cause for rejoicing and restlessness and will learn steps to avoid and steps to takeso that communion becomes both easier to achieve and a reality in their midst.

Author: Paul Turner, STD

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814662168
Details: 184 pgs , 6 x 9 
Publication Date: 01/01/2007

Why do parish First Communion Masses so often neglect good liturgical principles? Should these celebrations resemble something analogous to a recital? Or, should they be celebrations worthy of the praise and glory of God?

First Communion Liturgies explores the purpose and practice of First Communion in our time, uncovers the pitfalls associated with it, and offers a guide for preparing celebrations that will enrich the lives of children and families, bringing them into a deeper relationship with God and the church.

Subtitle: Preparing First-Class First Celebrations
Author: Donna M. Eschenauer

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814649671
Details: 112 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 

Cantors throughout the United States and elsewhere have long known Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN, as a reliable teacher and mentor in how they understand and practice their important ministry. In Becoming the Psalms, she explores the spirituality of the psalms, a spirituality that shaped God's people in the past, forms the church today, and leads us into the future. Each chapter offers cantors who pray and sing the psalms a better understanding of the role of the psalms in shaping faith.

Kathleen Harmon is known as the author of Music Notes, a popular column in the journal Liturgical Ministry. Becoming the Psalms showcases some of her finest entries as well as new material exploring the relationship between praying the psalms privately and praying them liturgically, as well as the function of the responsorial psalm as proclamation.

Subtitle: A Spirituality of Singing and Praying the Psalms
Author: Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814648599
Details: 104 pgs , 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 
Publication Date: 06/22/2015

Thousands of readers have found Fr. Mark Boyer's The Liturgical Environment: What the Documents Sayto be a useful compendium of the church's law and guidelines on the liturgical environment. Rooted in the norm of active participation as the guiding principle for all liturgical celebration, each chapter considers the ecclesial documents that pertain to the particular objects under discussion, the theology found in the documents, and the praxis that flows from the theology. Now in its third edition, The Liturgical Environment has proven to be an essential resource for all those involved in planning, building, renovating, decorating, and worshiping in a sacred environment.

This new edition is significantly expanded and revised to take into account important material from the third edition of The Roman Missal, the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal, Pope Benedict's apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, and the Vatican's Instruction on the Eucharist, Redemptionis Sacramentum. Additional material has been added on celebrating the parish feast day, principles involved in decorating, and fakery in the liturgical environment. New information on the font and various baptismal scenarios for the Easter Vigil is also included. Three new chapters focus on celebrating marriages, funerals, and anointing the sick; on the concept of progressive solemnity in the liturgy; and on liturgical furniture for conference use when Mass is not celebrated in a church. Finally, new discussion questions present opportunities for reflection and discussion.

Subtitle: What the Documents Say: Third Edition
Author: Mark G. Boyer

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814648575
Details: 296 pgs , 6 x 9 
Publication Date: 05/06/2015

Pope Francis has said, "How I would like a Church that is poor and for the poor!" How might your parish answer the Holy Father's call more boldly? The Ministry of Peace and Justice is a practical guide meant to help faith communities deepen their commitment to bringing God's compassion to a wounded world. Intended for pastoral leaders and parishioners with a heart for those who are poor and vulnerable, this book includes creative suggestions for starting or expanding social efforts and contains six ready-to-use educational, interactive sessions for new or growing peace and justice committees.

Author: Michael Jordan Laskey

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814648131
Details: 108 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 
Publication Date: 02/11/2016

Although the Catholic funeral rite has not changed in the past few decades, society has. Parishes have new questions to face that their liturgical book does not consider: eulogies by family members, the final disposition of cremated remains, and the collapse of the traditional three-stage funeral liturgy. Light in the Darkness takes a fresh look at the pastoral challenges society is posing, while giving concrete suggestions for implementing the vision of the Catholic Church's Order of Christian Funerals. The appendix includes catechetical materials for families planning a funeral and an extended commentary on all the Scripture readings for a funeral Mass.

Subtitle: Preparing Better Catholic Funerals
Author: Paul Turner

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814646076
Details: 144 pgs , 6 x 9 
Publication Date: 07/03/2017

We all want to celebrate the liturgy well, to experience good, uplifting, and meaningful worship. But what is the best route to follow? In The Rites and Wrongs of Liturgy, Thomas O'Loughlin offers a way forward that strengthens faith, builds up Christian community, and points toward a new direction based on liturgical principles that are rooted in our natures as ritual beings as well as in the gospel.

The Rites and Wrongs of Liturgy explains why good liturgy is important, how to recognize it, and how to assess liturgy in terms of a larger vision of the Christian life. O'Loughlin, a seasoned theologian and teacher, identifies ten principles that make for good liturgy. Such liturgy must be honest, open, joyful, inclusive, celebrative of community, facilitative of engagement, based in creation, attentive to the marginalized, free of clutter, and true to the pattern of the incarnation.

Since good celebrations build faith and bad liturgy weakens it, these principles promise to bring new life and meaning to every celebrating community.

Subtitle: Why Good Liturgy Matters
Author: Thomas O'Loughlin

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814645635
Details: 120 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 
Publication Date: 05/17/2018

In this book, Gerald O'Collins, SJ, takes a systematic look at the 2010 English translation of the Roman Missal and the ways it fails to achieve what the Second Vatican Council mandated: the full participation of priest and people. Critiquing the unsatisfactory principles prescribed by the Vatican instruction Liturgiam Authenticam (2001), this book, which includes a chapter by John Wilkins: 

• tells the story of the maneuverings that sidelined the 1998 translation approved by eleven conferences of English-speaking bishops,
• criticizes the 2010 translation, and
• illustrates the clear superiority of the 1998 translation, the "Missal that never was"

Subtitle: The English Language and the Catholic Mass
Author: Gerald O'Collins, SJ, and John Wilkins

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814644577
Details: 132 pgs , 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 
Publication Date: 10/18/2017