The Liturgical Year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (Vol. 1) Volume 1

by Adrien Nocent, Paul Turner (Introduction), Paul Turner (Noted by)

Overview

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 emended and annotated by one of today's leading 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.

On 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 1 covers the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814635698
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	09/15/2013
Series:	Liturgical Year , #1
Edition description:	Annotated
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Paul Turner is pastor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception  in Kansas City, Missouri and director of the Office of Divine Worship for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. He holds a doctorate in sacred theology from Sant’ Anselmo in Rome.He is a former president of the North American Academy of Liturgy and a member of Societas Liturgica and the Catholic Academy of Liturgy. He serves as a facilitator for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. His publications include One Love: A Pastoral Guide to the Order of Celebrating Matrimony, Inseparable Love: A Commentary on The Order of Celebrating Matrimony in the Catholic Church, Glory in the Cross: Holy Week in the Third Edition of The Roman Missal, Let Us Pray: A Guide to the Rubrics of Sunday Mass, and Whose Mass Is It? Why People Care So Much about the Catholic Liturgy, all published by Liturgical Press. He is also a contributor to Give Us This Day.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations vii

Series Introduction ix

Preface xi

Introduction to the Liturgical Year 1

The Advent Mystery

Biblico-Liturgical Reflections on the Advent Season 21

1 Waiting in Hope 21

2 The Hope and Expectation of the Ages 33

3 Waiting for the Comings of the Lord 54

Structure and Themes of the Advent Liturgy 80

4 Introduction 80

5 First Week of Advent: Watch and Pray 88

6 Second Week of Advent: Prepare the Way 99

7 Third Week of Advent: The Messianic Age 115

8 Fourth Week of Advent: The Annunciation of the Messiah's Coming 127

The "O" Antiphons 137

9 Advent in the Liturgies of the Past 142

The Christmas Mystery

Biblico-Liturgical Reflections on Christmas 153

10 Christmas: A Charming Memory? 153

11 God and Human, King and Servant 165

12 The Christmas Pasch 181

Structures and Themes of the Christmas Liturgy 196

13 The Incarnation Today 196

14 Meditative Celebrations of Christmas 206

15 Christmas in the Liturgies of the Past 212

The Epiphany Mystery

Biblico-Liturgical Reflections on the Epiphany 221

16 The Epiphany: A Mystery of Plenty 221

17 The Magi of Old and the "Magi" of Today 228

18 The Jordan: "Our Jordan" 239

19 Cana 252

Structures and Themes of the Epiphany Season 260

20 Epiphany: Homage to the Lord 260

21 The Baptism of the Lord 265

22 Epiphany in the Liturgies of the Past 268

Epilogue: A Journey into the Paschal Mystery 279

Notes 280

Editorial Reviews

Though originating in the postconciliar period, Adrien Nocent's volumes remain one of the church's finest commentaries on the lectionary and contain remarkable up-to-date insights for our times. Thanks to the emendations and annotations of Paul Turner, one of today's finest liturgical scholars, these volumes will enrich the thoughts of parish liturgists, presiders, homilists, musicians, lectors, theology students, and participants in the church's liturgy.
Stephen J. Binz, biblical scholar, author of Conversing with God in Advent and Christmas (also Conversing with God in Lent and Conversing with God in the Easter Season)


Aggiornamento is back! Paul Turner has updated the first volume of Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year in a discrete, respectful, and informed manner, enabling the author's reflections on the feasts and seasons as well as on the Lectionary to connect effectively with the concerns and interests of present-day readers. I look forward to the next two volumes.
Patrick Regan, OSB, Saint Joseph Abbey, Saint Benedict, Louisiana, Author of Advent to Pentecost


Adrien Nocent was truly a remarkable scholar well ahead of his time! First published in English in 1977, we cannot today but be astonished at the depth of theological and pastoral insight on the Lectionary and liturgies in this first of his multivolume work on the liturgical year. He weaves the paschal mystery, eschatology, and living liturgy daily into a core tool for interpreting Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany in a fresh way. In this reissue, Fr. Paul Turner sensitively respects Nocent's own voice as he bridges the time after the Council to the present age: he emends the text to render it in horizontal inclusive language, redresses some theological and historical issues, and includes the latest translation of the liturgical text. This work needs to be on every priest's, liturgist's, musician's, and assembly member's "go to" shelf.
Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS, Institute for Liturgical Ministry


In 1977 when Adrien Nocent's book appeared in English translation, I was studying the liturgical year with him at Sant'Anselmo. I remember how moved I was to read his deep reflections after having experienced the new lectionary with its three-year cycle of readings at that point only a couple of times. Now, having experienced the three-year cycle more than a dozen times, I am still moved by his writings. I am delighted that his book has been updated by Paul Turner and is coming into print again.
Michael S. Driscoll, Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame


This new edition of Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year dappers up an old friend! The passing of time and the introduction of the new translation of the Roman Missal had made the original edition of Nocent's work more difficult to use. Now Paul Turner has done us a favor with this thorough revision: he has replaced prayer texts with the new translation, explained the context of some issues that have faded in the almost forty years since Nocent wrote the book, and emended Matthew J. O'Connell's fine translation to make it more accessible to readers today. The virtues of Nocent's original work (namely, his opening up of the reformed liturgical year through the lens of the lectionary and prayer texts of the Missal in the light of the history of the liturgy) can again serve preachers, liturgists, and lovers of the liturgy because of Turner's fine work. It promises to be a key resource for another forty years.
Rev. Michael Witczak Associate Professor of Liturgical Studies Catholic University of America

From the Publisher