We want each moment to be an identifiable, quantifiable, qualifiable thing, in which we can pinpoint the sign, word, or thought that changes our lives. The problem, though, is that transformations don’t happen this way. Ritual doesn’t work this way. And neither does the liturgical life.
Read moreAuthor: Katharine E. Harmon
Katharine E. Harmon is Assistant Professor of Theology at Marian University in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she teaches undergraduate students and college seminarians. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s liturgical studies program, Harmon has contributed more than a dozen articles and chapters to the fields of liturgical studies and American Catholicism, and is the author of
There Were Also Many Women There: Lay Women in the Liturgical Movement in the United States, 1926-1959 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2013). She currently serves as Convener of the Modern Worship seminar of the North American Academy of Liturgy, and is Past President of the Catholic Academy of Liturgy. She resides in Indianapolis with her husband and two children, and is an accompanist for her home parish.
The Holy in the More than Mundane
I drove home recently—and by home I mean my childhood home—from a meeting in Chicago. Having lived in northern Indiana for over 10 years (followed
Read moreThe So-Called Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome
But, regardless of whence the text comes, what surprised me was how the students read the text. The first things they noticed were the words that sounded most like the present-day Roman Rite.
Read moreAre the undergraduates controlled by robots?
The immediacy afforded by technology can make us impatient with the liturgical experience. Liturgical time is slow.
Read moreHow Important is Pink, Anyway?
Why did the liturgical gods do this to us? Do we really need to have paraments and party outfits for two days in the liturgical calendar?
Read moreWhat We’re Reading
My Massachusetts-born husband insists that oceans are necessary in life. The expanse of open water leaves room for the imagination: inviting contemplation of the immensity
Read moreWhat do the Millennials Want?
Thus far, the experience of worship has been designed for Millennials, not by them.
Read moreWhat do Icons, the Catholic Worker, and Churches-in-the-Round Have in Common?
Through her art and design, Adé Bethune stressed the dignity of all individuals in the great Body of Christ.
Read moreThe Legitimate Liturgical Function of Clowns
Would there be any possible context in which a clown Mass would be a good idea?
Read moreReligious Sisters Didn’t Really Do Anything Anyway?
At a conference this summer, I had the pleasure of hearing a Catholic historian, a theologian, and a sociologist discuss Margaret M. McGuinness’ recent book, Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America (NYU Press, 2013). The variety of perspectives on the panel reflects the variety of lenses with which the history of American religious women must be viewed.
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