Toward Ritual Transformation : Remembering Robert W. Hovda

In Toward Ritual Transformation renowned liturgist Robert W. Hovda, and other distinguished liturgists who have followed his lead, challenge the Church to continue a pilgrimage toward beauty and justice, the inseparable components of Christian liturgy and life.

Father Hovda's bishop once accused him of having a messiah complex." Hovda replied: *I thought we were supposed to. - Hovda's *messiah complex - was the idea of a church *never finalized or finished, never an accomplished fact but always on pilgrimage, seeking, growing, and helping the world grow toward what Scripture calls the reign of God. This faith community comes to realize gradually, with the help of the Word of God and the signs of the times, that its ministry in the world is the liberation and unification of the human race, because the God of the Bible is a God who is living, whose creative work is ongoing, and whose call beckons us always to move beyond where we are at any given moment. -

Essays and their contributors are *A Tree Planted by a Stream, - by Gabe Huck; *The Sacred: Silence and Song, - by Robert W. Hovda; *Liturgical Prayer: Twenty-five Years of Change, - by Virgil C.Funk; *Ritual Transformations: Principles, Patterns, and People, - by J. Michael Joncas; *Being Beautiful, Being Just, - by Nathan D. Mitchell; *The Transforming Power of Music: Tales of Transformation, - by James Savage; and *All at Once the Music Changed, - by John Foley, S.J.

Nathan D. Mitchell, PhD, (1943-2024), was Associate Director for Research at the Center for Pastoral Liturgy, University of Notre Dame. Six times a year, he wrote "The Amen Corner" for Worship. In 1998, the North American Academy of Liturgy presented him with its Berakah Award. Other books by Mitchell that have been published by Liturgical Press include Cult and Controversy, Mission and Ministry, and Rule of Prayer, Rule of Faith. He also contributed to The Collegeville Pastoral Dictionary of Biblical Theology.

John B. Foley, SJ, is the Distinguished Liturgical Theologian and composer of liturgical music at Saint Louis University. He is the founder and director of the Stroble Center for Liturgy, which enlivens, enriches, and deepens the celebration of the Eucharist by enabling Catholics to participate more fully in the Mass, by advancing the composition of liturgical music, and by teaching students about the riches of Catholic liturgy.