Adrien Nocent - The Liturgical Year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (vol. 1)

Aggiornamento is back! Paul Turner has updated the first volume of Adrien Nocents The Liturgical Year in a discrete, respectful, and informed manner, enabling the authors 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.

Though originating in the postconciliar period, Adrien Nocents volumes remain one of the churchs 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 todays finest liturgical scholars, these volumes will enrich the thoughts of parish liturgists, presiders, homilists, musicians, lectors, theology students, and participants in the churchs liturgy.

Adrien Nocent was truly a remarkable scholar, well ahead of his time! 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 Nocents own voice as he bridges the time after the Council to the present age. This work needs to be on every priests, liturgists, musicians, and assembly members go to shelf.

In 1977 when Adrien Nocents book appeared in English translation, I was studying the liturgical year with him at SantAnselmo. 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.

The Liturgical Year

Volume One

ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, EPIPHANY

by

Adrien Nocent, OSB

Translated by

Matthew J. OConnell

Introduced, Emended, and Annotated by

Paul Turner

LITURGICAL PRESS

Collegeville, Minnesota

www.litpress.org

Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert C. Harren, J.C.L., Censor deputatus.

Imprimatur: Most Reverend John F. Kinney, J.C.D., D.D., Bishop of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, August 8, 2013.

Cover design by Ann Blattner. Illustration by Frank Kacmarcik, OblSB. Saint Johns Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota. Used with permission.

Available in three volumes, The Liturgical Year is the authorized English version of Clbrer Jsus-Christ, Lanne Liturgique, published by Jean-Pierre Delarge, 10, rue Mayet, 75006 Paris, France. The English translation of The Liturgical Year was first published by Liturgical Press in four volumes in 1977.

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross-references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The English translation of Antiphons, Responsories, Non-Biblical Readings from The Liturgy of the Hours 1973, 1974, 1975, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL); excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved.

Excerpts in this work are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States. Copyright 2001, 1998, 1997, 1992, 1986, and 1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means and without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Psalms reprinted from The Revised Grail Psalms Copyright 2010, Conception Abbey/The Grail, admin. by GIA Publications, Inc., www.giamusic.com . All rights reserved.

2013 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint Johns Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nocent, Adrien.

2013011152

Contents

Abbreviations

Series Introduction

When the postconciliar lectionary first fell into the hands of priests, musicians, and parish liturgists in 1970, few could fully grasp the significance of the event. The vast selection of readings, the nimble choice of responsorial psalms, and the blossoming of the liturgical year would become clearer only in time.

One of the first companions to the revised lectionary was composed by Adrien Nocent, a Belgian monk who became a consultor for the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship in 1969. In 1964 he had served as a consultor for the Consilium for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. He was the secretary for the Consiliums Study Group 17, which worked on the revision of Holy Week, and, among other responsibilities, was part of Study Group 11, which revised the Lectionary for Mass. He drew up the preliminary schemas for Advent, the Sundays after Epiphany, and the Sundays following Pentecost.

For Nocent, a commentary on the lectionary could not be a mere commentary on a book but an exploration of the dialogue between the Word of God and humanity in every culture and time. The Church had been through only one complete three-year cycle of the lectionary when Nocent was writing this book. He shared his vision of this project for eager readers, students, and worshipers.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Liturgical Press is proud to reissue Nocents work. I was deeply honored at the invitation to contribute annotationshonored because when I was in the seminary, The Liturgical Year was the main resource I consulted to prayerfully approach my participation in the Sunday Mass; honored because as a young priest, I used The Liturgical Year to help prepare my homilies; honored because as a liturgical catechist, my brain had been hardwired to Nocents approach to the lectionary: Start with the gospel, then look at the first reading, then the psalm, and be ready to discard the second reading from your treatment of the Sunday lectionary.