Journey into the Heart of God explores the meanings and relationships of the seasons of the Church Year as they have developed and are now received and lived. This study, holding always in view the breadth and richness of the liturgical tradition of the whole Church, is illuminated by insightful liturgical texts of the Eucharist and also of the less familiar Daily Office; it also gives attention to the people's theology expressed in hymns from a broad spectrum of traditions, ancient and modern. Careful attention to the liturgy and its setting in the turning of the seasons reveals a profound concern for ecology and for the whole cosmos. The liturgical year as it has developed through the centuries is a work of art, the collaborative achievement of many hands and minds, resulting in an extraordinarily rich fabric with layers of insight and suggestion. The work of Christ celebrated and set forth in the Church's year is experienced not as mere recollection of past events in salvation history, but rather as a living reality, the appropriation of the mighty acts of God alive in his people, the experience today of the life that those great historical deeds have accomplished. The Church year, sifted and tested through centuries, even millennia, of use, dramatizes and makes real a way of living, recognizing, accepting, and making use of the complexity and even the strangeness of human experience. In this way it encourages honesty, humility, growth, and maturity in those who live it.

About the Author
Philip Pfatteicher was a parish pastor in South Philadelphia and in the South Bronx. For thirty years he served concurrently as Professor of English and Religious Studies and campus pastor at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. He returned to parish ministry as Associate Pastor of First Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh and taught liturgics and hymnology at Duquesne University. He and his wife now live in Melrose, Massachusetts, and he is a member of the staff of the Church of the Advent in Boston.

Reviews
It is a book that one should read from cover to cover and then let sit. ...make it your companion, journeying with God through the cycle of faith. Highly Recommended. * The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199997121
Author Philip H. Pfatteicher
Format Hardback
Page Count 432
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 152mm * 241mm * 36mm