Lex Loquendi, Lex Orandi: On the Reform of the Roman Offertoria

Lex Loquendi, Lex Orandi: On the Reform of the Roman OffertoriaThis study develops a more robust theory of liturgical language that brings Pickstocks postmodern vision and the Thomistic construal of prayer into a constructive, complementary dialogue. Such a Pickstockian Thomistic synthesis then lays the foundation for an assessment of the twentieth century Roman liturgical reform by means of a contrastive linguistic historical philosophical analysis of the medieval Roman Offertory and its analogue in the Missal

This study develops a more robust theory of liturgical language that brings PickstockÕs postmodern vision and the Thomistic construal of prayer into a constructive, complementary dialogue. Such a Pickstockian-Thomistic synthesis then lays the foundation for an assessment of the twentieth century Roman liturgical reform by means of a contrastive linguistic-historical-philosophical analysis of the medieval Roman Offertory and its analogue in the Missal of Paul VI, the Preparation of the Gifts. After articulating the philosophical and theological consequences arising from the strong disparity between their respective linguistic forms, this project will argue that the Preparation of the Gifts, as compared with the Offertory in the medieval Roman Rite, is grounded on a more modern conception of language which presupposes the separation of subject and object, thereby limiting the disposition of both the worshiper and the liturgical act itself toward latria.