Hearing Our Prayers

An Exploration of Liturgical Listening

Juliette J. Day

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ISBN: 9780814669419, 6941

Details: 240 pgs, 6 x 9 x 1/2
Publication Date: 03/05/2024

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2025 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, Liturgy or Worship

How do we hear our prayers? In the words of philosopher Gemma Corradi Fiumara, there can “be no saying without hearing, no speaking which is not an integral part of listening, no speech which is not somehow received.” Therefore, hearing should be considered an essential aspect of participation in Christian worship. However, although almost all studies of Christian worship attend to the words spoken and sung, almost none consider how worshippers hear in the liturgical event.

In Hearing Our Prayers, Juliette Day draws upon insights from liturgical studies, philosophy, psychology, acoustical science, and architectural studies to investigate how acts of audition occur in Christian worship. The book discusses the different listening strategies worshippers use for speech, chant, and music, as well as for silence and noise: why paying attention in church can be so difficult and how what we hear is affected by the buildings in which worship takes place. Day concludes by identifying "liturgical listening" as a particular type of ritual participation and emphasizes that liturgical listening is foundational for the way in which we pray, and think about God, the church, and the world.

Juliette J. Day is university lecturer and docent in church history at the University of Helsinki.

ISBN: 9780814669419, 6941

Details: 240 pgs, 6 x 9 x 1/2
Publication Date: 03/05/2024

Reviews

"Contra Macbeth’s view that life is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, in worship sound—spoken, chanted, individual or communal, as well as ritual gestures and silence—signify everything. In this widely researched book, Juliette Day discusses contemporary understandings of sound and aurality, illustrated from different Christian traditions, and from her wide knowledge of the history of liturgy. This study fills a glaring academic void, and it should be read and heeded by all those who study liturgy, and those who both plan and lead worship."

Bryan D. Spinks, Bishop F. Percy Goddard Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology, Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School

"This original and compelling study of the phenomenon of sound in Christian worship invites its readers into a world much more complex than song, sermon and vocalized prayer. Juliette Day's multi-disciplinary approach to the way worshippers hear and are themselves heard draws on the physics of sound as well as physiological, ritual and architectural accounts of the way sound is created and received, as well as (most importantly) attending to the marking of sound by silence. Participating in the liturgy will not be the same again for those who let this book guide future listening and hearing."

Bridget Nichols, author of Lively Oracles of God

"This book sets out to reimagine the act of worship in auditory terms, which gifts its readers the opportunity to re-experience how our relationship with God and with each other is not only spoken in worship, but is 'heard-into-being.' In other words, Juliette Day gives us ears to hear worship afresh, or to listen liturgically. This approach to worship is exciting and fruitful."

Search

"This work demonstrates that liturgical texts demand to be heard, or rather, listened to with great attentiveness."

Catholic Books Review

"It is to be hoped that this book will be widely received and that it will contribute to a new, deeper awareness of the significance and development of the all too often neglected auditory and listening aspects of liturgy, both for liturgical studies and for the practice of Christian worship."

Ex Fonte

“A wide-ranging, well-written and accessible study of sound (and silence) in worship. Day draws on diverse disciplines (philosophy, psychology, music, architecture, and acoustics) to explore ‘liturgical listening’ as an important and often overlooked example of participation in ritual. This work is ecumenical, intelligent and thought provoking.”

Catholic Media Association

“Juliette Day's book is a theological study with a strong underpinning in acoustics, physiology, and sociology, but all woven together with remarkable clarity and many insights.”

Worship

“Listening is an essential aspect of the liturgical dynamic, and Day's text adds a further facet to the discussion. This is important especially today in the face of the synod on synodality and its emphasis on listening in the Spirit as a fundamental element of the structuring of the church.”

Horizons