Elements of Rite

Keeping in mind two pastoral considerations—the liturgy itself and the assembly that worships—Father Kavanagh looks not beyond rubrics but deep into their historical and pastoral existence in order to develop rules of style which articulate this existence in current Roman liturgical usage. From this research has come a pastoral manual for clergy who preside at liturgical celebrations.

Aidan Kavanagh, OSB, (1926-2006) founded the doctoral program in liturgical studies at Notre Dame and served as professor of liturgics at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School. His texts on liturgy, rites of initiation, and liturgical theology made him a significant figure in American Catholic liturgiology. He is the author of Elements of Rite, On Liturgical Theology, and The Shape of Baptism published by Liturgical Press.