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  • Crowned With Glory And Honor:An Approach To Liturgical Christology1
  • Thomas A. Krosnicki SVD (bio)

Introduction

It is with gratitude that I have accepted the invitation to give the 2012 Msgr. Frederick McManus Lecture here at The Catholic University of America. I wish to thank Dean Robert Kaslyn and the faculty of the School of Canon Law for considering me, among so many better qualified persons, to present a few of my liturgical reflections on liturgy and Christology.

I was present at the 2011 McManus Lecture and heard the informative paper delivered by Fr. Robert Taft S.J. of the Oriental Institute in Rome. It is somewhat daunting for me to follow Fr. Taft and other previous presenters of international stature, such as Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Father Kevin Seasoltz O.S.B., the editor of WORSHIP, Bishop Donald Trautman and Father John Baldovin S.J. I am comforted, however, by the realization that they remain my friends along with many other liturgists, in the United States and elsewhere, from my generation who were recently referred to— incorrectly and somewhat offensively—as "former barons of the liturgical establishment".2 [End Page 492]

Forty years ago, in 1972, when hired as a temporary staff person for the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy (BCL), having just finished my doctoral studies and successfully defended my dissertation at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant' Anselmo (Rome), Father McManus asked that I prepare a catechetical text that would assist dioceses and parishes in the implementation of the new practice of communion in the hand and reception of the Eucharist under both species.3 That temporary summer assignment eventually led to my appointment as Associate Director of the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, of which Msgr. McManus was the first national Director. Perhaps two other issues prompted my appointment to the BCL by Bishop Joseph Bernadin, then general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The first was the fact that the major seminary, where I was expected to teach, had merged with other religious orders to form the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and the position of professor of liturgy was already filled by Dr. Lawrence J. Johnson. Secondly, it was perhaps significant that The Catholic University of America, at the suggestion and direction of Dr. Johannes Quasten, had published my doctoral dissertation: Ancient Patterns in Modern Prayer.4 I remain grateful to both Dr. Quasten and the university for that favor. In 1967 I had taken his informative course on patristics as part of the curriculum for the Licentiate in Theology.5

Although Msgr. McManus' primary area of expertise was canon law and administration here at this university, one cannot deny his significant contribution in the area of liturgy, both on the national and international levels. A peritus at the Second Vatican Council, along with the likes of Father Godfrey Diekmann, he was instrumental in the formation of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy to assist Episcopal Conferences [End Page 493] in the preparation of the English translation of liturgical books and texts published in Latin after the Council. He was certainly recognized as a leading American liturgical figure who traveled, lectured and wrote extensively to assist in the implementation of the revised liturgy of Vatican II in the United States and elsewhere.6

I am indebted to the support and mentoring Fred McManus extended to me at the BCL. It remains an honor that I, at his suggestion to Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, was appointed his successor as the third Director of the US liturgy office of the American Bishops in Washington. The fact that in 1975 I was named a consultor to the newly established Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship was, I presume, also at his recommendation. Perhaps it is because I now remain the senior living successor of Msgr. McManus as Director of the US Liturgy Office that I was invited to present this lecture today. I hope that my presentation does him honor.

Toward a Liturgical Christology

Recently I had the opportunity to reread The Place of Christ in Liturgical Prayer, by Joseph Jungmann—a volume translated into English in 1966 and with which every student...

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