Inside ML

“Church architecture must create places that foster the ‘numinous,’” writes Chris Michael DiLoreto in this issue (pages 6–9). To be “numinous” is to be filled with the divine. It is, of course, baptism that makes us numinous. When we fill the church with “numinized” bodies, the space takes on a “numinosity.” However, a worship space that does not accurately reflect the spirituality of the numinous bodies that gather there will not fully foster a sense of the divine. DiLoreto explains his successful process for involving the full and active participation of the faithful in the renovation and construction of their worship spaces so they will be numinous churches.

It is sometimes the case that in churches with limited budgets for renovation and limited motivation to fully involve the assembly, the first (and sometimes only) part of the environment to be renovated is the reconciliation room. Joseph Favazza calls us to take another look at how we understand reconciliation (pages 10–13). “From the beginning, water baptism was the primary sign of reconciliation with God,” he says. “The Eucharist was the ordinary or normative sign of reconciliation.” Favazza goes on to describe how we arrived at our current state of affairs and also sketches out for us how the sacrament of penance might still become a meaningful — if infrequent — celebration for the majority of the faithful.

Thanks for your songs

In this issue, ML says farewell to John Erhard. Erhard has been our most recent author of Musical Liturgy, and he is retiring due to other commitments. ML wishes him all the best.

Relentless consistency

The first time I wrote Inside ML, I quoted Andrew Ciferni, who said that an important component of good liturgy is “relentless consistency.” That’s also an important characteristic for a  magazine — one I have tried to maintain in these pages for almost a decade. What I hope we have been consistent about is promoting the full, conscious and active participation of the faithful. Now it is time for someone else to take over that task in these pages. As I move on to promote the vision of Vatican II through other venues, my prayer for everyone connected with ML — readers, writers, editors, advertisers and critics — is that we will all become more united as the Body of Christ. God bless. ML

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