Precious Fountain
Music in the Worship of an African American Catholic Community
Precious Fountain
Music in the Worship of an African American Catholic Community
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Paperback / softback
£18.99
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780814662076
Number of Pages: 376
Published: 01/11/2004
Width: 15.2 cm
Height: 22.9 cm
A Precious Fountain is a work of liturgical ethnography that probes the rich liturgical life of one worshiping community whose roots and practices are at once Black and Catholic, using music as a primary lens through which to explore the community's liturgy and embodied theology. Our Lady of Lourdes community in San Francisco is part of a larger event in the American church: the emergence of a new paradigm of Catholic worship, one that is "authentically Black and truly Catholic."
Mary E. McGann, RSCJ, describes how the music worship of Our Lady of Lourdes in San Francisco not only enriches that community but also is an example of how a theology of music is practiced in that parish. She offers this new genre of liturgical literature that brings to light how God?s Spirit is working in the churches through the idioms, perceptions, and insights of specific ethno-cultural communities in this time of massive cultural change and globalization.
Contents
Credits v
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface: On Writing Liturgical Ethnography xv
Introduction: Borderlands xxiii
1 “Having a good time in the Lord!” (Enjoying worship) 1
2 “I needed that song!” (Rhythms of life and liturgy) 16
3 “Take your time!” (Musicians and their craft) 30
Intermezzo: Time 43
4 “I’ve been a guest of the Almighty!” (Brother Banks) 52
5 Lourdes’ Miracles (Growing up in the church) 68
6 “When I hear my Savior say, ‘Welcome home!’” (Being home) 82
Intermezzo: Space 97
7 “It’s about a message!” (Singing the Gospel) 106
8 “Preach it!” (An oral/aural art) 119
9 “Lord, Help Me to Hold Out!” (Mosaics of sound and meaning) 134
Intermezzo: Words 144
10 “Having church” (Being church) 153
11 “Lord, Let Your Spirit Fall on Me!” (Spirit-directed worship) 168
12 “Oh, Lord, how excellent!” (Movement toward Communion) 181
Intermezzo: Flow 195
13 Rhythms of the body, rhythms of the spirit (A God who loves singing and dancing) 205
14 “Dig down deep!” (Women leaders) 220
15 “The Spirit incorporates the body” (A vision of communal life) 234
Intermezzo: Embodiment 249
Speaking Theologically 259
Epilogue: Our Lady of Lourdes—2003 272
Appendices
1 Table of “coded speech” to indicate the inflection of aural sound 281
2 Diagrams of the worship space 282
3 Order of the Sunday Liturgy: Our Lady at Lourdes 285
4 Glossary of Musical Terms 287
5 Our Lady of Lourdes—Songs Sung at Sunday Liturgy August, 1993–August, 1997 294
Notes 304
Index 321
Credits v
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface: On Writing Liturgical Ethnography xv
Introduction: Borderlands xxiii
1 “Having a good time in the Lord!” (Enjoying worship) 1
2 “I needed that song!” (Rhythms of life and liturgy) 16
3 “Take your time!” (Musicians and their craft) 30
Intermezzo: Time 43
4 “I’ve been a guest of the Almighty!” (Brother Banks) 52
5 Lourdes’ Miracles (Growing up in the church) 68
6 “When I hear my Savior say, ‘Welcome home!’” (Being home) 82
Intermezzo: Space 97
7 “It’s about a message!” (Singing the Gospel) 106
8 “Preach it!” (An oral/aural art) 119
9 “Lord, Help Me to Hold Out!” (Mosaics of sound and meaning) 134
Intermezzo: Words 144
10 “Having church” (Being church) 153
11 “Lord, Let Your Spirit Fall on Me!” (Spirit-directed worship) 168
12 “Oh, Lord, how excellent!” (Movement toward Communion) 181
Intermezzo: Flow 195
13 Rhythms of the body, rhythms of the spirit (A God who loves singing and dancing) 205
14 “Dig down deep!” (Women leaders) 220
15 “The Spirit incorporates the body” (A vision of communal life) 234
Intermezzo: Embodiment 249
Speaking Theologically 259
Epilogue: Our Lady of Lourdes—2003 272
Appendices
1 Table of “coded speech” to indicate the inflection of aural sound 281
2 Diagrams of the worship space 282
3 Order of the Sunday Liturgy: Our Lady at Lourdes 285
4 Glossary of Musical Terms 287
5 Our Lady of Lourdes—Songs Sung at Sunday Liturgy August, 1993–August, 1997 294
Notes 304
Index 321
This book will be useful to anyone who wants to know more about current liturgical research and scholarship, about music as a bearer of theological meaning, and about liturgical practice in Black Churches. One of its many strengths is the way the unfolding of its dramatic story draws the reader into experiencing `one community's regular encounter with the living God, mediated sacramentally and liturgically through their being the "church" assembled' (p. xix). With respect and affection, and by means of liturgical ethnography, McGann has undertaken a deep probing of the `structures of thought and feeling that shape [this community's] sense of divine mystery, [and] of [the] self-identity and relationship that are foundational to their worship' (p xvi).Anglican Theological Review Precious Fountain is a text worthy of serious consideration for students of liturgical theology both new and old. It acclaims the contributions and insights of this African American Catholic Community to authentic music-worship practice and invites further dialogue and mutual exchange between the particular and universal church.Ecclesia Orans
