Teach Us to Pray: The Lords Prayer, Catechesis, and Ritual Reform in the Sixteenth Century [Hardcover]

The study of liturgical reform is usually undertaken through a close examination of liturgical texts. In order to consider the impact of reform on the worship life of Christians, Katharine Mahon takes a wider view of liturgy by considering the worship practices of Christian churches beyond what appears in the rites themselves. Looking at how Christians were taught how to pray and instructed in liturgical and sacramental participation, Mahon explores the late medieval patterns of Christian ritual formation and the transformation of these patterns in the sixteenth-century reforms of Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer, and Roman Catholic leaders. She uses the Lords Prayerthe backbone of medieval lay catechesis, liturgical participation, and private prayerto paint a panorama of medieval ritual formation integrated into the life of the church in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. She then follows the disintegration and reconstruction of that system of formation through the changing functions of the Lords Prayer in the official reforms of catechesis, liturgy, and prayer in the sixteenth-century.Katharine Mahon is academic advisor and Burke, Hofman, Kolman Postdoctoral Fellow in the First Year of Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

This study of the Lords Prayer is a suitable reminder (if one was needed) that this is a foundational liturgical prayer for all Christians, and as such has played a key role in catechesis. ... Mahons study will prove invaluable to those looking at sixteenth-century treatment of this foundational prayer. Journal of Ecclesiastical History

In this significant book, Katharine Mahon opens up new angles for the study of liturgical history through a unique approach to the Lords Prayer and its embeddedness and influence on broader liturgical reforms and devotional practices. Mahon engages an exciting cross-confessional approach to the reform of devotional practice and how prayer is re-ritualized into life. Liturgical and lcœ