Eucharistic adoration has experienced a great revival during
the past ten years. You can read about this phenomenon in the pages of many
magazines. The number of churches offering perpetual adoration is also
on the increase. The publication of Adoration: Eucharistic Texts and Prayers
Throughout Church History is a timely work that holds a great many
treasures.
If you have been receiving our newsletter, you noticed that
we occassionally used quotes from the Church Fathers relating to the Eucharist.
We found those quotes in this book. The first half of this book is comprised
of Eucharistic texts spanning the entire history of the Catholic Church.
From the Gospels to St. Augustine to Cardinal Newman to the
new Catechism of the Catholic Church, this book is a rich resource of
theological and meditative texts on the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The second section of the book contains a compendium of
Catholic Eucharistic prayers. This section contains classics such as the Act of
Spiritual Communion, the Anima Christi and the Act of Faith. It also contains
lesser known prayers such as a Eucharistic prayer from Japan, and several
prayers by the saints. Also included are classic hymns including Panis
Angelicus, Ave Verum Corpus and Sacrum Convivium.
The last two sections of the book include the rite of Exposition
and Benediction, with the hymns O Salutaris and Tantum Ergo in both Latin
and English, and Common Prayers which includes the Rosary, the Angelus and
many more.
We have found this book to be a great source of material
both for our newsletter and for general reading and devotion. We are especially
pleased with the large quantity of historical texts which prove that
Catholics didn't invent the doctrine of the Eucharist in the 16th century.
Our only complaint with this book, and it is a small one,
is that most of the classic Latin hymns found in the book only contain the
English translation. Panis Angelicus contains both Latin and English but
Ave Verum Corpus, two pages later, does not. The omission is probably the
result of editing decisions but we hope that future printings will include
more of the prayers with the Latin texts.
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