Next Saturday’s (March 14) Adoremus Conference, held at the historic Sacred Heart Chapel in Covina will include Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, founder and editor of Ignatius Press and founding member of the Adoremus Society; Dr. Anthony Lilles, academic dean of St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park and a specialist in the Church’s mystical traditions; and Christopher Carstens, editor of Adoremus Bulletin, instructor at the Liturgical Institute-University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL, and director of the Office for Sacred Worship in the Diocese of La Crosse, WI.

8:45    Morning Prayer

9:00    Praying with Jesus (Fr. Fessio)

10:15  Session I: Developing a Liturgical Spirituality (Lilles & Carstens) What is meant by “spirituality” and the Catholic life? What are the schools of spirituality, and what do they emphasize? Why is it essential to foster in oneself and one’s family and parishioners a vibrant spiritual life? Pope John Paul called for the “development of a liturgical spirituality”: what does this mean? How does it relate to the overall spiritual life? Why are the liturgies of the Triduum a privileged fount of a liturgical spirituality?

11:30  Session II: The Spirituality of Holy Thursday (Lilles & Carstens) Holy Thursday celebrates the institution of the Eucharist and, with it, the beginning of the New Testament Priesthood: how do these core realities of the faith inform a Catholic Spirituality? How do the faithful understand the ordained priesthood and, along with it, their own baptismal priesthood? How does our Eucharistic participation on this night affect Eucharistic participation for the rest of the year? The other key element of Holy Thursday—the command of brotherly love—flows from the Eucharistic font: how should Holy Thursday shape my charitable life for others?

12:30  Midday Prayer (Led by Chris)

12:45  Lunch

2:00    Session III: The Spirituality of  Good Friday (Lilles & Carstens) Good Friday tells us to “Behold (Ecce) the man,” “Behold the Wood of the Cross,” and “Behold the Lamb of God.” What insight can such intentional looking give to my spiritual life? Good Friday, the “day on which the Word himself is muted” (Verbum Domini, 12) is filled with silence: what place should silence have for liturgical spirituality? The cross of Christ is central to this day, as central to the whole economy of salvation and, consequently, to my own spiritual life: what lessons from Good Friday’s cross can be had for a liturgical spirituality?

3:15    Session IV: The Spirituality of the Paschal Vigil and Easter Season (Lilles & Carstens) Light, darkness, wind, fire, water, and oil: these elements are all present at the Paschal Vigil, as they have been in our own sacramental initiation. How are these elements, and the Sacraments of which they are a part, building blocks of a liturgical spirituality? As many as nine readings are heard at the Vigil: what role does the word of God play in my own spirituality—and how is my own life a part of the Economy of Salvation here recounted? At the Vigil’s dismissal, the double “Alleluia” rings out: how does a liturgical spirituality impel believers into the world for its sanctification?

4:15    Mass

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