New in paperback!Cyril of Jerusalem wrote about "holy things." He thereby reflected the communion invitation used in his fourth-century liturgy to call people to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Mystagogical Catecheses) . The present times call for strong and healthy symbols that hold people into hope. The Christian communities need a reintroduction into the ways in which liturgical symbols respond to human need. Indeed, Lathrop argues, Christian communities continually need to reconsider the meaning of their liturgies and reform those liturgies toward authentic clarity. In its three parts, this book (1) proposes that an ecumenical pattern or ordo of worship can be discerned which is also a pattern of meaning, (2) discusses the ways in which meaning occurs in the meeting for worship itself, and (3) draws practical conclusions about the organization of that meeting and its importance to current human need. Throughout, Lathrop undertakes to do theology, that is, to say what the liturgy actually says about God. Gordon W. Lathrop has served as a parish pastor, as professor of liturgy at Wartburg Theological Seminary and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and as visiting professor at Yale Divinity School, the Virginia Theological Seminary, the University of Iceland, the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and the Pontifical Thomas Aquinas University in Rome. His books from Fortress Press include The Pastor: A Spirituality (2006), Holy People: A Liturgical Ecclesiology (1999), and, with Timothy Wengert, Christian Assembly (2004). He has been president of both the North American Academy of Liturgy and the international Societas Liturgica.