Word and Worship Studies

WMP 4000 Communication Skills for Ministry
This course serves as an MP area requirement or Worship elective. It is a practical, hands-on course involving the skills of scripture proclamation; the development of oral and multimedia presentations for teaching and faith formation; the facilitation of interpersonal communication in difficult conversations; the use of old and new media in facilitating small group discussions in intercultural contexts; the role of the visual arts and music in worship, teaching, and pastoral communication; the writing and production of digital media for parish communication in print and online; and the pastoral planning of internal and external communications. (This will be one of a number of MP area requirement options offered in rotation.) (3 credits)

W 4019  Canonical Issues in Parish Life
The Code of Canon Law specifies rights, sets forth duties, and provides for the vindication of rights.  This course will examine laws of the Church as they pertain to pastoral ministry.  It will focus on the nature of law in the Church, the notion of parish, Christian Initiation and the other sacraments, particularly marriage. (1 credit)

W 4110 Holy Week: Liturgy, Preaching and Presiding
This course examines in an integrated fashion the liturgical celebrations of Holy Week, specifically Passion Sunday and the Triduum. It includes historical and theological study of Holy Week; celebration of and mystagogical reflection on the current rites; issues in preparing, preaching, and presiding during Holy Week and Triduum; the interplay of liturgical celebration and popular religiosity; and reflection on liturgical spirituality fostered through and from the rites. (3 credits)

W 4200 Sacraments I: Initiation & Reconciliation
Theological, historical, and pastoral reflection on the experience and sacraments of initiation and reconciliation. Particular attention given to: the RCIA as norm for initiatory practice; the relation of sacramental reconciliation to the church's life; and foundations of practical skills for celebration. (3 credits)

W 4201 Sacraments II: Eucharist and Sacramental Theology
This course serves as a general introduction to sacramental theology, and a particular introduction to the Eucharist, its history, theology, structure, and practice. (3 credits)

W 4204 Canon Law
This introductory course addresses the nature, role, and history of canon law; church structures and ministries; and law regulating sacramental practice. This course fulfills the MDiv requirement in Canon Law. (3 credits)

W 4205 Lay Leadership of Prayer and Preaching
A practicum to develop competency in the leadership of the community’s prayer, including Hours, catechumenal rites, the funeral Vigil, penitential liturgies, liturgies of Word and Communion, and ministry to the sick and dying. In conjunction with these settings, it also considers the liturgical, canonical, and pastoral dynamics and practical skills of lay preaching in catechesis and worship. Prerequisite: For MDiv, Sacraments I and II; For MAPS, Sacraments I or II. Strongly recommended to be taken later in one’s program.(3 credits)

W 4206 Sacraments III: Marriage and Anointing of the Sick.
Liturgical and theological exploration of the sacrament of marriage and the sacrament of anointing and the pastoral care of the sick and dying. Particular attention is given to the interplay of liturgy and pastoral care. (2 credits)

W 4207 Presiding I
A practicum designed for priesthood candidates to develop competency in leadership of sacramental rites, including initiation, weddings, wakes, and funerals. Special emphasis is given to Eucharist. (3 credits) Prerequisites: W2000 Sacraments I, W4201 Sacraments II, W4206 Sacraments III, and 4209 Preaching I.

W 4208 Presiding II
A practicum designed for priesthood candidates to develop competency in the pastoral care and anointing of the sick and in the ministry of reconciliation. Open to students in their final year.  (2 credits) Prerequisites: W4200 Sacraments I, W4201 Sacraments II, W4206 Sacraments III, and W4209 Preaching I.

W 4209 Preaching I
This practicum explores the homily as a liturgical action within the Christian assembly. Participants consider the basics of homiletics and the liturgical, pastoral, contextual, and practical dynamics of preaching for Sundays, Feasts, and Liturgical Seasons. (3 credits)

W 4210 Preaching II
This practicum builds on the foundations and skills covered by W4209 Preaching I to consider preaching at daily Mass, at the celebration of the sacraments, and at funerals. (2 credits) 

W 4220  Liturgy of the Synagogue
Prayer is one of the main forms of Jewish spiritual and religious identity. Liturgy is the textual form that prayer takes. This course will begin by studying prayer and liturgy in the Bible, the development of the synagogue, the classical rabbinic prayerbook, the liturgical year and Jewish festivals, and the Jewish home as a significant locus of prayer and ritual. This will be followed by some study of medieval Hebrew religious liturgical poetry. Finally, we will look at modern forms of Jewish prayer and liturgy. Each of these periods of development will be set in its historical and social context. We will also examine points of continuity and discontinuity between Jewish and Christian prayer and attend a worship service at a local synagogue. (3 credits)

W 5001 Catechesis and Religious Education in the Worshiping Community
This seminar explores the interplay of life, liturgy, and adult faith formation to promote a praxis of a holistic, transformative catechesis in the spirit of the General Directory for Catechesis. Offers an overview of the history of catechetical education; critical study of recent major catechetical documents; contemporary trends in adult faith formation; and the intersection of liturgy and catechesis. (3 credits)

WS 5001 Liturgical Foundations for Spirituality
Readings and seminar presentations on the structures, prayer forms, rhythms, and theology of liturgy to uncover liturgical foundations for christian spirituality.  The seminar will conducted in a reading, presentation, and discussion style. (3 credits)

W 5003  Theology of Word and Sacrament
Joining together theological interpretation and pastoral reflection, this seminar explores various topics in liturgical and sacramental theology in historical, contemporary, and emerging contexts. (3 credits)

WS 5105 Church Year Prayed and Preached
This seminar explores the Church Year as a liturgical event, spiritual guide and preaching resource. Employing the methods of practical theology, it will consider the relevant contextual, historical, and experiential factors for celebrating, praying, and preaching the liturgical cycle of feasts and seasons. (3 credits)

W 5200 Liturgical Music
Employing the frameworks of practical theology, this interdisciplinary seminar will explore the practice of music in Christian worship. Through the lenses of context, traditions and the experience of prayers and musicians, the course will consider the kinds of theology and theological precedents such practices reflect and generate, and ponder how they contribute to shaping contemporary musical-liturgical practices that is musically, theologically, and contextually appropriate. (3 credits)

WC 5202 Liturgical Inculturation
This seminar explores the inculturation of the church's worship in both historical and contemporary perspective with emphasis on current methodological and theological issues raised by the engagement of the church with contemporary cultures promoted by Vatican II. (3 credits)

WC 5205 Liturgy in a Multicultural Community
This seminar explores the complex situation of liturgical celebration in communities comprising people of diverse languages and cultural backgrounds. It takes up the dynamics of intercultural engagement; assumptions, principles, and critiques relating to multiculturalism; importance of popular religiosity; and contemporary models for liturgy that embrace the plurality of cultures in a respectful, inclusive way. (3 credits)

W 5210 Liturgical Catechesis
Drawing upon the nature of liturgical celebration and principles of adult education, this seminar explores the nature and role of liturgical catechesis and mystagogy, and examines several models for experientially based learning and formation for adult worshipers. (3 credits)

WS 5225 Worship, Spirituality, and Digital Media Arts
Ministers both Roman Catholic and Protestant increasingly face the question of whether and how digital media arts might be appropriately integrated into their liturgies. This seminar introduces students to a community based approach called Communal Co-Creation. Participants delve into the spiritual, theological, liturgical, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of the use of media in worship. This course addresses the potential for digital media arts to serve as liturgical art.  Students reflect upon the possibility of a community creating its own liturgical media art as a communal spiritual practice, and actually do this process over the course of the semester, including shooting photography as a spiritual practice based upon scripture and liturgical season. This is not a technology course. It is a worship and spirituality course that deals with this topic from an ecumenical perspective. No Audits. (3 credits)

W 5227 Shaping Places for Worship
Using a range of media and methods, this seminar examines liturgical, spatial, artistic, and human issues involved in shaping places for worship. (3 credits)

W 5230 Liturgical Methods
This seminar introduces students to the major methodological trends in the field of liturgy. Students engage both in the reading of the classic and contemporary works and in the exploration of of the various methods by applying them to a study of liturgical rites and texts. (3 credits)

W 5240 Ritual Studies
This seminar explores the ritual dimensions of liturgical celebration. Student presentations are based on field observation and readings in ritual theory from various social sciences. (3 credits)

W 5241 Liturgical History
This course provides an overview of Christian liturgy from its Jewish matrix until the present, especially in the west. It introduces significant movements, places, events, liturgical sources, and individuals that provide basic historical, social, cultural, and theological frameworks for understanding the development of Christian worship. (3 credits)

WS 5301 Patterns of Christian Prayer
This seminar examines the historical development of non-eucharistic liturgical prayer from early Christian prayer patterns through the reforms of Vatican II. This historical-comparative approach provides the context for inquiring to what extent there is an implied spirituality in the form, structure, and performance of such prayer; and how this might be beneficial to contemporary prayer practice. (3 credits)