The above titled article is dedicated to one of the most important issues to which the second Vatican Council devoted its attention and work. It is in it namely the issue of the participation of the faithful in liturgical celebrations. Among the council’s descriptions of that participation are such adjectives as conscious, fruitful, full, communal, pious and easy. Most often, however, as many as fourteen times, the council states that participation (participatio) of all in the liturgy, it should be „active” (actuosa). The form of the liturgy with the active involvement of all participants originates from earliest Christianity. Over time, the situation in this field, as in many other areas of life and the Church’s missionary commitment, have become increasingly hampered by prejudice, until finally, under the influence of various factors (such as the process of the clericalization of the liturgy, the absolute use of the Latin language, assigning Gregorian chant to the liturgy, et al.) was brought to an almost complete collapse, meaning the disappearance of the participation of the faithful in the liturgy. What was called for, was not a liturgical movement, which over nearly 100 years (from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century) prepared fertile ground for a return to the source – which in the case of the liturgy means a return to the performance of the liturgy as a dialogue and the active participation of all, and not only of the clergy and select liturgical ministers.
Certainly much in this matter remains to be done, however, inspired by Vatican II, liturgical reform has already put firmly in motion the process of a mature understanding of the parish community liturgical celebrations, as well as a competent engagement in them, by participating in the course of relevant activities, ministries, and engaging in liturgical singing.

Music can help man in prayers and make him sensitive to the matters of God. Today, in the times of low level of a general culture of the society we can perceive a danger of misunderstanding the need of music in liturgical rites. This state of affairs imposes duty to foster musical culture in our churches, so that music performed at our churches is of the most perfect form possible. If the aim is met,music shall become a tool for transmitting faith. This task is also to be taken on by homilists and preachers. In this paper music is shown as the source and matter of preaching the Word of God. The place of music in particular preaching units has been discussed (homilies, sermons and conferences). Also, the author points at dangers of misuse of music in preaching the Word of God. The paper is concluded with proposals and suggestions.

The state of liturgical music still rises mixed feelings among those who are engaged in the celebration of the holy ceremonies. Half a century has passed since the Second Vatican Council introduced documents concerning the new shape of liturgy, also in the field of music; and a retrospective view of this issue indicates positive phenomena and examples, but at the same time exposes faults, malpractice and negligence. The present teaching of the Church in the field of liturgical music points out three important criteria which decide about the appropriate shaping of songs and chants: (1) melody united to the words, (2) care about the artistic value and (3) appropriate character and style of the work to designed for sacred action. The role of sacredness and the close connection with the liturgical action in church chant has been consistently emphasized. Songs and for liturgy must not be chosen at random; also the way of singing and perfection of performance are important. The appeal, directed to composers of sacred music, for new works pertaining in their texts to a specific topic of the day or a specific liturgical action remains always relevant.

In his study about the liturgical music after the Second Vatican Council Ireneusz Pawlak calls songs from Taizé „poor artistic music” (2001: 42). My article proves that songs of this French ecumenical community are based upon the rich music tradition and mostly of them are based on basso ostinato which was very popular in baroque (passamezzo, folia, chaconne). Texts of these songs use only a few, several times repeated words taken from the Bible and the Fathers of the Church. The melodic and harmonic repetitions have common roots with the practice of the incessant Jesus prayer in the East Church, described amongst others by John Cassian. This prayer generates the prayer of the heart which consequently gives hesychia: spiritual calmness and union with the God leading all believers to true ecumenism.

The Second Vatican Council initiated the process of the renewal of the liturgical music. It explained its task in the service for God and presented the principles of its renewal. This renewal was prepared by pioneers and promoters of the liturgical movement which existed from the second half of the 19th century. Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, pointed that there is an inseparable connection between music and liturgy. Music was presented as an integral part of the solemn liturgy. Singing in liturgy is a form of active participation in liturgical celebrations. It is a form of the confession of faith and an element of deeper entering to the celebration of the mystery of salvation.
The principles of the Constitution define the stage of Church consciousness which inspired and started the era of the renewal of liturgy and church music. Among positive effects of the Council renewal of church music, apart from new liturgical books, there is the fact of existing choirs in Church, cantors and psalterists as well as the extension of music repertoire.
Music education of the clergy and the faithful is still an important task. Above all organists should be taught to organize the singing not to replace the participants of liturgical celebrations in singing.

Music has a great influence on human’s life, also when it comes to religion. It expresses the professed faith in accordance to the rule lex orandi lex credendi in a way that we can risk a statement lex orandi lex cantandi. It enforces mutual influence between the truths of the faith and music in general.
The vision of music in sacred space, also in the liturgical one, should be reexamined. It is connected with the change in the mentality of contemporary people. It does not mean copying pop music but it implies the ability to properly adapt the approach to music so that the participants of prayer meetings and liturgy are able to gain a deep experience of and to identify with the celebrations.
In any case, an appropriate musical, biblical and spiritual formation is necessary for those animating meetings and liturgy to have a sense of sacrum. It is this care for the experience of sacredness, originating from deep faith, that seems more important than sustaining of existing solutions.
One should take into account the work of evangelization, which aims at a personal meetings with Jesus Christ and at accepting of salvation offered by Him, in everything the Church does. Appropriate music and vocals actively aid the process of preaching the Gospel. A modern man expects spiritual and religious matters to be presented in modern ways. However, this does not mean giving up or denying of the legacy of previous ages. On the contrary, again in the two thousands years’ old history of the Church, there comes a necessity to adapt to the needs of contemporary times. Such methodology fits into the nature of the Gospel.

Music occupies an important place in the teaching of religion. It is a the source of content, a carrier of universal values and an effective means of teaching that multilaterally activates children and youth. Apart from the functions of teaching, music performs educational and therapeutic functions. It therefore seems equitable use of music in religious education and to motivate students to direct contact with musical works. This involves supporting the catechized in the experience and understanding of the values that are carried by music. They van be served by various forms of activation of students, such as eg. listening and analyzing pieces of music, making reflection and prayer on the canvas of music, painting a song, singing, creating text and melody, gestures and dance steps to music. Thanks to them there is revealed the educational value of music in the teaching of religion.
With this in mind, it is worth to shape musical culture of religion teachers and their competence in the field of music education. This requires appropriate forms of education during the studies and training in the permanent formation. To achieve pedagogical innovations in the use of music in religion classes it may be helpful to gather the opinions of students and teachers of religion. It seems worth therefore taking empirical research on this topic. This will provide new and interesting ways, activating students multilaterally, to use music in teaching religion.

The paper addresses the group of temple singers, collectively known as Asaphites. They derived from the Northern Kingdom, but, after its fall in 721 B.C., they moved to the Southern Kingdom where they joined the temple service in Jerusalem. After the temple destruction in 586 B.C., they were resettled to Babylon where they continued their activity. After returning from the exile to Jerusalem, they became actively involved in restoring cult at the temple. The first part of the paper describes the features confirming the homogeneity of the Psalms of Asaph (Ps 50 and 70-83), while the next part focuses on the School of Asaph and the last one on Asaphites as guardians of tradition.

The New Testament translated by Rev. Eugeniusz Dąbrowski, professor at the Catholic University of Lublin, is a part of the canon of Polish translations of the Bible. This is a translation from Latin version by St. Hieronymus, just as the first Polish translation of the Bible, also from Vulgate, by Father Jakub Wujek. The intention of Dąbrowski was primarily a pastoral one. He wanted to make the reader enter into a relationship with Christ and the authors of the biblical texts through reading the Bible. Therefore the translator’s priority was, on the one hand, to maintain a language available for the then contemporary postwar generation, and on the other to use a linguistic aesthetics that conveys a particularities of the sacral language and remain free of colloquial forms. That is why the translation seems to be the resultant of the archaic translation by Wujek and the more contemporary translation by the Benedictines of Tyniec Abbey. Comparison of fragments of the translation by Dąbrowski with the said translations and shows the translator’s struggles to keep communicativeness of the text and its sacral character at the same time. For this reason the analysed translation becomes a part of a constantly up-to-date discussion of linguists concerning decisions of translators of the biblical texts. Each new decade and generation they face the task to keep both clarity and sacred character of the text.

The opinions provided by the Magisterium of the Church clearly emphasize the prescriptive and fundamental value of the teaching of the Church Fathers. A homilist who seeks exemplary solutions should not only resort to the treasure trove of the Fathers’ doctrine, but also adapt his teaching to their didactic and group-related model. The homilist’s techniques should be organized so as to facilitate direct access to the relevant passages of the Church Fathers. A key to it is subject-related indices in handbooks or in source publications of the the Fathers’ works.

Proper human development demands a clear moral orientation in life and definition of purpose and of the meaning of human existence. Unfortunately, the phenomena that can be observed in the area of contemporary moral attitudes and actions, seem to confirm the ethical disorientation and mental confusion of man. The boundary between good and evil and between truth and falsehood is blurred. The fundamental moral values are eroding. These occurrences also could have been observed in times in which Jerzy Ablewicz, the Shepherd of the Church of Tarnów, lived and worked. The Bishop in his pastoral ministry tried to present to the faithful a clear and convincing image of life that is truly Christian. A moral message contained in his teaching responded to the most recent challenges of the contemporary time. As a zealous pastor, responsible for the formation and strengthening of the moral life, he gave specific instructions on what should be done to improve the lives of Christians.

The article is to show importance and topicality of preaching the faith of the Church in the contemporary world on the basis of of the Catechism for adults (Le Catéchisme pour adultes), issued by the French Episcopate in 1991. The starting point of the paper is presentation of a general outline, plan and purpose of the analysed Catechism, which focuses its message on the biblical idea of God’s covenant with people throughout the ages. Also, the leading theme of the Catechism has been highlighted an attempt of a dialogue between the Christian faith and the culture of the contemporary West. The second point shows a sacramental, moral and spiritual dimension of a catechetical message of the French bishops. Finally, in the third point, while emphasising an ecclesial background and paschal source of the episcopal teaching, the author provides us with his own reflection on a potential widening the horizon of preaching the faith of the Church in the contemporary world based on a postulate of a theology of Christian existence. He claims that the Christian faith is to be sensitive to challenges of the contemporary world and at the same time deeply rooted in a specific experience of the paschal faith and practice of the Church.

One of the major tasks facing Catholic theological education at the undergraduate level nowadays is that of helping to equip the churches and their leadership to respond to the growing raise of globalization, multiculturalism, religious diversity, and multiple religious belonging. In this new context, the Catholic institutions of higher education are required to help their students gain a competent knowledge of the non-Christian religions and develop a genuine openness to work with “others” for peace and unity in the world. The Catholic institutions should help future church leaders to overcome their ignorance about the other religions and thus understand better God’s self-revelation in the one salvation history, especially recognizing the unique and universal role of Christ in it.
The article firstly describes the contemporary context of religious diversity which creates new opportunities for the church to engage with religions. It defines “religious inclusiveness” not as a form of religious syncretism (incorporation of some doctrines, moral rules, myths, rituals or practices of other religions) but as a theological approach that gives equal attention to two essential Christian convictions: God’s love is universal and therefore reaches other believers; and God’s love is particular and is made visible in Jesus. The author argues that the idea of religious inclusiveness is not new; in fact it goes back as far as early Christianity, finds support in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and is present in the post-conciliar magisterium, especially in the apostolic constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae (1990) by Pope John Paul II.
In its further stage, the article pays attention to practical ways of implementing education for religious inclusiveness at the undergraduate level in Catholic institutions of higher learning by analysing a number of important areas: the urgency of theological education for religious inclusiveness; the significance of courses on interreligious dialogue; studying theology from a comparative perspective and other faiths’ spirituality; and testing theological studies through praxis and dialogue of life. The analysis ends by attempting to apply the above practical ways of teaching and learning theology to the South African context of religious plurality. 

The first half of the eighties of the twentieth century is associated in history with the death of two great figures of contemporary philosophy and theology: Jean Paul Sartre – a leading representative of French existentialism and Karl Rahner – the author of transcendentally oriented existential theology. Both thinkers exerted a huge influence on the philosophical and theological reflection of their era. Taking as their starting point the necessity of the human freedom, they come to the different conclusions about the nature of man, the status of the subjectivity and the meaning of human destiny. Sartre joined the absurdity of freedom with nothingness and awe. Rahner saw in it a gift of hope and revelation of the Absolute. How could they come to such different conclusions? What made, that despite a similar starting point, their understanding of freedom is so different? This article reconstructs and compares the main lines of reasoning of both thinkers. It also attempts to answer, what is the reason of their different approach to the problem of freedom.

Depression and its impact on a human are usually identified in regard to some psychosomatic disorders. People with depressive personality disorder often admit to mental problems. With a growing number of the afflicted the society starts getting used to the fact that the problem is here to stay. The article is an attempt to discuss social problems the afflicted persons have to face, although the subject is too complex to be exhausted in a relatively short text. The author referred to the most urgent problems of the depressed, like merital ones (both in the aspect of relations and of sex), different sorts of addictions (alcohol, drugs, gambling, which may be the reason but also the result of depression), and the last but not least – to the problems the participants of liturgy might have (the participant’s disorder which is causing his/her unusual behaviour may be perceived negatively due to unawareness and lack of understanding). All the above indicate the complexity of the problem and the necessity to increase social awareness of it. Depression becomes also a challenge for pastoral work of the Church which should develop empathy, sympathy, mercy, individual approach to each and every person, more leniency towards one’s neighbour and giving up judgments.

Die historischen Auswirkungen der mittelalterlichen Friedenschlüsse sind beachtlich

• Sie haben Europa den säkularen Rechtsstaat gebracht.
• Säkularisierte Politik konnte weltanschaulichen Frieden erzwingen.
• Die Entwicklung zur Religionsfreiheit setzte ein.
• Die Menschen können ohne soziale Nachteile ihre Weltanschauung leben.
• Nicht zuletzt haben auch die Religionsgemeinschaften gewonnen. Ihre Suche nach Wahrheit kann sich unbeeinflusst durch Macht und Interessen frei entfalten. In Österreich hat die katholische Kirche diese Errungenschaft 1952 auf die Formel der „freien Kirche im freien Staat“ gebracht.
• Diese Freiheiten sind eine Frucht einer „benignen Säkularisierung“. Sie ist Voraussetzung für ein friedliches Miteinander in den weltanschaulich bunt gewordenen europäischen Kulturen.