More research material: "The Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Rite"

I just snagged Enrico Mazza's The Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Rite for a mere $15 from Loome Theological Books at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at W. Michigan University in Kalamazoo.  This will be excellent research material for Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the Priest.  (Although, to be honest, I'm starting to wonder if I should make this a three-volume series instead of a two-volume series:  The Prayers of the People, The Prayers of the Priest, and The Eucharistic Prayers.  This is not to imply that the Eucharistic Prayers are not proper to the priest, of course, but I am afraid the book on the priest's prayers is going to be a bit too thick — and expensive! — for the average Catholic to consider buying and reading.)

International Congress on Medieval Studies

I'll be in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for the next several days attending the International Congress on Medieval Studies with my wife. These are the papers I'll be attending:

• Thursday
• 36: Word & Image in the Mystical Experience
• Conceiving the End of the World in Word and Image: The Mystical Experience of Saint Malachy and Hildegard of Bingen
• "There is a threeness about you": Medieval Women Visionaries and the Trinitarian Image of God
• Re-cognition of the Holy Child
• String Theory: Layering Text and Image in a Medieval Persian Manuscript
• 63: Basel and Vatican II: Similarities and Differences
• Base and the Post-Vatican II Debate: Between Council and Conciliarism
• Nicholas of Cusa and the Council of Basel: Can the Prodigals Find Their Way Home?
• 143: Holy Women
• (pending)
• 167: Medieval Sources in Pope Benedict XVI
• Benedict XVI's Retrieval of the Concept of Revelation as Found in Saint Bonaventure's Collationes in Hexaemaron
• Unlocking Benedict XVI's Inner Bonaventure
• The End of Times: The Impact of Medieval Sources on Benedict XVI's Eschatalogy
• Friday
• 248: Medieval Fantasy, Alchemy, and Modern Science in Tolkien's Legendarium
• Elvencentrism: "Elven Nature Preserves" in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
• "Worlds on Worlds": Tolkien, Lewis, and the Medieval and Modern Theological Implications of Extraterrestrial Life
• Inside Literature: Tolkien's Explorations of the Medieval Genre
• J.R.R. Tolkien and The Battle of Maldon: An Example of "Freer" Verse?
• 315: The Liturgical Office of St. Thomas Becket (Chanted)
• 337: Medieval Sermon Studies II: Cistercian Preaching
• "Each belongs to all and all belong to each": Aelred of Rievaulx and His Sermons for the Feast of Saint Benedict
• Aelred of Rievaulx's Liturgical Sermons for the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Johannine Glorification of Christ in John of Ford's Sermons on the Song of Songs
• Saturday
• 394: The Hobbit (A Roundtable)
• 433: The Psalms
• Allegory and "Grammatica" in Pre-scholastic Psalms Commentaries
• Approaches to the Psalms in Hugh of Saint-Cher, Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas
• The ... How Many Senses of Scripture, Now?
• 530: The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages
• Apocalypse Now Y1K: What a Revelation! A Comparative-Critical Literary Analysis of Anglo-Saxon Text Disguised as New Testament Biblical Study
• "Lest he should come unforeseen...": The Antichrist Cycle in the Hortus deliciarum
• "Write them not": The Depiction of Divine Concealment in Anglo-French Apocalypse Manuscripts
• No Need to Worry: Thirty-One Signs That the Antichrist Came in the Fifteenth Century
• Sunday
• 539: Liturgy and Reform in Medieval Europe: The Evidence of Manuscripts
• The Creed at Baptism: Ninth-Century Formation and Controversy in Manuscript Context
• Cathedral Liturgy in High Medieval Saxony: The Example of Minden
• Liturgical Reform in Medieval Manuscripts from Halberstadt

I take copious notes on my laptop.

Oh, and there will be daily Mass and Vespers, and many open bar receptions. I consider this a vacation. :)

IMSC 2009 - Day Two - Sessions

I'm going to the following sessions today; titles are my shorthand:

Thomas Aquinas and the Scriptures (10:00 AM)
Jewish-Christian Studies (1:30 PM)
Various Aquinas Topics (3:30 PM)
Tolkien Theatre (7:30 PM)

The Tolkien Theatre session will probably be pre-empted by dinner with my life. :)

IMSC 2009 - Day One - Sessions

Mass was at 7:00 AM (celebrated by six Cistercian priests). Vespers is at 5:20 PM.

I'm going to the following sessions today; titles are my shorthand:

The Bible and Other Genres (10:00 AM)
The Rule of St. Benedict (1:30 PM)
The Abiding Presence of the Eucharist (3:30 PM)
Homilies and Heretics in the 11th Century (7:30 PM)

I'll be taking notes and posting them, in case anyone cares to read them.

On Friday and Saturday, I'm attending mostly sessions on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Sunday I'm attending two sessions on Tolkien.

International Medieval Studies Congress - Kalamazoo, Michigan

My wife and I are driving out to Kalamazoo today... about 750 miles. Hopefully my hybrid Prius will make it enjoyable excursion. We're going to the International Medieval Studies Congress.

I'm bringing my laptop, of course, but not because I'll be goofing off (or working on books!) the whole time. I'm attending a lot of sessions, mostly on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, and a few on Tolkien. I'll take notes and post what I think is interesting. And hopefully I'll finish my Adoration book!

Kalamazoo: Arrival

Kristin and I flew from Philadelphia to Detroit (6:15pm), and then on to Kalamazoo (9:30pm). Kristin's not a fan of airplanes, especially not small ones (not that the planes we were on were particularly small). Our seats on our first flight were in the very back, right by the engines, so we didn't talk much (since we couldn't hear each other very well).

In Detroit, we had over an hour to wait, and Kristin was still a bit shaky. As we ate, I noticed a priest speaking of Kalamazoo. Kristin saw a few people she recognized too.

The flight to Kalamazoo was oversold (by two people, it seemed), and we were not seated near each other at all. We were rolling on the runway for at least ten minutes, and I asked the woman seated next to me if we were planning on driving the plane to Kalamazoo. :)

I read nearly two-thirds of By What Authority? by Mark Shea (thanks, Gretchen!) on the plane rides. I practiced my Latin verb conjugations in between flights.

Once we landed, we boarded a bus to Western Michigan University, and we were in our dorm room by midnight.