Volume III: The Eucharist contributes to the reflection on the meaning and purpose of the eucharistic celebration. It also offers to teachers and students of liturgy a handbook for studying this subject according to a system based on historical development, theology and doctrine, liturgical texts and traditions in both East and West, and pastoral considerations.

Articles and their contributors are A Eucharistic Lexicon," by Marcel Metzger; "The Eucharist in the First Four Centuries," by Enrico Mazza; "The Various Orders of Celebration," by Stefano Parenti; "The Oriental...

Volume IV: Sacraments and Sacramentals contributes to a deeper understanding of the nature and purpose of sacraments and sacramentals and leads the reader to a more critical appreciation of Vatican II decrees and what the postconciliar reform has implemented. This fourth volume opens with a review of the basic liturgical notion of sacraments and sacramentals and then examines them according to their earliest known form going back to the first four centuries. After the fourth century the treatment is divided between the East and the West. Where opportune, as in the case of...