Worship Magazine Founded in 1926

Formerly known as Orate Fratres, the magazine is published by the monks of Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota. The first issue appeared on the First Sunday of Advent, 1926. It was originally edited by Dom Virgil Michel, O.S.B. Its primary aim was to develop a better understanding of the spiritual impact of the liturgy and to promote active participation on the part of all men and women in the worship of the Church. Virgil Michel had a renewed sense of the Church’s corporate nature. He maintained that through lay participation in the liturgy, congregations could be built up into active communities of service and love. Michel was a prophetic figure who had a profound sense of the essential relationship that must exist between liturgy and life, between liturgy and social justice. Since his sudden death in 1938, the editorial policy of the journal has carried on his rich tradition. In 1951 its name was changed to Worship, an indication of the growing interest in the use of the vernacular in liturgical celebrations. Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the journal has tried to help Christian communities internalize the meaning of the extensive liturgical changes that have taken place in the churches of almost all Christian denominations.
(From the journal’s website)