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Breaking Bread in a Broken World: Liturgy and Cartographies of the Real

There once was-so the story goes-a devout old woman who, early every morning, would slip into the magnificent cathedral to pray in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary kept in one of the side chapels. Then one day the cathedral came to be renovated and in the process the interior space was made to conform to more modern sensibilities. Out went the objects of unambiguously popular devotion, the statue of Mary making its way to the art museum adjacent to the cathedral. From that day on, the devout old woman could be seen in the museum every morning, kneeling in front of the statue now behind glass, her lips moving in silent prayer.' I take this story as one example of the countless tensions at the intersection of real lived life, "The Liturgy," and the scholarship that attends to both. The focus of my paper will be an extended reflection on how the realof lived life shapes, disturbs, enriches, and contests what liturgical scholars configure as their subject matter, namely worship. I invite you to understand my reflection as one possible way to respond to the (impossible) task this Congress has given me, namely to address "anthropological and sociological aspects" of the Congress theme, "Worship as Transformation-To Heal a Broken World." This task is impossible, not least of all, because of the magnitude and complexity of the terrain (and not made easier by the fact that I am primarily a theologian, albeit one with a keen interest