Books by Joseph Dougherty

Services, thoughts and experiences about being married to the love of my life for 50 years are to be unfolded in these pages. At the beginning of the book, I stated that even after 50 years, it isn't easy. I give advise on how to keep, or on how to be happy in marriage. It entails going to chick flicks even if you don't want to go but because she wants to. Do special things, do not criticize her, and assure her that everything will be OK. Love and understanding are difficult things to hang on to but these pages will hopefully show you that love and commitment will resolve every predicament in 50 years of long and happy marriage.

From Altar-Throne to Table: The Campaign for Frequent Holy Communion in the Catholic Church investigates what the celebrated scholar of liturgy Robert A. Taft, SJ, calls the greatest and most successful liturgical reform in Catholic history. Only a century ago, faithful, practicing Catholics received Holy Communion only once a year; now, among American English-speaking Catholics, Holy Communion is a routine, weekly devotional practice. This book explains how and why this ritual sea-change happened. This book emphasizes that significant ritual change may occur while liturgical texts remain the same, and it also proposes a method for understanding the causes for such a ritual change. It admonishes not to project current ritual practice into even our recent past. Further, it implies an explanation for the massive decline in Catholics' use of the sacrament of reconciliation.