Originally Published by Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, U.S.A.

In recent years there have appeared, in English, dictionaries and encyclopedias of spirituality that have proven very useful. In addition, there are several worthy dictionaries of spirituality in other languages, most notably the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité. Each of these has its own strengths and weaknesses and, no doubt, The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality is intended to be a dictionary that will serve as a reliable theological and pastoral resource. Because of the limits that the genre of dictionary imposes, the NDCS does not aim to provide an in-depth treatment of all matters germane to the field of spirituality. Where possible and helpful, the NDCS attends to pastoral and practical implications as well as to theological insight. Each entry in the NDCS is discrete and is not related in any structural or organizational way to the others. However, since even the longest entries in the dictionary cannot provide an exhaustive treatment of a topic, cross-references and bibliographies are provided. To expedite usage, cross-references are listed alphabetically at the end of each entry. A topical index and an index of names are also provided.