Mother Church, Sacramental Records, and the Eucharist Fast: Three Article Recommendations

Over the last few days I've been working my way toward catching up on some of the journals to which I subscribe. Of the many articles I have read, let me recommend three to you:

1. "So what does it mean for a Carolingian priest or monk to imagine himself as a breast of the church?" This question lies at the heart of a very interesting article by Hannah W. Matis titled "Early-Medieval Exegesis of the Song of Songs and the Maternal Language of Clerical Authority" (Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 89:2 [April 2014], 358-381). The answer isn't likely what you might first expect.
2. For those whose work in parish offices or have anything to do with Church records, I highly recommend Jay Conzemius' excellent article titled "To Protect and To Serve: Sacramental Records and the Lived Faith They Represent" and published in the Canon Law Society of America's Proceedings of the Seventy-Fifth Annual Convention: October 14-17, 2013, Sacramento, California.
3. Over the past several decades the Eucharist Fast - which the Church requires to be kept prior to the reception of Holy Communion - has been decreased from after Midnight, to 3 hours before reception, to the now required 1 hour before reception. In her article titled "Eucharistic Fasting: A Review of Its Practice and Evaluation of Its Benefit (Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal 17:3 [2013], 225-246), Sr. Madeleine Grace, C.V.I., offers a thoughtful discussion of the reasons for the decrease in the Eucharist Fast, as well as a helpful discussion about the history and theology of fasting in general.

Hopefully one of those articles will interest each of you.