The publication of the first English translation of Dom Prosper Guéranger’s Liturgical Institutions – in the abridged form prepared by Jean Vaquié in 1977, and now translated by Dr. David Foley and Gerhard Eger for Os Justi Press – is a moment of major importance for the Church’s liturgical and spiritual life.
For too long, Guéranger’s magnum opus, running to nearly two thousand pages and available only in French, has been a treasure beyond the reach of many English-speaking scholars and faithful. This edition brings to light a work of singular importance, serving both as a detailed history and a vehement defense of the Roman Rite in the face of corrosive innovation.
Dom Guéranger was no antiquarian. He was the founder of the modern liturgical movement, a man driven by the conviction that the liturgy is the living expression of the Church’s faith and the bulwark against the inroads of error. His prose – elevated, precise, yet burning with zeal – enfolds medieval liturgical devotion within the incisive reasoning of a modern historian. The translation by Foley and Eger preserves this spirit, restoring omitted passages and providing useful annotations and translations of Latin sources, making Guéranger’s thought accessible without diluting its force.
The Liturgical Institutions unfolds as a comprehensive narrative of the Church’s liturgical heritage, from apostolic beginnings through centuries of growth, local diversity, and, critically, the disastrous neo-Gallican reforms of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These reforms were not benign liturgical experiments, but an assault on the Roman Rite’s unity, doctrinal integrity, and sacred symbolism – an assault tainted with rationalism, Jansenism, and Gallicanism, the spirit of French ecclesiastical autonomy, (living apart, if not formally divorced from, the universal Church) that Guéranger rightly identified as a poison within the Church’s bosom.
This historical analysis resonates powerfully with contemporary concerns. The liturgical upheaval of the twentieth century, particularly the post-Conciliar reforms, continue the pattern of distortion and disintegration that Guéranger identified as the “anti-liturgical heresy”, warning that it “seeks to silence this voice [of the Church] and tear up the pages that contain the faith of ages past.” This has become all the more relevant to an age which has witnessed the desacralization of the altar, the abandonment of sacred language, and the reduction of the Mass to a commonplace vernacular service – all characteristic moves of heretics, according to the plain-spoken French abbot.
To engage with Guéranger is to join a tradition of guardianship over the sacred rites that embody the Catholic faith. For those who seek a deeper understanding of the liturgical crisis and the means to restore authentic worship, this edition is an invaluable resource.
The Liturgical Institutions is available in hardback, paperback, and e-book directly from Os Justi Press, or from any Amazon site.
Those who would like to view the table of contents, foreword, and preface will find it here or here.
(In a future post I will discuss another new book just out, Lumen Christi: Defending the Use of the Pre-1955 Roman Rite, but for now I will only mention that the code RITESTUFF will unlock at 10% discount on both.)
For too long, Guéranger’s magnum opus, running to nearly two thousand pages and available only in French, has been a treasure beyond the reach of many English-speaking scholars and faithful. This edition brings to light a work of singular importance, serving both as a detailed history and a vehement defense of the Roman Rite in the face of corrosive innovation.
Dom Guéranger was no antiquarian. He was the founder of the modern liturgical movement, a man driven by the conviction that the liturgy is the living expression of the Church’s faith and the bulwark against the inroads of error. His prose – elevated, precise, yet burning with zeal – enfolds medieval liturgical devotion within the incisive reasoning of a modern historian. The translation by Foley and Eger preserves this spirit, restoring omitted passages and providing useful annotations and translations of Latin sources, making Guéranger’s thought accessible without diluting its force.
The Liturgical Institutions unfolds as a comprehensive narrative of the Church’s liturgical heritage, from apostolic beginnings through centuries of growth, local diversity, and, critically, the disastrous neo-Gallican reforms of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These reforms were not benign liturgical experiments, but an assault on the Roman Rite’s unity, doctrinal integrity, and sacred symbolism – an assault tainted with rationalism, Jansenism, and Gallicanism, the spirit of French ecclesiastical autonomy, (living apart, if not formally divorced from, the universal Church) that Guéranger rightly identified as a poison within the Church’s bosom.
This historical analysis resonates powerfully with contemporary concerns. The liturgical upheaval of the twentieth century, particularly the post-Conciliar reforms, continue the pattern of distortion and disintegration that Guéranger identified as the “anti-liturgical heresy”, warning that it “seeks to silence this voice [of the Church] and tear up the pages that contain the faith of ages past.” This has become all the more relevant to an age which has witnessed the desacralization of the altar, the abandonment of sacred language, and the reduction of the Mass to a commonplace vernacular service – all characteristic moves of heretics, according to the plain-spoken French abbot.
To engage with Guéranger is to join a tradition of guardianship over the sacred rites that embody the Catholic faith. For those who seek a deeper understanding of the liturgical crisis and the means to restore authentic worship, this edition is an invaluable resource.
The Liturgical Institutions is available in hardback, paperback, and e-book directly from Os Justi Press, or from any Amazon site.
Those who would like to view the table of contents, foreword, and preface will find it here or here.
(In a future post I will discuss another new book just out, Lumen Christi: Defending the Use of the Pre-1955 Roman Rite, but for now I will only mention that the code RITESTUFF will unlock at 10% discount on both.)
