The time has come for a serious conversation about the pre-1955 Roman Rite. Not as something eccentric, marginal, quixotic, but as the normative baseline for the sane “reset” of liturgical praxis so necessary after a century of wild experimentation.
There’s no escaping the truth: the Roman rite, once the serene inheritance of countless saints, was not abruptly overturned in the late 1960s, as the conventional narrative suggests. Rather, it was subjected to a process of gradual dismantling in the mid-twentieth century, prior to the coup de grâce delivered by Paul VI’s Consilium. Almost everyone who worked on the Holy Week reform also worked on the post-Vatican II reform; they proudly announced that the work they had begun under Pius XII had at last been completed under Paul VI.
Among the most significant turning points was the imposition of Pius XII's “restored” Holy Week in 1955. This was no gentle pruning or “restoration” but a momentous rupture, a deliberate reshaping of ancient ceremonies to fit the supposed mind of modern man, an attempt to reimagine and improve upon the past rather than receiving it humbly as the treasure it is. As a result, the 1962 liturgical books bear the wounds of earlier deformations and anticipate wounds yet to come.
It is for this reason that a new study written by a Benedictine oblate – Lumen Christi: Defending the Use of the Pre-1955 Roman Rite – is so important and timely. Lumen Christi confronts these uncomfortable truths, not in a spirit of nostalgia but in the name of intellectual honesty and historical clarity. Authentic liturgical development never came from panels of experts wielding scissors and glue; it emerged from the living faith of the Church, slowly refined in its expressions over the course of centuries.
In its magnificent Holy Week, its rich calendar, and its undiminished prayers and ceremonies, the classical Roman Rite, as found in missals released before World War II, is no museum piece left behind in the march of progress. It is the Latin Church’s living liturgy, still loved by many souls, and ripe for reintroduction wherever the usus antiquior is – or, in a happier future, will come to be – offered in our churches. What was sacred to our forefathers remains sacred and great for us today: such is the conviction that animates the pages of Lumen Christi.
With a panoply of historical, liturgical, canonical, and theological arguments, Lumen Christi helps readers to understand what is at stake in the restoration of the once and future Roman Rite, codified and canonized at the Council of Trent, and provides practical guidance in bringing it back to our churches and altars.
Here is the Table of Contents:
There’s no escaping the truth: the Roman rite, once the serene inheritance of countless saints, was not abruptly overturned in the late 1960s, as the conventional narrative suggests. Rather, it was subjected to a process of gradual dismantling in the mid-twentieth century, prior to the coup de grâce delivered by Paul VI’s Consilium. Almost everyone who worked on the Holy Week reform also worked on the post-Vatican II reform; they proudly announced that the work they had begun under Pius XII had at last been completed under Paul VI.
Among the most significant turning points was the imposition of Pius XII's “restored” Holy Week in 1955. This was no gentle pruning or “restoration” but a momentous rupture, a deliberate reshaping of ancient ceremonies to fit the supposed mind of modern man, an attempt to reimagine and improve upon the past rather than receiving it humbly as the treasure it is. As a result, the 1962 liturgical books bear the wounds of earlier deformations and anticipate wounds yet to come.
It is for this reason that a new study written by a Benedictine oblate – Lumen Christi: Defending the Use of the Pre-1955 Roman Rite – is so important and timely. Lumen Christi confronts these uncomfortable truths, not in a spirit of nostalgia but in the name of intellectual honesty and historical clarity. Authentic liturgical development never came from panels of experts wielding scissors and glue; it emerged from the living faith of the Church, slowly refined in its expressions over the course of centuries.
In its magnificent Holy Week, its rich calendar, and its undiminished prayers and ceremonies, the classical Roman Rite, as found in missals released before World War II, is no museum piece left behind in the march of progress. It is the Latin Church’s living liturgy, still loved by many souls, and ripe for reintroduction wherever the usus antiquior is – or, in a happier future, will come to be – offered in our churches. What was sacred to our forefathers remains sacred and great for us today: such is the conviction that animates the pages of Lumen Christi.
With a panoply of historical, liturgical, canonical, and theological arguments, Lumen Christi helps readers to understand what is at stake in the restoration of the once and future Roman Rite, codified and canonized at the Council of Trent, and provides practical guidance in bringing it back to our churches and altars.
Here is the Table of Contents:
(You can look at the front matter and first pages of the book here.)
In the end, our task is simple: to emerge from the cave of modern liturgical innovations into the full light of tradition. This book is an indispensable roadmap for that journey.
Available in paperback, hardcover, or ebook, from Os Justi Press or from any Amazon site.
Let the restoration continue where it has taken root, and begin where it has yet to come!
In the end, our task is simple: to emerge from the cave of modern liturgical innovations into the full light of tradition. This book is an indispensable roadmap for that journey.
Available in paperback, hardcover, or ebook, from Os Justi Press or from any Amazon site.
Let the restoration continue where it has taken root, and begin where it has yet to come!
