On this feast of St. Pius V, I am pleased to share with NLM readers the latest release from Os Justi Press, Abbé Henri Dutilliet’s Little Liturgical Catechism. Inspired by the efforts of Dom Prosper Guéranger, Dutilliet’s remarkable work, first published in French in 1860, offers a comprehensive distillation of the Roman liturgy and the Church’s annual cycle of worship.
This fine but forgotten book was rediscovered by the decadent-novelist-turned-Benedictine-oblate Joris-Karl Huysmans, who saw it back into print in 1896 as a remedy for “ignorance of the Sacred Liturgy.” Nor has the need for education ceased 130 years later, when the traditional rite so beautifully expounded in these pages has returned to so many churches. It is thus fitting to bring Dutilliet’s marvelous aid to light for our times, even as Huysmans did for his.
Expanded with notes that explain unfamiliar terms or point out differences between various editions of the old Roman rite, this first-ever English translation of Dutilliet’s text offers the faithful “the enduring enchantment of the admirable year of the Church” and the understanding that “all in her worship is full of meaning; nothing is left to hazard; no detail, however minute, is without purpose.”
The book is enriched by a substantial appendix that offers a catechism in Ecclesiastical Chant.
Reading the Little Liturgical Catechism is a painless way to acquire much learning in a short time. It would be especially useful to seminarians, MCs, altar servers, musicians, and catechists or religious educators, not to mention bookstores or bookstands.
Augustin Hacquard, bishop of Verdun, described this book as “the fruit of serious research, composed with as much method as precision. We commend this valuable work alike to those who instruct and to those who seek to be instructed.” Frédéric Victor Duval praised it in like manner: “This booklet is very appealing due to its catechetical form. If it were more widely distributed, Catholics would follow the services with greater enthusiasm, and their piety, less ignorant of the liturgy, would be deeper and more lively.”
You may “look inside” the publication at this link, but here are a few sample photos for convenience:
Also of possible interest to readers, here are some other recent publications:Anna Kalinowska, Clothed with Beauty: A Catholic Philosophy of Dress – a superb guide to the topic of why and how we should dress well, which includes modesty but goes so far beyond it.
Richard Butler, O.P.’s Religious Vocation: An Unnecessary Mystery, which helps young men and women escape from the traps of subjectivism by presenting a more objective Thomistic approach to responding to Christ’s call to follow Him in a life of evangelical vows.
The Transcendent Christ: St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, in which several scholars do a liturgical-dogmatic reading of this epistle. The chapter vigorously defending its Pauline authorship (as embedded in the usus antiquior and the Byzantine rite) is of particular relevance for the present audience.
Elizabeth Altham’s Death Comes to Wyandotte, a breath-of-fresh-air novel in which a malign bishop sets up a TLM center at a hideous church in the boondocks and assigns two diocesan misfits, Fr. Hopkins and Fr. Houghton, to (as he thinks) preside over its guaranteed failure – but that’s not what the Lord has in mind, as He uses a variety of improbable instruments to accomplish a surprise victory.
This fine but forgotten book was rediscovered by the decadent-novelist-turned-Benedictine-oblate Joris-Karl Huysmans, who saw it back into print in 1896 as a remedy for “ignorance of the Sacred Liturgy.” Nor has the need for education ceased 130 years later, when the traditional rite so beautifully expounded in these pages has returned to so many churches. It is thus fitting to bring Dutilliet’s marvelous aid to light for our times, even as Huysmans did for his.
Expanded with notes that explain unfamiliar terms or point out differences between various editions of the old Roman rite, this first-ever English translation of Dutilliet’s text offers the faithful “the enduring enchantment of the admirable year of the Church” and the understanding that “all in her worship is full of meaning; nothing is left to hazard; no detail, however minute, is without purpose.”
The book is enriched by a substantial appendix that offers a catechism in Ecclesiastical Chant.
Reading the Little Liturgical Catechism is a painless way to acquire much learning in a short time. It would be especially useful to seminarians, MCs, altar servers, musicians, and catechists or religious educators, not to mention bookstores or bookstands.
Augustin Hacquard, bishop of Verdun, described this book as “the fruit of serious research, composed with as much method as precision. We commend this valuable work alike to those who instruct and to those who seek to be instructed.” Frédéric Victor Duval praised it in like manner: “This booklet is very appealing due to its catechetical form. If it were more widely distributed, Catholics would follow the services with greater enthusiasm, and their piety, less ignorant of the liturgy, would be deeper and more lively.”
You may “look inside” the publication at this link, but here are a few sample photos for convenience:
Richard Butler, O.P.’s Religious Vocation: An Unnecessary Mystery, which helps young men and women escape from the traps of subjectivism by presenting a more objective Thomistic approach to responding to Christ’s call to follow Him in a life of evangelical vows.
The Transcendent Christ: St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, in which several scholars do a liturgical-dogmatic reading of this epistle. The chapter vigorously defending its Pauline authorship (as embedded in the usus antiquior and the Byzantine rite) is of particular relevance for the present audience.
Elizabeth Altham’s Death Comes to Wyandotte, a breath-of-fresh-air novel in which a malign bishop sets up a TLM center at a hideous church in the boondocks and assigns two diocesan misfits, Fr. Hopkins and Fr. Houghton, to (as he thinks) preside over its guaranteed failure – but that’s not what the Lord has in mind, as He uses a variety of improbable instruments to accomplish a surprise victory.
