The Mass - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ...the old tradition, or of harmony with the old ordinary. We obey the 1 See pp. 249-251. ll E. gr.: " Deus qui beatam Iulianam virginem tuam extremo morbo laborantem pretioso Filii tui corpore mirabiliter recreate dignatus es," etc. (Collect of St. Juliana Falconieri, 19 June). authority of the Church, of course, always. But it is not forbidden to hope for such a Pope again as Benedict XIV who will give us back more of our old Roman Calendar. Yet, after all, the new Masses have not absorbed the whole year. There are many days still on which we say the Mass that has been said for centuries, back to the days of the Gelasian and Leonine books. And when they do come, the new Masses only affect the Proper. Our Canon is untouched, and all the scheme of the Mass. Our Missal is still that of Pius V. We may be very thankful that his Commission was so scrupulous to keep or restore the old Roman tradition. Essentially the Missal of Pius V. is the Gregorian Sacramentary; that again is formed from the Gelasian book, which depends on the Leonine collection. We find the prayers of our Canon in the treatise de Sacramentzlr and allusions to it in the IVth century. So our Mass goes back, without essential change, to the age when it first developed out of the oldest liturgy of all. It is still redolent of that liturgy, of the days when Caesar ruled the world and thought he could stamp out the faith of Christ, when our fathers met together before dawn and sang a hymn to Christ as to a God.' The final result of our enquiry is that, in spite of unsolved problems, in spite of later changes, there is not in Christendom another rite so venerable. as ours," 1Since this was written the hope has already been in great part fulfilled. The decree...