Customer Reviews

Baltimore Book of Prayers

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I discovered a 1950 (or so) edition of this prayerbook in a Traditionalist chapel some years ago. Where the original owner had failed, I succeeded in wearing the book out. I was most gratified when Roman Catholic Books decided to reprint this historic prayerbook.

This book contains a number of devotions, a Sunday Missal, the rites for the Sacraments (except Holy Orders), a Calendar, and much more. Many of the liturgical prayers are given in Latin and English.

This book is a window into Catholic piety and worship as practiced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Comparison with other prayerbooks of the period seem to indicate that this book was the basis for a number of other prayerbooks published through the 1950s. And although the book does not reflect liturgical revisions after about 1950 or so, it could still be used by those Catholics who attend the Tridentine Mass.

My main complaints are with the current edition's format. The original edition was a little bigger than a vest-pocket book, and printed on a thin bible paper, the cover adorned with a gilt Latin cross. The reprint edition is a bit bigger than a daily missal, printed on a heavy paper. This makes the reprint significantly less portable than the original. The pages were photoreproduced, so the text is not very crisp and looks photocopied, but that is to be expected. However, the page images are still very close to the original book's size, and although this isn't too noticeable on the text pages, it diminishes the appearance of the illustrated calendar pages.

Still, this is a good prayerbook, and belongs on shelf of every traditional Catholic.