Customer Reviews

The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simply indispensible for teaching and personal reference. Combine with O'Connell "The Celebration of Mass" and you have simply two unbeatable reference on how to and when to and what is proper.

This book is an absolutely necessary addition to the collection of anyone who has a fondness for or interest in the rites of the Sacred Liturgy. The beauty of Theology in the old rites of the Mass are made simple in a very thorough way, and in understanding all of the nuances of the Tridentine, a person can easily come to a greater understanding and appreciation for the New Liturgy, and how the Liturgical traditions of the Church have naturally evolved throughout history. Excellent!

Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923) would have wanted nothing to do with this "edition" of his original work, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, which ranked in esteem just below the Latin rubrical authorities, of which Innocentius Walpelhorst's Compendium Sacrae Liturgia is the most authoritative.

After the death of Fr. Fortescue in 1923 until 1962, when Hannibal Bugnini started implementing his Novus Ordo (New Order) service after the first session of the Second Vatican Council (1963), J.B. O'Connell updated Fr. Fortescue's work. That work ended with the 12th edition of 1962, after which the Traditional Latin Mass was supplanted with the Novus Ordo service, written by Hannibal Bugnini and his Committee of Six Protestant Ministers. This is the service offered in most diocesan churches today, although there are a significant number of sites that refuse to go along with the Novus Ordo and instead maintain either the 1962 Mass or earlier versions.

This, so-called 15th edition, is quite dishonest. It contains unauthorized changes made by Alcuin Reed. If this edition were for the 1962 rite, why wasn't the 12th edition simply reprinted? This book is not faithful to Fr. Fortescue's 12th edition. It contains three more editions of "modernizing" changes engineered to conform to the Novus Ordo, not the Traditional Latin Mass.

If you want to get the real McCoy, get the Fortescue-O'Connell original 1962 edition as a used book. That way you won't get the false "updates" injected throughout into this edition. Better yet, get one of the earlier editions before 1962, by which time Bugnini was already implementing changes that were not traditional to the Traditional Latin Mass.

This book has been updated to reflect the 1962 rubrics of the Roman Rite, better known as the Indult version of the traditional Roman Rite, reflecting the changes instituted by the liturgical commission under Annibale Bugnini in 1962. It would be helpful and a lot more interesting if Fr. Alcuin Reid had included in this version the changes Bugnini made in in the context of the earlier practice. To get this information you have to obtain an earlier edition of the book. There is a growing interest in the pre-Indult version of the Roman Rite and this book has had that information edited out.
D. M. Drew