Rorate Caeli

St. Lawrence Press Ordo Recitandi 2010



The St. Lawrence Press Ordo Recitandi for 2010 is now available. For information on how to order, please click here.


According to the Ordo's compiler, the blogger who goes by the name "Rubricarius":


The revived traditional Ordo Recitandi was first published in England in1973 by the Saint Pius V Association and later by the SSPX. Since 1984 it has been published by the Saint Lawrence Press. The Ordo follows the Universal Calendar of the Roman rite and follows the liturgical books that were in use prior to Pius XII's reforms. The Ordo is entirely in Latin and modelled on Ordines from the middle of the last century. The Saint Lawrence Press believes that awareness should be raised of the extent of liturgical reform before the Second Vatican Council. A work, at long last, is now in preparation by the Saint Lawrence Press concerning Choral Celebration of the Office.


Until recent years, the topic of the liturgical reforms of Popes Pius XII and John XIII has remained in the background due to the more urgent task of keeping the Classical Roman Rite alive. Nevertheless the topic remains of live interest, and there is growing discussion in traditionalist Catholic circles -- and even among some scholars who are not “traditionalist” at all -- regarding the real extent and nature of the liturgical reforms that were carried out between 1945 and 1962. As is now well known, not a few of these reforms paved the way for the even greater liturgical innovations that have been enacted from 1964 to the present.

This Ordo is recommended for those who want to the say the Office the way it would have been said prior to the reforms (mainly laymen, I would suppose); and also for those who, while considering themselves bound to follow the rubrics in effect in 1962, would like to have an easier but more comprehensive way of comparing the pre-Pius XII and Johannine Office and Missal books.