New 2019 Ordo app for traditional Missal and Breviary now available

We asked our old friend Louis Tofari of Romanitas Press to write a post for our readers when we saw his great new, inexpensive app for priests and laymen. See below from Louis:

The 2019 Ordo for the traditional (1962) Roman Missal and Breviary is now available again from Romanitas Press as mobile apps for both Android and Apple devices.

This digital version of the printed Ordo for mobile devices is not only handy for the traveling clergy who follow the traditional missal and breviary, but also for the laity as a liturgical calendar! 

New Bishop Uses Old Office

We are not sure how on earth this slipped through the vetting process of the Archdiocese of Washington, but it is quite refreshing to see.

Congratulations to Auxiliary Bishop Michael Fisher!

Early priest mentors inspire new bishop 

When new Washington Auxiliary Bishop Michael Fisher prays during the course of the day, he often holds in his hand and uses an old breviary once owned by his great uncle, Father Cornelius Buckley, who was a priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut.

“He must have smoked cigars,” he said of the priest, whom he never met. Some of the pages are stained with tar, he explained. 

The Omission of “Difficult” Psalms and the Spreading-Thin of the Psalter

The Jefferson Bible, from which the arch-rationalist clipped what he disliked

(This article is being republished by popular demand, in revised form.)

PART OF THE WORK of reassessing the liturgical reform and correcting or rejecting its mistakes consists in making known, as widely as possible, the damage and destruction that was visited upon the unbroken liturgical tradition of the Catholic Church. It has been my experience that far too many Catholics today have simply no idea how much violence was done to the liturgy in the 1960s and 1970s — and that, when they do find out about it, they are rightly and properly scandalized, stirred up with a righteous indignation, and conscious of a new desire to know how they can reconnect with the great tradition that was and is ours as Catholics.

"He appointed men to fight, till they had cleansed the holy places. He chose priests without blemish, whose will was set upon the law of God."

Henri-Camille Danger
Mattathias refuses to obey the orders of the tyrant Antiochus (1882)
Musée de Soissons

***

Congregati sunt inimici nostri, 

et gloriantur in virtute sua: 

contere fortitudinem illorum, Domine, et disperge illos:

* Ut cognoscant, quia non est alius qui pugnet pro nobis, 

nisi tu Deus noster.

Then Judas, and his brethren said: "Behold our enemies are discomfited: let us go up now to cleanse the holy places and to repair them." And all the army assembled together, and they went up into mount Sion. And they saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt, and shrubs growing up in the courts as in a forest, or on the mountains, and the chambers joining to the temple thrown down. And they rent their garments, and made great lamentation, and put ashes on their heads. And they fell face down to the ground on their faces, and they sounded with the trumpets of alarm, and they cried towards heaven.

Reminder & Review: the Baronius Press Latin-English Breviary is back in print

The Baronius Press edition of the Breviary of 1961, the only Latin-English edition of it to be produced since 1970, is back in print. While based in its form on the 1963 Collegeville Latin-English Breviary, this edition is by no means a mere “reprint”, since the the scriptural translations were remade. 

Of greater interest to our readers would be the Baronius Breviary's use of the traditional Vulgate (Gallican) Psalter of St. Jerome rather than the “Bea Psalter” briefly in vogue in the 1950’s and used in the Collegeville edition. This reflects the current consensus of the Traditional Catholic movement about the greater sonority and usefulness of the Vulgate Psalter, and its irreplaceable value due to the immemorial lived tradition of singing the Psalms from it. The translations of the Psalms have been revised for this edition, ensuring both readability and a high level of linguistic elegance.

The first 1,000 or so pages in each of the three volumes are largely the same, containing the Propers and Commons needed for the Divine Office regardless of the time of year. While adding to the overall bulk of the complete set (which has more than 6,000 pages all in all) this allows anyone who wishes to say the Breviary to have to carry around only the appropriate volume for the time of year.

The publication of this Breviary brings to the fore an aspect of Summorum Pontificum that is far less known than the liberty it gave to the Traditional Latin Mass. We refer here to the permission granted to all clerics of the Latin Rite to satisfy their obligation to “say their Office” by saying the Roman Breviary of 1961. The Breviary is therefore not restricted to those who already know Latin. The fulfillment of the traditional Office is of course limited to its typical text - but, with its English and Latin text, the Baronius edition can be a crucial step in allowing for the gradual but continuous promotion of the Breviarium among the clergy.

We hope that the demand for this Breviary will reflect the large interest in praying the traditional Divine Office. The costs of preparing and producing such large liturgical works is substantial and it will be an important sign of the vitality of the traditional Roman liturgical tradition in the English speaking world should such a work remain in print.

***

Note: As always regarding our reviews, Rorate (or this poster personally) has neither asked for, nor received, compensation from Baronius Press for this review-reminder. 

Pocket-sized Diurnale Romanum - follow-up

We are glad we were the first to bring up the news on the publication of the pocket-sized Diurnale Romanum: many people seem to be enjoying using the book, and we even prompted a review by the owner of this website.

Original size compared to new pocket-size

He also took pictures of this pocket-sized reprint of this version of the Diurnale, whose bulky original size is known to Traditional Catholic priests, religious, and laymen around the world. The pocket-sized Diurnale Romanum is available online (to our knowledge) only at the bookshop/boutique of the Abbey of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux.

Pocket-sized Diurnale Romanum

A truly useful liturgical publication  has recently come our way - not exactly a new book, but a new version of an old acquaintance: the Diurnale Romanum (the day hours of the Breviarium Romanum). Its original version, in perfect accordance with the 1960 rubrics, is well known, and loved by many in Traditional communities - see reviews for it here and here, for instance. This large original version is 4 1/2 x 7 1/2 in, and, as it is quite bulky, it seems to defeat one of the main purposes of a Diurnale.

Now, a new version of this Diurnale is available in 3 1/4 x 5 1/4 in, or 8.5 x 13.5 cm, slightly smaller than a 32mo and about an inch thick, a truly pocket-sized version. While the original version has a hard cloth cover and clumsy square corners (in the cover), the new pocket-size comes in a flexible leatherette cover, with rounded corners. The typesetting is (or seems to be) exactly the same as in the larger version, in the appropriate red and black printing. The only drawbacks in our opinion are that, differently from the larger version, the first pages with repeated prayers are not in heavier/thicker paper, and that it still comes with only four ribbons - one or two more would be welcome . Some kind of cover or slip would also be much appreciated. In any event, this little book is a great gift for a traditional priest, or for any layman who prays the hours, as long as they have reasonable eyesight (the printing is excellent and wonderfully readable, but naturally the letters are smaller than what many prefer). 

We have no idea if a bilingual Latin-English version, similar to the Latin-German one mentioned by us here in the past, is being planned by any publishing house.

[The small Diurnale is available online, as far as we are aware, only in the bookstore/boutique of the Abbey of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux - as Diurnale Romanum (format poche), but the image does not exactly match the actual book. The larger version is widely available. As usual, this is a disinterested post, and the book was bought.]

Divinum Officium Advent Update

Dear Friends of the Divine Office:

We at the Divinum Officium Project would like to thank everyone for their continued support and prayer for the success of this project.

As we prepare for the coming of the Word Incarnate during the Advent Season, what better way to prepare than to familiarize oneself with the Church's liturgical texts, and harmonize our own prayer with the Church's worship? Throughout the Advent season, the Church proposes for our consideration in the Mass and in the Divine Office the prophecies of Isaias, who beautifully foreshadowed the coming of Emmanuel, God-With-Us, He who will be born of the Virgin and bring about the gift of salvation.