The Mass

This is the second volume of a two-volume commentary on the prayers and ceremonies of the traditional Roman Mass. It was published in the 1940s when the Liturgical Movement was (generally) in fine fettle, before it crashed and burned. Although one might quibble with this or that point -- especially the author's gushing enthusiasm for "versus populum" as the truly ancient way of offering Mass, which more recent scholarship has exhaustively refuted -- it is an excellent, thorough, and insightful commentary on the different parts and prayers of the Mass, and the theology with which they are imbued. Some quotations from this volume: "The glorious mission of the Church throughout the ages is the integration of each of her members individually into this new and everlasting covenant with the Father, thus applying the eucharistic blood of Christ to them." "If Christians of all succeeding generations are actually to participate in Calvary's unique sacrifice and so through Christ, with him and in him, to render all honour and glory to the Father, the sacrifice of the Cross must be made present at all times and in all places." "Christ has ordered the adoration of the Father by the Church in a definite pattern-through the sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments, the rites and ceremonies of which have been defined in every detail by the Church."