Saturday, December 15, 2012

Extraordinary Community News


"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"

Tridentine Community News (December 9, 2012):
The Laudámus Te Magazine/Missalette

Some of our readers may be familiar with Magníficat, a monthly glossy paperback publication that offers the Propers of the Ordinary Form of Holy Mass in English for each day of the month, along with some articles and spiritual reflections. Over the past decade, Magníficat has become an amazingly successful publication, with French, Spanish, German, and children’s editions; a second English edition for countries which use the Jerusalem Bible for readings; and Altar Missals. There is no question that Magníficat has become a phenomenon: in some parishes a substantial number of the weekday Mass attendees bring a copy of Magníficat with them. It is the most popular hand missal for the vernacular Ordinary Form.

Many good ideas tend to spawn imitators, and so we are pleased to bring to your attention a new Extraordinary Form equivalent: Laudámus Te. With a format and design unmistakably similar to Magníficat, Laudámus Te offers the Ordinary and Propers of the Tridentine Mass, along with articles and spiritual reflections. Both publications refer to themselves as magazines rather than missalettes, but it is nevertheless clear what the intent is.

There may soon be a local connection to this impressive enterprise: the editors had some difficulties assembling accurate Propers texts for the initial issues of Laudámus Te. This is a problem we have already solved, over years of creating the Latin and English Propers handouts distributed at Assumption, St. Albertus, St. Hyacinth, Ss. Cyril & Methodius, and numerous other churches worldwide. These texts have been proofread more thoroughly than any other set of digitized Propers currently available. While we do not (yet) have the full liturgical year completed, we do have enough Feasts finished to save the publishers from having to locate and proofread every single day’s texts. The editors will be performing due diligence to verify the quality of our work and may soon incorporate our Propers into their publication.

Further information about Laudámus Te is available at www.laudamus-te.com. A PDF with example pages from their Advent, 2012 issue is posted on their web site.

The St. Edmund Campion Missal/Hymnal

In our April 22, 2012 column, we drew your attention to the Vatican II Hymnal, Corpus Christi Watershed’s new hymnal intended to serve churches which offer both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. After completing this work, CCW’s intrepid Jeff Ostrowski embarked upon a similar project more focused on serving Extraordinary Form congregations: The St. Edmund Campion combination Missal and Hymnal. The Campion Missal is the first book of its kind, one that fills a middle ground between the hand missals used by the congregation and traditional pew-based hymnals. The Campion Missal is a “missal for the pew” that incorporates approximately 150 hymns plus all 18 Mass Ordinaries. Color photos and retouched historic line-art drawings such as the one pictured below are included in the design. Even with such a limited collection of hymns, the book weighs in at almost 1,000 pages in length.

As with Laudámus Te, the St. Edmund Campion Missal needed a source for its English Propers translations. CCW embarked upon an ambitious project to key in and proofread the Propers from the Fr. Lasance Missal. Widely lauded for their traditional, florid language, the Fr. Lasance Propers are also unfortunately the most error-filled ones currently in print. Nevertheless CCW assures us that they have carefully corrected those errors.

While this book is definitely not for every Tridentine Mass site, it will find a home in churches where a broad range of hymnody is not needed, and where Propers handouts are not being prepared.

Other hymnal projects to serve the Extraordinary Form are also underway, including the long-awaited second edition of the Traditional Roman Hymnal, the blue hymnal used at Assumption and St. Josaphat Churches.

Christmas Day Tridentine Masses

This year there will once again be a Midnight Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Detroit’s St. Joseph Church. On Christmas Day there will also be a Tridentine Mass with full choir at Windsor’s Assumption Church at 2:00 PM. Please note that there will be no Mass this year at St. Josaphat Church on Christmas Day.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week
  • Mon. 12/10 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Feria of Advent)
  • Tue. 12/11 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. Damasus I, Pope & Confessor)
  • Sun. 12/16 12:15 PM: High Mass at Ss. Peter & Paul (west side), Detroit (Third Sunday of Advent)

Related: "Laudamus Te -- the 'Magnificat' for the TLM" (Musings, November 28, 2012).
[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat (Detroit) and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for September 23, 2012. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]

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