Tridentine Community News - The Clarity of the Traditional Roman Ritual; Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (January 13, 2019):

January 13, 2019 – The Holy Family

The Clarity of the Traditional Roman Ritual This column has previously made mention of the problematic Book of Blessings, the Ordinary Form Roman Ritual. In contrast to the Traditional Roman Ritual, which clearly blesses – and in some cases exorcizes – objects, the Book of Blessings sometimes blesses objects, sometimes blesses the users of those objects, and sometimes…well, it’s not always very clear.

In this writer’s experience, there are actually few priests who prefer the Book of Blessings. Most acknowledge its shortcomings, and many priests otherwise committed to the Ordinary Form employ the old Rituále for blessings. However, there has been little or no talk of improving the Book of Blessings, nor has there been serious discussion of updating the Traditional Ritual. It’s clearly time to add, for example, a blessing of a computer to a book which already contains the blessing of a typewriter.

Nowadays, the question must also be raised as to who can be trusted to compose new blessing prayers in the style of the old prayers. There is no vetting process in place for Vatican officials, nor is the impending possible reorganization of the Pontifical Commission Ecclésia Dei reason for optimism that qualified individuals will be employed for such tasks in the future. It is better not to modify the Traditional Ritual for the time being if there is a risk of making imprudent changes.

A perfect example of the contrast between the two editions was recently seen on Twitter. Fr. Timothy Grumbach of Culver City, California posted the below text of the Blessing of an Airplane from the Book of Blessings, looking forward to his first opportunity to employ this prayer.


Another user then posted the below photo of the Blessing of an Airplane from the Weller edition of the Traditional Roman Ritual. Not surprisingly, Fr. Grumbach responded, “Oh, that far surpasses.” The more florid language and clear good will expressed are simply more ... Catholic.


Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Tue. 01/15 7:00 PM: High Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Windsor (St. Paul the First Hermit, Confessor)
• Sat. 01/19 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (Saturday of Our Lady)

[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. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for January 13, 2019. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]