The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described

This volume is an important, revised and updated ceremonial manual, published to guide and assist in celebrating the tradition liturgy today.

'This book, a classic guide to the celebration of the Church's ancient Gregorian Rite in the English-speaking world, will serve priests and seminarians of the twenty-first century―just as it served so many priests of the twentieth―in their pastoral mission, which now necessarily includes familiarity with and openness to the use of the older form of the sacred liturgy. I happily commend it to the clergy, seminarians and laity as a reliable tool for the preparation and celebration of the liturgical rites authoritatively granted by the Holy Father in Summorum Pontificum.

'I congratulate the distinguished liturgical scholar, Dr. Alcuin Reid, for his care and precision in ensuring that this revised edition conforms to the latest authoritative decisions with regard to these liturgical rites. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his letter which accompanied Summorum Pontificum: "In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture." The Gregorian Rite is today a living liturgical rite which will continue its progress without losing any of its riches handed on in tradition. For as the Holy Father continued, "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behoves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place." May this book assist the Church of today and of tomorrow in realising Pope Benedict's vision.' - Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, President, Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei

This fifteenth edition, revised in the light of Pope Benedict XVI's reforms and expanded and corrected throughout, includes a new chapter on the music of solemn and sung Mass as well as clarifications of questions that have arisen in the light of recent experience. It gives descriptions of the rites of pontifical, solemn and low Mass, Vespers, the liturgical year including Holy Week, the sacraments, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, funerals, episcopal visitation and more.

Dom Alcuin Reid is a monk of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France. After studies in Theology and in Education in Melbourne, Australia, he was awarded a PhD from King’s College, University of London, for a thesis on twentieth century liturgical reform (2002), which was subsequently published as The Organic Development of the Liturgy with a preface by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. He has lectured internationally and has published extensively on the sacred liturgy, including Looking Again at the Question of the Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger (2003), The Monastic Diurnal, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described (2009), A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Carmel Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes (2011). His writings have been translated into Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Polish and Croatian.

Dom Alcuin takes his place at the centre of the new liturgical movement called for by Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) promoting an authentic interpretation of the Second Vatican Council’s call for liturgical reform within a hermeneutic of continuity, a critical assessment of its implementation and of the need for a reform of the reform, as well as an openness to the value and riches of the usus antiquior in the Church of the twenty-first century. He was the principal organiser of Sacra Liturgia 2013, the international conference on the role liturgical formation and celebration in the life and mission of the Church in Rome in June 2013, and edited its proceedings Sacred Liturgy: The Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church (2014). He coordinates the ongoing Sacra Liturgia initiatives.