A couple days ago I received package from the nice folks at Preserving Christian Publications. “What”, quoth I, “could be in here?” Whereupon, I set it on the counter, got distracted and didn’t open it for a couple of days.
“Oh yeah,” quoth I, while chopping veg for my soup. Whereupon, I opened it and found treasure within.
They sent me a copy of their Liber Usualis, their Liber Brevior, and a new critter they made themselves, but which will be quite useful as we continue to recover our patrimony. See below.
The “cheaters” are for scale.
The books are all well-bound…
… and with ribbons, the Liber Usualis (“Useful Book”) having enough to cover your page changes for Vespers.
I have an older Liber that I had rebound, having withstood the test of years. Of course it is as tight as the wallet of a Genovese arguing with Scots about the bar tab.
This Liber lies open. You don’t have to engage in isometric finger exercises to use it. “Useful!”
This is the last edition before the massive disruption, the 1963 with the 1962 rubrics and Gregorian (not modern) notation. It has the rubrics in English, which some of you will find handy. It is updated with the changes.
Note that they updated the Table to 2041.
COST: $76 – which is well below other printings of the Liber you might find.
This is not going to fall apart after a couple years of use, as many liturgical reprints do.
They have added supplements for, say, the Immaculate Heart of Mary (22 August) and some other chants for Septuagesima, extra Alleluia for Easter Season, etc.
The Liber Brevior is a shorter version of the Liber Usualis, the hours having been extracted leaving only chant notation for Holy Mass.
Here is the new critter. Liber Hebdomadae Sanctae Cantus Gregoriani.
This has all of the chant for Palm Sunday through the Easter Vigil, but not Easter Sunday. Hence, it has all of the office of Tenebrae.
Friends, we must recover our Catholic patrimony. Preserving Christian Publications has provided some great tools of late. You might recall that I received and reviewed their 1962 Parish Ritual HERE. It expanded the Collectio Rituum (although it has one problem with the Divine Praises). I liked it so much I ordered a second copy for the sacristy.
Those of you who want to form a schola cantorum… you have new resources.
Gosh, how times have changed since the 80’s and 90’s.
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PCP Books just does books right. I have the LB and LU and they ooze a sense of authenticity. No cutesy clip art of harps or 70’s abstract art (like the CBP Liturgy of the Hours). The PCP Diurnale Romanum is the bee’s knees, too. By far my favorite prayer book.
Also for we Lay people, a review of Blessed Be God from 1960 would be helpful. It has become a constant companion for me.
Also for we Lay people, a review of Blessed Be God from 1960 would be helpful. It has become a constant companion for me.
It’s a very fair price for a Liber.
I remember scouring old closets and libraries trying to find one in the 90’s. The availability of resources now is shocking.
Many have no idea what it was like trying to keep the embers of tradition & orthodoxy burning pre-Internet. It was isolated & awful.
I’ve contemplated purchasing that Liber. I saw it on the FSSP bookstore page, but wondered how well it was made. The Brevior is nice for Sunday Mass, etc as it’s not as heavy and easier to handle in my small hands. I only wish it had more than two ribbons. Nothing a couple or so tabs can’t fix, though. It also has the shorter simpler psalm tones for the graduals and tracts when necessity demands them.