REVIEW: Laudamus Te – The Magazine of the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Liturgy of the Roman Rite

Many of you subscribe to or know the small booklet Magnificat, an aid for the post-Conciliar form of Holy Mass.  It is pocket-size and it is sent to you each, I believe, month.

There is now a similar aid for the Usus Antiquior, or Extraordinary Form, the Traditional Latin Mass.

Laudamus Te.  The Magazine of the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Liturgy of the Roman Rite

Since that says “Latin Liturgy”, I assume that they will eventually have something about, say, Vespers.  Latin Liturgy means a lot more than Mass.

In any event, the little booklet is very attractive at fist glance.

You can tell from the shine that it is glossy.

This for Advent 2012, Volume 1, Issue 1.

20121127-205631.jpg

The contents show reflections by priests of yesteryear such as Fr. Faber and of today, of the FSSP, the Ordinary for the TLM, Prayers After Mass, a blurb from the Fathers of the Church, some catechism, and the Propers for Sundays and some feasts.

20121127-205805.jpg

An example of a reflection by Fr. James Fryar, FSSP.

20121127-205636.jpg

Some catechism.

20121127-205645.jpg

The Ordinary has both the Latin and English and explanations of when to stand, sit, etc.

20121127-205653.jpg

Here is an offering of original poetry.

20121127-205700.jpg

The back has the Marian hymn Tota pulchra in Gregorian chant notation.  Thus, they didn’t dumb it down.

20121127-205709.jpg

Within, artwork by our friend Daniel Mitsui.

20121127-205750.jpg

Before each Mass proper, there is a meditation about and/or from the saint of the day or some other writer.  It is all very solid stuff.

Inside the back cover there is an explanation of the English translation they use.  They went with the translations used by the Maternal Heart of Mary Traditional Mass Chaplaincy in Lewisham, Sydney, Australia, which in turn seem to be stitched together from various sources.  In sooth, the English presenteth thy, “thees and thous”.  It was interested to see for the priest’s Communion prayer Corpus Tuum, Domine, the rendering – I double-checked – “May Thy Body of Lord [sic], which I have received and Thy Blood which I have drunk, cleave to my inmost parts…”  Okay… they need to work out the kinks.  “May Thy Body, O Lord, …” might work better.  Opening the book to a feast at random, I see they rendered the Secret for St. Peter Chrysologus (Sancti Petri Pontificis tui atque Doctoris nobis, Domine, pia non desit oratio: quae et munera nostra conciliet; et tuam nobis indulgentiam semper obtineat.) as:  “May the holy prayer of St. Peter, Thy Bishop and Doctor, fail us not, O Lord: may it render our offerings acceptable, and ever obtain for us Thy pardon.”  Hmmm… not so much.  Not bad, but it could be better.  It is perfectly comprehensible and a couple steps above daily language, which is important. A quick web search lead me to the same text on the site of Air Maria.

This new magazine is easy to carry to Mass with you.  The type is a bit small, for those who have problems with such things.  That is why God created eye-glasses.

One year subscription is $32 per year. They have a volume rate, which will help parishes and chapels.  I didn’t find them on amazon, alas.  They could also use an affiliate program.  Their website shows that they are just getting started.  HERE.

 

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Brick by Brick, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, REVIEWS, SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM, The Campus Telephone Pole and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

45 Comments

  1. NBW says:

    I just got my copy the other day. It is wonderful!

  2. lizaanne says:

    I have the Advent copy, and I’m very much looking forward to using this at Mass, and for prayer in between times. Not sure what this does to one’s missal – is it now a dust collector on the shelf?? I may see how it works to use missal at Mass, and booklet at home — and then switch it up to see what works best.

    I do hope they get a ton of support so they can continue with this wonderful work! I plan to order a one year subscription myself.

    Whodathunkit, 5 – 10 years ago, that such a thing would even exist. Amazing!!!! As you say Father, brick by brick. :-)

  3. KAS says:

    I’d love a subscription but when would I get to use it at mass? HERE there is no Extraordinary form available, or wasn’t last time I checked. I know it is not at the two parishes I attend. I’m going to check again.

    Too few showed up when we used to have an extraordinary form but it was only once a month and only at 5:30pm on Sunday. Being that the later Mass tended to be the off the wall crazy with experimentation the other Sundays, you had to keep changing from a morning Mass, to the once a month later Mass, and back– and most people found that didn’t work too well with work schedules and family schedules.

  4. Late for heaven says:

    They provide a digital subscription too for only $28.

  5. KAS says:

    Sigh, FIVE parishes. All Ordinary Form, three with all in English, one with all but one in Spanish, and one with all in English except one in Spanish. None of them indicate any other difference except language.

    These are the parishes within an hour of me. I’d have to drive well over an hour to use the book. :( but I SO VERY badly want to attend such.

    Oh well. It is a love magazine and I hope lots of persons who do have access to the Extraordinary form buy it and enjoy it!

  6. Therese says:

    “Whodathunkit, 5 – 10 years ago, that such a thing would even exist.”

    I assure you, lizaanne, we are as astonished as anyone. (And thanks for the kind words, NBW. ;-)

    Don’t give away your comprehensive missal–we have no intention of replacing it. Our magazine is designed for ease of use at Mass, among other things, and to give Catholics a much broader exposure to the almost endless wealth of spiritual writings from the Church Fathers and the saints. We are heirs to much beauty that rarely sees light in contemporary publications. Catholics who “don’t much care” for the EF, look out: We esp. consider you our target audience.

    Alas, Father, translations are the living end. We have been holding our noses and soldiering onward, as so far there are just three of us at Laudamus Te, and a vast mountain of liturgical treasure to explore, much of it in Latin. Yes, we feel snowed under! May God bless you.

  7. acardnal says:

    I have subscribed and received my Advent issue. I still plan on using my EF missal but this has meditations and essays from clerics and the Church Fathers which I look forward to reading. It also has daily Mass Propers and meditations for this liturgical season of Advent. (My EF missals – both from Baronius and Angelus Press – are for the most part Sunday and Solemnities only.) Soon their Christmas season issue will arrive! They will be expanding and improving their periodical as time goes on – including Morning and Evening prayers as I recall.

  8. Flambeaux says:

    It’s meant to supplement your hand missal, not replace it. For example, my wife usually has a babe in arms. Juggling a hand missal just isn’t something she wants to do. But this, being a compact paperback, is perfect: lightweight, has reflections, and fits in her sling along with her veil.

    @KAS, while we do have a couple of places near us where the usus antiquior is celebrated, we primarily go to an Ordinariate parish. As such, the calendar and Ordinary are OF and the Propers are a blend of OF and Book of Divine Worship.

    But in our own home we follow the 1962 calendar. So, even if you don’t have access to the liturgy or the sacraments under the older form, there is nothing preventing you from allowing that ethos to inform your own spiritual life and, by extension, the spiritual life of your domestic church.

    HTH

  9. OrthodoxChick says:

    This is welcome news indeed! I plan to purchase the subscription.

    For those of you who commented that you are not living anywhere near a parish with the EF, I will pray for you. I know how difficult a situation this is. It has taken me months to find a parish that is within a 1/2 hour drive from my home. With the price of gasoline, I can’t afford to drive much further out than that 1/2 hr. round trip to go to Mass. I’m sure I’m not the only one in this position.

    One day a 2 weeks ago, I finally became so fed up with searching websites for EF Mass listings that turned out to be too far away, and asking local pastors if they would consider celebrating an EF Mass (to which I consistently received a negative reply in as polite terms as they could manage), I got fed up and fired up and started calling the Chancery in my own Diocese as well as every neighboring Diocese with parishes close enough for me to drive to. I live in New England in a corner where I border 2 other states, so there are several Dioceses close together. I suppose my idea might not work if I lived in a bigger state with only one Diocese (like Cheyene, Wyoming, for example) but it might. You never know. At any rate, after calling around to a handful of Bishop’s offices, I finally found out that there is a small parish not too far away in another Diocese that is off the radar and has the EF.

    I relay this story to offer advice that will hopefully turn out to help someone else looking for EF parishes as well. If you call and haunt the Bishop’s staff, sometimes, they will know of and can point you toward a priest a little closer to you who celebrates the EF but may not have the staff/time to publicize it, or one who is still learning the Latin Rite but has plans to begin celebrating it publicly in the near future. In my case, no one on the Bishops’ staffs knew where to direct me but one kind soul on one Bishop’s staff took it upon herself to ask around until she got me an answer. Either she’s a kindly soul, or she couldn’t stand taking my phone calls anymore, but either way, she got me my answer!

    And what a difference! I felt like I was “home” at the EF Mass, even though I couldn’t follow it all. It just felt right. I’ll try to offer an analogy to describe it as best as I can. When I attend the N.O., I feel like I am a foster child being hosted in the home of someone kind enough to take me in (ie. the pastor). Even though I know in my head that I am welcome and “belong” in the foster home, something just doesn’t feel quite natural. And then, while I’m praying and observing the EF Mass, it hits me. Both homes are beautiful and welcoming, but the EF is the home of my biological parents. It feels natural because it IS natural and I’ve been reunited with my roots.

    I hope and pray we can all have access to the EF conveniently very, very soon.

  10. pberginjr says:

    I ordered one, just to check it out (my wife isn’t keen on attending the EF exclusively, although we do get to occasionally). It is well executed, and I am sure it will get better as it grows bigger. This sort of item may be very helpful for someone who is less familiar/comfortable with (or favorable toward) the EF (as Therese noted), since it is much smaller than a hand missal (fewer places to get lost), and simultaneously more detailed/informative/useful than the “Red booklets” used in most parishes where the EF is regularly celebrated.

    I do think there is a niche here for Laudamus Te, and I hope that it garners enough support/subscriptions to have a fair chance!

  11. James Joseph says:

    Subscribed.

    Mine arrived en il posto ieri.

  12. Mike says:

    @KAS:

    You’re in god company. The only liturgy in the Extraordinary Form in my area is at a most inconvenient time once a week, so I never get to assist at Mass in that form. :(

  13. Mike says:

    Ugh, good* company*. Sorry.

  14. An American Mother says:

    Eleanor Farjeon, the writer of “People Look East” (and also “Morning Has Broken”) was an Anglican with medieval and High Church leanings. One of the charming and mildly eccentric maiden ladies that the English have pretty much cornered the market on.
    She’s worth looking into, lots of short stories as well as poetry. The two Martin Pippin books are probably best known. They’re a bit fraught, will probably remind you of Georgette Heyer, but well written and a pleasant read.
    The magazine seems worth looking into, even though we rarely attend the EF.

  15. RichardT says:

    That looks splendid. And I see they also ship to the UK and Canada, as well as the US.

    The poem “People Look East” is actually a hymm, an advent carol, with a rather good tune. First published apparently in the Oxford Book of Carols, 1928. Sadly I have only heard it sung in Anglican parishes, although the author is described as a devout Catholic, so well done to the publishers for reclaiming a bit more of our Catholic heritage.

  16. benedetta says:

    I received my copy last week. It is a beautiful little book. I am looking forward to praying with this during Advent.

  17. mamajen says:

    I don’t attend a TLM, but this still sounds like something I would enjoy greatly, if only to read through on my own. Some of the booklets I find at church are so awful.

  18. The Astronomer says:

    Subscription ordered… :-)

  19. Ichabod says:

    Ditto Mamajen – I don’t attend a TLM, but this publication is very welcome addition to Magnificat. It deserves to be publicized more broadly.

  20. HighMass says:

    Fr.Z,

    Did you see the Pontifical Solemn High Mass celebrated at St. Hedwig’s in Trenten N. J. Bishop O’Conner was the Celebrant, Bishop of the Diocese, So Beautiful and Reverent!!!

    Thank God for this Magazine! Viva IL PAPA!

  21. acardnal says:

    HighMass, YES! Watched last evening. Reverent, transcendent, solemn. Listening to the schola was enjoyable. And yes, I have subscribed to Laudamus Te. Comments in moderation for some unknown reason.

  22. The solemn pontifical Mass last evening in Trenton (and on EWTN) was the most glorious diocesan TLM I have seen in recent years–perhaps surpassed in splendor only by the one in April 2010 at the National Shrine in Washington. Some photo are now posted at

    http://www.latinmasstrenton.org/lmt/News/

    I was also impressed by the description by the woman commentator–a parish RE director in Trenton, I believe–of how in a single year the TLM has rejuvenated youth evangelization in the Diocese of Trenton. The bottom picture on the page shows the approx. three dozen altar boys, and a similar number of “Maidens of the Miraculous Medal” who participated in the Mass. The choir also appeared to consist of youth, along with perhaps a majority of the SRO congregation. Surely, this is truly the “new evangelization” in action.

    And on the actual topic of this thread, I also have subscribed to Te Laudemus. I think the Magnificat is one of the most wholesome developments in the OF arena, having introduced hundreds of thousands of Catholics to beauty as they did not find it in their parishes, and I hope that Te Laudemus can grow into a similar role in the EF arena.

  23. Pingback: Angus T. Jones Two and a Half Men Brouhaha | Big Pulpit

  24. acardnal says:

    Henry Edwards, the Solemn Pontifical Mass celebrated by +AB Wenski of Miami broadcast on Livemass.net earlier this year was awe-fully good, too!

  25. ppb says:

    I received my first issue and am very impressed. I showed it to several other people at our EF Mass. I’m looking forward to having the excerpts from the Divine Office in future issues. I plan to use this at home for spiritual reading; when I go to Mass I will take my missal, but I can see this being a useful substitute for the missal in some circumstances. Many thanks and prayers for the folks at Laudamus Te.

  26. I just subscribed, based on this review. :)

  27. Bryan Boyle says:

    Henry Edwards: Dorothy Conway was the woman commentator….Jim Manfredonia the male voice you heard. Jim owns the local Catholic radio station (strangely enough, I was chief engineer of the station in a previous life for the station when it was a commercial outlet) WFJS-AM a few miles from the Chancellery.

    I congratulated them after the Mass for letting the MASS deliver its message without the chatty cathy commentary usually seen/heard on EWTN. It was glorious. That the bishop of Trenton (once the most conservative diocese in the US under +Bp George Ahr, but the two intervening prelates were decidedly more….um…loosey-goosey) who actively supports and encourages the spread of the EF is just one more brick being put back into the wall that was driven through.

    May God grant +O’Connell many more years to rebuild the Trenton diocese.

  28. joan ellen says:

    OrthodoxChick – “Both homes are beautiful and welcoming, but the EF is the home of my biological parents. It feels natural because it IS natural and I’ve been reunited with my roots. ”
    What a beautiful thing to say re: the OF and the EF.

    KAS – “I’d love a subscription but when would I get to use it at mass?” FWIW – I use my St. Andrew Missal at the OF Mass. It helps bring in the natural-ness of the EF as Orthodoxchick says. So, I plan to order the Laudamus Te and use it at both the EF and OF, or of course at home for spiritual reading.

    Henry Edwards – Thank you so very much for the link to: http://www.latinmasstrenton.org/lmt/News/. Those images are so uplifiting. Thanks.

  29. Therese says:

    Thanks again. We’re grateful for these encouraging comments. Subscriptions and donations are the lifeblood of Laudamus Te. We’re also aware that there’s more at stake here than a publication. Please, do tell your friends. We need your help, and what happens in the coming year will be critical to the magazine’s survival.

    I should add that one of the driving factors behind my involvement has everything to do with the difficulty in getting the Mass of the Ages in my area. We have faced active opposition at every turn in the road, but I firmly believe that God does not plow where He does not intend to go. At the present time we are allowed just one EF per month–a Low Mass on Mondays–and may advertise it in one parish bulletin only. It’s been pretty tough.

    I’m afraid I don’t have an easy formula for success: REFUSE TO TAKE NO FOR ANSWER.

  30. Elizabeth D says:

    I subscribed also to Laudamus te and it is an attractive publication, physically nice in the hand, and kind of a relief to me since my elderly Father Stedman “My Sunday Missal” is falling to bits. As nice as this or Magnificat is, the problem with all such disposable missals is what to do with the thing after its lifespan is up. I do not have ready access to a place to burn or bury. I subscribed to Laudamus te partly to help them get started but I will have to wait and see if I want to renew or if I would get a new hand missal.

  31. Legisperitus says:

    Couldn’t not subscribe to this. Thanks for the tip, Father. :)

  32. Gretchen says:

    Just ordered the Advent digital version. Will publicize this on my TLM site.

  33. Pingback: Magazines for Mass « The Catholic Eye

  34. aragonjohn7 says:

    ahh Latin

    Shalom
    God bless

  35. After my first look at the beautiful sample pages provided at the Laudemus Te web site, I immediately added a link to my TLM community’s web site home page. Since then, in addition to the sample pages, a 58-minute podcast on Laudemus Te has also appeared at their web site.

  36. acardnal says:

    Elizabeth D., according to advice from a priest, you do not have to be concerned about “burying” or “burning” Laudemus Te, Magnificat, or missals unless they were consecrated or blessed items.

  37. lucy says:

    Love my copy and cannot wait to use it this Sunday!

    Prayers for this publication to flourish abundantly.

    Mike – some drive a couple hours routinely to go to the EF Mass. And as for others’ issues with the time of day. Our EF Mass is at 3:30pm on Sundays. The time is awful and people have said they would come if it wasn’t for the lousy time. Our family just changed our life around to be able to attend this one Mass. Our son misses baseball games and tournaments to be able to go. Thankfully, our coach is understanding. We did what we had to do for the spiritual formation of our children. I think it’s just about what you can do if it’s important to you.

  38. Back to Tuesday solemn pontifical Mass. An outstanding report in the newspaper of the Diocese of Trenton:

    http://www.trentonmonitor.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=22&ArticleID=4336

    The accompanying 89-photo album may be the finest TLM photo album ever.

  39. Legisperitus says:

    Henry Edwards: Interesting. I had never heard of the Maidens of the Miraculous Medal. Are they something old or something new?

  40. Gulielmus says:

    I dearly love “People Look East,” which has been sung for years at St Matthew’s Cathedral in DC during Advent, usually as a recessional. And we sing all five verses (some hymnals omit the “Love, the bird” verse, visible in your picture, Fr Z).

  41. racjax says:

    I give my old issues of Magnificat to one of our Franciscan brothers who is involved with prison ministry. He is always wanting such booklets to give to the inmates for the readings, etc. I couldn’t bring myself to destroy them or throw them away!

  42. Elizabeth D says:

    ACardnal, I’m sure it’s probably not a sin to put Magnificat in the recycle bin (if I have to dipose of anything like that I just give it a kiss first!) but still… I think of St Francis of Assisi who was not even particularly literate but took a lot of care to pick up any paper with the Word of God on it and put it in a more dignified place. The ease of printing and mass producing now risks cheapening the precious words of scripture but whatever we can do in the cause of reverence seems good. We did send a stack of Magnificats from the adoration chapel off with someone who would burn them in a wood stove. If one can do that it seems like a fine idea.

  43. Ame E. says:

    Mine came in the mail last week. I have not started to use it yet because Advent starts tomorrow. It’s nice to have a Magnificat for traddies.. I love the art… I would like more art and drawings in there… and am excited to see new beautiful traditional artwork drawn by today’s artists.

    Ame E.

Comments are closed.