“Missale Romanum cum lectionibus” now available online

A watershed.

The busy bees at Corpus Christi Watershed – apart from providing the great music resources for the older, traditional form of the Roman Rite – has now provided for your free download the whole of the 4 volume Missale Romanum cum lectionibus.

I have these precious volumes, useful especially because they allow the priest to say the Novus Ordo from one book alone (something Annibale wanted to prevent).  It was great for travel… back when I said the Novus Ordo alot, that is.

Click HERE

Be aware, however, that on every single page of the PDF, Corpus Christi Watershed placed an announcement that is time limited.  This is super annoying.  It will be even more annoying after “early 2014”.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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17 Comments

  1. Hank Igitur says:

    Why did Bugs want to prevent using a single book? More disassembly in the name of a return to earlier praxis or another attempt at sabotage/subterfuge?

  2. greasemonkey says:

    I think it’s because he didn’t want priests to continue to celebrate the entire mass himself at the altar, absorbing the roles of other ministers into the role of the celebrant…. as is such in the EF low mass.
    If this book were available a priest could celebrate the mass in the OF and have it look very much like the EF.
    Having a separate book for the lectors (lectionary), choir (graduale), Evangelarium (deaons), Sacramentary (celebrant)… helps to keep the “activity” happening at different locations in the sanctuary…. It also leads to a priest beginning to think he ant celebrate mass, alone & privately without “other ministers”.

  3. Andrew says:

    It would have been useful to indicate what part of the liturgical year is covered by any given volume. Having to guess is time consuming since the files are very large. A short description next to each volume as to content would do the trick.

  4. The Masked Chicken says:

    I understand the volumes are out of print (for shame!), but being out of print is not the same as being out of copyright. If only that were the case. Does anyone know the copyright status of these works? In the new copyright law passed for Vatican City, which may be found, here:

    http://www.alai.org/assets/files/infos-nationales/italy-2012.pdf

    it says:

    “One deviation from the Italian copyright rules consists in the fact that all laws, legal acts, and public documents are copyrightable. This differs from art. 11 of the Italian Law…Nonetheless, the correct unaltered usage of Vatican’s public acts is permitted when made without gainful intent.”

    If I read this correctly, it should be lawful to download the MR, possibly because of age, but more likely as long as it is provided without gainful intent (i.e., for free).

    Are there any Italian copyright lawyers out there? Sorry to be so scrupulous, but copyright is a big deal in some areas like music and academics. If this is legit, then could they, please, also make a copy of the Latin editio typica of the Breviary?

    The Chicken

  5. greasemonkey says:

    I was under the impression that the Latin texts of the Church are not under copyright?

  6. SimonDodd says:

    What can I cite as evidence for the point about Bugnini if this point comes up in an argument? Where do I find that in the record—is it in his book? Or is Father the original source on this?

  7. rollingrj says:

    How much room would these files need? If one were to download it onto one’s computer, would they take up an enormous amount of space? Would it be better to store them in another place, such as one of those back-up sites?

  8. Elizium23 says:

    Small but possibly important fine print in the title page: This is Edition 2 of the MR. We are currently on Edition 3. So I take it that this is not licit to use liturgically because it has been superseded.

  9. msc says:

    Wow: ingentes gratiae tibi, Pater. Sometimes the internet can be a force for great good.

  10. Geoffrey says:

    “Small but possibly important fine print in the title page: This is Edition 2 of the MR. We are currently on Edition 3. So I take it that this is not licit to use liturgically because it has been superseded.”

    The Latin Lectionary has also been revised since this originally was published, using the Nova Vulgata.

  11. Jack Orlando says:

    Elizium23 is correct. The publication date is MCMLXXVII. The new edition is MMII.

  12. Bressani56 says:

    Geoffrey said: “The Latin Lectionary has also been revised since this originally was published, using the Nova Vulgata.”

    Can you explain in more detail? I just compared the “First Sunday of Advent” and everything is identical to the Nova Vulgata (including the Responsorial Psalm) except the 1975 edition adds a single word (“enim”) in the Gospel reading.

  13. Geoffrey says:

    Bressani56:

    It is my understanding that when the liturgical books were being promulgated after the Second Vatican Council, the revision of the Latin Vulgate was a work in progress. The Book of Psalms was published in 1969 and the New Testament in 1971. The entire Nova Vulgata wasn’t published until 1979.

    Whatever parts of the Nova Vulgata that were happened to be completed were utilized in the appropriate liturgical books, but not all. Basically, any liturgical book in Latin published before 1979 is probably a potpourri of old and new Vulgate texts.

    A revised 3-volume Latin lectionary was published a few years ago, though not by but with the permission of the Holy See:

    http://www.theologicalforum.org/ProductInformation.aspx?BrowseBy=Category&CategoryId=120&ProductId=367

  14. Sid Cundiff in NC says:

    I just wish there were an edition of the LOTH with the two year cycle of readings. Of course it would be more than four volumes.

  15. defensoris says:

    Thank you for posting the link, Father. Interestingly, the illustration added to the end of the volumes is that of a priest reflecting, while vesting, that he “can’t wait to find out what this ‘special announcement’ is all about”. That leads me to wonder if the booklet / manual reportedly being prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments to help priests offer Mass properly (source: http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/vatican-preparing-a-manual-to-help-priests-celebrate-mass) will finally be released in early 2014. Nevertheless, early 2014 is not too far away.

  16. defensoris says:

    Well, I obviously missed the other glaring link to the page about the Vatican II hymnal.

  17. trekkie4christ says:

    I was planning to do some editing to the PDFs to remove the nasty adverts, but then I noticed that this is the Editio Iuxta Typicam Alteram, the 2nd edition of the missal. I’m not interested in having them for myself, but if there is still some interest from the community toward having clean copies, I would be happy to oblige.

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