The Liturgical Year - 15 volume set - hardbound

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Author: Dom Prosper Gueranger

Product Code: B3355
Publisher: PCP
Format Hardcover
Pages 7298
Condition New

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Brand new hardbound set of Dom Prosper Guéranger's monumental liturgical work, comprising fifteen volumes, the life-long labour of the Benedictine Abbot. Written with the heart of a seraphic contemplative, the holy abbot takes the reader on a daily spiritual pilgrimage through the liturgies of both the East and the West as he immerses the soul into the very life of the ecclesia orans et adorans (the church praying and adoring). The author achieves this by providing daily entries corresponding to the yearly cycle of the Church's worship in both her divine seasonal feasts and those of her saints. Each day begins with a rich and provocative meditation on the mystery of faith to be celebrated together with the ecclesial history of the same; this is followed by excerpts from the Roman Missal's Mass of the day (complete with Propers, i.e., Introits, Collects, Offertory prayers, etc) as well a host of exquisite hymns from the divine office which are coupled with varied and sundry sequences garnered from other ancient Catholic rites. The temporal and geographical universality of the Church is thusly honored; and the oneness of faith amply manifested in light of the axiomatic criterion: Lex orandi est lex credendi (the law of praying is the law of believing). If the essence of the Holy Mass is God, the Incarnate Victim, offering Himself to God, then the liturgy of the Mass is man, in union with Jesus Christ (per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso), offering God to God. Truly, here is a priceless treasure awaiting your holy exploitation. Such was the strategy employed by the father of Saint Therese of Lisieux who made it a daily routine in the Martin home to read to his five daughters from these very volumes.

The 19th century background of France during which time it appeared is fundamental to understand the importance of this work. France was going through such a continuous series of political, social and ecclesiastical upheavals from 1789 (the French Revolution) up to the 20th century that one wonders how it was able to maintain its sanity. The governments changed no less than six times within that period. These wars, revolutions and depressions plagued the French people. And the Church suffered much during and after the French Revolution so that direction was needed to bring it back on track. Seeing the suffering and depression of the French Catholic Church and her people, Dom Guéranger began writing his classic work in 1841. He died in 1875 after writing nine volumes. The remaining volumes were completed by another Benedictine under Dom Guéranger's name. Dom Guéranger's belief was that the Mass and the cycle of the Church s year could help restore what had been forsaken. Indeed, one can say that the mission of Dom Guéranger was to restore the more than thousand-year tradition of Christianity and its forgotten riches which were abandoned during the French Revolution and its aftermath. He began in post-revolutionary France by founding the 1st Benedictine community in 1836. In 1841 he began the Liturgical Year to bring back Catholic culture and consequently Western Civilization by turning to the Catholic Mass which is the source of all graces and the soul of Catholic worship.

His commentaries, explanations and historical observations as contained in this work are profound, devotional and instructive. Each Mass during the entire Church's yearly cycle is analyzed and explained in simple terms so as to make the reader appreciate the vast treasure and importance of that particular Mass during the year. The Introits, Collects, Epistles, Gospels, Offertory prayers, etc. all have appropriate explanations which bring out the richness of the Mass. Preserving Christian Publications' reprint of this set is made to last many readings with a durable hardback light-blue binding that is sewn. Each volume is numbered on the spine for the season it covers. Due to the length, complexity and cost of reprinting this 15-volume set, it took the publishers over a year to get the complete set published. Hopefully their labour will benefit all those who wish to deepen their knowledge and love for the Mass of the saints.

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Publisher: PCP
Pages: 7298
More by this Author: Dom Prosper Gueranger
Keywords: Tradition books Traditional Prayer Books

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