Book of the Chair
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 422
    Has anyone put together a 'Book of the Chair' for their priest? I'm contemplating doing it here (with modern notation for all the prayers) but thought I'd check that I wasn't reinventing an already rolling wheel.

    Yes, I know it's not approved in some places. I also know that it's harder to get some priests to sing without this kind of resource.
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 537
    I know the USCCB is working on one right now--thought I don't expect it will have notation. I believe St. Meinrad has one available on their website, but I think it uses their tones.

    It's interesting you bring this up, as I was just thinking of what would be involved in preparing one for my parish. I've created fully notated "texts" each weekend since the new translation, and would love to not have to do that each week.

    Marc
  • Caleferink
    Posts: 434
    I've seen St. Meinrad make one available at least for Holy Week, using their own tones. In one parish I've worked at since RM3 someone typed out the prayers at the chair and put them in a ritual binder along with the intercessions. When I watch Masses at BNSIC, it seems like they do something similar with a book cover that looks like it could be one for a Roman Missal. At my current parish we use a chapel-sized edition at the chair for the server to hold more easily and then put a full-sized one at the altar on a book stand at the Offertory. One more thing I've seen done in some places (including recently from EWTN's chapel) is have the missal on a podium which then gets moved to the altar when needed there. I think right now if you wanted something fully notated, the priest can use the Missal itself, but the proper prayers would need to be notated unless the priest can memorize the tones and point the prayers accordingly.