Will the Gregorian Missal ever be completed or is it already complete?
  • Jamie
    Posts: 40
    Hello all!

    I have the PDF of the 1990 Gregorian Missal that was put online by the CMAA. In the foreword to this edition of the Gregorian Missal, it says at the end; "We hope to complete the Gregorian Missal by the publication of Vespers and Compline, as soon as it becomes possible to do so."

    Will this ever happen, or has the new Gregorian Missal got Vespers and Compline for sundays included now? I want to buy the Gregorian Missal, but I'm wondering if I should wait. I should maybe contact Solesmes Abbey and see if they plan to complete it at one point. I see that from the new "Ad Completorium" and the "Antiphonale Romanum II" that is indeed now 'possible to do so'.

    (If so... they might as well make it into a Liber Usualis.... just sayin')

    Thanks and God bless! :D
  • ScottKChicago
    Posts: 349
    The trend seems to be toward separate volumes, so I'd say it's basically complete now. I wonder whether the pages are the same size; if so, you could have a bookbinder bind a Gregorian Missal, Antiphonale Romanum, and Ad Completorium together into a "new Liber."

    Similarly, the Antiphonale Monasticum of 1934 (one volume) is now three volumes in its new incarnation. And quite confusing that way, if you ask me. Monks are apparently expected to keep putting a book down and picking up another as they pray?
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 995
    The sentence "We hope to complete the Gregorian Missal by the publication of Vespers and Compline, as soon as it becomes possible to do so" strikes me as a bit odd, for a Missal or Gradual contains the texts and chants for Mass, not for Divine Office. Maybe they referred to a future but separate edition for Vespers and Compline, to be published in the same manner as the Gregorian Missal, i.e. with English translations.

    For Vespers the Antiphonale Romanum II has all the chants for Sundays and Feasts, and for Compline one can take a look at Ad Completorium.
  • Jamie
    Posts: 40
    That is in essence what I'm saying smvanrode, now that those two books are published they have no excuse not to publish a complete Gregorian Missal.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,211
    Does Solesmes have any reason to think there is adequate demand for publishing a single-volume combination book? It would be large and probably inconvenient, and if it were to contain Scripture readings as the old Liber did, those vary from country to country.

    Would you like to see the Vespers and Compline presented fully or partly in the vernacular? The Psalm editions depend on the country too, so that's another complicating factor.
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