• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Jesus said to them: “I have come into this world so that a sentence may fall upon it, that those who are blind should see, and those who see should become blind. If you were blind, you would not be guilty. It is because you protest, ‘We can see clearly,’ that you cannot be rid of your guilt.”

  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Preconciliar Missal Allowed Mass “Versus Populum”

Jeff Ostrowski · April 7, 2014

E HAVE SPOKEN a lot about the history of “versus populum” celebration. For example, here is a whole series of articles on that topic. Some may be interested to learn that “versus populum” was actually allowed in the old Latin Liturgy (although Mass was almost never offered that way).

If you don’t believe me, click here:

* *  Rubrics from a 1906 Missale Romanum

These same rubrics have been found in Missals published in 1962, 1927, 1943, 1906, and 1886. If you find earlier missals which say the same thing, please email me.


1962 RUBRICS — Ritus Servandus in celebratione Missae

V, §3 • Si Altare sit ad Orientem, versus populum, Celebrans versa facie ad populum, non vertit humeros ad Altare, cum dicturus est Dominus vobiscum, Orate, fratres, Ite, Missa est, vel daturus benedictionem; sed, osculato Altari in medio, ibi expansis et junctis manibus, ut supra, salutat populum, et dat benedictionem.

V, §3 • If the Altar faces the people, the Celebrant does not turn his back to the Altar when saying Dominus vobiscum, Orate, fratres, Ite, missa est, or when giving the blessing, but having kissed the Altar in the middle, there extending and joining his hands, as above, facing the people, greets them and gives the blessing.

XII, 2 • Si Celebrans in Altari vertit faciem ad populum, non vertit se, sed stans ut erat, benedicit populo, ut supra, in medio Altaris; deinde accedit ad cornu Evangelii, et dicit Evangelium S. Joannis.

XII, §2 • If the Celebrant is at an Altar facing the people, he does not turn around, but standing as he was, blesses the people, as above, at the middle of the Altar. Then he goes to the Gospel side, and reads the Gospel of St. John.

WHEN THE PRIEST FACES ad orientem, what a powerful statement it makes when he literally turns around to speak to the congregation. Think about it. How many times in your life are you focused on doing something, then literally turn around to speak to the ones who are following you? I was taught never to turn around in my pew … Can you imagine how awkward it would be in the middle of Mass for me to keep turning around to face the person behind me? Yet, the priest does this constantly, according to the rubrics, to emphasize the unity that ought to exist between celebrant and congregation. Wow! Very cool.

 

 

UPDATE (from a kind reader):

“Si Altare sit ad Orientem, versus populum, Celebrans versa facie ad populum…” can be found in a 1625 missal on p. xxxvii; a 1674 missal on p. 220; 1861 missal on p. 49; 1866 missal p. xxix as well as several other Missals. Go to google books and type in a dozen words from the rubric and it will come up with a list. You can sort and filter your results by year if you please. My guess is that the rubric has been in there since 1570 (and possibly in earlier Missals), however I have been unable to find either a pdf of one or to physically be able to look in one to verify this.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Ad Orientem, Mass Facing The People Last Updated: March 31, 2023

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)
    This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • 4th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 4th Sunday of Easter (11 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. I don’t know a more gorgeous ENTRANCE CHANT than the one given there: Misericórdia Dómini Plena Est Terra.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

And since it is becoming that holy things be administered in a holy manner, and of all things this sacrifice is the most holy, the Catholic Church, to the end that it might be worthily and reverently offered and received, instituted many centuries ago the holy canon, which is so free from error that it contains nothing that does not in the highest degree savor of a certain holiness and piety and raise up to God the minds of those who offer.

— Council of Trent (1562)

Recent Posts

  • A Gentleman (Whom I Don’t Know) Approached Me After Mass Yesterday And Said…
  • “For me, Gregorian chant at the Mass was much more consonant with what the Mass truly is…” —Bp. Earl Fernandes
  • “Lindisfarne Gospels” • Created circa 705 A.D.
  • “Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
  • Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.