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Views from the Choir Loft

The Tiniest Prayer Books: the Key of Heaven

Veronica Brandt · September 19, 2020

When Jeff Ostrowski mentioned little tiny hand missals in his photo from World War II, I knew I had to show him these tiny treasures. I don’t have much background information on these as they came from secondhand bookshops. They seem to be fairly common, with a few friends on Facebook recognizing them. Some have treasured copies from their grandparents. Both of mine are made in Belgium but bear the names of Australian publishers.

Two copies of Key of Heaven
Two copies of Key of Heaven: 1905 and 1939.

They are in fairly poor condition. One particular seems to have been well used at Mass as the Method of Hearing Mass is particularly stained and worn. To give some idea of the scale, here are some pictures for comparison with some other small books: The Madonna Missal, Manual of the Children of Mary and The Imitation of Mary. Hmmm… quite a Marian theme going on here.

Now, let’s look inside! This first collection of photos comes from the older and smaller of the two. This one is dated 1905. The type is a little smaller and has an elegant red border around each page.

The other one comes from 1939 and has larger type and more illustrations. The front cover is detached and has a crucifix embedded inside with the indulgenced Prayer before a Crucifix printed on the facing flyleaf. It seems to be some sort of Mother of Pearl material used to make the cross. See here for a comparison with a more modern book using white plastic instead.

A quick web search revealed a similar such book under the same title is still available. It doesn’t look quite the same – for one thing this new edition is much larger measuring 6″x4″ whereas these older books are a tiny 4″x2.25″. It sounds like the idea is the same though.

It makes sense, when Mass and the Readings are in Latin, having a portable copy of your own vernacular translation makes sense. I wonder if Fr Gereon Goldman had such a book in German. I’ve heard stories of pocket prayer books or Bibles stopping bullets in wartime. There are even some made with a steel plate cover called Heart Shields.

All this goes to show that people did care about praying the Mass with understanding back in the days before ICEL.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: September 19, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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Ronald Knox explained why the Modernists do not compose hymns: “Birds of prey have no song.”

— Fr. George William Rutler (2016)

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