Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Compendium on the Eucharist Update

One year ago I made a blog entry about a forthcoming Eucharistic Compendium which happens to be one of the most popular page for 'hits'. Catholic News Agency reports the following today:

.- Cardinal Antonio Canizares, Prefect of the Congregation for the Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, today officially presented Pope Benedict XVI with the “Compendium eucharisticum,” aimed at helping priests to properly celebrate Mass.

The compendium, which was officially published on October 19, is a collection of study materials, prayers and meditations related to the celebration of the Eucharist. According to Cardinal Canizares, it is “a response to the desire of the Holy Father and the request made by the bishops during the 2005 Synod on the Eucharist.”

According to the daily edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the document “puts together texts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, prayers, theological explanations of the Roman Missal’s Eucharistic prayers and everything that may be useful for the correct understanding, celebration and adoration of the Sacrament on the altar.”

L’Osservatore Romano also explained that the Pope’s desire is that the compendium will help both priests and laity in “believing, celebrating and increasingly living out the Eucharistic Mystery.” The Holy Father also hopes that it will stimulate “every faithful person to make of their own lives a spiritual worship,” the paper added.

I'll provide more information on availability as it is known.

2 comments:

Jeffrey Pinyan said...

Fr. Z has many details here and here (more recent).

It's been published in Latin, but English and other languages are coming... "soon"...

I'm personally interested in this book because it will a primary source for a book I'm writing on the priest's prayers at Mass, as a sequel to my first book on the people's prayers at Mass.

Chironomo said...

Hmmm... looking for more information on this "Compendium". I wonder if this is intended to be an instruction, an actual document of the Holy See, or if it is simply a collection of already extant texts that the Holy Father hopes will be of interest to priests and laity. If it is merely the latter, then I don't see the point of making such a deal about it. If our priests are not all excited about texts from the Council of trent now, I see no reason why they would start now because the texts are made more convenient.