The Gregorian Missal for Sundays notated in Gregorian chant by the monks of Solemes (Solemes £7.50 + postage).
Fr Giles OSB MENTION Latin liturgy nowadays and in many minds you conjure up visions of Mgr Lefebvre and his cronies or of semi-fosciliated ancients glorying in a long-gone past. This, however, is a mistaken idea, for together with everything else, the Latin liturgy was renewed by the second Vatican Council, and far from being a museum-piece in dusty tomes is very much alive,
thanks not least to the work of the monks of the Abbey of Solesmes in France.
The abbey has stood beside the tranquil waters of the River Sarthe during many years of turbulent history and just as it was a leader in the restoration of Gregorian chant under Dom Gueranger and the beginnings of the liturgical movement, so it has been in the forefront of the post-conciliar restoration. The monks have edited and published many new volumes for the mass and the divine office since the council, and the number of impressions and editions these have gone through is a testimony both to the demand for such books and to their excellence.
For a number of years bilingual parallel text missals and office books have been available from Solesmes in French and Latin. Now they have produced the first of a promised series of Latin/English equivalents, in the form of a very handsome Sunday missal. This book is uniquely useful in providing texts and music of all the chants of the mass together with their English translation. And besides the proper chants of the day there are given the texts of the prayers of the mass and any other proper texts, such as the preface, in both Latin and English together with scripture references for the readings, making this an ideal book to encourage and make possible the "full, conscious and active" participation of the congregation at mass in Latin. The missal is subsidised (the French equivalent is over £20), and besides being cheaper than most Sunday missals also offers far more than most in content, legibility, presentation and binding. As a bonus it will also be usable for the proper chants on most of the weekdays per annum.
Fr Giles is one of the Pluscarden Benedictine community.