Books

THE MASS AND THE SAINTS, by Thomas Crean OP

Reviewed by Br Barry Coldrey

Contents - Dec 2009 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Benedict XVI: When God entered human history - Pope Benedict XVI Ut Unum Sint: Benedict XVI eases way for Anglicans wishing to 'cross the Tiber' - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Marriage: A Biblical defence of marriage: Africans take the lead - Babette Francis Victoria: Abortion evil: pro-life forces need to be united - John Morrissey Episcopacy: Church leadership responsibilities: an American case study - Phil Lawler Events: Melbourne - The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (1962 Missal) How to get Vatican II back on track: a bishop's prescription - Bishop R. Walker Nickless (Sioux City, Iowa) Foundations of Faith: The Eucharist: what the Old and New Testaments tell us - Br Barry Coldrey Vatican II: Yves Congar, Vatican II, ecumenism: finding the right balance - Andrew Kania Saints: Saint Damien of Molokai: Robert Louis Stevenson's prediction fulfilled Letters: New religion - Peter Donald Letters: Stewardship - Peter Finlayson Letters: Greens and Church - Kevin Cains Letters: Climate change - A.R. (Tony) Grieve Letters: Lost opportunity - Maureen Federico Letters: Saint Damien of Molokai - Arnold Jago Letters: Women priests - Ken Bayliss Letters: Complementarity - Kathleen Wood Books: 111 QUESTIONS ON ISLAM: Samir Khalil Samir SJ on Islam and the West - Michael E Daniel (reviewer) Books: THE MASS AND THE SAINTS, by Thomas Crean OP - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: IMAGES OF HOPE, EUROPE TODAY AND TOMORROW, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: This month's selection from AD Books Reflection: The sacrament of Christian marriage: a nuptial Mass homily - Fr Glen Tattersall

THE MASS AND THE SAINTS
by Thomas Crean OP
(Ignatius Press, 2008, 208pp, $30.00. Available from Freedom Publishing)

Father Thomas Crean's new book, The Mass and the Saints, is a collection of carefully selected passages from saints and other great spiritual writers from throughout the ages, about the Mass, the Eucharist, and the liturgical worship of the Church.

Father Crean is a young, prominent English Dominican friar who is currently ministering in Nottingham.

Most of the authors are canonised saints, and many of them are doctors of the Church, including Church Fathers such as St Augustine, St Jerome, and St Gregory the Great, and great scholars of the Middle Ages such as St Anselm, St Albert the Great and St Thomas Aquinas, while the more modern figures include Prosper Gueranger and Pope John XXIII.

The Mass and the Saints lends itself to quiet, meditative reading, with each part of the liturgy considered separately, including the use of Latin and Gregorian chant. As such, the book resonates with many of Benedict XVI's recent actions, such as the motu proprio freeing up use of the Latin Mass.

Father Crean explains his objective as follows: 'My aim in writing this book was to go behind the sometimes angry discussions about the Sacred Liturgy, and let those who have understood it best - the saints - speak for themselves. I envisaged the book as a kind of symphony in words, in which many different voices would make a whole, some giving literal, historical or mystical explanations of the liturgy, others moral reflections.

'I think that Pope Benedict desires very much that 'the people should pray in beauty', as his predecessor St Pius X said about a hundred years ago. It's perhaps worth pointing out, though, that this is a perennial concern of the papacy. Thus, in the sections on Latin and Gregorian chant, I present some powerful words of both John XXIII and Paul VI.'

As well as the fundamental and awe-inspiring nature of the Mass and the Eucharist, two of the overriding elements conveyed by The Mass and the Saints are the importance of tradition and the priesthood. Fortunately, both are currently going through a much needed process of rehabilitation.

In my view, priests will benefit from the so-called 'Benedictine reforms', namely the example that Benedict XVI is setting in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 22 No 11 (December 2009 - January 2010), p. 16