Follow the Rubrics: an Introduction
Part 1 in an ongoing series of essays on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.
At the 2019 Sacred Liturgy Conference, the question was asked, how do you celebrate the Ordinary Form in a more sacred way? How do you infuse it with the mystery and majesty of the Tradition of the Roman Rite?
Monsignor Richard Huneger famously answered, “follow the rubrics”.
Indeed. All the ingredients are there. It was shocking to me as a new Catholic many years ago how many priests and liturgical ministers blithely ignored the rubrics and went off into their own little world. We are, as Pope Benedict XVI famously said, servants of the liturgy and not its masters1. Too many act as though they were the masters.
So, where to begin? As a self-described prœmium, or preface, to the Roman Missal, we find a document called Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani or, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. This document functions as a theological and historical introduction to the Missal, as well as a compendium of its foundational rubrics.
This document is sometimes abbreviated in English as the GIRM. However, though one could make a pun of sorts that this is the seed from which the sacred liturgy flowers, I will refrain from using this abbreviation and shall instead refer to it as the General Instruction.
It provides the core of the Missal’s rubrics, providing guidance on everything from movement and gesture to music to a “how to” guide to the remaining text of the Missal. So. This is where we will begin, with a series of essays on the General Instruction.
The General Instruction is the very core of holy mother Church’s direction on how to celebrate the sacred liturgy in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, and yet I find this document to be rarely read, indifferently implemented, and much misunderstood. Let’s see if we can start to address that in the coming days and weeks.
We will begin with examining the authority of the General Instruction, and then moving on in turn to discuss its background, how it treats the importance and dignity of the sacred liturgy, the various elements of the Mass, and so forth.
I guarantee that there will be things in the General Instruction that will confound your expectations. For example, fun fact: the very first footnote in the General Instruction refers to a Council document. Not the Second Vatican Council, but the Council of Trent.