Great Prayer

At a time when there is renewed interest in the Extraordinary Rite, Hugh Ross Williamson’s classic exposition of the Roman Canon provides a superb commentary to provide priest and people alike with a deeper devotional understanding of the Mass. The very considerable learning, both historical and theological, which stands behind his writing is never obtrusive, but always serves the main purpose of the book which is devotional. Every paragraph of the Canon is given, both in Latin and in English translation. The prayers which compose the Canon of the Mass in the Extraordinary Rite are exactly those, without any alteration, which St Augustine said the first time he celebrated Mass in Canterbury when he came to England in the year 597. I commend this book to all who wish to discover afresh the riches of the Church’s Liturgy and thus to renew her life. + Alan S Hopes Titular Bishop of Chester le Street Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster Hugh Ross Williamson (1901-1978) wrote nineteen plays and more than fifty books, entertaining and informing a wide public from 1933 until the time of his death. Journalist, historian, novelist, theologian and playwright, he had been an Anglican clergyman from 1940 – 1956 before converting to Catholicism. One of the first to explore the thesis that Shakespeare was a Catholic, much of his work was concerned with the rehabilitation of Catholicism in our understanding of England’s history – a process that continues to this day. His popular introduction to St Bernadette and the Apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes, The Challenge of Bernadette, is also published by Gracewing.