The Sacramentary (Liber Sacramentorum): Volume 4

Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal

When Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954) transformed his copious and insightful lecture notes on the Roman liturgy into the five volumes of Liber Sacramentorum— known to us in English as The Sacramentary, and presented here for the first time in a modern reprint— he stated his purpose: "sharing with devout and studious souls, especially among my brother priests, whatever sentiments of faith and reverence Our Lord may have deigned to grant me, His unworthy servant, in the course of my daily meditation on the Roman Missal." The work is neither "exclusively for the learned," nor "a mere manual of piety"; the author approaches his subject as a scholar and a teacher, but also "with the fearful reverence of the believer."