Collects of the Roman Missals: A Comparative Study of the Sundays in Proper Seasons Before and After the Second Vatican Council

This study examines the collects assigned to the Sundays and major feasts of the proper seasons in the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman rite. The Latin collects assigned to each day in the typical editions of the respective missals are compared and contrasted both with their respective sources and with one another. Pertinent discussions and decisions of the Consilium study groups responsible for the post-Vatican II revisions of the liturgical calendar and Mass collects are also presented and considered.

The goal of the study is to determine whether the two sets of collects present the same picture of the human situation, approach God in the same way, seek the same things from him, and, where they do not, to identify significant changes in theological and/or spiritual emphases.

Lauren Pristas is Professor of Theology in the Department of Theology and Philosophy at Caldwell College, USA. Following publication of four leading and well-received articles on the processes by which the 1970 Roman Missal was edited, in 2006 she was awarded the first Society of St Catherine of Siena Research Fellowship in Liturgical Theology and this proposed title represents the results of her research arising from the fellowship.