A FOREST OF SYMBOLS THE TRADITIONAL MASS AND ITS MEANING

By Abbé Claude Barthe

The Christian liturgy—and the Roman liturgy in particular—developed and thrived within a tradition of commentary and meditation that was fundamental for its understanding, running parallel with the same way of approaching Scripture.

The rationalist influences that led to the decline and eventual rejection of the mystical or spiritual senses of Scripture in favor of a narrowly-conceived literal sense led to a narrowing of liturgy as well, which was reduced to its material parts and their various functions. While in recent decades the importance of the spiritual sense of Scripture has been reclaimed, its liturgical equivalent remains in shadow.

The present book addresses this lacuna with an easy-to-understand summary of the traditional approach to the “forest of symbols” contained in the Roman Mass.

Praise

“The undertaking represented by this book is of capital importance… We must learn to discover or rediscover the liturgy of the Holy Mass such as our Church has transmitted it, starting with an authentic allegorical or mystical explanation, which in a certain way forms the essence of each of our rites, in the same way that a tree’s sap, invisible beneath its bark, provides it with moisture and gives it life and growth.” —ROBERT CARDINAL SARAH, from the Foreword

“For almost a millennium, theologians saw in the Holy Mass an allegory of the life of Christ, a symbolic unfolding of the ages of the world, a pageant of mysteries. Under the withering chill of rationalism, this treasure-chest of meditation was first mocked, then forgotten. Fr. Barthe explains why we should recover the mystical interpretation of the Mass and then shows how it is done, reconnecting us with our forefathers in the Roman rite. A potent tonic to restore our lost memories!” —PETER A. KWASNIEWSKI, author of Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright

“Drawing on Amalarius of Metz, Innocent III, St. Thomas Aquinas, William Durandus, and Jean-Jacques Olier, among others, Abbé Claude Barthe has synthesized the best insights from the tradition of the expositio Missae—a genre of Mass commentary, focused on the mystical meaning of the rites, that flourished from the ninth century through the seventeenth. If the mystical meaning is to the Mass what the spiritual sense is to Sacred Scripture, then A Forest of Symbols reads like a liturgical lectio divina.” —URBAN HANNON, editor, The Josias

Book Details:  194 pages, paperback