Peter Kwasniewski - Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timeliness of the Traditional Latin Mass

Praise for Reclaiming
Our Roman Catholic Birthright

Dr. Kwasniewskis comprehensive new book has something for just about everyone seeking an answer to the question why it is so urgent that we take refuge in our tradition and reclaim our birthright as Catholics. Parents and grandparents with an interest in passing on the Faith to the next generation will also find much food for thought. This book greatly aids the case in favor of an urgent and universal return to the only solid basis for Catholic liturgy, namely, the traditional Roman Missal, with accompanying Breviary and other liturgical books. Overwhelming numbers of practicing Catholics cannot seem to move past the worldly solutions of the last half-century. Dare I say that they cling to the Novus Ordo in desperation, rather than embracing a full project of being the Church, with catechesis and family life, finding in the Vetus Ordo the source and summit of Christian existence? May Kwasniewskis book be read by the many bishops, priests, religious, and laity who are troubled or dissatisfied by their present liturgical experience. May the virtue of hope inspire them to make the leap and the sacrifices involved in what amounts to a true paradigm change! ARCHBISHOP THOMAS E. GULLICKSON,

Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland and Liechtenstein

Readers of Dr. Kwasniewski are often left breathless by his prolific pen. He is the theological master and propagator of the usus antiquior. Books, learned monographs, articles, critiques, and analyses pour like torrents from his impressive theological-philosophical-liturgical mind. But never does he lose the common touch that appeals to the non-scholar or the mere onlooker coming to the classical Mass for the first time. The formidable scholarship of Kwasniewski, together with that of a handful of other scholars, achieves intellectual victory over the dishonest liturgical cabal that has brought such sorrow upon the Church. Of books defending the usus antiquior, Kwasniewskis Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright should hold pride of place on your bookshelf.REV. JOHN A. PERRICONE, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY

If youre looking for carefully crafted, incisive, logical arguments as well as Pascals reasons of the heart for why the Traditional Latin Mass is a lighthouse both for the Church and for your own souls voyage amid stormy seas, this is a book for you.REV. WILLIAM J. SLATTERY, author of Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Buildand Can Help RebuildWestern Civilization

This book is erudite and eloquent. It even fulfilled the function of spiritual reading for me, as so many passages rise into prayerful appreciation for the treasures of tradition. No one can accuse the traditionalist movement Kwasniewski so competently represents and defends of being merely reactionary; he is a model of fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding. At the same time, if you love a good donnybrook, youll find plenty of deft argumentative pugilism. Those who seek to understand why the traditional Latin Mass is (or at least, why an increasing number believe it to be) superior to its modern alternative in expressing the Churchs faith and in meeting the deepest needs of Catholics should do themselves a favor and read this book.DR. MICHAEL P. FOLEY, Professor of Patristics, Baylor University, and author of Drinking with Your Patron Saints (Regnery, 2020) and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity (Regnery, 2017)

Having recently rediscovered the Traditional Latin Mass, my spirit has been soaring ever since. Stunned and embarrassed by how little I know about the Mass itself and how the Novus Ordo came about, I started reading widely. I found Peter Kwasniewskis writings to be a wonderful resource, erudite without being academically forbidding. This new book will be an inspired aid to those who have never been to a traditional Latin Mass, to those who cant remember when they last went, and to those who, already attending it, stand to benefit greatly from Kwasniewskis insights into the history and meaning of the sacred liturgy. It could change your spiritual life forever.JANET E. SMITH, author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later

In this time of liturgical confusion, even desolation, Peter Kwasniewskis book provides strong yet charitable persuasion for the restoration and full embrace of tradition. Perhaps most urgently for parents grieving over the hemorrhage of youth from the Church, Kwasniewski writes at length about the importance of recovering the usus antiquior for the sake of our children. Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright has that rare combination of readability and intellectual depth needed for responding to our ecclesial crisis. If you are already convinced of the pressing need to return to the beauty of tradition, it will provide you with sound rhetoric; if you are not convinced, it will draw you toward the truth.LEILA MARIE LAWLER, co-author of The Little Oratory: A Beginners Guide to Praying in the Home

I grew up in the post-Vatican II Novus Ordo Mass. I had an interior conversion in my mid-20s and came to the understanding that I am a sinner and that Christ is my Lord, my God, and my All. For many years I was involved in the Charismatic Renewal, Life in the Spirit Seminars, and Steubenville Conferences; my faith life was measured by emotional spiritual consolations. My intellect was stimulated by the discovery of Catholic apologetics; and then I ran into TAN booklets from different authors talking about the Latin Mass, which I had never even heard of. After experiencing it, I now live with a broken heart knowing that this Mass is not offered in every diocese and that most Catholics will never experience it. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest wonder in the worldand the next greatest wonder is the indifference and ignorance of Catholics regarding their own traditional Mass. Its as if we all fell prey to amnesia and forgot our liturgical patrimony. In this book Dr. Kwasniewski leads those who are curious about the traditional Holy Mass into a thorough understanding of its superiority in language, music, prayers, postures, reverence, and piety. Although written by a scholar, this book is for everyone. Readers will come away with a new appreciation for our sacred birthright, meant to be passed on to all Catholic generations until the Lord comes again. For those of us who believe that nothing else on earth surpasses or even comes close to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, this book is a must-read.JESSE ROMERO, Catholic lay evangelist, author of The Devil in the City of Angels

Other Books from the Same Author

Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis: Sacred Liturgy, the Traditional Latin Mass, and Renewal in the Church

Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness: Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages

A Reader in Catholic Social Teaching: From Syllabus Errorum to Deus Caritas Est

Tradition and Sanity: Conversations and Dialogues of a Postconciliar Exile

John Henry Newman on Worship, Reverence, and Ritual: A Selection of Texts

Sacred Choral Works

Reclaiming Our
Roman Catholic Birthright
The Genius and Timeliness of the
Traditional Latin Mass

PETER KWASNIEWSKI

The Genius and Timeliness
of the Traditional Latin Mass