The exemplar of the Mass of the Dominican Rite is the Solemn Mass; one seeking to understand fully the Dominican Rite, therefore, must see its various ceremonies and parts in light of that Mass. As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, however, the end is first in the order of intention but last in the order of execution. To reach the heights of the Solemn Mass, one is well advised to begin by learning the relatively simple Low Mass, and then the slightly more complex Missa Cantata.
Unfortunately, the Low Mass – our starting point – lacks many of the virtues of the Solemn Mass, and some of its features may seem particularly foreign to one accustomed to the Novus Ordo. The most prominent of these, the silent Canon and the lack of vocal participation by the congregation, are already much less prominent in the Missa Cantata (where, for example, the choir may be singing during a significant part of the Canon), and even less so in the Solemn Mass (where there are clearly defined and important roles for priest, ministers, and the brethren in choir). Indeed, the Low Mass developed as the Mass of an individual priest not celebrating a conventual or principal mass, and therefore it required only a single server. It is rightly called a Missa privata, that is, a Mass reduced to the bare essentials, and it can only be fully understood in light of the Solemn Mass.
The Missa Cantata is a later compromise between the Solemn Mass and the Low Mass; it lacks a deacon and subdeacon but may have multiple servers. William Bonniwell’s Dominican Ceremonial for Mass and Benediction lays out its rubrics, which were conceded to the Order by the Holy See in the modern period. (In brief, the priest’s rubrics at a Missa Cantata are the same as at a Low Mass, except that the priest sings all that is sung in the Solemn Mass, he uses incense for the Gospel and Offertory, and he may sit down at the Gloria and Credo.)
The text of this Rubrical Guide consists principally of the detailed rubrics for the Low Mass and Missa Cantata in the Dominican Rite in English, as found in Bonniwell’s Dominican Ceremonial, along with the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin, and the line drawings from the rubrics of the Missale S.O.P. of 1939. The rubrics and text of the Mass are for the Dominican Rite Mass as it existed in 1962. The Guide was initially prepared by friars from the Province of the Holy Name of Jesus (the Western U.S. Province), who have kindly granted permission for its use. It was then edited for use on this website.
