Liturgical Documents Hub

This blog post serves as a simple hub of links to liturgical/musical documents on the web that you can easily access anytime, anywhere! If you don't see a church document (pertaining to sacred music) that you think should be on here, please let me know!

-McChoir

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General Church Documents

• De Musica Sacra et Sacra Liturgia - Sacred Congregation of Rites [DDWDS] (1958)

• Musicam Sacram - Instruction on Sacred Music in the Liturgy (1967)

• Voluntati Obsequens - Letter to the Bishops on the Minimum Repertoire of Gregorian Chant (1974)

  • Introduction to Jubilate Deo booklet

• The General Instruction of the Roman Missal -Including adaptations for the Dioceses of the United States of America

• The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Vatican II (The Second Vatican Council)

• Sacrosanctum Concilium - The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963)

Papal Documents (Encyclicals, Motu Proprios, etc.)

• Tra le sollecitudini - Motu Proprio of Pope Pius X on Sacred Music (1903)

• Divini Cultus - Apostolic Constitution on the Sanctity of Divine Worship of Pope Pius XI (1920)

• Mediator Dei - Encylical of Pope Pius XII on the Sacred Liturgy (1947)

• Musicae Sacrae - Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on Sacred Music (1955)

• Letter to Artists - Letter of Pope John Paul II (1999)

• On the Centerary of 'Tra le sollecitudini' - Chirograph of Pope John Paul II (2003)

• Sacramentum caritatis - Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Benedict XVI (2007)

• Desiderio desideravi - Apostolic Letter of Pope Francis on the Liturgical Formation of the People of God (2022)

United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB)

Sing to the Lord (USCCB 2007).pdf

Download PDF • 250KB

• Stewards of the Tradition - Fifty Years after Sacrosanctum Concilium (2013)

• “Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church: An Aid for Evaluating Hymn Lyrics" (2020)

McChoir's Favorites

This is a list of some of my favorite writings that influence my understanding of the liturgy in addition to the church documents above!

• "The Spirit of the Liturgy" - Romano Guardini

• "The Spirit of the Liturgy" - Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

• "How the Choir Converted the World" - Mike Aquilina

• "The Song of the Lamb" - Cardinal Robert Sarah & Peter Carter

• "A Short History of the Roman Mass" - Uwe Michael Lang