Background of the Tridentine Form

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That’s an easy one.

The Dominican Rite and the Carmelite Rite.

A bit of history for the Carmelite Rite. Around 1208 the hermits living on Mount Carmel approached the patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert, to give them a rule of life. He wrote a rule for them addressing it to “Brother B” as the man who presented the request did not want his name to be immortalized in the rule. He did not wish to be identified as the founder of the Carmelites as he was just a hermit who lived with them. There existed hermits in the area of Mount Carmel where Elijah went for a long time before they ever requested a rule of life. So the Carmelites do not have a founder. We (I am a Carmelite friar) acknowledge Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the prophet Elijah as our spiritual founders.

When St Albert gave the Carmelites their rule of life he also assigned the Rite of the Holy Sepulchre, that is the rite that was celebrated at the Holy Sepulchre, to them. This has become known as the Carmelite Rite.
Brother David,

Are there currently any Carmelites who celebrate the traditional Carmelite rite?

I know that there is a lot of interest lately in the traditional Dominican rite.
 
Are there currently any Carmelites who celebrate the traditional Carmelite rite?
The Carmelite Rite is quite lovely. Ah, yes … I remember it well

Anyway, even though they are not officially a part of the O.Carm, the Wyoming Carmelites use it (with permission). So, too, a similar group in Brazil. I also believe there are several individual houses of true O.Carm (there were 2 such houses in the US but I don’t know if that number has increased or decreased) that use it communally (with permission) as well.
 
Are there currently any Carmelites who celebrate the traditional Carmelite rite?
I’ll have to ask my fiancee again, but one of her best friends is a novitiate in a traditional order in Canada and I’m almost sure they’re Carmelites.
 
I’ll have to ask my fiancee again, but one of her best friends is a novitiate in a traditional order in Canada and I’m almost sure they’re Carmelites.
There is an order of cloistered Carmelite nuns that do only the Traditional Mass in Colorado. The priest who is there is a former New Yorker. I have a very good friend who supports them and has been out to visit them. Here is their website.

sistersofcarmel.org/
 
Brother David,

Are there currently any Carmelites who celebrate the traditional Carmelite rite?

I know that there is a lot of interest lately in the traditional Dominican rite.
A side note I forgot.

The Carmelite Rite is the rite of the Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Carmelites, the Order of Carmelites, the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or the Order of Carmelites of Ancient Observance. Our initials are O.Carm. for

The Discalced Carmelites did not retain the rite when they left the Order to form their own Order.

As for any O.Carm.s celebrating the Carmelite Rite the answer is no. At least that was the answer I got when I last inquired a month or so ago. One house has experimented with its usage but they do not use it.

A bit more of history. In 1972 (or so) the Prior General surrendered the rite to the pope. The instructions on the application of Summorum Pontificum, specifically paragraph 34, has returned the rite to us but the Prior General has yet to approve of its usage. It is my guess that this may be addressed at our next General Chapter as I know of some priests who have requested it to their prior provinical but the approval has yet to be granted.

The Carmelite Monks (a misnomer as Carmelites are friars not monks) do celebrate it with the permission of their bishop in Wyoming.

Another side note, while there are some cloistered groups of Carmelite nuns they do not celebrate the Carmelite rite. The rite “belongs” to the first order which is the male order. To have it celebrated from this they would need a Carmelite friar who has permission from the Prior General. those groups would most likely use the EF. Also, as I said above, the OCD do not have the rite.

There are a few Carmelite friars who celebrate the EF at the request of a local bishop with the approval of their prior provincial.
 
A bit more of history. In 1972 (or so) the Prior General surrendered the rite to the pope. The instructions on the application of Summorum Pontificum, specifically paragraph 34, has returned the rite to us but the Prior General has yet to approve of its usage. It is my guess that this may be addressed at our next General Chapter as I know of some priests who have requested it to their prior provinical but the approval has yet to be granted.

The Carmelite Monks (a misnomer as Carmelites are friars not monks) do celebrate it with the permission of their bishop in Wyoming.

There are a few Carmelite friars who celebrate the EF at the request of a local bishop with the approval of their prior provincial.
Fascinating stuff, Brother David. I hope that the former uses of the orders will be revived alongside the 1962 missal. I’ve never experienced one, but I’m sure they are each a treasure.
 
A side note I forgot.

The Carmelite Rite is the rite of the Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Carmelites, the Order of Carmelites, the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or the Order of Carmelites of Ancient Observance. Our initials are O.Carm. for

The Discalced Carmelites did not retain the rite when they left the Order to form their own Order.

As for any O.Carm.s celebrating the Carmelite Rite the answer is no. At least that was the answer I got when I last inquired a month or so ago. One house has experimented with its usage but they do not use it.

A bit more of history. In 1972 (or so) the Prior General surrendered the rite to the pope. The instructions on the application of Summorum Pontificum, specifically paragraph 34, has returned the rite to us but the Prior General has yet to approve of its usage. It is my guess that this may be addressed at our next General Chapter as I know of some priests who have requested it to their prior provinical but the approval has yet to be granted.

The Carmelite Monks (a misnomer as Carmelites are friars not monks) do celebrate it with the permission of their bishop in Wyoming.

Another side note, while there are some cloistered groups of Carmelite nuns they do not celebrate the Carmelite rite. The rite “belongs” to the first order which is the male order. To have it celebrated from this they would need a Carmelite friar who has permission from the Prior General. those groups would most likely use the EF. Also, as I said above, the OCD do not have the rite.

There are a few Carmelite friars who celebrate the EF at the request of a local bishop with the approval of their prior provincial.
Awesome.

Please let me know if one is ever celebrated in NYC. 🙂
 
A side note I forgot.

The Carmelite Rite is the rite of the Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Carmelites, the Order of Carmelites, the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or the Order of Carmelites of Ancient Observance. Our initials are O.Carm. for

The Discalced Carmelites did not retain the rite when they left the Order to form their own Order.

As for any O.Carm.s celebrating the Carmelite Rite the answer is no. At least that was the answer I got when I last inquired a month or so ago. One house has experimented with its usage but they do not use it.

A bit more of history. In 1972 (or so) the Prior General surrendered the rite to the pope. The instructions on the application of Summorum Pontificum, specifically paragraph 34, has returned the rite to us but the Prior General has yet to approve of its usage. It is my guess that this may be addressed at our next General Chapter as I know of some priests who have requested it to their prior provinical but the approval has yet to be granted.

The Carmelite Monks (a misnomer as Carmelites are friars not monks) do celebrate it with the permission of their bishop in Wyoming.

Another side note, while there are some cloistered groups of Carmelite nuns they do not celebrate the Carmelite rite. The rite “belongs” to the first order which is the male order. To have it celebrated from this they would need a Carmelite friar who has permission from the Prior General. those groups would most likely use the EF. Also, as I said above, the OCD do not have the rite.

There are a few Carmelite friars who celebrate the EF at the request of a local bishop with the approval of their prior provincial.
If I could add:

The Carmelite Rite, aka The Rite of the Holy Sepulchre, was the liturgical rite originally used, not just by Carmelites, but also by a number of other orders founded within the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem during the Crusader period (such as the Knights Hospitaller or the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre). The Carmelite Rule of 1210 ordered the hermits of Mount Carmel to follow the approved custom of the Church, which in this instance meant the (Latin) Patriarchal Church of Jerusalem: Hi qui litteras noverunt et legere psalmos, per singulas horas eos dicant qui ex institutione sanctorum patrum et ecclesiæ approbata consuetudine ad horas singulas sunt deputati.

The Rite of the Holy Sepulchre was one of the many variations (or ‘uses’) of the Roman rite with additions from the earlier Gallican liturgies. In other words, it is a sort of amalgam of various uses of the Roman liturgy, many of them French (the Parisian Use seems to be its base). This is attributable to the fact that most of the clerics who accompanied the Crusaders were from France, with some even belonging to the Chapter of Paris.
 
Where do you get your facts from? What we call the Extraordinary Form goes back 1500 years. There were organic changes and additions such as feasts and saints. It was codified at the Council of Trent, but it has existed from the time of St. Gregory the Great. You’re saying it goes back to 1962? I don’t think we’re talking about the same Mass.

This is what Cardinal Raymond Burke said about the Latin Mass:

“The celebration of the Mass in the extraordinary form is now less and less contested,” he noted, "and people are seeing the great beauty of the rite as it was celebrated practically since the time of Pope Gregory the Great" in the sixth century.
Just to add to what you wrote.

In one sense, we can say that it is true that the Roman liturgy, before it was codified in 1570, was structurally very much the same since the time of Pope Gregory the Great, whose changes in the Liturgy were limited to the addition of a few words in the Hanc igitur (nostros in tua pace disponas, atque ab aeterna damnatione nos eripi, et in electorum tuorum iubeas grege numerari), the transfer of the Pater Noster at the end of the Canon, immediately before the breaking of the bread (prior to his time, the Pater was recited after the fraction), and the extension of the chanting of the Alleluia after the Gradual at other times besides Eastertide. The only changes that occurred since that time was mostly confined to the addition of other prayers, the famous of these being the addition of the Creed (Rome, conservative as it was, was pretty late in adopting the recitation of the Creed in the Liturgy when compared to other areas - the custom started because the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II insisted that it be included). But otherwise, the structure was left intact.

Most of the differences are in the realm of the gestures and ritual. When Roman liturgy and chant began to be used by the Franks ever since Pepin the Short decreed the adoption of the Papal liturgy in his kingdom, its started to absorb elements from the local liturgies and chants of Gaul (modern France). While the Roman Rite was heretofore characterized by a straight simplicitycompared to the more lavish and elaborate ceremony, say of the East or even some of its neighbors, the Gallican influence helped introduce some of the characteristics we recognize today in the EF such as the prolific use of incense. (Heretofore, incense was only used during the procession to the sanctuary in Rome.)

It is often related that Charlemagne, Pepin’s son, once asked Pope Hadrian I to provide an authentic Roman sacramentary for use throughout the empire, which the latter sent to the court at Aachen around in the year 785-786. The intention was to preserve it as the authentic “standard” of the text attributed to Gregory the Great and to disseminate it throughout all of Charlemagne’s domain through copies, thereby unifying the whole empire under one liturgy - that of Rome. However, the sacramentary the Pope sent soon proved to be ill-suited to the Emperor’s plan: it only contained the liturgy for certain feasts, which would make it ill-adapted to the daily liturgical needs of a parish. (When complaints reached the ear of the Pope, his excuse was saying that he merely picked from the Lateran library what seemed to him to be the ‘best’ sacramentary he had.) Recognizing the obvious unsuitability of the book, the court liturgists decided to correct the text (especially its rather mediocre Latin) and then to augment it with a supplement - derived from the local traditions - so that it could serve for the daily liturgy. The result of this work is the Hadrianum, aka the Hadrian Sacramentary.

Eventually, this hybrid Roman-Frankish liturgy started making its way into Rome itself, eventually supplanting the ‘original’ Roman Rite altogether. Roman church life was stagnant during the saeculum obscurum of the first half of the 10th century; there was a liturgical vacuum, which the Gallo-Roman liturgy refilled. This took place both through the direct intervention of the Holy Roman Empire and by the settlement of the Cluniacs in monasteries of Rome or its neighborhood.

Let’s compare for example the Mass as described in Ordo Romanus I (which describes the Roman liturgy of circa the early 8th century, and may even in substance reflect the Mass as it was earlier, in the time of Gregory the Great) or Ordo Romanus IV (aka the Ordo of St. Amand, circa late 8th century) Ordo Romanus XVII (of around the same date) with the EF Mass. The ritual is different in many places, but the structure is more or less exactly similar. So yeah, there’s a line of continuity.
 
And you can completely disallow a statement by the Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura because he used the word “practically”?
People are perfectly willing to throw out the word(s) of multiple Popes, ignore that the current papal preacher is part of the charismatic renewal, and doubly ignore that a Society of Apostolic Life was founded with charismaticism as one of it’s pillars. So why can’t people disallow a statement from a Cardinal Prefect?
 
Just to add to what you wrote.

In one sense, we can say that it is true that the Roman liturgy, before it was codified in 1570, was structurally very much the same since the time of Pope Gregory the Great, whose changes in the Liturgy were limited to the addition of a few words in the Hanc igitur (nostros in tua pace disponas, atque ab aeterna damnatione nos eripi, et in electorum tuorum iubeas grege numerari), the transfer of the Pater Noster at the end of the Canon, immediately before the breaking of the bread (prior to his time, the Pater was recited after the fraction), and the extension of the chanting of the Alleluia after the Gradual at other times besides Eastertide. The only changes that occurred since that time was mostly confined to the addition of other prayers, the famous of these being the addition of the Creed (Rome, conservative as it was, was pretty late in adopting the recitation of the Creed in the Liturgy when compared to other areas - the custom started because the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II insisted that it be included). But otherwise, the structure was left intact.

Most of the differences are in the realm of the gestures and ritual. When Roman liturgy and chant began to be used by the Franks ever since Pepin the Short decreed the adoption of the Papal liturgy in his kingdom, its started to absorb elements from the local liturgies and chants of Gaul (modern France). While the Roman Rite was heretofore characterized by a straight simplicitycompared to the more lavish and elaborate ceremony, say of the East or even some of its neighbors, the Gallican influence helped introduce some of the characteristics we recognize today in the EF such as the prolific use of incense. (Heretofore, incense was only used during the procession to the sanctuary in Rome.)

It is often related that Charlemagne, Pepin’s son, once asked Pope Hadrian I to provide an authentic Roman sacramentary for use throughout the empire, which the latter sent to the court at Aachen around in the year 785-786. The intention was to preserve it as the authentic “standard” of the text attributed to Gregory the Great and to disseminate it throughout all of Charlemagne’s domain through copies, thereby unifying the whole empire under one liturgy - that of Rome. However, the sacramentary the Pope sent soon proved to be ill-suited to the Emperor’s plan: it only contained the liturgy for certain feasts, which would make it ill-adapted to the daily liturgical needs of a parish. (When complaints reached the ear of the Pope, his excuse was saying that he merely picked from the Lateran library what seemed to him to be the ‘best’ sacramentary he had.) Recognizing the obvious unsuitability of the book, the court liturgists decided to correct the text (especially its rather mediocre Latin) and then to augment it with a supplement - derived from the local traditions - so that it could serve for the daily liturgy. The result of this work is the Hadrianum, aka the Hadrian Sacramentary.

Eventually, this hybrid Roman-Frankish liturgy started making its way into Rome itself, eventually supplanting the ‘original’ Roman Rite altogether. Roman church life was stagnant during the saeculum obscurum of the first half of the 10th century; there was a liturgical vacuum, which the Gallo-Roman liturgy refilled. This took place both through the direct intervention of the Holy Roman Empire and by the settlement of the Cluniacs in monasteries of Rome or its neighborhood.

Let’s compare for example the Mass as described in Ordo Romanus I (which describes the Roman liturgy of circa the early 8th century, and may even in substance reflect the Mass as it was earlier, in the time of Gregory the Great) or Ordo Romanus IV (aka the Ordo of St. Amand, circa late 8th century) Ordo Romanus XVII (of around the same date) with the EF Mass. The ritual is different in many places, but the structure is more or less exactly similar. So yeah, there’s a line of continuity.
Great post.

Patrick are you aware of the illusive chart I am seeking, which charts the different additions to the mass, as well as a good site with more reading on what you posted above?

Thanks.
 
Great post.

Patrick are you aware of the illusive chart I am seeking, which charts the different additions to the mass, as well as a good site with more reading on what you posted above?

Thanks.
If it’s ‘illusive’ how can I find it? It’s an illusion. 😃 Nah, just joking. No, I’m not familiar with it. Been trying to search it now, but no luck as of yet.

I don’t have specific sites in mind; I’m only familiar with a few - a huge failing in my part. 😃 But I would recommend reading E.G. Atchley’s Ordo Romanus Primus (which I already linked to) as well as Dom Fernand Cabrol’s The Mass of the Western Rites, Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution by Louis L. Duchesne, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy by Adrian Fortescue, and Holy Mass: the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Roman Liturgy (Parts 01 and 02), by Herbert Lucas. (Many of these I have discovered just now as I am typing this. 😛 As an extra, here’s a little polemic from an Orthodox perspective entitled The Origin and Composition of the Roman Catholic Liturgy, and its Difference from that of the Orthodox Church by Ivan Borovnitsky.) The folks over at the New Liturgical Movement might also be of some help. Oh, and the Catholic Encyclopedia is also a good fountain of information. If you want something more geeky, here’s the Gelasian Sacramentary.
 
For the interested, here’s a little sample of an early Roman Mass as described in the Ordo Romanus I.
  1. Then a district-subdeacon, holding the pontiff’s napkin on his left arm over his unrolled planet, goes out to the gate of the sacristy, and says, The choir. They answer, I am present. Then he asks, Who is going to sing the psalm? and they answer, So-and-so, and so-and-so. Then the subdeacon returns to the pontiff, offers him the napkin, bowing himself to the pope’s knees, and says, My lord’s servants, so-and-so the district-subdeacon will read the epistle, and so-and-so of the choir will sing. And after this no change may be made in either reader or singer: but if this should be done, the ruler of the choir (i.e. the fourth of the choir who always informs the pontiff on matters that relate to the singers) shall be excommunicated by the pontiff. When this has been announced, the subdeacon-attendant stands before the pontiff until such time as the latter shall sign to him that they may sing the psalm. As soon as the signal is given, he immediately goes out before the doors of the sacristy, and says, Light up! And as soon as they have lit their candles the subdeacon-attendant takes the golden censer and puts incense in it in front of the sacristy doors, so that he may walk before the pontiff. And the ruler of the choir passes through the presbytery to the precentor or the succentor or vice-succentor, and bowing his head to him says, Sir, command!
  2. Then they rise up and pass in order before the altar, and the two rows arrange themselves in this manner: the men-singers on either side without the doors [of the presbytery], and the children on each side within. Immediately the precentor begins the anthem for the entry: and when the deacons hear his voice, they at once go to the pontiff in the sacristy. Then the pontiff, rising, gives his right hand to the archdeacon, and his left to the second [deacon] or whoever may be appointed: who, after kissing his hands, walk with him as his supporters. Then the subdeacon-attendant goes before him with the censer, diffusing the perfume of incense: and the seven collets of the district which is responsible for that day, carrying seven lighted candlesticks, go before the pontiff to the altar. But before they arrive at the altar, the deacons put off their planets in the presbytery, and the district-deacon takes them and gives each severally to a collet of the district to which each deacon belongs. Then two collets approach, holding open pixes containing the Holy Element; and the subdeacon-attendant, taking them, with his hand in the mouth of the pix, shows the Holy Element to the pontiff and the deacon who goes before him. Then the pontiff and the deacon salute the Holy Element with bowed head, and look at the same in order that if there be too many fragments he may cause some of them to be put in the aumbry. After this the pontiff passes on, but before he comes to the choir the bearers of the candlesticks divide, four going to the right and three to the left; and the pontiff passes between them to the upper part of the choir, and bows his head to the altar. He then rises up, and prays, and makes the sign of the cross on his forehead; after which he gives the kiss of peace to one of the hebdomadary bishops, and to the archpresbyter, and to all the deacons. Then turning towards the precentor, he signs to him to sing, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, etc.; and the precentor bows to the pontiff, and begins it. Meantime the ruler of the choir precedes the pontiff in order to set his faldstool before the altar, if it should be the season for it: and approaching it, the pontiff prays thereat until the repetition of the verse *. Now when As it was in the beginning is said, the deacons rise up in order to salute the sides of the altar, first two, and then the rest by twos, and return to the pontiff. And then the latter arises, and kisses the book of the gospels and the altar, and, going to his throne, stands there facing eastwards.
  3. Now, after the anthem is finished, the choir begins, Lord, have mercy. But the precentor keeps his eye on the pontiff, so that the latter may sign to him if he wishes to change the number of the Kyries, and bows to him. When they have finished, the pontiff turns himself round towards the people, and begins, Glory be to God on high, if it be the season for it, and at once turns back again to the east until it be finished. Then, after turning again to the people, he says, Peace to you, and once more turning to the east, says, Let us pray, and the collect follows. At the end of it he sits, and the bishops and presbyters sit in like manner.
  4. Meanwhile the district-subdeacons go up to the altar, and place themselves at the right and left of the altar. Then the pontiff signs to the bishops and presbyters to sit. Now, as soon as the subdeacon who is going to read perceives that the bishops and presbyters are sitting down after the pontiff, he goes up into the ambo and reads the epistle. When he has finished reading, a chorister goes up into the same with the grail, and sings the respond. And then Alleluia is sung by another singer, if it should be the season when Alleluia is said; if not, a tract; if when neither one nor the other is appointed, only the respond is sung.
  5. Then the deacon kisses the pontiff’s feet, and the latter says to him in an undertone, The Lord be in thy heart and on thy lips. Then the deacon comes before the altar, and after kissing the book of the gospels, takes it up in his hands; and there walk before him [to the ambo] two district-subdeacons, who have taken the censer from the hand of the subdeacon-attendant, diffusing incense. And in front of them they have two collets carrying two candlesticks. On coming to the ambo, the collets part before it, and the subdeacons and the deacon with gospel-book pass between them. The subdeacon who is not carrying the censer then turns towards the deacon, and offers him his left arm on which to rest the gospel-book, in order that the former may open it with his right hand at the place where the mark for reading was put: then, slipping his finger into the place where he has to begin, the deacon goes up to read, while the two subdeacons turn back to stand before the step coming down from the ambo.
    The gospel ended, the pontiff says, Peace to thee, and then, The Lord be with you. Answer is made, And with thy spirit, and he says, Let us pray. When the deacon is come down from the ambo, the subdeacon who first opened the gospel-book prevously, takes it from him and hands it to the subdeacon-attendant, who stands in his rank. Then the latter, holding the book before his breast, outside his planet, offers it to be kissed by all who stand [in the quire] in the order of their rank. And after this a collet is ready on the step by the ambo with the case, in which the same subdeacon puts the gospel-book so that it may be sealed. But the collet of the same district as that to which the subdeacon belongs carries it back to the Lateran.*
 
The same, from the Ordo of St. Amand.

And meanwhile the ruler of the choir stands before the pontiff and says to the district-subdeacon, So-and-so sings the respond, so-and-so the Alleluia. Then the Pontiff says to the choir, Enter! and he sends word to the precentor, and says, Command! Then the above-mentioned subdeacon comes to the pontiff’s ear and says in an undertone (secreto), So-and-so reads; so-and-so and so-and-so sing the Psalms.
  1. Then the oblationer lights two tapers before the sacristy for the pontiff’s lights, which is the custom at all times, and goes in before the pontiff, and sets them behind the altar in two candlesticks, one on the right and one on the left. Then the collets light their candlesticks before the sacristy; and the pontiff comes out of the sacristy with the deacons, two of them supporting him, on the right and the left, and there go before him the seven candlesticks, and the subdeacon-attendant with a censer. The deacons have their planets over their dalmatics until they come with the pontiff to the upper part of the presbytery. On arriving there, they remove the planets which they have on, and their ministers take them. Now when the subdeacon who is precentor sees them taking off their planets, and the pontiff entering the presbytery, he too removes the planet which he is wearing, and an acolyte from the choir receives it. Then the priests rise up and stand. The subdeacons who come in before the pontiff do not pass on through the midst of the choir, but stand right and left before the screen, on either side. And when the pontiff had approached the choir, the collets stand there with the candlesticks, their order being changed, the last being first. Then the pontiff passes through the midst of the choir with the deacons, and signs to the precentor to say, Glory be to the Father. Then the senior bishop and the archpresbyter draw near, and the pontiff gives them the kiss of peace, and afterwards to the deacons. But if the pontiff should not be present, the deacon who is going to read the gospel that day gives it in the same way.
    Then the pontiff comes before the altar, and stands there with his head bowed down, and the deacons in like manner. When the choir have said, As it was in the beginning, the deacons rise up from prayer, and kiss the altar on either side. And when the choir have repeated the verse, the pontiff arises from prayer, and kisses the gospel-book which lies on the altar, and goes from the right side of the altar to his throne, the deacons being with him on either side, standing and facing eastwards.
  2. Then the collets set the candlesticks which they are holding on the ground. And when the choir have finished the anthem, the pontiff signs to them to say, Lord, have mercy upon us. And the choir says it, and the district-officials who stand below the ambo repeat it. When they have said it a third time, the pontiff again signs to them to say, Christ*, have mercy upon us.* And when that has been said thrice, he again signs to them to say, Lord, have mercy upon us. And when they have completed the ninth time, he signs to them to stop. Then turning towards the people the pontiff says, Glory be to God on high, and turns back again to the east, and the deacons with him, until the hymn is finished.
    When this is done he looks towards the people and says, Peace to you, and they answer, And with thy spirit. Then he says, Let us pray. Then the collets lift up their candlesticks, and set them down before the altar in the order which they keep.
  3. The collect ended, the pontiff sits in his throne, and the deacons stand on either side; and the choir turn back below the platform which is below the ambo, and the subdeacons who stand below the screen go up to the altar and stand on either side of it. Then the pontiff signs to the priests to sit down in the presbytery. Then a lesson is read from the ambo by a subdeacon. Then one of the choir or a collet, after removing his planet, takes the grail and goes up into the ambo and says the respond: and another in like manner the Alleluia. At the conclusion of this the deacon bows to the pontiff, and the latter orders him to read the gospel; he then goes up to the altar, kisses the gospel-book and takes it up. Then the pontiff rises from his throne and all the priests stand. And there goes before the deacon two subdeacons, one on the right, the other on the left, and two collets carrying two candlesticks before him. And when they arrive at the ambo the subdeacon who is on his right offers him his left arm and the deacon rests the gospel-book on it while he finds the mark [for reading]. Then he goes up into the ambo while the taperers turn back to stand before the ambo, and then the gospel is read.
  4. After this the subdeacon takes the gospel-book, and holds it leaning against his breast, below the ambo, while all kiss the book. Then he puts it back in its case. …]
 
Finally from the Ordo Romanus XVII. You can notice how the description of the ritual changes slightly throughout these texts.

The priests and deacons, when the hour draws near for them to begin the Mass enter the sacristy, clothe themselves with the proper vestments for the Mass, and arrange themselves according to rank, as is the custom. And then the clergy begins the antiphon proper to that day.

When they commence the first verse of the psalm, the priests leave the sacristy according to the date of their ordination, first those priests who are celebrating the public Mass on that day, walking together two by two. Then there follow those holding the candelabras with lighted tapers, both the seven [holding candelabras] and the two [with the Gospel],walking in pairs, and those with the tower-shaped censers, processing before the priest. And the priest who will celebrate the Mass follows, with deacons to his left and to his right. And other deacons follow these, walking in pairs. Similarly the subdeacons follow after them, proceeding rather slowly, moving with trembling and reverence. When they come before the altar, they separate and face the space before the priest, looking across at each other. The celebrant inclines his head in prayer and gives the peace to one priest on his right and to all his deacons. In doing this he faces in such a direction that, after demonstrating peace and harmony to the entire order of priests and his clergy, he might draw near to offer the sacrifice to God with a pure heart.

Then he approaches the altar and, with his entire body prostrate upon the floor, he pours our prayers for himself and for the sins of the people, until they sing the introit antiphon with the psalm and the Gloria patri with the verses ad repentendum. Arising from prayer he kisses the holy gospel book that is placed on the altar, he and all the deacons as well. He moves behind the altar with his deacons and looks out from the East [toward the congregation] while the deacons remain next to him, one group on the right and the other on the left, the other priests stand next to the altar, arranged by their rank.

When the Introit antiphon and the ninefold Kyrie eleison are completed, the priest, facing the people, begins the Gloria in excelsis Deo. And when they arrive at the words pax hominibus bonae voluntatis they look again toward the East until the Gloria in excelsis Deo is completed. And then the priest turns to the people and says, “Peace to you,” and all respond, “And with your spirit.” Then he looks to the East and says the proper prayer of the day. The celebrating priest then sits in his chair behind the altar, while the deacons remain standing at his side, and the other priests sit on benches next to the altar. The lector now enters to read the [Epistle]. And the subdeacons go up around the altar so that they are ready for all that the deacons might require of them. After the lesson is read, so too is the response [Gradual] sung and then the Alleluia.

The deacon then inclines his head toward the knees of the priest. After accepting the priest’s blessing, the deacon proceeds to the altar, kisses the holy gospel book, and elevates it with his hands in great reverence. Going before him are two candelabras with lighted tapers, and the tower-shaped censer; he mounts the steps of the ambo, makes the sign of the cross on his forehead, looks up to heaven, and says, “The Lord be with you,” and all respond, “and with your spirit.” He then announces the gospel lesson and reads it. When he has completed the reading, the priest says to him, “Peace to you.” Next the priest says, “The Lord be with you,” then “Let us pray,” and sits upon his chair.
 
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