When did you first learn there was such a thing as a GIRM.?

[ProVobis]

They probably don’t know the term “GIRM”.

But the average Catholic certainly knows that there are detailed rules on saying mass and other liturgical prayers.

I don’t know if the term “GIRM” was even around when I had religion classes in the 1960’s, but there were certainly rules and rubrics even then- and the people were very familiar with their existance–even if they didn’t know every one themselves.

Officially, it’s the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani. And, as one of the priests here pointed out, generalis means “universal” rather than we in Anglosphere ordinarily think of as “general.” Prior to the 1960’s, the instructions of the Mass were more or less expressed in the doctrinal documents of the Council of Trent and in the Roman Missal itself. Thus the IGMR doesn’t apply to the 1962 Missal, only to the OF in 500 some languages.

 

[Edmundus1581]

I have been interested in liturgy for most of my 30 years as a Catholic, however I did not know what the rules were, apart from what was in my Missal, which was not always followed in my parish.

I only learned of the GIRM in 2009 when we started to hear news of the new translation.

So, in short, I suspect most Catholics, even those who are interested in liturgy, would not have been aware of the GIRM until recently. It seems to have been something only for the use of the clergy.