25 DECEMBER 1909, Page 23

Two books which will interest a considerable class of readers

are The Old Catholic Missal and Ritual, Prepared by the. Right Rev. Arnold H. Matthew, D.D. (Cope and Fenwick, Gs. net)—so far as an outsider can judge, there is very little departure from the Roman rite; even the censorship, we see, is retained—and

The Byzantine Office, with •Pre-face, 4.c., by John Bannernlaun Waihowright (same publishers, 5s. net). It should be explained that this is the service for a particular day, when the Festival of SS. Peter and Paul fell on a Sunday, and the Office is as it is performed in a monastery. It is noteworthy that the Byzantine Offices are often three or four times as long as the Roman, and occupy some eight hours in recitation, and this at a high speed of recitation. A priest who does this, and in theory he is bound to do it unless he would fall into mortal sin, has not time for much else.