If you have ever thumbed through the hymnal, perhaps you have noticed little notes printed in red. Sometimes they are numbered, sometimes they are italicized, and sometimes they recommend we do something a bit different within the liturgy then what we normally do. No matter what, they tell us what to do and how to do it. These are rubrics.
These little red notes have been important since the liturgy has been written down. Sometimes you can almost find more rubrics then actual things that are sad in the service – or that just may be the way it feels. No matter what, these little notes can be helpful in telling us what to do and how to do it.
These notes on the liturgy have been extended overtime to not only include the liner-notes for the liturgy, but also to include more extended and general notes found in the forward sections of the service book. The LBW has 26 pages of such notes. The ELW has as much (though substantially lacking – a post for later on). Famously is the GIRM or General Introduction to the Roman Missal. This document – which is itself one great big set of notes (rubrics) – encompasses nine chapters of notes on the liturgy of the Mass. No doubt, the Romans have a distinct way they want the Mass to be done.
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