What prayers were removed from the Mass in 1969?
The reform did far more than translate the Mass into the vernacular. Here is what actually came out — the well-documented facts, with the contested figures honestly flagged.
The 1969 reform substantially rewrote the Missal. Removed outright: the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar (Psalm 42) and the Last Gospel. Rewritten: the Offertory — from “this immaculate host… for my sins” to a Jewish-style blessing over “fruit of the earth” — and a simplified Confiteor; many signs of the cross and genuflections were suppressed. The collects were heavily revised, though the exact figures are contested (Cekada ≈13–17% verbatim; Pristas’s rigorous study; Hazell ≈half reused “in some way”). We attribute, and decline to assert “two-thirds” as settled. That the reform was extensive is not in dispute.
What Prayers Were Removed From the Mass in 1969?
The 1969 reform substantially rewrote the Roman Missal; it did not merely render it in English. Whole elements of the older rite simply do not appear in the new Order of Mass. The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar — built on Psalm 42(43), “I will go unto the altar of God” — were removed, replaced by a brief introductory greeting. The Last Gospel, the Prologue of St. John (“In the beginning was the Word…”) read at the end of every Mass, was removed as well. These are removals, plainly stated — not elements “made optional.”
The Offertory was rewritten. The old prayers named “this immaculate host… offered for my innumerable sins,” with sacrificial prayers such as the Suscipe Sancta Trinitas; the new Preparation of the Gifts speaks instead of bread and wine as “fruit of the earth and work of human hands,” in the form of a Jewish blessing (a berakah). The Confiteor was simplified — said once together rather than twice, with a shorter list of named saints. And many of the celebrant’s signs of the cross and genuflections were suppressed (in the Roman Canon the signs over the offerings were cut from roughly two dozen to a handful).
The prayers that change with the day — the collects — were revised more than most people realize, and here honesty requires care, because the exact figures are contested. By one widely cited count (Fr. Anthony Cekada) only around 13–17 percent of the old orations survive word-for-word; the rigorous academic study (Lauren Pristas) shows the historic Sunday collects were frequently abbreviated, edited, or replaced; a countervailing concordance (Matthew Hazell) finds that roughly half the 1962 orations are reused “in some way.” The slogan “two-thirds were removed” is not a settled fact — so we attribute, and decline to assert a single number as gospel.
What is not in dispute is that the reform was extensive, that it dropped or recast a great deal, and that none of this was required by Vatican II, which had asked for a measured revision “in the light of sound tradition.” Catholics who attend the TLM are, quite literally, praying the prayers that were taken out.
- ▸The Liturgical Movement — A Visual Timeline A timeline of what was done to the Mass — and when: the slow road from the early reformers to the 1969 rupture, step by step.
- ▸The Sacred Tree See how the one Roman Rite grew like a living tree — rooted in the Apostles, branching across the centuries, never replanted from scratch.
- ▸What Changed in 1969 The fuller account — Offertory, Canon, and why the words matter.
- ▸What Is the Ottaviani Intervention? The objection raised at the time to exactly these changes.
- ↗How Much of the 1962 Missal Survived? Matthew Hazell’s concordance — the honest, contested arithmetic.
Read the full article: What Changed in 1969 — and Why the Words Matter
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