Essential Presidential Prayers and Texts: A Roman Missal Study Edition and Workbook provides pastoral commentary and proclamation tips to aid priest celebrants in confidently praying the revised words of the Mass. Rev. Daniel Merz and Abbot Rooney provide background and scriptural references as well as guidance on words to emphasize, when to pause in the prayers, and the pace at which to recite the prayers. This resource will aid priest celebrants in leading the congregation in full, active, and conscious participation during Mass.

In June 2011, Father Daniel Merz, SLD, became the associate director of the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship. He completed an S.T.B. at the Gregorian University in Rome in 1996, an S.L.L. at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in 1999, and an SLD in 2011. He spent two years as associate pastor at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City. From 2001 to the present he has worked and taught at Conception Seminary College as a professor of Liturgy, Latin and Celibacy; as a Chaplain in Human formation; and since 2007, as Vice-Rector and Dean of Students. In 2007, he was also named chairman of the Diocesan Liturgical Commission in Jefferson City.

Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, former pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Brinkley, is founding an Institute of Sacred Liturgy, Music and Art in the Diocese of Madison.