Loose pages in well-used books quickly deteriote - they fall out of the book repeatedly, get trampled on or scrunched up when inserted back into the book, and then fall out again. After a few decades of this mistreatment, they're in a pretty sorry state, which is what I had to contend with in this book repair job for my local parish.
The Manual of Prayers was published in 1953 to be *the* parish prayer book, and while it's terrific that it still sees regular use every Lent, it wouldn't have survived until next Lent without some serious work. In this video, you'll see the lengths I had to go, since this book had multiple page tears, and the many steps I had to go through before it was even ready to reassemble! At the end, you'll see for yourself what a difference the simple act of paste washing a cloth covered book can make.
There are two more videos coming about this interesting slice of English Catholic history, specifically about two fascintating prayers it contains, one of which I'll bet you've never heard of. I'll post onscreen links to this during this video when they're ready.
In the meatime, if you spot your parish priest wrestling with,a book in desperate need of repair, let them know they don't have to put up with that any longer. If they want to know more about the book restoration work I do, they can take a look at the Bindery page on the My Catholic Library website: mycatholiclibrary.co.uk/bindery
Until next time, go in peace 😇