Q: Formed.org has a series called ‘The Elements of the Mass’. In the episode on Vestments I, the priest mentions the prayers that are said as the priest puts on each vestment. He mentions the GIRM but it says nothing about this. My understanding is that these prayers are no longer used.
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A: The vesting prayers were removed from the missal after the council. Some priests still like to say them.
Canon 909 says, “A priest is not to neglect to prepare himself properly through prayer for the celebration of the eucharistic sacrifice and to offer thanks to God at its completion.”
But it does not specify how this is to be done. The missal retained four prayers of preparation for Mass from the former missal, and these may be found in the final pages of the book: the Prayer of St. Ambrose, the Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Formula of Intent. These make a clearer model for the kind of preparation a priest makes before Mass.
Incidentally, I see many priests kissing the stole before putting it on. The missal makes no provision for that action either. The only objects the priest kisses are the altar and the book of the gospels on days when he proclaims the gospel.
If a priest finds devotional value in these practices, it should be fine. But the missal neither encourages nor requires them.