A Primer on Catholic Missals – Part II

Post-Vatican II Missals

There are three types of Post-Vatican II missals. You will want to find out from your customer which type he is looking for before pulling missals off the shelf.

Disposable missals

For people who don’t want the expense of a permanent missal, there are two options available. First, there is an annual missal available from Catholic Book Publishing that contains all Sunday readings for a year. Unfortunately, this missal sells out by February and can rarely be found after that.

The other option is the monthly Magnificat. The Magnificat contains daily readings for a month and can either be ordered as a subscription or purchased at your store on a monthly basis. The subscription is significantly less expensive but we have found that the reliability of delivery needs to be worked on. The Magnificat also contains morning and evening prayer and spiritual reflections. There is also a childrens version available called Magnifikid!.

Multi-Volume Missals

For customers who don’t need a daily missal or want to carry smaller books, a multi-volume set is the way to go. Multi-volume sets are available from two publishers – Catholic Book Publishing (CBP) and Pauline Books and Media (PBM). The CBP version is a three volume set that has a large variety of options. The PBM version is two volumes with a more limited number of options. The CBP set has a yearly guide available that tells which pages to go to in the Missal. The PBM books have a calendar on the inside cover that runs through 2016.

The CBP Sunday Missal comes in a variety of styles, including giant print, burgundy zipper, black hardback, green hardback, red vinyl and brown flex cover. The weekday missals (2 volumes) are available in vinyl and black zipper. You can also get all three zipper volumes in a gift box.

There is only one PBM Sunday missal available and two weekday options – a flex cover and a zipper cover.

Pauline Book and Media also offers the Vatican II Daily Missal in Spanish.

Daily Missals

If your customer is looking for a one-volume missal or wants to have parts of the Mass in Latin, the Daily Roman Missal is the only way to go. These missals have all thee readings for the year, extra prayers and the ordinary of the Mass in Latin and English. The Daily Roman Missal is available in several versions including large print black leather, large print burgundy leather, large print burgundy hardback, black leather and burgundy leather.

I will cover the options available for children’s missals at another time.

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