I believe that any Missal will be a bit overwhelming until you get the hang of it. But, with a little bit of use it will become much easier.
First thing is first. The 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal is intended to be used with the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, also know as the Tridentine Mass, or the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). It will do you very little good if you are attending daily Mass in the Ordinary Form, also know as the Novus Ordo Mass. If you do attend the Novus Ordo Mass then I can recommend a good Missal for that.
But, assuming that it is daily Mass in the Extraordinary Form that you are attending then you will need to know a little bit about how the daily Mass readings work in the TLM. It is different than the way it works in the Novus Ordo Mass.
In the Novus Ordo Mass there is a 3 yr cycle of Sunday readings (called years A, B, and C) . And for weekdays there is a 2 yr cycle (called years I and II). There are 2 readings, a psalm, and the Gospel on Sundays. On weekdays there is typically one reading, the psalm, and the Gospel. There are also readings for particular Feast days that can optionally be used instead of the daily readings. It is my experience that most priests will use the daily reading as opposed to the readings for the Feast (if there is a Feast that day) but they will mention the Saint in the Homily.
But it works a bit different for the Tridentine Mass. For Sundays there is a 1 yr cycle of readings. It repeats every year. And typically there is 1 reading (usually from the New Tesatmant), a psalm, and the Gospel.
Weekdays have no cycle of readings in the TLM. The readings that are used depend on the Saint of the day. For example, today (November 20th) is the Feast of St. Felix of Valois (see page 1511 in your Missal). It says to use the Mass of a Confessor Not a Bishop (page 987 in your Missal) with the exception of one prayer - the Collect provided on pg. 1511.
So, the readings for today would be 1 Cor 4:9-14, Psalm 36:30-31, Psalm 111:1, and Luke 12:32-34.
Tomorrow (Nov 21st) will be the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (see page 1511-1512 in your Missal). It says to use the Mass on pg 1026 again with the exception of one prayer.
On a day where there is no Feast day (I believe the next one is November 27th) then there are a few possibilities. First, the priest can say the Mass of the preceding Sunday (using all of those prayers and readings again). Second, he can use one of the provided Votive Masses (see pages 1544-1596 for some of them). And third he can celebrate the Mass of any Saint as a votive Mass and use those readings. If your priest has a particular favorite Saint he could do this. Or if there is a Saint whose Feast day has recently fallen on a Sunday and therefore was trumped by the Sunday Mass then it is possible to honor that Saint on another day.
James
