Do the US Bishops want us to throw away our Missals?

[Holy_Family_12]

In response to the US Bishops Committee on Liturgy’s “Hearing the Word of God”, our parish has not merely discouraged the use of missals at Mass but has removed them from the church. Is it the intent of the US Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy to discontinue the use of missals for all but the hearing impaired? Or has our parish liturgy committee misconstrued something?

 

[Dr.Bombay]

A lot of priests don’t like people to use Missals so they can’t tell how many liberties said priest is taking with the written prayers of the Church.

And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if your parish liturgy committee has misconstrued something. To err is human, to really screw things up takes a committee.

 

[palmas85]

Holy Family 12:

In response to the US Bishops Committee on Liturgy’s “Hearing the Word of God”, our parish has not merely discouraged the use of missals at Mass but has removed them from the church. Is it the intent of the US Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy to discontinue the use of missals for all but the hearing impaired? Or has our parish liturgy committee misconstrued something?

Now don’t laugh when I tell you this, but this is actually what a lot and I mean a lot of Priests, excuse me, Presiders and Bishops, say on the issue. Ready, hold on now:

In Scripture it says to HEAR the Word. Get it, Hear the Word, not read it, HEAR it. So how to accomplish this rather simple thing? Easy, get rid of the Missals. The you have to Hear the Word. A truly beauracratic solution to the problem.

Of course Bombays idea makes sense too, and in all honesty, have you ever tried to follow a Novus Ordo Mass in a Missal? Having tried and failed miserably, I will tell you now, it cannot be done unless you have all the information as to which options will be used beforehand.

 

[mjdonnelly]

If they had readers worth their weight in salt, I’ld say fine, but some are just terrible. Off tempo, can’t pronounce, etc.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

Although I admit using the missal(ette) would prrobably benefit me during the parts of the Eucharistic prayer that I don’t have memorized, I’ve always preferred to put down the missal during the readings because when the text is in front of me I have trouble waiting for the reader to keep up. So I stay more actively engaged in the liturgy of the word when I can’t read it for myself.

Now as to why a parish’s missals were removed…both of the above reasons sound plausible.

 

[Lorrie]

Andreas Hofer:

Although I admit using the missal(ette) would prrobably benefit me during the parts of the Eucharistic prayer that I don’t have memorized, I’ve always preferred to put down the missal during the readings because when the text is in front of me I have trouble waiting for the reader to keep up.

I’ve just started doing this (putting it down during the readings), I found myself actually tapping my foot while waiting on the lectors to keep up. Obviously my mind wasn’t on what was being said.

I’m having problems memorizing the Nicene Creed so I use it during that. I recently subscribed to Maginficat (I absolutely love it!) so I use that for my missal.

 

[Confiteor]

palmas85:

Now don’t laugh when I tell you this, but this is actually what a lot and I mean a lot of Priests, excuse me, Presiders and Bishops, say on the issue. Ready, hold on now:

In Scripture it says to HEAR the Word. Get it, Hear the Word, not read it, HEAR it. So how to accomplish this rather simple thing? Easy, get rid of the Missals. The you have to Hear the Word. A truly beauracratic solution to the problem.

Of course Bombays idea makes sense too, and in all honesty, have you ever tried to follow a Novus Ordo Mass in a Missal? Having tried and failed miserably, I will tell you now, it cannot be done unless you have all the information as to which options will be used beforehand.

Forcing people to listen and not read “may” be a noble goal, but there are people in the pews who need missals: the hard of hearing, those for whom English is a new language, and children who need to follow the written Word to stay attentive. Then, of course, there is the matter of whether the readers are clear and audible to begin with.

 

[Kielbasi]

If the people are expected to read various prayers allow during mass, I don’t see how a church could get rid of missals in the pews?

I was told years ago that its an error for a priest to say the prayers from memory, instead of reading them from his own missal.

All the more it has to be an error for the faithful as well, who aren’t in church fulltime.

 

[awalt]

I read alog with the Magnificat. It helps me concentrate.

 

[savone]

Question: What of visitors or those newly converted to Roman Catholicism? How would they follow and participate in the worship service?

 

[mary_bobo]

Holy Family 12:

In response to the US Bishops Committee on Liturgy’s “Hearing the Word of God”, our parish has not merely discouraged the use of missals at Mass but has removed them from the church. Is it the intent of the US Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy to discontinue the use of missals for all but the hearing impaired? Or has our parish liturgy committee misconstrued something?

People learn and remember in different ways. Some people will retain what they HEAR; others will better retain what they READ. Seems to me the Church would want to use as many of our senses as possible when imparting THE WORD OF GOD!

 

[lyoncoeur]

I personally woulden’t have a problem with not using the missal for the Scripture readings…but, for the order of the Mass, eucharistic prayers, etc… I think it would be a BAD thing not to have them… I have been bringing a friend to Mass for some time now, she is not Catholic and is interested… without the Missal she would be lost… as it is we still have to do alot of page flipping since we never know what variation is going to be taken until the last moment…but still the missal is an important teaching tool not only for the faithful but for the potential convert… if it would only be followed by the Priest that is.

 

[kage_ar]

We read the readings before Mass, and use the Missal for the Responsorial Psalm only. That way, we read and hear the word both My DH still uses the Missal or his prayer book for the Creed.

 

[WanderAimlessly]

That won’t work for me. I will just bring my own missal to Mass

PF

 

[genealogist]

I think one needs to ignore the “liturgist” at every parish. The Mass is layed out very clearly in the Roman Missal so why do we need a layperson telling us what it means? I agree that Fr. prbably doesn’t want us to kow how many liberties he takes. Also I have a friend from High School who is a priest and he says that the translations REALLY IS terrible but he says it is not his job to fix it. He is very traditional, oldest of six kids, two are priests, uncle was a priest too.

 

[MulusChristi]

I’ve always been annoyed by the busybodies who tell us we have to HEAR the word of God, not read it, at Mass. At the time the scriptures were written, most people were illiterate, so hearing was the only way to learn the word of God. But we live in a literate, or perhaps postliterate, society. I learn many things by reading them, not hearing them. I like to be able to read the readings along with hearing the lector. It sinks in more for me.

 

[Joan_M]

palmas85:

In Scripture it says to HEAR the Word. Get it, Hear the Word, not read it, HEAR it. So how to accomplish this rather simple thing? Easy, get rid of the Missals. The you have to Hear the Word. A truly beauracratic solution to the problem.

**Actually, we hear things better when we are following along with the written word. And, anyway, there are too many readers who do not read well. **

Of course Bombays idea makes sense too, and in all honesty, have you ever tried to follow a Novus Ordo Mass in a Missal? Having tried and failed miserably, I will tell you now, it cannot be done unless you have all the information as to which options will be used beforehand.

I always my Missal at Mass (yes, the Novus Ordo Mass) and have never had any problem following. All you need to know is what is the week you are in (like the 29th week of ordinary time) and is there a Saint’s Feast today. No big deal. But, then, I have been using a Missal since I was old enough to read one, and that’s a loooong time!!

 

[Trick]

I guess it would be great if we all just “heard” the Word,but in many churches it is difficult to hear the lector, deacon or priest speak from the pulpit for various reasons : 1) poor acoustics
2)mike not working 3)crying kids or difficult foreign accent of reader or 4)reader just does a poor job.

Trick

 

[awalt]

Karl Keating had a caller last week on CA Live who complained about a priest who took liberties with the gospel reading to change “man” to other gender-friendly words. He also then said to leave the Missals at home so people wouldn’t get “confused”. Karl suggested taking a couple of friends, and in a friendly way say this is not right, and more so it is an insult to women who understand the meaning of man" in the Bible to be mankind. The priest means well but is doing the wrong thing.

 

[rwoehmke]

genealogist:

I think one needs to ignore the “liturgist” at every parish. The Mass is layed out very clearly in the Roman Missal so why do we need a layperson telling us what it means? I agree that Fr. prbably doesn’t want us to kow how many liberties he takes. Also I have a friend from High School who is a priest and he says that the translations REALLY IS terrible but he says it is not his job to fix it. He is very traditional, oldest of six kids, two are priests, uncle was a priest too.

Our parish has a liturgist, but neither he nor his predessors(sic). have ever tried to tell us what things mean during Mass. He leads a liturgy committee that recommends the hymns to be used by the choirs, sees to training of altar servers and EMHCs, how to decorate the Church for various seasons and special Holy days like Christmas and Easter and like that. He sometimes leads one of the choirs and announces hymns, but does not comment on various parts of the mass. A liturgist who would do that, except for maybe a teaching Mass where Father usually does his own commentary would seem to me to be a real pain.