I have a wonderful little prayer book, and a question

[jmcrae]

I have the most wonderful little pocket-sized prayer book that I got when I was Confirmed in 2001.

The title of it is My Prayer Handbook and it has a bright yellow cover, illustrated with black-and-white daisies and coniferous trees on the front. It has 98 pages, and it is the most thorough plain-language instruction on prayer that I’ve ever found in my whole life.

Unfortunately, it contains absolutely no information anywhere about who publishes it, or where it came from.

How would I find out? Since I would love to get copies and distribute them to my own RCIA and Catechism groups.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I have the most wonderful little pocket-sized prayer book that I got when I was Confirmed in 2001.

The title of it is My Prayer Handbook and it has a bright yellow cover, illustrated with black-and-white daisies and coniferous trees on the front. It has 98 pages, and it is the most thorough plain-language instruction on prayer that I’ve ever found in my whole life.

Unfortunately, it contains absolutely no information anywhere about who publishes it, or where it came from.

How would I find out? Since I would love to get copies and distribute them to my own RCIA and Catechism groups.

Does it reflect any particular kind of spirituality, or include Saints who are mainly of one particular country, religious order, or other background ? This can be a clue to origin ?​

Does it include litanies or invocations or indulgences that might be clues to its background, or age, or origin ?

If it includes the Divine Praises, but fewer than the 14 now customary, that might help - I have a prayer book which is modern reprint of one printed in the 50s that has IIRC only 11 of the 14.

Does it include the pre-1968 Order of Mass ? If so, & if St. Joseph is named in the Canon, that dates it to 1961 or earlier.

Does it have all 20 Mysteries of the Rosary - the Luminous as well as the others ? Since the date of their addition is recent, that might help to fix its date.

What a book has, or does not have, can all help. If it has no Imprimatur, that would suggest it is quite recent, since the Church used to be pretty strict about such things.

How modern is the language ? Books which get their “hasts” & “werts” in a tangle tend to be more recent than books edited by people who know their older English grammar

Does it include the Lord’s Prayer ? If so, what version is used ? Is the doxology “For Thine is the Kingdom…and ever, Amen” used ? Is there any statement about quotations from the Bible ?

Are there any names of clergy or religious in the text ?

Does it contain a mixture of elements - such as the Luminous Mysteries, & the pre-1968 Order of Mass ? That could suggest it was edited from sources of different date: which would make discovering its own that bit more difficult.

How does it spell words like “honour-honor”, “labour-labor” ? A “u” would suggest a British origin.

Does it mention “Our Lady of Perpetual Succour” - or of “…Perpetual Help” ?

I hope you find out

 

[jmcrae]

Thanks for your response!

Does it reflect any particular kind of spirituality, or include Saints who are mainly of one particular country, religious order, or other background ? This can be a clue to origin ?​

I don’t see anything specific - it has no Table of Contents or Index, so it’s difficult to tell, really.

It uses American spelling, but when it quotes the Six Laws, it uses the Canadian norms rather than American norms, with regard to the Laws of Fasting and Abstinence.

The language is quite modern - in fact, the version of the Memorare that it presents is more modern-sounding than the one I’m used to reciting.

The Order of the Mass and the ritual for Confession are the modern ones; not the older ones.

It has only the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, and it omits the O My Jesus at the end of each decade, which puts it before the year 2000, for sure - I suspect it was most likely published in the mid to late 1990s.

Does it include litanies or invocations or indulgences that might be clues to its background, or age, or origin ?

As far as I can tell, it only has the most common litanies that everyone uses.

If it includes the Divine Praises, but fewer than the 14 now customary, that might help - I have a prayer book which is modern reprint of one printed in the 50s that has IIRC only 11 of the 14.

I can’t find the Divine Praises in it at all, although given how thorough the rest of it is, I can’t believe they could be missing - I’m probably just skipping past the page some how.

Does it include the pre-1968 Order of Mass ? If so, & if St. Joseph is named in the Canon, that dates it to 1961 or earlier.

No - it’s certainly not that early.

 

[puzzleannie]

if it is the one I think it is, it has a companion book beige with green trees on it, which is an excellent guide to confession and exam of conscience. I will research when I get to work and report back (wish this was in the proper forum-spirituality-because I know I won’t be able to find it when I try).

 

[jmcrae]

if it is the one I think it is, it has a companion book beige with green trees on it, which is an excellent guide to confession and exam of conscience. I will research when I get to work and report back (wish this was in the proper forum-spirituality-because I know I won’t be able to find it when I try).

Sorry. I put it in the Media section because I’m looking for the publisher.

 

[OneAugustKnight]

Look for a number, usually by the bar code on the back, called the ISBN. Do a search on Amazon, or on a rare books website, or take the ISBN to a bookstore and have them find it.

Is there any more to the title? I found a book called “Celebrate God’s Mighty Deeds : My Prayer Handbook” but there was no picture. It was printed by Paulist Press in 1971

 

[jmcrae]

Look for a number, usually by the bar code on the back, called the ISBN. Do a search on Amazon, or on a rare books website, or take the ISBN to a bookstore and have them find it.

There is no bar code, and no ISBN. There is no publisher’s page, no index - nothing at all to indicate where it came from, or who put it together.

There is one addendum, typed in Arial Bold (indicating that it was probably created on a home computer), which is stapled in, with the place where it needs to be added in marked with a black pen.