Important Missal Question Please

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IAmBlessed2

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I was wondering if anyone else has or had trouble following along with the Missal in mass?
Do all the catholic Churches basically use same ones? if so is there an app or something :confused:Sorry to sound stupid but I’m a kinda newbie that tried a couple of times, and just stuck it back and followed alone best as I could :confused:

Also how do you know which one your church is using?
 
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While Catholic churches don’t all use the same missals, I can understand your confusion. The missals in use today in churches seem harder to follow than the ones that were provided when I was a child. As a child I learned the order of Mass and all the basic prayers from following the missal provided in church, which at that time contained all the prayers said by the priest as well as all the prayers said by the people. It seems that nowadays the same missal company prints a version that omits many of the prayers said by the priest.

One thing that is confusing is that during certain parts of the Mass (the Penitential Rite at the beginning, and the Eucharistic Prayers when the priest is consecrating the Body and Blood), the priest has a number of options for what prayers to say, and those attending the Mass don’t know which prayer he will select until he actually starts saying the prayer.

Also, all the missals seem to require the person to skip around in them to find the readings for the day. This can be a headache.

I would suggest that if the missal is annoying, you look around on the web and find an Order of Mass for free that you find easier to follow (google “Order of Mass” and find one that lists what the priest says and what you say) or else try an app like Universalis and iBreviary. Magnificat Magazine, a small booklet that you can often find in your church for free, also contains an Order of Mass.
 
IAmBlessed2 said:
is there an app or something
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If you don’t mind spending some money I recommend Universallis.

If you don’t want to spend money here are some pointers. In fact some may be useful regardless.

If you’re totally uncomfortable begin by focusing on the Order of Mass. This will generally remain the same and is the bulk of the Mass. Since it is Lent the Gloria won’t be said and if you attend weekday Masses the Creed may not be said.

Most parishes will have a misalette for Sunday Masses with the readings, collect, prayer over the gifts and prayer after Communion. That may be easier initially if you want to be able to follow them.

That leaves the preface and the Eucharistic Prayer. For now I’d ignore the preface. There is usually a section for them where they are said but some Eucharistic Prayers (namely 2 and 4) have their own prefaces that may be used during Ordinary Time. The most common Eucharistic Prayers are 2 and 3. 2 contains fountain of all holiness and 3 contains all you have created rightly gives you praise. 1 begins To you therefore most merciful Father and 4 begins We give you praise Father Most Holy. There are other Eucharistic Prayers but they are the ones I typically see in a missal. Some priests may change things slightly. The main ones I see are naming the person the Mass is for in the prayer for the dead rather than using the specific prayer given and naming Saints in a prayer that does not allow for it.

The Blessed are you Lord God of all creation may be said quietly. If you hear a hymn when you are at that point in the missal don’t expect to hear it.

The Penential Rite if the form where the works of the Lord are recalled allows for much more options than on a missal or app.

If you feel brave and want to try to follow the readings on your missal then you need to know where you are in the Liturgical cycle. I’ll focus on Sundays Tomorrow is the 4th Sunday of Lent in year C. Next week is easy (5th Sunday of Lent). The week after that will be Palm or Passion Sunday. Then we are into Easter. The day will usually be on the misalette. When we get to Advent the year changes to A.

Hope that helps.
 
Also, I guess because of Lent, last week during a weekday Mass, the priest said a few words–I didn’t catch them–and those in the know sang a paragraph or so in Latin. It’s mostly older people during the week and most of them followed along well, with the rest of us, at least a third of us, sitting there going, Huh?
 
Shasta-Rose said:
Also, I guess because of Lent, last week during a weekday Mass, the priest said a few words–I didn’t catch them–and those in the know sang a paragraph or so in Latin. It’s mostly older people during the week and most of them followed along well, with the rest of us, at least a third of us, sitting there going, Huh?
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Yes. Some parts may be in Latin or Greek. Do you know what was before or after it?

Also my previous pisf assumed a Latin rite OF Mass.
 
We’re definitely not all using the same missals*. You can purchase a nice one online, but they get pricy. I love mine, but some page flipping is required for the readings and some prayers. The upside is having the Latin/Greek side-by-side with the English.

You can download the Universalis app or iBreviary (the latter is free but requires some screen flipping during Mass).

There are also inexpensive quarterly paperback subscriptions that are easy to follow and then you toss/recycle them when the next one arrives.

*Properly, we all use the same Missal - it’s the one the priest has at the altar. There may be different versions of missalettes or hymnals in the pews, some using the disposable time-based ones and others using a perpetual missal-hymnal hybrid. A few parishes I’ve visited will just print their own per-Mass worship aid in the bulletin or as a separate handout.
 
I remember when they used to announce which Eucharistic prayer the priest would be using and we could easily follow along in our parish provided missals. Those were the ones that were changed and discarded after every “season.” They went in the holder with the hymnal that was good for a few years at least.
 
There are many different disposable misslettes (our parish seems to rotate between two depending on the pastor).

I FAR prefer an electronic version that way I can make the text as large as I want 🙂

Magnificat offers both a paper and an electronic version.

There are many other good electronic versions.
 
This is something that I do not comprehend or feel the need to do. Also I don’t see large numbers of people in my church doing this. I find Catholics don’t need printed texts because they know their parts off by heart. For variable parts we have a printed sheet with the option that is being used that week. We know the readings if we want to read them at a later time because the details (book, chapter, verses) are in the newsletter. Most of us listen to the readers and the priest rather than follow the text in a printed resource or digitally.
 
Shasta-Rose said:
Pretty close to the Blessed be God Forever part.
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If it was after it was most likely Holy Holy Holy, Lord God of Hosts …

That does not seem to match up with a few words though. The other possibility is that May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands … was sung in Latin. That is also after Blessed be God forever.
 
An app… lol. Please don’t be one of those people. Church is one of the few places to get away from seeing people with faces buried in their phones as it is.
 
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Shasta-Rose said:
Pretty close to the Blessed be God Forever part.
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The two things I could think most parish would do in Latin after the preparation of the gifts would be the Sanctus (aka Holy, Holy, Holy) or the mystery of Faith. At my parish maybe 70-80% can sing the Sanctus, but only say 15% can make it through the mystery of Faith in Latin. This is the one I’ve normally heard in Latin:

Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine,
et tuam resurrectionem confitemur,
donec venias.
 
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One “feature” of any hardcopy missal will be the necessity of page turning, which requires one to know which pages to turn and when. I don’t see why you can’t tell the pastor you’d like to take a missal home with you to get more familiar with it and bring it back to church with you for Mass. The parish might very well have a few spares, too, so you could ask if you could just have one of them.

You might also ask somebody sitting near you to help you out.

I second the recommendation of the Universalis app. It is not free, but it costs a great deal less than any hardcopy missal would. It does not have the hymns, of course, but it has everything else. You can configure it so you will have the entire Order of Mass or just the proper prayers and readings for the day. And no page turning. 🙂
 
Church is someplace to not focus on what those around you are doing.
 
Indeed… people should realize that and not put themselves in situations where they are making themselves noticeable.
 
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It’s only noticeable if you are looking for it. focus on the Liturgy not your neighbor.
 
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Which is what people will do if their neighbor isn’t attracting attention.
 
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