Paperback missalettes or hardcover?

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Hmmm. I don’t like that. I like to follow along. And what about those who are unfamiliar? Newcomers, first-timers.
 
What’s a pew lectionary? How’s it different from a missalette?
 
We have a home for the elderly/disabled. Are these daily Mass books simple and easy to handle (both physically and cognitively - easy to find pages and not confusing for people - a few of whom struggle with memory loss, etc.)?
Thank you.
 
I don’t have an I-Phone or Smart Phone or even an android, but I personally think that the missal with the hymns, readings, and responses should all be online and people can read it on whatever device they use, including the thinkpads and ipads.

The advantages are many–lightweight for people who find it difficult to hold the big hardcover hymnals, the user can enlarge the print to make it readable for them, the hymns could include the 4 part harmony and also information about the origin of the hymns, the user could switch the language to their language of choice (e.g. Spanish, Korean, etc.). And there could be instructions, which would be useful for people who are new to the Catholic Church, or for people who haven’t been to Mass in a long while. And for people who have trouble hearing, it’s all right there and they wouldn’t have to rely on hearing the cantor announce the hymn, or for people like me who can’t see those tiny little signs, it would be helpful to know what the hymns are.

Easily updateable if something is changed in a hymn (e.g., no more use of God’s name) or if the U.S. Bishops wish to add a special prayer intention or announcement about an Obligation Mass.

Less work for the people who have to put all those missalettes and hymnals straight in the pew racks. And less likely that the pew rack would be pulled off of the pew (we have several that are hanging by one screw–probably a lively toddler didn’t know their own strength!).

And better for the environment.

Again, I don’t have an i-phone or tablet–I use a flip phone and an old laptop. But I think many people do use these devices, including many elderly people, and we may as well get with them.
 
Most parishes I know of have the paperback Sunday missalettes replaced twice per year.
 
Pitcairn17 said:
Our small parish went to the hardcovers, and lived to regret it. The version we got lacks anything for the daily Masses, and as we have an active daily Mass contingent, we still have to buy some quantity of the three times a year seasonal missalettes. Most of the weekend Mass attendees ignore the hardcover missals as they seem to find it a bother to find the proper readings even though at the beginning of Mass the lector announces the Cycle and Sunday. The music ministry hates being confined to the hymns in the hardcover rather than the rotating seasonal hymns in the paperback version that changed three times a year or so. All in all, a big mistake for us. Maybe would work better in a larger parish.
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sounds like your parish needs a handful of copies of this daily mass missal – St. Isaac Jogues Daily Mass Companion



https://www.amazon.com/Isaac-Jogues-DAILY-COMPANION-pages/dp/1500400521
 
Is St. Isaac Jogues DAILY MASS COMPANION
user friendly and easy to use for people with some mental and physical limitations?
 
We have a home for the elderly/disabled. Are these daily Mass books simple and easy to handle (both physically and cognitively - easy to find pages and not confusing for people - a few of whom struggle with memory loss, etc.)?
Thank you.
 
Sister, we don’t have the daily mass companion, so I’m really just not sure. The Sunday book is easy enough to navigate (we have a previous version of the current book). I’ve never noticed any of our elderly having trouble with it. It is not a large print text. It’s average book print.

Could you possibly just order one copy from Amazon to see if it will suit your needs?
 
No ma’am. I’d imagine a permanent single volume missal would be too large to fit in the pews or handle easily. It would be well over 1000 pages of text.
 
I am thinking, yes, of ordering a sample. Thank you.
 
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If you need a copy donated I’d be happy to do so, just shoot me a PM.
 
That’s really kind. I need to talk this over with our administrator and she is currently in the middle of our annual audit.
Thanks.
 
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Our church uses hardcover and have had the same ones for several years. It is a combo hymn/missal. I like them so much I ordered a couple for home so we could sing the hymns at the house. The mass readings are a bonus. It has Sunday mass readings for A B C cycles plus holy days. It is the pew version with readings. Very reasonable price at 16.50. If it was a college textbook it would cost over 100 dollars.

https://www.giamusic.com/store/hymnals-worship
 
We use the hardcover Lumen Christi Missal and hymnal (separate book). We got them probably about 6 years ago, and I am not noticing any sign of wear. Most hardcover hymnals and missals last a very long time. Churches replace them more because they want “updated” music than because they are wearing out. (I recently saw some Facebook pictures of the church that I grew up in [non-Catholic], and I saw that they still have the 1950s hymnals in the pews, which were old when I was young. Love it!)

Some of those disposable paperback missal/hymnal combos have awful music. I guess the positive side is that you throw them away before long and always have the option open of buying something better, but I think a quality hardcover traditional-leaning hymnal (not Gather or Glory and Praise) is the better investment. Lumen Christi is good, though a smaller hymnal; and I have heard good things about the St. Michael Hymnal and the Vatican II Hymnal.
 
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Our parish uses paper missals that are replaced when the liturgical season changes (example ordinary time, advent, etc). There are some hymns in the back of the paper missals but hymns are also supplemented via a separate hardcover hymnal. Some of the paper missals have been torn and some are bent when placing in the back of the pews but all that I can tell are still usable. Another drawback of these paper missals is they don’t contact the daily readings in full only list what the readings are. As it is a smaller parish daily Mass is only offered on Tuesdays and Wednesday. Personally I prefer a printed missal to a tablet or smartphone as to avoid distraction but there is nothing wrong with using a digital missal (but please turn off your ringers).
 
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