Rabbititus, thank you for publishing the link to Roman Catholic Books. I don’t know how to do that! I had another thought about this subject. I remember when missalettes were first published after Vactican II, they were supposed to be a temporary measure, something to be used until the liturgy settled down. Then, it was assumed, we would all by new missals to replace the ones we had used before the Mass changes. No one ever imagined that the publishing of disposable missalettes would become the big business that it has. We were all use to beautiful missals that cost a bit, but that lasted for years. (They made great gifts for special occations such as Confirmation or graduation!) With the TLM we should be able to go back to this because the ordinary and the propers of the Mass are set. I find it hard to imagine that the missalette people will allow themselves to be put out of business, so I wonder how this is going to play out. In the long run, it is cheaper to buy a $50.00 missal which can be used until it wears out, than to purchase a subscription to a missalette for 20 or 30 years. If parishes purchased good hymnals, and people owned their own missals like they used to, the missalette publishers would have to find another line of work, but our churches wouldn’t be cluttered with junky looking paper “worship aids,” and it would be more ecologically sensitive! In the case of the Novus Ordo, we still do not have the definitive translation of the Mass, so I have not bought a new missal for that Mass. I am still waiting for the new translations. Our church doesn’t use missalettes, but I guess there will still be a need for them for the Novus Ordo until we have the new translations of the Mass.
