Dear TK421:
Once more, I want to say “Welcome”.
I’m a convert, too. My being Roman Catholic spans five decades now. I’ve seen a lot across the years. I’m very happy I made the decision I did. It’s been an incredible journey, a great odyssey I could never have imagined.
When I was teaching those seeking a master’s degree in theology, I employed the measure that the theological weight accorded to someone, whether it was in an article they wrote or in a statement they said, was fidelity to the Magisterium. So, if the Church teaches X and Sister So & So says Y, there’s no question as to who to believe or what to do: the teaching of the Church (X) trumps anyone’s opinion (Y).
With that as base-line, we can move into the area you’re discussing. The Church has no teaching on whether we should or shouldn’t use missals; people get to decide for themselves.
You have people who will advance their theory about why what they think is best…some are liturgists in parishes; some teach in schools; some write articles in magazines – about topics like this! But since the Church doesn’t say you must do one or not do the other, you can hear what they say and then choose what works best for you.
In such a case, really, what these people say only has the weight of their personal opinion. Even if the bishop of your diocese says that he doesn’t think missals are good, he does not have the authority to make the decision for you because, in this situation, there really is liberty for the individual to choose if using a missal will be helpful.
And as Catholics, we have a lot of those sorts of liberties, actually.
The Lord tells us the importance of prayer…but how we pray has latitude. As a priest, I pray the Liturgy of the Hours. It’s beautiful, well structured, largely scriptural, and is the official prayer of the Church prayed by priests, religious and some laity. It has a lot to recommend it as a “best”. But, really, it does not suit the taste of everyone.
Some love to pray the rosary. It’s a wonderful devotion with many promises from the Mother of Jesus and indulgences from the Church. So it seems also to be a “best”…but it does not suit everyone either.
Some, who might not be suited to either the Liturgy of the Hours or the rosary, will pray the stations of the cross. It’s a devotion of the Passion of Jesus with images to help us focus; we move through a pilgrimage of 14 stations which can help us remain absorbed in prayer. It has a lot to recommend it and is another “best”.
Some like to go and be before the Blessed Sacrament and pray and make a holy hour. Being before the Lord has to be a “best”.
Others love to sit before a shrine of the Blessed Mother and spend time conversing with her. Since Jesus gave her to us to be our mother, that has to be a “best”.
Others love to be at home and take their bible in hand and use the texts in it to pray…and, being the Sacred Scripture, that has to be a “best.”
I say all of this because none of these are not “bests” and, at any given moment in a long life, we can choose one or two or several as our way to pray. One may be a favorite that suddenly overpasses another…but then our situation changes and we’re at a different place in life and our old favorite doesn’t help us as much as a new favorite. And that’s OK. The scale you are trying to apply doesn’t always work.
When we’re a new Catholic, we confront many options. And everything is new. We rely on people to help us integrate ourselves into our new Faith as we make the Faith and its practices part of us and our lives. Some do so wonderfully and become life-long friends. Some don’t do a good job; they confuse us or tell us things that we learn are wrong and they disappoint us.
It takes time to grow and to come to understand that, out of many choices and options, the one that is the best may simply be the one that helps in a given time in our life to be closer to the Lord.
Whether one is hard of hearing or one just prefers to read along, if a missal helps to better follow the Mass (which is still very new after only being Catholic for less than two years!) then that is best. It doesn’t matter what someone says. They can believe what they want.
Some like to sit in the front pew and some like to sit in the back pew. The pew where you feel comfortable and best a part of the liturgy is the best for you…even if someone else says it’s better only to sit in the front or in the back.
When we’re new to the Church, it’s easy to hear what people say. It’s harder to evaluate the weight we should give what they say. We don’t yet have the criteria to make that determination. I’ve never forgotten that experience from my first days of being Catholic!
It sounds like you’ve been burned for being what you think was too trusting and too deferential. I’m sorry you had that experience. But now that you know that you’re better to have a certain level of discernment, don’t go to another extreme and look with suspicion at everyone and everything.
Keep studying the Faith. As time goes by, it becomes easier to make the determination that this pronouncement is important (like the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life) while another pronouncement (like which musical instrument is best at Mass) is more a matter of personal taste and preference.
Personally, I love the pipe organ…but I was chaplain to a group of Africans who were living abroad. They had such beautiful music from their homeland and they made this music using instruments from their country. As much as they loved the pipe organs in the churches where I was, nothing was as wonderful for them as their own music with their own instruments. Neither of us were wrong for liking what we liked and being uplifted by what uplifted us.
I hope these thoughts help. They really apply to more than just missals at Mass.
