What books are in Catholic pew racks?

[Bbigam]

I actually did know that, I hope I wasn’t untruthful in my post. The point is, we go through the whole bible in three years. That a few bits are left out, to me, doesn’t negate that we "go through the whole bible in three years. I guess it just depends on what we mean by “whole.”

The thing is though, that according to those statistics, we don’t go through anywhere near the whole Bible in three years; we only cover 13.5% of the Old Testament. We do cover most of the New Testament at 71.5%. It might be argued that we cover the whole basic Biblical story, but the vast majority of the Old Testament (excluding the Psalms) is never heard in Mass.

Now it would change marginally if we included the canticles used as responsorial Psalms; Judith and 1 Chronicles each have a canticle that is used as such. But that would barely alter the overall percentages. I haven’t found any evidence of Obadiah being used.

I’d be curious to see similar statistics for the readings and canticles from the Liturgy of the Hours, particularly the Office of Readings. Anyone know of a site like that? I suspect that would significantly increase the percentage, but probably wouldn’t be near 100% still.

 

[Poco]

My experience with the Catholic Church is limited to the parish I’ve been attending since January. (I’m tryin’ to get across the Tiber! ) It just has a paperback “Today’s Missal” and Hymnals in the pews.
I did get to go to a Catholic Priest ordination service at the Cathedral in St. Agustine once. Awesome service! I don’t remember what books were in the pews, though.
In the Episcopal churches I’ve been in, there were mostly the Book of Common Prayer and Hymnals in the pews with a few Bibles spread around here and there.

 

[DarrenOglesby]

We have the Green Gather hymnals, I am not really a huge fan of the selections, but we are blessed to have a permanent hardback hymnal.

 

[x1980x]

Actually, I wouldn’t even say it’s a Protestant innovation. I’ve never been to a Protestant church with bibles in the pews.

The Episcopal church I grew up in, and every other EC I’ve been in: Book of Common Prayer and Hymnal

The Baptist churches I went to with friends in college: Hymnals

The various non-Catholic churches I attended weddings in: Hymnals

In my experience, bibles are strictly BYOB in the protestant churches I’ve attended. In fact, the bible carrier competition seems pretty serious in the Baptist churches I have attended. Women seem to make a fashion statement out of them.

Not here in the US. Most Protestant churches DO have Bibles in the pews. Oftentimes, it will be a more literal translation such as the NRSV rather than the NIV, which is more popular for personal use. Lots of people bring their own preferred version.

One case where I can recall a Protestant church that did not have bibles in the pews was Episcopalian. In that case, they had the Book of Common Prayer (Anglican missal) and a hymnal. In fact, I can’t remember being in an Episcopal church that had pew bibles. Of course, if you bring your own nobody is going to shoot you.

 

[UnityofTrinity]

Here is my perspective coming from a very Calvinist church, where the Bible is a matter of life or death (no Bible? Shame on you). I think the general misconception about Catholics not having the Bible is that Protestants often see the church as a bible study group, and that is why they need to carry Bibles.Catholics on the other hand see the Church as a place of prayer, scriptural teachings, and eucharistic worship. When think about it, I remember how often Protestants are so distracted during the sermons when they search in the Bible, or if they disagree with the pastor they will read the Bible either for entertainment or to have theological arguments against the pastor. I find that distracting and disrespectful. In my opinion when one comes to Church, he must become obedient, and his hearts must be quite to listen to God. Catholics sitting, listening to the Bible being read outloud instead of reading individually, is a sign of that quite obedience and submission

 

[John_2029]

Former Presbyterian (PCUSA) here…

Every Presbyterian Church I’ve attended has had pew Bibles.

Yours in Christ,

 

[YoungCanRCMale]

Hello Bran Stark,

Thank you for coming on to Catholic Answers. Good to see that you are asking questions about the Catholic faith, even if it something small in the scope of things or quite specific like the pew books. Don’t be shy, if one of us commenters can’t help you C.A. has a number of apologist and the forum moderators can help too.

Usually, you will find in a normal pew for Novus Ordo/Ordinary form of the “Latin/Roman Rite” Catholic churches, two main books:
(1) A Sunday missal that contains some prayers (both the major prayers as well as unique compositions to the state or country, depending on the publisher), parts of the mass which can vary (e.g. there are 4 Eucharistic prayers the priest can say for the part of the Consecration of the Eucharist and Blood) as well as readings from Scripture for each Sunday Mass: a first reading usually from the Old Testament or Acts during points in Eastertime, a New testament reading generally from the letters (epistles) of St Paul, and a reading from one of the Four Gospels.
(2) A hymnal book which varies depending on the specific church. Common to Canada are the “Catholic Book of Worship” hymnals (II and III, some critics think II is way better than III in its selection) and the Gather hymnals (which have hyms that might be shared or common to other Christian denominations).

If you decide to stroll into a Church that has either one or two Extraordinary form (EF) /Tridentine Latin Masses or is devoted to the EF, you will only see a hymnal book in the pews. That hymnal book actually is somewhat useful as it also contains sung parts of the Mass as well. The churches with EF masses I visit on occasion have the Adoremus hymnal book.

Does that answer your question? YCRCM.

 

[YoungCanRCMale]

None had pew Bibles. Is this typical? What does the average Catholic pew have in it? How common are “real” hymnals? Are pew Bibles purely a Protestant innovation?

I cannot answer this for sure, but it does sound like the pew Bibles might be a Protestant innovation. No Catholic churches do not have pew Bibles. That doesn’t however stop anyone from bringing in their own Bible though (although I haven’t seen a person bring one to Mass, and you’d probably get funny looks for having one because it’s foreign to Catholic Masses).

Real hymnals? I don’t understand what you mean.

Oh, btw, there’s one book I forgot to mention. It’s not in the pews, but laity can buy their own Hand missals for both the Novus Ordo and the EF. This would have the complete Mass laid out each day including the prayers the priest says during mass, as well as a number of other things. The EF ones have the Latin and English languages side by side. Also in EF masses, usually on Sundays and major feast days, churches will print out that day’s major prayers and readings (they change every day in the EF) on photocopies for guests who don’t have hand missals. Just a note: The only Novus Ordo hand missals I’ve seen are ones in the USA’s translation of the Bible, the New American Bible translation. Canada has a different translation called New Revised Standard Version and there are no hand missals with a NRSV translation.

 

[Digitonomy]

I would say pew Bibles are certainly a Protestant innovation, although as many have said they are not that common in the broad and diverse world of Protestantism. I can only remember being in two Protestant churches which had Bibles in the pews. One was a Southern Baptist church, which used the NKJV, although many people brought their own. The other was a campus interfaith chapel, which was stocked with the NRSV.

I have also been to a Catholic church with Bibles in the pews. It was kind of a hardscrabble parish, so using the weathered NABs saved the cost of monthly or yearly missal purchases. The priest liked to delve into the scripture during the homily, and he would often read through the verses or chapters before or after the day’s readings to give context to the readings. I suspect he did this even more during masses for the parish school. I think they used a regular lectionary and Gospel book from the front, so sometimes the congregation would be slightly lost if the lectionary had censored a few verses. The hymnal there was the Lead Me Guide Me mentioned earlier.
Bran Sark:

How common are “real” hymnals?

Do you mean hardback books, as opposed to paperback? Or hymnal-only volumes, both hardback and paperback, as opposed to books with the a hymnal section in the back of a larger missal with readings, the order of mass, etc.? In my experience, probably 60% of parishes have a permanent hardback hymnal, although this is usually supplemented by songs in the missal.