Where do the Missals belong?

[menardsguy]

I am from a parish which has a great number of “elders” . We now share a priest and we have a pastoral associate. This person has moved the hymnals and Missals out of the pews to the back and you have to carry them back and forth. Is there a document on specifing the location of the Missals, or is it up to the management of the parish? The older parishioners would like them back where they were. The kicker is, at the other parish this priest serves, the missals are in the pews.

Glory to God and to His Servants

 

[thistle]

menardsguy:

I am from a parish which has a great number of “elders” . We now share a priest and we have a pastoral associate. This person has moved the hymnals and Missals out of the pews to the back and you have to carry them back and forth. Is there a document on specifing the location of the Missals, or is it up to the management of the parish? The older parishioners would like them back where they were. The kicker is, at the other parish this priest serves, the missals are in the pews.

Glory to God and to His Servants

You should feel happy about having missals wherever they are located in the church.
I live in the Philippines and we have no missals at all.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I don’t even think there is any requirement that Missals and hymnals be supplied by the parish.

What does it matter where they are kept?

I have been to both, where they keep them in a more central location and also where they keep them at the pews.

In my opinion I prefer the former as it doesn’t seem that you can keep enough in each pew for all the people that may sit there. That is one pew may end up being short Missals for the people that sit there where as another pew might have extra, or even have no people sit there.

I think it also makes people think about not leaving stuff in the pews, such as bulletins and such stuff, that someone else has to go and clean up afterwards as well as redistribute the Missals.

 

[Lorrie]

At the parish I belong to if one wants to use a missal that the church provides during the week (M-F) they’re located in the back in a basket. One would just take one and then return it at the end of Mass. For the weekends the readings and everything are in one of the books behind the pews, the hymns are also in there.

I have to agree with thistle, just be grateful they’re available.

 

[asquared]

you can purchase a St Joseph Sunday missal in paperback very inexpensively each year from Autom or any other reliable religious catalog. There is no requirement that the parish provide them for you. Lucky, lucky you to have no problems with liturgy in your parish other than having to pick up a missal at the back of church on your way in.

 

[Lorrie]

asquared:

you can purchase a St Joseph Sunday missal in paperback very inexpensively each year from Autom or any other reliable religious catalog. There is no requirement that the parish provide them for you. Lucky, lucky you to have no problems with liturgy in your parish other than having to pick up a missal at the back of church on your way in.

So true (in bold). Another good idea (besides the wonderful St. Joseph missals) is subscribing to Magnificat. You receive an issue monthly and it has everything! The Mass everyday (including weekends), canticles, meditations, etc. Its easy to read and a book I can’t live without. Its definitely spoiled me to no end.
magnificat.com/