I am in the catergory descibed. I am being asked to get a new missalette for our parish. Which one should I choose? I wish we could have used something like Adam Bartlett's new project, but it's going to be one of the throw-away things, at least for this coming year. We can do either a year-long thing or one of those four-editions-a-year thing. Either way, time is running out, as the one we are looking at wants requires us to order by a week from now. We are a parish coming out of the OCP shadow and are starting to do good things. We ordered the St. Michael hymnal and have a small supplement of the former style of music, so having a music resource in the back is not essential, though it wouldn't be a disqualifier, either. Father is big into the older folks having something big enough. Not having one is not an option this year.
If you only need the readings, then Sunday's Word from GIA is a good option. Least expensive one I've found, and the printing is clean and large on bright white paper--not newsprint. It includes complete lectionary texts for Sundays and Holy Days, citations only for weekdays. The only music is the responsorial psalm (Guimont setting) and one sample Mass setting in the order of Mass. It also includes the Entrance and Communion antiphons from the missal. A good value for the price.
We're switching to GIA Sunday's Word this year (cheapest), but if large print is a focus, Liturgical Press's Living Liturgy annual or Celebrating the Eucharist seasonal would be good choices. Maybe only slightly larger print, but definitely very bold.
What about a Missalette that uses "standard text"? We use WLP Celebremos/Let Us Celebrate, but it's not available in standard text. For instance, the First Reading for Easter VI reads: "Get up. I myself am also a human being". I think it used to read "I myself am also a man."
You will take a significant stride forward, and save trees, by using an annual, rather than a quarterly, publication. I have two in front of me, and if I may dissent from colleagues who advocate WLP, I would favor GIA's, if only to avoid that newsprint-quality paper, which screams cheap and is thoroughly unpleasant to handle.
I am generally happy with the Ignatius Pew Missal (pewmissal.com) and recommend it to anyone looking for a disposable resource. The paper quality and typeface are very nice. It’s also reasonably priced. I’m looking forward to seeing next year’s edition!
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