Would the annual missals published by Catholic Book be something useful to put in the pews?

chonak, looked through the preview pages of those St. Joseph missals with interest… but was a bit dismayed when I saw a Haugen song featured in there! (I'm curious, though… what's the origin of their Responsorial Psalm music?)

And along those same lines… I'm curious if there exists another sort of missal… essentially a "Gregorian Missal" (which most of us here are familar with), but without the music… that is, perhaps something that would have the readings in English (just like any other missal), but also with the Latin words to the propers, and English translations, too. That might save a lot of us from either having to provide translations ourselves, or from having to explain that the weird Latin stuff we sing is actually prescribed for the Mass.

But more to the point of Charles' question: I think the answer lies in something that Jeffrey T. has eloquently mentioned many times here, namely that at its root, the Roman Rite is not tied to hymns, nor should it be. And convincing others of that requires not just persuasive oratory, but true catechesis as well.

I wish I could provide an easier answer for you!

Due to the translation changes (ordinary, responsorial psalm),
this is the time for thinking and planning a lot, but purchasing very little.

General questions:
What is the purpose of a hymnal?
What is the purpose of a missal?

A Hymnal helps parishioners to sing because it has words for long songs
and marks that somehow tell you to go up or down in pitch.

A Missal ... (hmm) ... I do not know.

Specific questions about the present system:
Do parishioners follow along during the readings?
Why?
Do parishioners sing the responsorial refrain?
Does having responsorial refrain text and melody (hereafter Refrain) help?

The Refrain is the only item that really matters when you are in the pews. When the new ordinary translations arrive, they can be pasted inside the hymnal front cover. The Refrain problem will remain.

Personal commentary ...

In the 1960s as a child I used a missal as I learned about the order and content of the Mass and the liturgical calendar, but with the arrival of vernacular, dialogue revisions, reading re-translations, a personal missal became useless, and a distraction. Along came the pulp worship aid to provide the latest and greatest marching orders.

In 1990, I purchased two missals for reference, not for Mass use. If I could have found a plastic-covered sheet of scripture citations for every Mass, it would have been sufficient to go with the several bible translations I owned. The missal catered to my laziness by presenting in a compact form the several citations, and hiding the annoying fragmentary nature of many individual citations. Missals do not foster understanding Bible structure or content flow. FYI the winners were Sunday Missal and Weekday Missal (both by Daughters of St Paul); there is no music in either as I rejected from consideration any missal that did have music.

In 2000, my parish replaced a pulp-system with a hardbound hymnal by soliciting donations from parishioners ($10 gets a name plate). Currently in use: GIA Catholic Community Hymnal (several Mass settings, hymns, Sunday A B C [reading1, responsorial psalm and Refrain, reading2, Gospel], feast day and weekday psalm refrain texts, miscellaneous other items). The parish still gets 50 large-print pulp-system aids for the seniors who prefer them for Sundays and weekday use. With this minimum-of-50 we still get the entire "system". The annual parish cost (including licenses) is about 20% of what it used to be. I do not know how many parishioners refer to the readings section for anything other than the Refrain. The Refrain clashes between the two systems are discouraging senior participation on Sundays, not helpful for modeling good behavior to the younger generations. There are text conflicts between the two systems on weekdays too.