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Review: Your Sunday Missal


Your Sunday Missal,
Redemptorist Publications, UK, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-85231-397-8 - 1127 pages - RRP: £19.95

What an enormous amount of hard work went into the publication of Your Sunday Missal! It is beautiful!

I am very particular about the way in which I care for books and freely admit that most of mine, even after a lifetime of use, as far as I can manage, are in pristine condition. What immediately struck me when I saw the new missal was that, although the dark blue cover with gold lettering looks good, it is also practical, stain resistant and hardwearing. For those who might have to use it in tropical conditions, the leatherette is less likely to be a victim of hot, sticky fingers than some other versions of the Sunday Missal. It gives the impression of having been designed by people who have had personal experience of both offering and attending Mass 'on the go' and who therefore know both the reality and the requirements of a missal. It is, therefore, a convenient size for packing when travelling, but large enough to promise a readable text and more than 'just' the newly-translated Liturgy and the Sunday readings... and that is only looking at Your Sunday Missal from the outside.

Equal attention to detail marks the inside of the book, which is beautifully bound so that pages are not likely to fall out after only a couple of occasions. Your Sunday Missal is made to last, but also to be used, perhaps by more than one person and perhaps by people who will not always treat it with the gentleness that any book deserves. There would be little risk of harm, for instance, in a group setting in which there are two or more readers or concelebrants. Equally valuable, the themes of each day's readings are set within a few sentences at the start of each section. This is valuable, both for the homilist and for the one who simply wants a concise theme for some other purpose, such as writing the weekly parish newsletter.

I was very pleased to see that, in addition to the usual four Eucharistic Prayers, the two Eucharistic Prayers for Reconciliation and those for use in Masses for various needs are also included. After many years of their absence from my former missal and several occasions of searching cupboards looking for the thin booklets which always went missing when I needed them, it is good to see them securely fastened (and therefore unlosable!) within Your Sunday Missal! It is also good to see the rich collection of Solemn Blessings, absent from earlier Sunday missals, which might be directed towards the end of Mass but which are equally useful for other occasions. Pleasingly, the Order of Mass, Prefaces, Eucharistic Prayers etc are easily located because of the pink edges to their pages. Of course the Latin text of the Mass is also present.

Your Sunday Missal is more than a missal as it contains a rich treasury of prayers. Various Litanies precede the Rosary, each decade of which is accompanied by the Scriptural passage on which it reflects. The Stations of the Cross by St Alphonsus Liguori are simply but lovingly illustrated and are a welcome asset for both personal and congregational prayer, both in church and out of it. Twenty-two prayers culled from the writings of St Alphonsus plus a prayer for each day of the week, written by another Redemptorist, Fr Denis McBride, are two more welcome additions to Your Sunday Missal. All these are in addition to the selection of prayers intended as means of personal preparation for and thanksgiving after Mass.

Your Sunday Missal is intended for much more than 'just' celebrating Mass during the next sixteen years as indicated by the liturgical calendar at the start of the book: it is as practical and reflective just as much as it is an attractive book. As the Church begins to celebrate the newly-translated texts for the Mass, Redemptorist Publications deserve to be congratulated on producing such a valuable and beautiful accompaniment.

For more information see: www.rpbooks.co.uk/product_details.php?item_id=1522

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