Reviews

My First Missal (Revised) by Maria Dateno

belleoftheb00ks's review

5.0

This is a children's missal. To make it easier for children to use it contains only the ordinary or parts of the Mass that stay the same every time it is said. Where the proper of the Mass like scripture readings would be it gives a short explanation of what is said and tells the reader to listen carefully. It also does not have all the options for every part of the ordinary either. It often chooses one commonly used option especially when the difference is only in the priest's part. This would make it easier for children to follow along with the missal. By not having to flip to the proper of the seasons or skip over all the options every time the priest might use different words the missal is much more straight forward. It is also color coded. Words in the missal that indicate action are in red just like in the Roman Missal used by the priest and most adult missals. This will help children transition to more complete missals when they are ready. The book also has short inserts that explain the parts of the Mass and tell readers what they are supposed to do during that part of the Mass. For example at the beginning of the penitential right it explains that during this part of the Mass we think about what sins we have committed and then all together tell God we are sorry. This will help children pray the Mass instead of just being in the pews during Mass. This book would be good to give to a student who struggled to focus at school Mass or to use when talking about the Mass in class. In class it could be used to practice participating in the Mass or to give students a way to look at the prayers used in the Mass while you discussed them. I think this missal would work well for students in early elementary school who have learned to read but are not ready to use a more complete missal or the missalettes.

Dateno, M. G. (2011). My first missal. Boston, MA: Pauline Books & Media.