Yesterday I was at Leaflet Missal Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Church goods section there, run by John, can provide priests with the best traditional stuff.
John of Church Goods put out all the US editions of the new, corrected Roman Missal so that anyone stopping in could kick the tires, as it were. BTW… John of Church Goods will meet or beat any price you call him about.
Also, John of Church Goods provided me with some notes about the missals written up by a local priest and friend nicknamed “The Liturginator”.
First, the Notes. Then, some photos.
Notes of The Liturginator:
When cost is not a factor here are my rankings for the various U.S. Altar Editions:
1. MTF Regal Edition (Superior binding, excellent art, leather tabs of proper size, properly placed and not too many, easily a companion to the Evangelarium of the same publisher)
2. Magnificat (Excellent binding, excellent art though I prefer finished pieces to the pencil cartoons offered, “cartoon” here is offered in the sense of a fresco artist who makes a cartoon first before beginning the actual fresco – the most of all editions, tabs disappointing but not the worst – many must be self adhered)
3. JSP Deluxe edition (Binding sound – cover art not as bad as advertisements indicated, superior art but not as much, largest sized musical notation, appreciated that the Our Father version A based on the standard chant at least appeared in the appendix, good leather leaves, thought the first one for the Roman Canon should have started one page earlier and the communion rite section tabs should have continued ascending after EP 4)
4. Catholic Book Deluxe Edition (Binding much better than expected especially the spine, disappointing continuation of cover design though, good art for full page panels, the extraneous clip art within is a major disappointment as are the special characters, bad placement of art next to the Eucharistic Prayers, opposite page of Roman Canon should be a crucifixion scene and not the Last Supper, no noticeable improvement to tabs, same fonts as older editions so some priests will like this out of habit)
5. USCCB Edition (Standard binding, good art throughout, too many tabs)
6. Liturgical Press (Standard binding, the art is original, in my opinion it is better than the LTP edition, though let me say I still appreciate Matthew Alderman, but if they had drawn from the Beuronese School of art as found in many of the Benedictine Abbeys throughout the midwest they would have a much better product – the mosaics of the Benedictine Convent in Clyde, Missouri or the found at Conception or Richardton or some of the remaining images found in the Old St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville now known as the Great Hall would have made this book much more competitive with the art of the top tier editions, tabs were fair)
7. LTP Edition (Standard binding, Actual Cover Art ranks higher than all but two editions, the missal art seems too stylized for general consumption but I appreciate that it is original – worst placement of Crucifixion scene, there was no art next to the “Te” of the Roman Canon, the page was blank, and Crucifixion scene was placed next to EPII – I don’t have a problem with art next on the left side of EPII, but to not have it next to the Roman Canon is unforgiveable, the tabs were too big and too plastic) Overall I held out greater hope for this edition based on some of the previous advertising I had received, but after holding the book it was the biggest disappointment of all)The omission of a Latin Ordo Missae with seasonal propers was a major disappointment overall and I first I thought it was the decision of some publishers, but I soon realized that this was not the case. I would like to see a fully Latin/English Edition, The Magnificat Edition began to use two columns on each page in its section containing the GIRM – using two columns in a similar manner for the rest of the Missal would make this possible without the book being too fat, for traveling and Masses at nursing homes, I will be purchase a large print hard bound Daily Roman Missal from MTF as I currently do since not only does it incorporate a great deal of latin, but the readings are included as well all in one book, for tabs I place in 3M sticky flags of the narrow kind. They work very well. For those who are adept at public speaking of the more complex English grammatical constructions there is no need for sense lines so more space is available per page. Based on the ICEL music website I thought there would be many more latin chant incipits for the Gloria)
Now my photos from my phone.
You should be able to keep straight which edition is which. I tried to shoot a photo of the tag as I started looking at each different book. I was told by John of Church Goods that if you find a better price on any volume, he will match or beat the price. Use Leaflet Missal when you can.
If you want to see a larger version (adding the links would be a bit tedious) just open the image in a new window and add “_lr” after the number and before the “.jpg” For example, “11_10_22_missals_47.jpg” becomes “11_10_22_missals_47_lr.jpg”
LITURGICAL PRESS
MTF
MAGNIFICAT
CBPC
LITURGICAL PRESS
MAGNIFICAT
CBPC
LITURGICAL PRESS
PALUCH
MTF and USCCB
My choices.
Magnificat large edition for the altar, with the simpler ribbons or the Paluch.
He did not have yet the chapel edition from Magnificat, which I think is the one many priests are hoping soon to see. Fewer illustrations but smaller format.
From a priest:
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