Amazing! An elegant misselette.

What is a missalette? A cheap newsprint prayerbook for the Mass for about a month, then junk to be discarded. Throwaway liturgy!

But--surprise! There exists a Catholic missalette on fine paper, with elegant typography, exquisite art illustrations, supplementary prayers, blessings and hymns, and an abridged version of Lauds and Vespers (morning and evening prayers) for each day, as well as all the texts for both Sunday and weekday Masses. On top of this is a wealth of spiritual readings in the form of short, one-page passages from the Fathers of the Church, the Saints, and modern spiritual writers, and brief lives of the daily Saints. All of this richness comes monthly and, for April 1999, in an incredible 360 pages, barely 8mm in thickness.

The name of this wonder is Magnficat, and the publisher has the same name, at 751 East Gude Drive, Rockville MD 20850-1356. The book is printed in France, and the masthead is one-half French names, several being Dominicans. One supposes it is an English version of a French missalette.

The price is $5.95 U.S., and annually, $39.95 U.S. At this price and quality, it seems a pity to date the book to a particular year. Why not make it a permanent, multi-volume pocket missal? One keeps hoping, of course, that the scandalously unfaithful ICEL translation of the missal prayers will soon be replaced by a true Catholic version. That would render obsolete existing editions. The Scripture passages are "@1970-1998 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Inc., Washington," presumably the ever-revising New American Bible. Here too, one hopes for a more faithful version, as close to the DouayRheims version as the New Latin Vulgate, September 1999.