Review: The 1962 Missal
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes (627 words)
Long after being exposed to the Traditional Latin Mass at Chicago’s St. John Cantius parish, and getting by with the help of several Sunday missals and Mass guides, curiosity eventually got the better of me and I finally purchased the 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal from Biretta Books ($70).
The missal immediately justifies its hefty price tag — about $80 after taxes and shipping — by containing a wealth of Catholic resources, being sturdily built, and using a new typesetting instead of a photocopy of the original missal. The 1962 version was the last missal approved for use before the Second Vatican Council changed the liturgy and largely moved away from the intricacy that made a daily missal such an asset. Daily missals can still be purchased but contemporary ones are substantially different from the 1962 version; their structure is the same but the underlying Latin text, and therefore the English translations, are based on post-Vatican II rubrics.
For fans of the Traditional Latin Mass, at Cantius and elsewhere, the 1962 missal is an incredible asset and the daily version serves the dual purpose of being both useful and choc-full of historical Catholic tidbits. In one sense, it reads almost as a Catholic history textbook, a look back in time to how catechism was taught outside of school or the Mass itself. For instance, this excerpt of the missal’s explanation of the Mass is written in language that probably wasn’t used much even in 1962 itself:
One day, in the long procession of men groping in the shadow of death, Christ appeared. To this poor, purblind race of ours, He revealed the Father’s wondrous plan.
Another excerpt, explaining the Nicene Creed, would fit better in a contemporary catechism class:
The Creed is for Catholics our great Act of Faith in which is contained the twelve articles of our Holy Religion. The mere fact of saying “I believe in one God,” is binding upon us and involves our whole existence… Our daily lives must coincide with the Creed. When we know how to harmonize Catholic doctrine with the sum total of our attitudes and actions, then we are prepared to go on to the Offertory of the Mass.
The missal contains numerous entries like these, which are one part actively religious and another satisfyingly anachronistic, and still carry spiritual weight long after they were written.
The missal is also supremely useful in understanding the historical Catholic liturgical calendar in all its depth. The table of contents includes a liturgical calendar, feasts organized by commemoration (Our Lord, Our Lady, the Saints) and alphabetically, a table of movable feasts, good through 2050, and every essential Catholic prayer. Votive Masses are of course included, as are the propers for every conceivable occasion. Various explanations of different components are included throughout. In this way the missal is not just a textbook and a prayer book, but is also a repository of accumulated Catholic belief so that it may be applied in the context of the Mass every day of the year.
Finally, and not for nothing, the 1962 daily missal is well built and well bound. A one-piece leather cover envelops the pages inside, which are themselves made of fine — not flimsy — Bible paper that is delicate yet firm; gilded edges and five colored ribbons cement the book as a religious one. The pages tend to stick together, but once separated stay that way. Despite the attention to detail in the physical design, the leather cover does not keep its shape well, bending easily after a single use and sticking out unless weighed down or compressed.
Between its sturdy build and historical and spiritual content, the 1962 missal is not yet a museum piece, even if its contents haven’t been updated in 56 years.