The Wisdom in Following the Daily Missal
by Rev. Fr. Joseph Kreuter O.S.B.

Follow the Priest at the Altar as closely as possible. This can best be done by devoutly reciting the same prayers and reading the same lessons from the Scriptures as the Priest does whilst he is offering your and his Sacrifice.

What emotions, what joys, what sentiments of praise, adoration, thanksgiving and expiation have found their expression in these prayers of the Missal! What torrents of grace and blessings, temporal and spiritual, have they drawn down from on High upon the faithful worshipers! If you acquaint yourselves with the Missal of the Church, you will notice that it contains the most beautiful and inspiring texts from the sacred books of the Old and the New Testament, full of doctrine and instruction for you. By learning to use the Missal intelligently, you will acquire a great store of knowledge concerning your holy religion, you will learn the art of praying, of living with Christ. The Missal will teach you all that a Christian should know about our Divine Saviour and His wonderful work of Redemption, which is re-enacted at the various holy seasons and feasts of the Church's year. The Missal will give you a clearer understanding of the Church as the Mystical Body of which Christ is the Head, and of the immense value of the Holy Sacrifice. If well used, the Missal will aid powerfully in forming Christ in you and making of you more perfect Catholic.

It should, then, be your ambition to possess a Missal, and, following the example of the many faithful of our day, to learn to use it to advantage. By doing this, you will soon appreciate it as a golden book, to treasure it as the best book of prayer and to consider it your life-long friend.

Once you have learned to use the Missal and to unite yourselves with Christ and His Priest, you will regret that you have delayed so long in joining the third group of faithful worshipers, and you will become apostles of the Mass and the Missal, eager to instruct others in this wholesome practice.  There is still another advantage in the use of the Missal at the Holy Sacrifice. Whereas many Catholic are satisfied with a Low Mass on Sundays and feast-days of obligation, because they lack a thorough knowledge of the greatness and value of the Holy Sacrifice, those who have developed a love for the Mass and the Missal and learned to follow the sacrificing Priest intelligently and profitably, will gladly attend Holy Mass as often as their time and work permit, even daily, and especially during the holy seasons of the Church's year such as Advent and Lent. They will find much joy, spiritual consolation and light in the holiest of all divine services. Yes, even in times of sickness, when they are unable to appear in person before the Altar of God and offer to the heavenly Father the Sacrifice of His beloved Son and their own Sacrifice, they will resort to the Missal at home and associate themselves in spirit to the Priests and the devout members of Christ throughout the world who daily offer to God the great Sacrifice of adoration, thanksgiving, expiation and petition.