Oregon Catholic Press launches Personal Missal Program to protect parishioners in the age of COVID-19

“We recognize the challenges of this time in the Church today with many people having to worship from home through live stream Masses,” said Wade Wisler, Oregon Catholic Press publisher.

Ordinarily a parish purchases its missals and they remain in the church to be used every week by many parishioners. 

“The difference with this program is the parish is still purchasing the books, but they are allowing the parishioners to keep them,” said Wisler. “A family could have a copy of their own missal.”

The family or individual could use their copy from home or at the parish by simply bringing it into church and taking it home with them after Mass. While many devotional publications offer the opportunity to follow along with the order of the Mass with the inclusion of the readings and the prayers, Oregon Catholic Press missals are different because they include about 850 songs and hymns.

“It’s a great resource. It helps them be more fully engaged in the liturgy,” said Wisler.

Livesteam Masses can be a very passive experience. Wisler hopes that the program will make the experience more active and involved. 

The Personal Missal Program works by a parish filling out a form on the Oregon Catholic Press website and orders the number of books they need. Then the parish would reach out and communicate to their parishioners that the books are available. “We didn’t want to make this difficult for parishes. They’re already struggling, they’re already very busy and in many cases the staff has been reduced,” said Wisler. “We wanted to make this seamless.”

To reduce the burden on parishes Oregon Catholic Press offers participating parishes a program toolkit. They have taken the marketing and communications work out and done it for the parishes. Email templates, social media posts, and web updates, produced by Oregon Catholic Press, are all available to the parish to use.

Oregon Catholic Press offers several titles and options for their Missals. Their best selling annual Missal Breaking Bread starts at $5.22 while other options, including a Spanish-language version, range from $4.54 to $7.32

The missals could be a creative fundraising opportunity for the parish. If the parish asked those purchasing a missal to pay a little more over the cost of the book, then the parish could earn some much needed financial help.

“A resource like this can help us stay connected as a Catholic community, but to also maintain our connection with God,” said Wisler.

For additional information about the program, go to Oregon Catholic Press.org/ppmp2021.