Missale

Missale is the term used for a liturgical book containing the texts and rubrics necessary for celebrating the Mass in a Christian rite, most notably the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. A missal provides the priest with the prayers, configurations, prefaces, and proper prayers for each feast and season, along with the instructions that govern how the liturgy is to be celebrated. It is distinct from the lectionary, which contains the scripture readings, and from chant books that supply the musical parts.

In its long history, the missal evolved from early sacramentaries that supplied a priest’s prayers for the Eucharist to the more comprehensive Missale used in the Roman Rite. The most influential form is the Missale Romanum (Roman Missal), standardized after the Council of Trent and revised over the centuries. The post–Vatican II period led to significant revisions and the publication of editions that allow vernacular translations alongside the Latin text, broadening accessibility while preserving the official Latin edition as the normative text in the Latin Rite.

Missals exist beyond the Roman Rite as well, including monastic and pontifical variants tailored to specific communities or offices. In modern usage, most Catholic communities use a local-language Missal for daily Mass, supplemented by the Latin Missale Romanum in many churches, with readings and chants often provided in separate books. The term “missal” thus denotes a family of liturgical books central to the celebration of the Eucharist in Western Christian worship.