Category:Children's Mass Books

You can make a free, personalized, editable Holy Mass prayer book that explains the parts of the Mass in beautiful pictures derived from stained glass windows and artwork in churches throughout the world. Your child's / children's pictures can replace the pictures of the children in the books, so that it becomes their personal prayer book with them showing the proper way to sit, stand, kneel, put their hands together while praying, bowing during the Nicene Creed, etc. Pictures of your church's appropriate artwork can replace the artwork from the other churches. Pictures of your priest(s) can replace the current pictures. Pictures of members of your family and friends, living and deceased, can be added at either Prayers of the Faithful or during the Eucharistic Prayer. If there is something your family is praying about such as finding a new home or job, the healing of someone you know, peace in the world, etc., pictures may be added to give a visual reminder and keep the prayer time during Mass more focused. Pictures for the First and Second Readings, Responsorial Psalm, and Gospel may also be added to aid in visualizing the Reading / Psalm / Gospel. After the personalized prayer book is made, matching pictures can be glued on to postable note papers with a sticky back and can be made into another little book and then used as a quiet matching picture game (appropriate for use during the Holy Mass). Each picture on the sticky backed note paper can be matched and attached to the same picture in the prayer book.

You can choose other pictures by going to Category:Images. Then select the category you would like to view. With your child, find pictures that explain the concept or show the object being learned.

In A.D. 2011 November, the English Mass text changed. The full text can be downloaded from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) website. The official stance is that the meaning will remain the same, so the pictures may still be used in the same place. Changing to the new wording can be easily done, by printing the text and attaching it to a piece of paper with rubber cement, glue, or on sticky back postable notes.

We have made several personalized Children's Mass Books for individual parishes. The books designed for the parishes listed below integrate pictures from that parish.

You can choose from the free printable Mass Books for Children listed below:

The Holy Mass book: Solemnity of Saint Joseph English / Latin Holy Mass was made for the Feast of Saint Joseph A.D. 2013 March 19, for Saint Joseph Church in Detroit, Michigan. It is the only one of the books so far to be specifically formatted to be printer friendly. The pictures are small (approximately 1 - 2 inches square or in diameter) when printed and are best done with a laser printer. When one looks at the page on the website, it looks gigantic, but does not print that way if it is formatted by a printer to print in booklet form. It incorporates much of the beautiful artwork of the parish and other public domain pictures. It prints out to be 10 pages of paper although the printer says it is printing 40 pages (when done in booklet form formatted by the printer). These take a long time to develop, yet we continue working to have a different selection for you to choose from. Solemnity of Saint Joseph English / Latin Holy Mass is linked through this page only so that it does not have any other extra words on it when printed.

These books can be personalized gifts for a Baptism, First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Wedding, or Ordination. They are a wonderful Easter gift or Christmas gift. They can be a wonderful present for a birthday of Feast day. Some people have made books for wedding guests in their native language so they will understand the liturgy. They are keepsake quality and can be used over and over to gain deeper understanding of our faith. Some people put the pages in plastic sheet covers and then in a binder and take it to the. It is a perfect youth group project to make these for a church using pictures of the artwork from the church and possibly the priest and youth if appropriate..

These books can not only be given a gift to the person being baptized, receiving First Holy Communion or Confirmation, or being married or ordained, or celebrating a birthday or Feast day, they can also be given as a thank you gift by the person(s) or family on such occasions.

Mass books can also be a way to evangelize. Whether it be in the parish setting during fellowship times, RCIA, or a friend that is being invited to go to church with you, a Mass book can evangelize with beautiful pictures. As Saint Francis of Assisi said "Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words."

The texts used may be copyrighted - (see www.icelweb.org and click on "copyright policies"): ''Excerpts from the English translation of Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation, (ICEL); excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010, ICEL; the English translation of Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children © 1975, ICEL. All rights reserved.''