Traditional Latin Mass: A Missal for Children (Little Ones Series)

I have several different TLM children's missals, the $5 "My See and Pray Missal" and the black cover "Latin Mass Children's Missal", both sold by TAN books. They're both great in their own ways and good for different ages, but neither of them really helped my 6 year old know what was going on during Mass or helped me teach him adequately outside of Mass the way I was hoping. I wanted something that had ALL the Latin and ALL the English so my child could follow along in either language and find where we were more easily. For example, instead of just seeing "The Gloria" on the page and then all or some of the Gloria in English, this missal has "Gloria in excelsis Deo..." in entirety and also the whole prayer in English translation. PERFECT! I went over the first half of the missal with him during our homeschool time today and we'll do more tomorrow. It seemed like it was clicking; he was able to connect things he had noticed with what was in the book. We'll bring it to Mass this week to see if he can follow along a little better.If I had any complaints, it would be the size of the paperback (a large enough square that it won't fit in my purse easily like the other children's missals) and the fact that it's a paperback. I would be thrilled if this could be published in a slightly smaller or at least more rectangular format (I know smaller would be difficult with all the words on each page, but it's worth a try?) and also in hardback so it's more durable. I know we're going to wear the two copies I bought to pieces pretty quickly, and I know they'll get very bent in the travels to and from Mass. I will try to find a good way to reinforce them.Before this came out I was planning on trying to design something similar on my own for my kids to use. I'm so happy to be saved the hours of work to make something that wouldn't look half as beautiful or be half as engaging for the kids. They love the illustrations.

I bought this for my daughter who struggles with reading so we could go through it some at home and she could follow along at mass. I noticed an error in the Latin on one of the first pages, which is too bad. The pictures are beautiful, though, and I think it will serve our purposes.

My 6 year old son really likes this missal! He follows the Mass really well with it. It’s a great size, easy to use and the font size is perfect for my son. In other books the text sometimes feels too crowded and small and it’s easy to get lost. Great missal!

Perfect for my 6 year old 1st grader. Very clearly laid out. I like set of if this missal more than any other Latin Mass kids’ missal. Very well done and beautiful. Eager to buy more from this author now.

My second grader can read this guide and follow along, and as someone who attends Latin Mass only occasionally, this is helpful for me as well! I own the Latin Missal for adults, but I would recommend this as a helpful supplement for anyone of any age, who wants to better understand TLM but is new to the traditional Mass.

One of the best books I can find to help teach my kids (and myself) about the Latin Mass. 100% would recommend!

So well done! I have ordered more copies so each of our kids can have one to follow the Mass with! ❤

This book is very well put together! The illustrations are beautiful it is pretty easy for my 4 year old to follow along. Overall very pleased with it.

I've given this 3 stars because I searched for ways to entertain/keep a 5 year old's attention during mass and this came up. Unless your child has the English and Latin reading age of at least an 8 year old, or likes looking at beautiful but rather inaccessible (for an average 5 year old) pictures, this is in no way suitable. I've read people saying that their 3-6 year olds love it. I can only think that my 5 year old has spent too much time with octonauts and PJ Masks (and so wants a bit more movement and adventure...admittedly hard for a mass book). It's a lovely book, don't get me wrong, but too big for an adult (not small enough to pop into a back pocket or handbag) and too grown up for a young child.

A really beautiful book! Although there are other highly-rated Latin Mass books for children, such as the ‘Marian Children’s Missal’ by Angelus and the ‘Children’s Missal’ by Neumann, one of the strengths of this book is that it is truly a ‘new’ publication (2021), rather than being just a new reprint of a book originally published in the 1950s, as is the case with the other two books just mentioned. The typesetting and presentation in general just seems much more modern, crisp and clear than some of the old reprints, and it’s physically a much larger book with bigger pages and font, which makes it more accessible for children. That being said, it’s still a thin and light book with under 50 pages so not at all bulky to carry around.Regarding content, this book has the most important parts of the Ordinary of the Mass in both Latin and English, although not the full Ordinary Prayers (e.g. it has the first couple of prayers and server responses for the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar before Mass but then skips the rest and goes straight to the Confiteor). There are no Propers of the Mass, so no child-friendly summary of the Sunday Gospel in simple English, as can be found in the 1950s reprint books. A child using this book may be of an age where mum or dad can pass them their adult missal when it’s time to read the Gospel/Epistle in English and let them have a go at reading from that.The English used is in the traditional Douay-Rheims style (Thou/It is meet and just etc., as is the case with adult 1962 Missals), which admittedly some younger children may struggle with. There are instructions as to when you should sit, stand or kneel, as well as some useful pointers for children relating to the rubrics, such as the reason you cross yourself three times at the Gospel. Usefully, there are also bell symbols that pop up every time the bell will be rung at Mass (based on the rubrics for the Low Mass, as the entire book is, so no mention anywhere of Solemn Mass rubrics such as incensing the altar). Other features in this book are a preparatory prayer for before Mass begins and then prayers for both after Communion and after Mass. Again, these prayers are written in traditional English. I did notice that the Anima Christi prayer was missing the ‘t’ in the line, ‘From the malignan(t) enemy, defend me,’ but I’m sure this will be corrected in future print-runs so happy to overlook this - we all make mistakes after all!The illustrations are of parts of the Mass being celebrated in impressive sanctuaries in churches around the world; these are generally related to the Ordinary Prayers. For instance, there is an illustration of the priest with servers saying the Confiteor in one, placed next to the page containing the text of the Confiteor. Unlike in other children’s missals though, the number of illustrations is modest and they are almost more decorative (albeit beautiful) in nature, certainly not like the real photographs found in other children’s missals, which have close-up pictures of the priest at the altar and are detailed enough to enable younger children to follow the Mass by looking at these alone. A child does have to be fairly confident with reading to get the most from this book, but for slightly older children this is a strength of the book as the 1950s reprints mentioned above lack the side-by-side English and Latin that would begin to prepare them for an adult missal.Overall, a wonderful book but I would suggest that a child should ideally ‘graduate’ to this book after having earlier used one of the other more basic children’s missals mentioned. This book would be more suited perhaps to those between First Communion (as a First Communion gift?) and Confirmation age, as a final step before an adult missal.

This is such a helpful book for attending Latin Mass. I bought it for my seven year old to read along but I frequently use it to as it clearly shows when to sit/stand and helpfully translates everything the Priest is praying. It also includes devotional prayers. The artwork is blurry but nice, almost impressionist.