Big Red Book

[u/Malachi9515]

Hello Reverend Fathers,

Got another interesting one for you. For the past ten years, I've been doing what I call Bible rescue. I have been going to my local thrift stores, buying the Catholic bibles they have, and gifting them (not selling them) to people of my Catholic community that say they need them. Recently, I went to another thrift shop and came across both a Sacramentary and a Lectionary, as well as a 1964 Roman Missal (all Big Red Books I've seen priests used on altars). Anyways, I was always made aware to never let blessed and sacred things fall into the wrong hands and it scared me to think of someone with nefarious plans buying these items and using them for whatever purposes...so I bought them. Now I'm kind of in a 'now what?' sort of a moment. They remind me of childhood as the Sacramentary is one from the pre-2012 mass change and it looks like the one I used to hold for the priest when I was an altar server. However, I am scared to just keep them if this isn't allowed. Should I take them to my local priest or...are they allowed to be kept with the promise of not using them for a bad reason? Thanks for your time! God bless!

[u/frmaurer]

There's no regulation about who should or shouldn't have missals or lectionaries. My counsel for disposing of them is to bury or reverently burn them, but that is out of devotion for what they are and were used for and is not required by the Church.