Michael Haubrich at PAM Printers and Publishers in Quincy, which publishes the Sunday Missal Pray Together discusses the disposable worship aid with Father Roy Bauer, who serves on the company’s editorial board. QUINCY - As familiar as most Catholics are with reaching for a disposable missal at church to follow along at Mass, it may come as a surprise to some to learn a printing company in Quincy was the first to publish disposable worship missals.

 

Sunday Missal Service is a division of PAM Printers and Publishers, Inc. of Quincy. In 1961, the company began publishing Pray Together as a monthly Sunday missal, and eventually developed it into a seasonal booklet, published five­ times ­a ­year.

George W. Haubrich founded the company in 1939, publishing Parish Action Magazine for parishes. He tailored the magazine for individual parishes by running articles they submitted for their local editions, while also running items of general interest. Once weekly parish bulletins became the trend, the company expanded its operations to print them.

In 1961, Haubrich and Father Francis Cunningham, a diocesan priest serving in Liberty, started the monthly Pray Together Sunday missal.

"Pray Together is considered the first disposable worship aid that became commonly used in the church in the United States. Prior to that, Catholics often carried a bulky hand missal to church with them which contained the readings and prayers of the Mass," said Father Roy Bauer, a retired diocesan priest in Quincy, who serves on the PAM editorial staff. Father Kevin Laughery of our diocese issues the "Nihil Obstat", and the publication has the imprimatur of Bishop George J. Lucas.

At one time the circulation of Pray Together reached around 315,000 copies, but eventually other companies got into the business, and the Quincy publication now has the third largest circulation, said Michael Haubrich, treasurer of the company. His brother, Ron, who is company president, manages the printing operation.

"While there are other excellent disposable worship aids available, at present Pray Together is the only one that contains the complete Scripture readings and prayers of all weekday Masses, as well as the Sunday Masses," said Father Bauer.

Each Pray Together missal includes a selection of hymns that are suited particularly to that season. The Sunday Missal Service publishes a hymnal, and also sells other publishers' hymnals, so parishes using Pray Together have a choice of hymns if they prefer not to use the music in the booklet.

"We're very traditional here," said Michael Haubrich. "With our new book binder, we intend to increase the number of hymns in each seasonal missal, but we realize that no matter how great the number, the music preferences of all parish musicians will not always be met."

To defray a parish's costs for the missals and hymnals, which the Sunday Missal's Web site estimates "is well over $4,400 a year for the average parish," the company offers parishes a package. The Sunday Missal solicits paid advertisers for the church bulletin, which it prints. The package includes the Pray Together Missal, Pray Together Instruction, Rejoice Greatly Musical Accompaniment and Hymnals and a general Ordo for the United States.