Changes coming to a parish near you
Monday, August 30, 2010
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What will be different about the Mass come Advent 2011?
The recently approved English translation has a number of features that Mass-goers will surely notice. Here's a preview of the 10 most obvious changes coming to a parish near you. As Catholics around the country prepare, we'll offer more resources with analysis in the coming year. Learn about how we got to where we are by reading our special section on the liturgy.
(Changes indicated with strikethroughs and bold additions.)
1. Priest: "The Lord be with you."
People: "And also with you." "And with your spirit."
2. The Gloria:
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth people of good will.
Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, (moved below)
We worship praise you,
we bless you,
we adore you,
we glorify you
we give you thanks, we praise you for your great glory.
Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Begotten Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father
you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;
you take away the sin of the world: receive our prayer;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer have mercy on us.
For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
3. The Confiteor ("I confess to Almighty God") changes in noticeable ways. Members of the assembly will especially notice the introduction of the repetition "...through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault," which replaces "through my own fault."
4. The texts of the opening prayers at the end of the introductory rites (following "Let us pray") have been translated to reflect a more "elevated" tone.
5. The Nicene Creed:
We I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen things visible and invisible.
We I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being consubstantial with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven
and by the power of the Holy Spirit was incarnate he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again and rose again on the third day in fulfillment of accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
who with the Father and the Son he is worshipped adored and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
6. The preface dialogue (preceding the Eucharistic prayer):
Priest: "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God"
People: "It is right to give him thanks and praise." "It is right and just."
7. The Sanctus ("Holy, holy, holy"):
"Lord God of power and might" "Lord God of hosts"
8. Like the opening prayers, the four Eucharistic prayers have been re-translated.
9. The response to the invitation to communion:
"Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."
10. Two new dismissals, plus a revision of the current dismissal:
"The Mass is ended. Go in peace." "Go forth, the Mass is ended."
New:
"Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord."
"Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life."
Excited, albeit apprehensive
By Cindy (not verified) on Monday, April 11, 2011Praised be Jesus Christ!
My siblings and I were raised Roman Catholic by our mom. I married an Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic (after dating and going to church with him for about three years), and we attend Liturgy at an Eastern church. It was culture shock to begin with, but I've come to really enjoy and appreciate the deep celebratory feeling of an Eastern Liturgy. Most of the "changes" seem to sound a bit more like the East.
The East tends to refer to itself as the "Church of the First Thousand Years." And yes, the priest even has his back to the congregation. But ya know, I've gotten so accustomed to the way Liturgy is now (in the East)...pretty much EVERYTHING has a meaning to it.
I'm quite excited about the changes coming, as I think they will help educate people about the true meaning of various things in the Church. Many may feel that the Church has "come so far" and is taking a giant leap backwards. If we think of it as in terms of society/politics (I know,the "taboo" subject), maybe they'll understand better...pro-choice folks feel the same way, as well as women's rights activists, environmentalists, almost any "left" side persons. But if the Church continues going (allowing little new things here and there) without making these important changes (coming back to its roots, I look at it), eventually, it's not going to really be "the Church" any longer. And that's how we've come to now have a million other different churches--whose leaders' ancestors at least sometime in history were very likely Catholic.
I just hope those who are so afraid of all these "changes" don't just stop going out of pride (or any other reason for that matter). Lord, have mercy. Blessings to all!
I'm for it
By Ted (not verified) on Friday, September 10, 2010As a seminary student, I will say that The New Translation is very good. It is a much closer rendering of what the Latin actually says. The official source of the Mass text is a Latin document. Since 1970 the Mass has been translated incorrectly. All this does is fix the errors in translation. For example, any elementary Latin student will tell you that "En Cum Spiritu Tuo" means "and with your spirit", not "and also with you"!! We've had to put up with that error for 40 years, I'm happy to have it fixed with the new translation.
Oops
By Anonymous (not verified) on Friday, September 10, 2010that should say "et cum spiritu tuo"... mea culpa, mea culpa!!
Guessing at reasons doesn't help: "Lord, I am not worthy"
By Jeffrey Pinyan (not verified) on Friday, September 10, 2010To meaningfully pray this response, we must be familiar with its context, Matthew 8:5-13. It contains these words, spoken by the centurion whose servant was ill: "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed."
The statement of the centurion was an expression of his great faith in Jesus’ power. He believed that Jesus did not need to come and enter his house, but could heal his servant by simply willing it and saying it. To come under the roof means to enter the house, implying a familiar relationship. But even more important is that according to Jewish ritual law, entering the house of a Gentile would have made Jesus “impure.” (cf. Acts 10:28)
God could have remedied our sorry, fallen state just by willing it, just by saying a word, but He sent His Word to us, coming under our roof – taking on a body of flesh and our human condition – and suffering ridicule, persecution, and death on a cross.
What roof do we mean? We are temples of the Holy Spirit; our flesh is the “roof” of this temple. We know we are unworthy to be such temples, where God is present spiritually; we are even less worthy to receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. But here Christ does for us what He did not do for the centurion, not because our faith is any less (although oftentimes it is), but because “God had foreseen something better for us.” (Heb. 11:40) Jesus gladly comes to us in the Eucharist.
Guessing at reasons doesn't help: Creed
By Jeffrey Pinyan (not verified) on Friday, September 10, 2010It is unhelpful to guess at reasons for why things have changed in the new translation. For example, why did "We believe" become "I believe"? The default guess is that it has something to do MY personal belief, rather than OUR belief. But there are two reasons why the Latin word 'credo' is being accurately translated to "I believe".
1) That's what the word 'credo' means. Credo (I believe), credis (you [singular] believe), credit (he/she believes), credimus (we believe), creditis (you [plural] believe), credunt (they believe). The Latin creed begins with 'credo', not 'credimus'.
2) The document describing the rules for the new translation, Liturgiam Authenticam (LA), gives this word 'credo' as a specific example: "The Creed is to be translated according to the precise wording that the tradition of the Latin Church has bestowed upon it, including the use of the first person singular, by which is clearly made manifest that 'the confession of faith is handed down in the Creed, as it were, as coming from the person of the whole Church, united by means of the Faith.'" (LA 65)
This is why guesses and shots in the dark are not helpful for uncovering the why's of the new translation. A little familiarity with the Latin text (and, where applicable, the scriptural context) goes a long way towards real information and away from misinformation.
The overarching purpose of
By cathyf (not verified) on Tuesday, September 14, 2010The overarching purpose of this new translation does seem to be that the priest sheds his role as the leader of the assembly. The change to the creed is not just semantic but also mechanical -- the mechanics of how a group of people recite something together. It's pretty in-yer-face: "This is what *I* believe, and what *you* believe is not any of *my* concern."
Evangelicals/pentecostals (or more precisely, Anabaptists) argue that infant baptism is an absurdity, because making baptismal promises for another person is ridiculous. Americans live alongside vigorous evangelical/pentecostal churches, whose members have been trained to argue persuasively for their positions. The Catholic kids who go to public high schools -- where the Catholics-are-not-Christians crowd is continuously recruiting -- are being cut off at the knees by the Church...
The overarching purpose of
By wsxyz (not verified) on Tuesday, September 14, 2010The overarching purpose of this new translation does seem to be that the priest sheds his role as the leader of the assembly. The change to the creed is not just semantic but also mechanical -- the mechanics of how a group of people recite something together. It's pretty in-yer-face: "This is what *I* believe, and what *you* believe is not any of *my* concern."
No. Actually the overarching purpose is to translate the Latin correctly. The Latin says "Credo" not "Credimus", and that's really all that matters.
The Catholic kids who go to public high schools -- where the Catholics-are-not-Christians crowd is continuously recruiting -- are being cut off at the knees by the Church...
No, such Catholic kids are being cut off at the knees by their parents who are not doing their job of instructing their children in the faith.
Sending Catholic children to public school is already risking their faith and eternal salvation. But no matter what kind of school they go to: public, private, Catholic, homeschool, the parents are personally responsible for bringing up their children in the faith and make sure they are instructed in all the fundamentals of the Catholic religion.
Advent 2011
By Jim (not verified) on Friday, October 15, 2010Latin is not a sacred language, nor is it the sole, most perfect way to express prayers.
Mis-translated or not, the intent of the prayers is what is important. God understand American-English and Latin equally.
What next.... turn the alter around?
Catholic children
By Anonymous (not verified) on Saturday, September 18, 2010I am an Australian trying to catch up with the changes to the Missal and found this site. I just wanted to comment on the Catholic students item. YES we are the primary educators of our children, my children went to Catholic schools because I felt that I could use the support of the school in their faith education. I took my kids to Mass every Sunday they prayed at night and received all their sacraments. They were even alter servers. Neither of them now go to church. PRAYER (for their continued faith) and a good parental example are the keys to keeping faith after that the rest is up to them and GOD. I pray for both of my kids every mass and every day that they will come back to God, free will is a gift from God not a mistake.
Well, there is the rather
By cathyf (not verified) on Sunday, September 12, 2010Well, there is the rather practical problem that no one in the church other than the presider says the first syllable of any recited prayer. So the comparison of what the people (other than the presider) are actually saying is:
Latin: "do in unum Deum"
English: "believe in one God"
That's the people who are paying attention, of course -- the stragglers aren't making it in until maybe "Father Almighty" or even later.
I can think of a solution to this problem of the congregation losing the subject of the sentence -- how we musicians do it. The priest can count out a measure: "ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!" For dancers, the traditional count is "FIVE! SIX! SEVEN! EIGHT!" Or he could do the Lawrence Welk "one-an-a two-an-a" Given adequate direction, we can get every member of the congregation on board with our belief from the first syllable. Or, more precisely, on board with MY belief...
Perhaps tap shoes and accordions will become the de rigueur accoutrements of the new translation...
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