Special Section on the New Liturgy: Mass changes ahead

Incoming Missal
Get ready for changes to your Sunday Mass.

Learn your Lines: How parish are preparing for the new Mass
It’s dress rehearsal time as parishes prepare for the new Mass.

Mass changes coming to a parish near you
What will be different about the Mass come Advent 2011?

Sing a new song: New music for the new mass
Anyone who’s seen The King’s Speech, about King George VI and his speech therapist, knows people don’t stutter when they sing. So will singing similarly help Mass-goers with the words of the new missal translation?

To change or not to change: How will you respond to the new Mass?
American Catholics who still strongly dislike the new liturgical texts once they are implemented this Advent season will have three options:

Mixed Messages: The new Mass and ecumenical relations
The new Catholic translations of the Mass pose a stumbling block to ecumenical relations, says a Lutheran liturgy scholar.

Lost in Translation
Why the new Mass prayers may be confusing.

Mass disruption
The new translation of the liturgy will speak volumes about the church that prays it.

Poorly worded
The translators of the new Mass prayers have neglected one cardinal rule: Consider your audience.

Where did the new Mass translations come from?
How did we arrive at this translation of the Mass?

Mass instruction
Opponents of the modern liturgy could use a history lesson, says this scholar of the church’s prayer. Overall, the liturgical reform has been a great success.

Mass in the balance
Bishop Donald Trautman explains in this 2005 interview some of the changes in the liturgy that we’re seeing now, along with the reasons behind them.

What a difference Mass makes
A good liturgy draws people in, challenges them, allows them to pariticpate, and gives a sense of awe, Father Keith Pecklers, S.J. says in this interview from May 2007.

(Image above adapted from Flickr user Catholic Church (England and Wales))