THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: For about a year now, classes have been offered to Catholics to help them 'prepare' for the new English translation of the Roman Missal. Very few Catholics have attended these courses. Those few that have should consider themselves blessed. As for the rest of us, there is no need to panic.
The best advice I could possibly give you is to chill out, relax and take it all in. Everything is going to be fine. Just pick up a copy of the missal in your pew, and follow along. Yes, it will take you a few weeks to get used to things, but you will get used to them. Within a few months, you will hardly remember the old translation. Within six months you'll be reciting the responses by memory.
Something beautiful is happening here, and it's something really good! Not only will this new translation elevate the spirit of the liturgy during mass, but it will likewise elevate our vernacular culture. There is an old saying in Latin. Lex orandi, lex credendi. It means "the law of prayer is the law of faith." Our prayers literally effect our faith. How we pray effects how we believe. How we believe effects how we act. How we act effects our whole culture. These days our culture could use all the help it can get, and the improvement to our English liturgy will have some positive impact.
So don't panic. Relax. Everything is going to be okay. Come the first Sunday of Advent (in just eleven days), pick up a new missal in your pew and follow along. Try to think of this as a Christmas gift of sorts. Things were starting to get a little old and stale in the former English translation. Now Rome has renewed it. So Enjoy!
Now please pass this message on to other Catholics who may be a little worried and/or confused. You can use the 'share' icons below...
7 comments; post here:
Dear CK, for those of us that didn't notice a significant change when we went to the Conference of American Catholic Bishops website to see the differences, could you summarize the main improvements?
Deo Vindice
I think the video above summarizes it nicely. Basically, here is the gist of it....
There will be NO CHANGE as to the order of the mass. This is not a revision of the Novus Ordo (Missal of Pope Paul VI). This is merely a RE-TRANSLATION of the current mass from the original Latin text into a higher level of English.
The main difference will be for the priests, who will recite prayers in a much more dignified English language.
For the people, this will result in some changes as far as the responses go. Again, they will be recited in a more dignified English language.
In addition to more dignified English, the new translation better captures the deep theological and mystical elements of the mass.
Parishes are encouraged to change their music in response, into something more dignified, and the overall celebration of the mass, is to be carried out in a more dignified way.
Beyond that, there really isn't anything more I could say without going into the actual text.
Let us pray that the music in the US Churches does improve. Having visited 18 different countries and gone to Catholic Churches in most, I can say that the American Catholic Churches have the worst music I have ever heard; very melancholic and depressing usually. Even Anglicans and Lutherans (in Europe at least) have better music.
My priest did a series of talks about the new translation. Several of us "old timers" listened with great attention and were underwhelmed "change what change we said on the way out?”We were bracing our weary old brains for significant change. It’s what we are used to after all.We were raised on significant change and constant challenge to our faith. We found it all a bit tame frankly.....Cataclysmic this is not. We came away with a feeling of anticlimax. This new translation is truly not a big deal. We don’t know what all the fuss is about and have put our brains back into retirement mode.
Isn't it funny how those who demanded change for so long, now make such a fuss about it now that they are in charge?
At my parish, we have been doing the new mass "settings" for a month. The words are beautiful, but our director of music picked "the mass of peace and joy", which has the same old nauseating folk-pop style music. The settings would have been so much more beautiful if we were allowed to use Gregorian chant. But we get a Goffin & King style production instead.
At my parish, we have been doing the new mass "settings" for a month. The words are beautiful, but our director of music picked "the mass of peace and joy", which has the same old nauseating folk-pop style music. The settings would have been so much more beautiful if we were allowed to use Gregorian chant. But we get a Goffin & King style production instead.
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