English Roman Missal, RIP 1963-2011

Way back when in 1962  when Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council he told the world and hundreds of clergy and theologians that “We are not on earth to guard a museum but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life.” Vatican II roled out a series of reforms, including the creation of pastoral councils, female lectors, no longer requiring the laity to kneel as they received communion and the biggest, and most welcomed change–Mass said in the vernacular. In 1963 the Mass was translated into the languages of the world but the translation into English, as explained in this fantastic NPR article, was hastily done. Before his death in 2005 Pope John Paul II comissioned a ‘re-translation’ of the Latin Mass into English.

Now, some 48 years later the New Roman Missal has rolled out and I am cringing.

I’ve talked about the New Roman Missal here before. And I have truly been preparing myself for this day but I sat in my pew today on the verge of tears. I learned to pray and worship in a certain way, always reciting loudly and murmuring Eucharistic Prayers to myself during the consecration. Things were not so different that I did not know where I was or who I was, it just was not that homey, ‘I’m here for peace’ feeling.

Is this translation more accurate? Of course, however, I am having trouble viewing this new translation as purely for the strength of the Mass and English speaking Catholics, religious and laity.

The NPR article I linked to above brought on particularly salient point that is popping up even in the Mormon circles I run in we are all wondering is this translation a move to reign in the American Catholic Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have notoriously given local parishes and archdioceses control over the laity in their respective areas. The USCCB is not a liberal organization, they stick with the Vatican on a wide range of topics but do not micromanage American clergy, a notion that makes plenty of conservative Catholics uncomfortable. In Mormonism there is complete ‘correlation’ of material being handed down from the General Authorities in Salt Lake City. The lessons for LDS Sunday school and the wording of Sacrament Meeting prayers in Logan, UT are the same ones people are hearing in Ghana or Samoa. I am becoming willing to see these new translations as the Vatican’s move to correlate American Catholics.

The only good thing I am slowly starting to see in this whole translation Mass is that it is forcing all of us to focus in on the importance of the things we do in and say during Mass and why. Essentially, we can not be on auto-pilot. We have to pay attention.

RIP ‘Old’ Roman Missal 1963-2011, I’ll miss you and tell my children all about you.

Today I’d rather guard a museum

Today I’m eating my words because I desperately want to guard a museum; forget the garden of life.

The Vatican has approved the changes to the Catholic Mass, which includes modified wordings to the Consecration, and the Apostle and Nicene creeds.

Sigh.

Just when I’ve wrapped my head around the meaning behind the many nuances and rituals of the Mass they change it. According to Pope John Paul II the Latin to English translation was done haphazardly and much of the original Latin meaning has been lost for the last forty plus years. Maybe he’s right but I love whispering every word spoken. I can focus on the words themselves or let my mind wander to whatever I need to tease out in my daily life.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ sub-heading on their big annoucement reads “New Words: A Deeper Meaning, but the Same Mass.” Will it be the same Mass for me? I know they’re right but I still wonder how long it will take me to wrap my head around these new words.

There are a slew of examples but here are a few:

At the beginning of Mass the priest says “The Lord be with you.” and instead of the traditional “and also with you” we will now say “And with your Spirit.”

The words to the Pentiential Act use to read “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, and I have sinned through my own fault in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do. And I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brother and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.” Now we’ll say this awkward phrasing “In my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault, therefore I ask…”

Through in the fact that during the creed instead of saying “one in Being with the Father” we’re saying “consubstantial with the Father.” Consubstantial? I know it’s a word and it comes straight from the Latin word consubstantialis but I’m just not a fan of it.

Maybe this is exactly the way Catholics in the 1960s felt. And maybe that’s why Pope John XXIII said “We’re not on earth to guard a museum but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life.”

Oh, to be Catholic.

*Author’s note: Due to my own inability to proofread the first time around there have been minor spelling and grammar changes to this post. Mistakes are probably still there. Shoot me an email if you’re really bothered by it.