Posted on 05/25/2006 10:03:35 AM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops will be asked to approve a new translation of the Order of Mass when they meet in Los Angeles June 15-17.
If the new translation is adopted as proposed and subsequently approved by the Vatican, Catholics will have to learn a number of changes in their Mass prayers and responses. Among the more obvious will be:
-- Whenever the priest says "The Lord be with you," the people will respond, "And with your spirit." The current response is "And also with you."
-- In the first form of the penitential rite, the people will confess that "I have sinned greatly ... through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault." In the current version, that part of the prayer is much shorter: "I have sinned through my own fault."
-- The Nicene Creed will begin "I believe" instead of "We believe" -- a translation of the Latin text instead of the original Greek text.
-- The Sanctus will start, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts." The current version says, "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might."
Approving a new text of the Order of Mass is only the first step in a long process of considering and approving a new translation of the entire book of prayers said at Mass. In the United States that book has been called the Sacramentary since 1970, but the Vatican wishes to restore the name Roman Missal, since it is an English translation, with minor adaptations, of the normative Latin "Missale Romanum."
Officials of the bishops' Secretariat for the Liturgy told Catholic News Service May 23 that it is uncertain whether the bishops will seek to publish the new Order of Mass for U.S. use as soon as possible or wait until they have the new English translation of the entire Roman Missal completed. Completing the entire Roman Missal is likely to take at least two more years.
Once the bishops adopt new liturgical texts, they must also be confirmed by the Vatican before they can be authorized for use.
In general, people will find many of the Mass prayers in the new version slightly longer and fuller, as the new translation is based on rules for liturgical translations issued by the Vatican in a 2001 instruction. Unlike the previous Vatican rules -- which encouraged freer translations more adapted to the language into which one was translating -- the new rules require closer adherence to the normative Latin text.
In a recent letter Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, told the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that if a current text does not conform to the new translation norms it must be changed.
"It is not acceptable to maintain that people have become accustomed to a certain translation for the past 30 or 40 years, and therefore that it is pastorally advisable to make no changes. ... The revised text should make the needed changes," he wrote.
He said his congregation is open to dialogue about "difficulties regarding the translation of a particular text," but the 2001 instruction calling for translations more faithful to the Latin text "remains the guiding norm."
His letter, dated May 2 and addressed to Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., USCCB president, was posted on the Catholic World News Web site in late May.
In response to a query from CNS, Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., chairman of the USCCB Committee on the Liturgy, said Bishop Skylstad sent the letter to all Latin-rite bishops in advance of the June meeting.
"I see this letter as a clarification and further restatement of criteria for translation previously authored by the congregation," Bishop Trautman said. He said it "offers additional input for the deliberation of the bishops."
The Order of Mass, found at the center of the Roman Missal, consists of the prayers recited every day at Mass, as distinct from the Scripture readings and prayers that are proper to the day's feast.
Thus what the bishops are to vote on in June are new versions of the prayers that Massgoers are most familiar with because they hear or say them so regularly.
Within the Order of Mass are some prayers for which there are a limited number of alternatives, such as the forms of the penitential rite, the four different eucharistic prayers or the various acclamations following the consecration.
The text the bishops are to vote on in June does not include the prefaces, solemn blessings, prayers over the people or elements found in the appendix that also form part of the Order of Mass.
The International Commission on English in the Liturgy, which prepared the text to be voted on, is still consulting with English-speaking bishops' conferences around the world on the translation of the prefaces and other elements and does not have a final version of them yet.
Churchgoers will have to learn a different version of the Gloria when the new texts are put into use because part of the current prayer in English does not follow the structure of the Latin version.
In the Nicene Creed, where the current version refers to Christ as "one in being with the Father," the new ICEL translation says, "consubstantial with the Father." In the documentation sent to the bishops before the meeting, however, the Committee on the Liturgy has recommended keeping the "one in being" translation in the United States.
The new ICEL text for the people's prayer before Communion says, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."
The committee proposed that the bishops seek to keep the current shorter version of the beginning of that prayer, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you." The committee did not, however, propose a change from the ICEL translation at the end, where the people currently pray, "but only say the word and I shall be healed."
The bishops will also vote on several American adaptations in the Order of Mass, such as adding the acclamation, used in the United States since 1970 but not found in the Roman Missal in Latin, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again."
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Excellent! I am very happy to hear this.
maybe you could scan it and send .pdf files?
For the past several years, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has been doing translations of the prayers of the Mass (and commentary) in the Wanderer in his column What Does The Prayer Really Say? ( I think that's the title.) He's got the articles all archived on his blog:
www.wdtprs.com
--tkoed
"Can't they translate Latin to English?????!!!!!"
Not can't; won't.
Many, if not most, American bishops have a liturgical and doctrinal agenda which does not include faithfullness to Rome and Catholic tradition.
Latin: "Et cum spiritu tuo"
Anglican Use: "And with thy spirit"
Proposed: "And with your spirit"
Current: "And also with you"
Latin: "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa"
Anglican Use: (no confiteor?)
Proposed: "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault"
Current: "through my own fault"
Latin: "credo"
Anglican Use: "I believe"
Proposed: "I believe"
Current: "we believe"
Latin: "Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth"
Anglican Use: "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts"
Proposed: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts"
Current: "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of power and might."
The last mistranslation particularly bugs me. "Power and might"...it's such a sissified translation for what is supposed to be the Lord God standing at the head of the angelic hosts, an army riding into spiritual battle. Prolly why the feminizers didn't like it.
The deacon in our parish gave instructions on changes last year, such as:
1. Bowing before receiving communion
2. Do not hold hands during the Lords Prayer
3. Do not copy the priest when he signs (in the mind-from the lips-in the heart) before reading the gospel...he suggested a simple sign of the cross
4. Remaining kneeling before going to communion
Except for #4, compliance in my parish has been poor
This surprises me...we do this at our Latin Mass and I never remember not doing it. Is it a new innovation?
There's nothing wrong with that. That has been done since long before Vatican II. In fact, my Traditional Latin Mass missal states the following concerning the practice.
The faithful rise and remain standing during the Gospel. At the beginning they make the sign of the cross upon the forehead, lips, and heart to declare that they will never be ashamed of the word of God, that they are ready to confess it by word of mouth, and that they love it with all their heart.
See my #28.
>>3. Do not copy the priest when he signs (in the mind-from the lips-in the heart) before reading the gospel...he suggested a simple sign of the cross<<<
Is there anything wrong with that? I was taught to say "Lord cleanse my mind, my mouth, and my heart so that I may worthily proclaim the Gospel" (silently) while doing that. I would stop doing it if there is a good reason.
The general rule in the TLM is to mimic the priest's signs of the cross during the spoken/audible parts of the Mass.
That would include the Gospel, but not when he makes the Sign of the Crosses during the Canon, for example.
In the Novus Ordo, the same applies, except you can't use the audible rule.
"Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. Speak but the word and my soul will be healed."
Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world."
As it should be. Why do they keep wanting to change things? Leave well enough alone already.
Something close to that (This is off the top of my head). Do you recall anything similar or ever hear/read of that explanation? I'm not claiming Jungmann is definitive or authoritative on this point.
I'm pinging a few others
That is one EVIL looking "altar." Blood red. Gack.
This is most excellent. I only started attending "the Old Latin Mass", the Tridentine Rite, last August. However, I recognize all of the "changes" that Rome wants to make to the "New Mass". They are all straight out of The Old Latin Mass!! So, their idea is to move the New Mass back towards it's "roots", so to speak. Thank God!! The liberalisms that seem to creep into the new mass in greater numbers each year are driving me crazy. Are the American Bishops so liberal that they are even opposed to THIS??
Actually, they're straight from the New Mass also, but from the authoritative Latin edition of the Roman Missal, not the pitiful ICEL translation English-speaking Catholics have been using for 40 years.
The real Latin text of the New Mass isn't as far from the Tridentine Rite as the bad ICEL translation would make you think.
I don't know, but the Latin text is clearly "Et cum spiritu tuo", which translates word for word as "And with [the] spirit yours", not anywhere close to "And also with you", which would be something like "Et etiam tecum" in Latin.
I think those guys are Buddhists, not Buddhas. They're not levitating.
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