Posted on 06/13/2006 11:43:06 AM PDT by NYer
Members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have begun trickling into Los Angeles' Millennium Biltmore Hotel for the spring meeting which begins on Thursday.
Though the plenary session is two days away, the meeting's marquee order of business begins this morning, as the Bishops' Committee for the Liturgy (BCL) sits to accept or decline proposed amendments to the new translation of the Order of Mass in advance of the final ballot on the text, scheduled for Thursday afternoon local time. While the action item will be presented on the floor by Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, chair of the BCL, in a notable addition, pre-debate remarks will also be made by the chairman of the International Committee for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), the English Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds.
A copy of the final translation, explanatory notes, the 16 proposed amendments and seven recommended adaptations to the text obtained by Whispers reveals that, while causing some elements of significant change to the prayers currently in use, what some viewed as the new text's extreme excesses of verbiage have largely been reined in.
The core of the "Gray Book" -- ICEL's completed proposal -- is an almost 1,500-line translation of the everyday ritual of the Eucharistic celebration, to which 26 pages of footnotes and clarifications are appended. As a guide, the English renderings appear opposite the Latin texts of the editio typica tertia, the 1998 edition of the Roman Missal currently in force.
While the translation has already been approved by the episcopal conferences of Australia and England and Wales, the dynamics of the USCCB have provided a particularly formidable hurdle to the Congregation for Divine Worship in its intent to enforce its 2001 instruction on liturgical translation, Liturgiam authenticam. Two weeks ago, in a meeting with the members of the Vox Clara commission -- which consults CDW on English translations -- the congregation's Prefect, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, "reiterat[ed] the Congregations unwavering intention to assure the implementation of" LA in the translation process.
The words were widely interpreted as a veiled urging for the US bishops to back the new texts, which must receive the assent of two-thirds of the conference's 254 Latin-rite members. (Bishops-elect who have not yet been ordained may not vote.)
While supporters hold a cautious optimism that the action items will attain the required supermajority, to help secure the margin bishops on the fence are being assured that a "yes" vote would allow more the US conference more input on the implementation of the new texts than it would have if the motion failed.
A November sounding by the BCL reported that the wider conference was almost evenly divided on the new renderings: 53% of the bishops who responded rated the texts excellent or good, 47% saw them as fair or poor.
For those familiar with the cadences of the liturgy, the texts maintain notable differences from the formulae which have been in use in the United States for the last 35 years. These are best broken down into the "presidential" prayers used by the celebrant, and the "congregational" prayers of the faithful.
Among the latter, easily the most notable change is the reply "And with your spirit" to the priest's greeting of "The Lord be with you," which is employed at four points in the liturgy. At the beginning of the preface to the Eucharistic Prayer, "It is right to give him thanks and praise" becomes "It is right and just."
"Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof," begins the people's response before communion. However, one proposed US amendment would replace "that you should enter..." to the current "to receive you." Its second half -- "but only say the word and my soul shall be healed" -- stands untouched at present.
The revised rendering of the Sanctus would begin, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts," and the new translation of the Nicene Creed retains the word "consubstantial," which has aroused some displeasure from a number of bishops. (An amendment to return "consubstantial" to its current "one in being" is before the BCL. All amendments, however, are subject to the line-item recognitio of the Holy See.)
The more substantive alterations from the current texts belong to the prayers of the priest. Notable among these is the new dismissal, "Go forth, the Mass is ended." The Mysterium fidei, which in earlier drafts read "Great is the mystery of faith," now reads simply and literally, "The mystery of faith," and the doxology following the Lord's Prayer is rendered as:
Deliver us Lord, we pray, from every evil,In preparing the various formulations, two words in the presidential prayers which have attracted considerable scrutiny were "dew" ("Make holy these gifts, we pray, by the dew of your spirit," the proposed epiclesis of Eucharistic Prayer II) and "gaze" (as in the "serene and kindly gaze," which remains in the finished text of the Roman Canon).
graciously grant peace in our days
that, sustained by the help of your mercy,
we may be always free from sin
and saved from all distress,
as we await the blessed hope,
the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
WHAT DOES THE PRAYER REALLY SAY - Slavishly accurate translations & frank commentary - by Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf
But...we're special. Aren't we?
We all need to spend some time praying for our bishops during this critical period.
Let us all ask the Holy Spirit to be with the bishops and for the Bishops to be truly open to listening to the Holy Spirit.
I've never understood what "one in being" meant anyways.
Take a close look at this pretzel. There are 3 distinct circles yet they all form "one in being", a singular pretzel. Does that help?
You are absolutely right. These bishops, regardless of their positions, need our prayers. May the Holy Spirit guide and direct them as they gather and open their minds and hearts.
I simply pray for all of them to be coerced into obedience to the Holy Father if they cannot manage to fulfil their vows, pray that none of them by word or deed obscure the Catholic Truth of the Gospel, and fervently pray that not one of them by deeds seen or unseen spit upon or hurl fresh blasphemies at our dear Lord Jesus Christ, his holy Mother, and his holy Church.
Amen.
Amen and right on, Maeve!
God bless you, dear friend! I join you in those prayers and ask our Lord to send His Holy Spirit to guide them to the Truth.
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