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Good News for the [Catholic] Liturgy
CatholicCulture.org ^ | October 7, 2009 | Dr. Jeff Mirus

Posted on 10/08/2008 10:29:47 PM PDT by Salvation

Good News for the Liturgy

Posted Oct. 7, 2008 3:32 PM || by Dr. Jeff Mirus || category Commentary

For liturgical changes over the past generation or so, official preparation of the faithful has been minimal. The vacuum has too often been filled by professional liturgists and liturgical publishing houses with their own agendas, agendas sometimes at odds with the unbroken Tradition of the Catholic Church. But not any more.

The Mass is currently being re-translated in a long project arising from two important Vatican initiatives. In 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued new principles of proper translation in Liturgiam Authenticam, a document which in effect invalidated the excessively free renderings of recent years. In 2002, the third edition of the Roman Missal was published, which itself included various clarifications and instructions based on the Church’s experience since the second edition in 1975.

The new principles of translation require far greater fidelity to the official Latin text. This alone will result in the restoration of many traditional phrases which were summarily eliminated by earlier English translations, to the impoverishment of the Church’s piety and sense of the sacred. In response to the Vatican guidelines, the bishops in the United States divided the Missal into twelve segments and began work on a new translation. In 2006, they completed the first segment, including most of the ordinary portions which are used at every Mass. In 2008, the bishops voted to reject the second segment (the propers) in favor of sending it back to the translators for more work. Meanwhile, the first segment was approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on June 23, 2008.

Francis Cardinal Arinze, President of the Congregation, instructed that the changes are to be implemented only following a period of time “for the pastoral preparation of priests, deacons and for appropriate catechesis of the lay faithful.” According to Cardinal Arinze, this delay should also serve to “facilitate the devising of musical settings for the parts of the Mass, bearing in mind the criteria set forth in the Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam, n. 60, which requires that the musical settings of liturgical texts use only the actual approved texts and never be paraphrased.” That last point will bring relief to Catholics who have been subjected to inaccurate and even bizarre texts for musical use.

Of course the whole process of translation will take years to complete, but one very hopeful development is that the process of preparation for the changes is now being handled directly by the Bishops Committee on the Liturgy itself. Any Catholic can both follow the progress of the translation and make use of preparatory materials by visiting the BCL’s web site. Thus the entire process will be directed by the bishops and accessible not just to specialists, but to all the faithful. Our formative understanding of the liturgy will no longer come from liturgical publications or workshops advocating their own dubious ideas.

The problem with modern liturgical tampering is captured nicely by the old joke which asks the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist. The answer is: “You can negotiate with a terrorist.” Now, however, the process of implementing changes to the liturgy has been removed from what has often been called “the liturgical industrial complex.” Instead we’ll be looking toward the bishops themselves—bishops who are showing themselves to be something of a new breed simply by insisting on their personal responsibility. For the Sacred Liturgy, and for all Catholics in the United States, this is good news.



TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: catholic; catholiclist; mass
Update and hope for results from the Liturgy Synod.
1 posted on 10/08/2008 10:29:47 PM PDT by Salvation
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To: nickcarraway; Lady In Blue; NYer; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; Catholicguy; RobbyS; markomalley; ...

Ping!

For the Sacred Liturgy, and for all Catholics in the United States, this is good news.


2 posted on 10/08/2008 10:30:38 PM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All

**Meanwhile, the first segment was approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on June 23, 2008.**

So I am wondering, then, if the 2008-2009 missalette will have these changes starting with the First Week of Advent??

Anyone know for sure?


3 posted on 10/08/2008 10:35:35 PM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation

It will be interesting..I am a lector at Mass and I have to say the translations in the workbook we have leave me wondering sometimes about the message..There are times when it takes a lot of study and practice to get the meaning correctly said so the congregation gets it..otherwise one sits there and just says What??


4 posted on 10/08/2008 10:40:17 PM PDT by celtic gal
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To: Salvation

bookmark


5 posted on 10/08/2008 11:08:24 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: Salvation
Dawg Liturgy, excerpts:

Greeting

Celebrant: The Lord be with you.
People: Backatcha, dude!

At the end of a reading from Scripture

Reader: Word!
People: Word!

The Peace

Celebrant: Peace!
People: Yo! Peace!


Local use in parishes where the priest thinks he's a shrink:

Upon administration of the Blessed Sacrament

Priest: I'm okay, you're okay.
Communicant: And, gosh darn it, people like us!
I for one am glad that things are going to change.
6 posted on 10/09/2008 3:47:54 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Salvation

I hear yesterday that the Eucharistic Prayers for children are out.


7 posted on 10/09/2008 4:28:00 AM PDT by Diva
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To: Salvation

“Our formative understanding of the liturgy will no longer come from liturgical publications or workshops advocating their own dubious ideas.

Very good and very wise. ;-)


8 posted on 10/09/2008 5:18:30 AM PDT by SumProVita ("Cogito ergo sum pro vita." .....updated Descartes)
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To: Salvation

I don’t believe they’ve approved the entire translation, so we’re not likely to see it for at least another year.


9 posted on 10/09/2008 5:20:59 AM PDT by djrakowski
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To: Mad Dawg

“Greeting
Celebrant: The Lord be with you.
People: Backatcha, dude!”

That is very funny but doesn’t fly at our congregation.


10 posted on 10/09/2008 7:46:01 AM PDT by tob2 (No retreat!)
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To: Salvation

Lex orandi, lex credendi


11 posted on 10/09/2008 7:58:33 AM PDT by frogjerk (The MSM suffers from premature election)
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To: Mad Dawg

LOL! What a good sense of humor.

But, really, things have gone too far!


12 posted on 10/09/2008 8:20:44 AM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Diva

Interesting!


13 posted on 10/09/2008 8:21:21 AM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: SumProVita

**Very good and very wise. ;-)**

AMEN!


14 posted on 10/09/2008 8:22:01 AM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: djrakowski

That’s sad. Poor OCP would have to do two or more NE printings........so they are holding it off?

Lord, I wish they could dump OCP and get our translations from a reputable missalette publisher.


15 posted on 10/09/2008 8:23:35 AM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: celtic gal

Amen, sister. I deal with the same thing. Except we are not given workbooks. Do you have some good online resources? I have a few, but they are uneven.


16 posted on 10/09/2008 11:16:30 AM PDT by Andyman (The truth shall make you FReep.)
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To: Andyman

The workbooks we have are through our parish chruch.. Not sure where they get them but we pay ten bucks for them. They give a hint on how to read the scriptures and often it does not work for me..I do my own thing unless it it so impossible..St Paul is nearly impossible sometimes.
If you ever listen to EWTN Mass on Sundays..our versions are identical to what they read.
My workbook is called...”Workbook for Lectors and Gospel readers. And it looks like it is put together by James L. Weaver By Liturgy Training Publications and there is an address : 1800 North Hermaitage Ave Chicago IL 06022 and a phone no 1-800=933=1800 and a fax of 1-800-933-7094. There is also an Orders address...orders@ltp.org and a website WWW.LTP.org.
I hope this helps.


17 posted on 10/09/2008 4:19:12 PM PDT by celtic gal
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To: Salvation
So I am wondering, then, if the 2008-2009 missalette will have these changes starting with the First Week of Advent??

My source says 2011 as the new translations are the "Mass Parts" (kiss the Mass of Cremation goodbye. :) I promise to take the heat for the bonfire). New music has to be written OR the old chants need to be relearned (they're not that hard and the Missa di Angeles is in the OCP hymnal). At the Memorial Acclamation, Christ has died...., and one other disappear and two new ones will be written. At my parish, the latest parts written were written in plainsong with the intention of being able to use the music for the "new" words.

Be patient. It'll be a while.

18 posted on 10/09/2008 5:25:16 PM PDT by Desdemona (Lipstick only until the election. The gloss has been sacrificed for the greater good.)
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To: Salvation

Our new Pastor has been making changes lately (some parishioners are upset but I think so far he’s going in the right direction).

“But, really, things have gone too far!”

Yep.


19 posted on 10/09/2008 5:41:32 PM PDT by Twink
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