A more faithful translation
In three months this book, the Roman Sacramentary, will be obsolete. Every copy in the world will be just a museum piece. It will be replaced by a book that looks like this: the Roman Missal. On November 27, every Catholic in the English-speaking world, from Australia to Canada, from the United Kingdom to the United States, from the Philippine Islands to South Africa, will begin using a new translation of the Mass.
Question: Why change the prayers that most of us have been praying for the last 40 years?
Answer: Because the translation we now use is defective. It’s been defective for the last 40 years because it does not express the full beauty and meaning of the original sacred texts. It is not an evil translation, but just not very accurate or beautiful. In three months, we will have a much better translation.
“And with your Spirit”
But there’s a catch: change is hard. The new translation may sound strange, even wrong, because we have been used to “wrong” for so long. But don’t get me wrong: most of the old translation was more or less right. But it got some key phrases wrong. For example: the new translation restores the correct response to the priest’s greeting, “the Lord be with you.” Now we respond “and also with you,” as we might when returning a greeting on the street. But the Latin has et cum spiritu tuo. What happened to the word “Spirit” in the current translation? The translators just left it out, and that is just wrong. In three months, we will again respond as Christians have since the First Century: “and with your spirit.”
This small change restores the spiritual dimension of the greeting—we are not simply greeting the priest as a man, but we are responding to the Spirit within him. But even better, this small change echoes St. Paul’s greeting in many of his letters, such as in his 2nd Letter to Timothy, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Much of the old translation left out key words and phrases that came straight from the Bible. The new translation, more faithful to the original Latin, is much more Scriptural, because the liturgy is essentially Scriptural prayer.
Not Street English
Certainly, the liturgical greeting “and with your spirit” is not conversational English. No one says this in McDonalds—we use it only in the Mass. But that’s the point. The language of the Mass is supposed to be different, to be sacred. It is designed to set the Mass apart, to convey a mystery, pointing to the mystery of Him whom we worship at Mass.
A sense of the Sacred
The current English prayers do not adequately express a sense of the sacred. As James Monti writes in this month’s Magnificat, “If we need a sense of the sacred in our everyday lives, how much more do we need it in the sanctuaries of our churches, where heaven is wedded to earth in the holy liturgy? Sacred language ennobles human life; it bestows nobility upon our lowly existence. It raises our eyes to the celestial Jerusalem that awaits us.”
The original Latin Mass prayers are Sacred, and they should sound sacred. The prayers at Mass should lead us into a sacred world different from our everyday world. The light and sound, the shapes and smells, the words we speak and the thoughts we think at Mass, should lift us to what is above. If the Mass is just a nice friendship gathering where we celebrate ourselves, then it has failed; we have failed to worship in spirit and in truth.
God is Other
God is not like us; He is infinitely other, and the liturgy is to portray this mystery. All of today’s readings point to God’s beyondness: Jeremiah cries out to God: “you were too strong for me.” God’s word brings him reproach and derision all the day.” It makes no sense to worldly men. God cannot be managed or fully understood, but only submitted to. “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”
St. Paul calls us to “spiritual worship,” not just earthly worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed….” There is something about us that needs transforming. The Liturgy is given to us by God to transform us into what we are not, to transform us into godlike persons.
And Jesus reproaches Peter for “thinking as men do, not as God does.” Jesus calls Peter to follow Him, and Peter makes the grand mistake of pushing Jesus to follow Peter. No, Peter: you must let me transform you into me. And this is the role of the Holy Mass in our lives. It is not about us, nor is it our creation. The Mass is given us by God so that we may be transformed into Him. The current translation of the Mass prayers to a certain degree impede this transformation by flattening out the mysteries of the ancient texts.
Healthier Life
Msgr. James Moroney recently wrote, “defective translations result in defective understandings of what we believe, while more authentic translations result in more authentic renewal of the sacred liturgy and a healthier life of the Church.”
In other words, authentic translations mean more authentic worship, and more authentic worship means a healthier Church. We don’t realize how inauthentic our liturgy has become, but we do know that most Catholics don’t go to Mass because they find it less compelling than, say, shopping or a good baseball game. What makes Mass “interesting” rather than “boring?” Certainly the homily and the music are a major factor, but the language we use is a huge factor. And that is why the Church has finally retranslated the English prayers more faithfully, more accurately, more beautifully from the splendid original texts.
On Wednesday I will give a 60-minute workshop on the new Mass prayers. We will see a short video explaining the situation at the beginning, I will go over some key changes, and we will see a short video at the end. I will be available after the talk to answer questions. You will also get this booklet, the Magnificat Guide to the Roman Missal. This Wednesday, 6:45, in the Hall.
Additional Resources:
In three months this book, the Roman Sacramentary, will be obsolete. Every copy in the world will be just a museum piece. It will be replaced by a book that looks like this: the Roman Missal. On November 27, every Catholic in the English-speaking world, from Australia to Canada, from the United Kingdom to the United States, from the Philippine Islands to South Africa, will begin using a new translation of the Mass.
Question: Why change the prayers that most of us have been praying for the last 40 years?
Answer: Because the translation we now use is defective. It’s been defective for the last 40 years because it does not express the full beauty and meaning of the original sacred texts. It is not an evil translation, but just not very accurate or beautiful. In three months, we will have a much better translation.
“And with your Spirit”
But there’s a catch: change is hard. The new translation may sound strange, even wrong, because we have been used to “wrong” for so long. But don’t get me wrong: most of the old translation was more or less right. But it got some key phrases wrong. For example: the new translation restores the correct response to the priest’s greeting, “the Lord be with you.” Now we respond “and also with you,” as we might when returning a greeting on the street. But the Latin has et cum spiritu tuo. What happened to the word “Spirit” in the current translation? The translators just left it out, and that is just wrong. In three months, we will again respond as Christians have since the First Century: “and with your spirit.”
This small change restores the spiritual dimension of the greeting—we are not simply greeting the priest as a man, but we are responding to the Spirit within him. But even better, this small change echoes St. Paul’s greeting in many of his letters, such as in his 2nd Letter to Timothy, “The Lord be with your spirit.” Much of the old translation left out key words and phrases that came straight from the Bible. The new translation, more faithful to the original Latin, is much more Scriptural, because the liturgy is essentially Scriptural prayer.
Not Street English
Certainly, the liturgical greeting “and with your spirit” is not conversational English. No one says this in McDonalds—we use it only in the Mass. But that’s the point. The language of the Mass is supposed to be different, to be sacred. It is designed to set the Mass apart, to convey a mystery, pointing to the mystery of Him whom we worship at Mass.
A sense of the Sacred
The current English prayers do not adequately express a sense of the sacred. As James Monti writes in this month’s Magnificat, “If we need a sense of the sacred in our everyday lives, how much more do we need it in the sanctuaries of our churches, where heaven is wedded to earth in the holy liturgy? Sacred language ennobles human life; it bestows nobility upon our lowly existence. It raises our eyes to the celestial Jerusalem that awaits us.”
The original Latin Mass prayers are Sacred, and they should sound sacred. The prayers at Mass should lead us into a sacred world different from our everyday world. The light and sound, the shapes and smells, the words we speak and the thoughts we think at Mass, should lift us to what is above. If the Mass is just a nice friendship gathering where we celebrate ourselves, then it has failed; we have failed to worship in spirit and in truth.
God is Other
God is not like us; He is infinitely other, and the liturgy is to portray this mystery. All of today’s readings point to God’s beyondness: Jeremiah cries out to God: “you were too strong for me.” God’s word brings him reproach and derision all the day.” It makes no sense to worldly men. God cannot be managed or fully understood, but only submitted to. “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”
St. Paul calls us to “spiritual worship,” not just earthly worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed….” There is something about us that needs transforming. The Liturgy is given to us by God to transform us into what we are not, to transform us into godlike persons.
And Jesus reproaches Peter for “thinking as men do, not as God does.” Jesus calls Peter to follow Him, and Peter makes the grand mistake of pushing Jesus to follow Peter. No, Peter: you must let me transform you into me. And this is the role of the Holy Mass in our lives. It is not about us, nor is it our creation. The Mass is given us by God so that we may be transformed into Him. The current translation of the Mass prayers to a certain degree impede this transformation by flattening out the mysteries of the ancient texts.
Healthier Life
Msgr. James Moroney recently wrote, “defective translations result in defective understandings of what we believe, while more authentic translations result in more authentic renewal of the sacred liturgy and a healthier life of the Church.”
In other words, authentic translations mean more authentic worship, and more authentic worship means a healthier Church. We don’t realize how inauthentic our liturgy has become, but we do know that most Catholics don’t go to Mass because they find it less compelling than, say, shopping or a good baseball game. What makes Mass “interesting” rather than “boring?” Certainly the homily and the music are a major factor, but the language we use is a huge factor. And that is why the Church has finally retranslated the English prayers more faithfully, more accurately, more beautifully from the splendid original texts.
On Wednesday I will give a 60-minute workshop on the new Mass prayers. We will see a short video explaining the situation at the beginning, I will go over some key changes, and we will see a short video at the end. I will be available after the talk to answer questions. You will also get this booklet, the Magnificat Guide to the Roman Missal. This Wednesday, 6:45, in the Hall.
Additional Resources:
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