You may have read in other places that changes are going to be made in the translation and vocabulary of texts used in the celebration of Mass. The process of doing this is long and complicated, accomplished through several phases and dependent on the review of officials both in the United States (and other nations) and in Rome.
Just recently the text of some of these changes has been made public. The implementation of these texts will not occur until the whole of the new Missal is ready for publication, 2011 at the earliest. These texts, then, are offered for study and preparation of priests and people.
The texts of these new translations are available here: they include prayers the people pray at Mass and others prayed by the priest. (I've added a link to this site on the sidebar for future reference; as more materials are released for study, you'll find them there.)
I hope you will take the time to look over these texts. You often hear me pray Eucharistic Prayer II so it might be a good place to start so that you can have a sense of the changes being introduced.
And I hope you'll offer some thoughts and responses in the combox.
Here are excerpts from a letter written by Bishop Arthur Serratelli, chair of the US Bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, introducing the study texts:
Recently the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was granted the recognitio (permission) for the new English–language translation of significant parts of the Ordo Missae (Order of Mass) as found in the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia, (Roman Missal, the third official edition) including most of those texts used in every celebration of the Holy Mass...
The Committee on Divine Worship provides here materials for our priests and the faithful which can be used for catechesis and preparation for the eventual implementation of the revised texts. Although there are international and national efforts underway to provide materials for formation, the Committee on Divine Worship would like to begin providing information now for people to use for formation...The text itself is provided now for study and formation only, and will only be promulgated for use in the celebration of the Mass upon the approval of the full revised text of the Roman Missal...We hope to add continually to the information provide here. Thus, this site is seen as something that will be constantly growing as more material is developed. It will provide people with a single place to look to obtain an orientation for themselves and others who are interested in preparing to receive the final translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal.
-ConcordPastor
New Roman Missal links
I haven't compared it word for word yet but one question comes to mind: when we begin using these new versions of the Prayers, will the sung versions also be changed? There is some lovely music using the current versions.
ReplyDeleteIt would be easier to have both the current version and the revised version side by side to see what changes have been made. I did go to Eucharistic Prayer II as you suggested. I noted that "Chalice" has been substituted for "Cup." In Part 101., I thought this line was quite beautiful: "Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall,"
ReplyDeleteWe certainly have quite a long time to wait before implementation. I am glad that the USCCB sent back part to be restudied that had words not commonly used in "American English" such as "gibbet."