The Eucharist is the Source and Summit of our faith, the centre of
everything we do as Catholics. That’s why the re-translation of the
Mass texts has taken on crucial importance, as Anthony Barich reports.
By Anthony Barich
The new Missal to be released by 2011 will renew the Church if it is done faithfully and prayerfully by priests, Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton said.
Members of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) have been working secretly for most of the past 10 years to re-translate the text of the Mass, which, in the words of one of its members, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, has in many places hidden the treasures of the faith with overly simplified language.
In the new text, the vocabulary will be broader and the sentence structure a little more complex, but will not be beyond the reach of the average worshipper, said the ICEL facilitator who briefed Perth priests on the new translation on August 21.
Fr Paul Turner, from the Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph, Missouri, said the new translation is not done merely for the sake of greater fidelity to its Latin source, but for the faithful – lay and clergy alike – to gain a greater appreciation of “who we are as a Church”.
“It’s a challenge to us priests to say these words with more meaning and a challenge for the people to enter again into the mystery of what we’re doing,” Fr Turner said.
Bishop Sproxton agrees with Archbishop Hart’s assertion, and believes that the new translation, with its more sacred, elevated, “very beautiful” language, has the potential to help people renew their prayer and to better understand what happens in the Mass. He said the slightly more complex sentence structure will ensure people “pray” the prayers more carefully, adding that the language in the Missal the English-speaking world has used since 1969 is a very simple form of English that makes it easy to fall into the pattern of just saying very quickly.“I think this is a good moment to go back to putting into practice that whole notion of prayer,” he said. The fact that the prayers more closely reflect the Scripture from which they originated will also help people understand what the Scripture phrases themselves mean, and help deepen the appreciation of “the sort of prayer we’re offering in the Mass”.
The job for priests, after they’ve been prepared themselves by the Archdiocese with information provided by the Australian Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy, is to help the faithful understand the changes so that their faith may be deepened, and the Church renewed.
“Mass is the time we gather as a community to share our faith, a faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Coming together on a Sunday is a way of affirming the Resurrection and we owe praise and thanksgiving to God more than anything else,” Fr Turner said.
“When we pray, we often let God know what we want, and that’s very human, but what we owe God is praise and thanksgiving for what we have. The very word ‘Eucharist’ means thanksgiving, he said. “Jesus asked us to do this at the Last Supper, to ‘do this in memory of me,’ and that’s what we’re trying to do – to follow his command and live it out as faithfully as possible.”
The centrality of the Mass to the lives of Catholics is not diminished by those who do good works but choose not to attend Mass. By doing so, they are missing out on a special gift from the Creator, the Saviour, which is the “Source and Summit” of our faith and, subsequently, if we apply it appropriately, of our lives as well.
“There are many good people who don’t make it to Mass on Sunday and do a lot of good things – they care about their families, they make a difference in their community, they try to live responsibly and make good choices for themselves, their kids and society,” Fr Turner said.
“That’s all very praiseworthy, but at the same time the Mass is there waiting for them to say ‘here’s a way I can put a centre on everything else that I do, a centre that will give me the nourishment and strength to live the kind of live that I want to live and a place where I can bring my thanks back to God with others for the many blessings that we’ve had.
“It’s the centrepiece of the Christian life and should be the source and summit of our faith, of everything that we live for.”
Fr Turner said the new translation will be a better expression of our faith as a Church, and will bring uniformity not just among English-speaking nations but between them and other language groups.
This is because the English translators “took a freer hand at translating” than the other languages did. Regardless, every change was approved by the Holy See and by every English-speaking bishops’ conference.
“The feeling now is that a different theory of translation would bring out even more of the texts’ riches,” Fr Turner said.
While he said the version the English-speaking Church has used for the past 40 years has not ‘dumbed down’ the faith, “as with anything 40 years later, nobody argues that the translation they gave us could be improved. If you lined up those translators (from 1969) and asked them now could it be improved, they’d be the first to say ‘sure’.”
However, the Holy See and Pope John Paul II – who in 1988 issued the Apostolic Letter Vicesimus Quintus Annus, urging bishops’ conferences to evaluate the translations of liturgical books and the commissions established to facilitate the translations of the texts – did not plan to change the Mass simply to make people think more about its meaning.
“I don’t think Rome said ‘we need to teach people more about the Mass so let’s change the words and get them to think about it’,” Fr Turner said. “They do want the Mass to be an accurate expression of what we believe and how we praise God, so if there’s a way to make our praise to God more faithful and vibrant then let’s do that. It’s more geared towards praise and thanksgiving than towards catechesis.”
The new translation does, however, take a more literal approach to translating the Latin text. For example, instead of responding "And also with you" when the priest says "The Lord be with you," the congregation will now respond, "And with your spirit." English is believed to be one of the only language groups to not say “and with your spirit”. It is but one example of the translators taking a “more freer hand” to the translations.
Prior to Communion, the congregation will pray, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof" rather than "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you." This reflects the Roman Centurion’s words who had so much faith that Christ would heal his servant that He wouldn’t even need to set foot in his house. It turns the physical sense of healing into the spiritual healing needed to be worthy of receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Saviour.
The translators also sought a more elevated tone, less like ordinary speech that will make what the faithful believe that much clearer; the Catholics truths it professes “shine a little brighter” as Fr Turner said. The Opening Prayer for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, for example, currently reads: “Almighty God, our hope and our strength, without you we falter. Help us to follow Christ and live according to your will.”
The prayer in the new translation, by contrast, has a more traditional tone: “O God, the strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you in purpose and action.”
The changes to the Order of the Mass – the main parts that are said every day – have already been approved by all the English-speaking bishops’ conferences and by the Holy See.
What is still to be approved is all the prayers for the observances of recently canonised saints, additional prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers, additional Votive Masses and Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Intentions, and some updated and revised rubrics (instructions) for the celebration of the Mass.
This will prove a challenge. Priests are bracing for it, bishops are hopeful for the success of its implementation. Fr Turner admits: “It has been very hard for me. It’s different from the way I’ve been accustomed to praying. It’s going to make some demands I’m looking forward to.”
But, having met some of the translators who have put many years and much work into this, he believes their heart is in the right place.
“They really believe that what they’ve come up with is going to help us to pray,” Fr Turner said. “Now it’s up to us, especially us priests, to do our best to serve the Church, which is what we want to do.
“Yes, it will be hard for us to do, but at the same time we’ll see some of the values that are coming. It’s just going to take some time.
“People are more flexible than we think they are, and we priests are a lot closer to these texts than a lot of other people are. All the work that’s still being done is on the texts that we say, not anyone else.
“We care a lot about those particular texts and we want them to be good, so its natural to question, to wonder about it, to feel like it’s just been given to us, our input wasn’t asked and we’re just being told it’s how it’s going to be, so it’s normal to have some resistance to it.”
Regardless, he says priests owe it to the Church and to the faithful to give it a go, to celebrate the Mass prayerfully, and watch people’s faith blossom.
To view the new translation of the Mass (as approved by the United States Bishops Conference, as yet unavailable on the Australia Catholic Bishops’ Conference site):
www.usccb.org/romanmissal/examples.shtml
What’s changing
New Prefaces
There will be several new
prefaces, including for:
– Martyrs
– The Blessed Virgin Mary
– Ordinations
– Music in situ for feasts
What’s taking so long?
Nothing in the Church moves quickly. One reason for the delay is the complex process. Translations and various versions have gone to the following for comment and/or revision:
– Base translator
– International Commission for English in the Liturgy secretariat
– Team of translators
– Roman Missal Editorial Committee
– ICEL bishops
– Conferences of bishops (Green book, Grey book)
– Vox Clara
– Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments
What’s new in the new Missal?
– Revised GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal)
Devotional days:
– Jan 3: Most Holy Name of Jesus
– Second Sunday of Easter: Divine Mercy
– May 13: Our Lady of Fatima
– Sept 12: Most Holy Name of Mary
New saints on universal calendar
Feb 8 Josephina Bakhita (+1947)
May 21 Christoper Magallanes and Companions
May 22 Rita of Cascia
July 9 Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions
July 20 Apollinaris
July 24 Sharbel Makhluf
Aug 9 Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
Nov 25 Catherine of Alexandria