Liturgical Fidelity

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - June 23, 2006

Many Catholics were startled last week when they learned, mainly through secular news outlets, that the U.S. Bishops had voted to change the prayers of the Mass. Provocative headlines on several national television news programs portrayed the story as if some huge revolution were afoot. Local columnists, like Susan Pawlak-Seaman of The New Bedford Standard Times, openly decried that changes would be made and queried, "Given all the huge issues and challenges facing the Catholic Church today… why would church leaders choose now to force-feed the faithful something totally unnecessary?" She answered her question by scurvily suggesting that it was nothing other than a raw exercise of power by out-of-touch bishops intent on putting the laity in their place. "There's only one reason I can think of," she said: "Because they can."

Informed Catholic observers should easily be able to come up with more charitable and accurate explanations.

The U.S. Bishops are now several years into a project to bring the English translation of the Mass into harmony with the Latin texts of the Roman Missal, revised in 2000, and with the various vernacular translations that have been made from it. Working with the other English-speaking episcopal conferences, they are seeking to translate some relatively minor revisions to the Latin original as well as more accurately to render some of the original English translations of the Latin prayers done almost four decades ago.

In 2003, parishes in the Diocese of Fall River incorporated some minor changes in this ongoing project when, as a result of the translation of the instruction to the Missal, Catholics began to stand at, rather than after, the words, "Pray, brothers and sisters, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father," and were asked to make a profound and reverential bow before receiving holy Communion.

The motivation behind this translation work, which every language group of the Church is doing, is to make the Church's liturgy more faithful to the Latin original and thereby more "catholic" in the sense of universal. When the new order of the Mass was translated into the vernacular in 1970, several things were lost in the translation. One of the most important casualties was a sense of the universality of the rite of the Mass in the various languages.

For example, at the beginning of the Mass, when the priest greets the people in one of several Biblical expressions, in English the people respond "and also with you," in Spanish, "and with thy spirit," and in Portuguese, "blessed be God who has reunited us in the love of Christ."

During the penitential rite, English and French speakers will say "through my own fault" and strike their breast once; Portuguese speakers will twice say the expression and twice strike their breast; Spanish and Italian speakers will do both three times.

At the end of the offertory, when English speaking priests say "Pray, brothers and sisters, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father" and the faithful respond, "May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his Church," French priests say instead, "Let us pray together as we offer the sacrifice of the whole Church" and French faithful respond "for the glory of God and the salvation of the world." In German, the most popular option for this important dialogue is for the priest and people to skip it all together, with the priest's simply saying "Let us pray" and the people responding nothing.

These changes, both individually and collectively, are not minor or inconsequential. Because the vernacular translations vary so much —veering from the Latin standard in assorted ways and to different degrees — the experience of the Mass in the various languages varies well beyond the change in idiom. This was never intended and is one of the items that the bishops throughout the world are trying to remedy in these revisions.

They are also trying to rectify another important element lost in the various translations: the link between liturgical language and Sacred Scripture. In the Latin Missal, many of the Mass texts are taken verbatim from the inspired words of the Bible, which provide the full context for them. Many of these biblical-liturgical links were lost in the original vernacular renderings. One example of this, in English, happens with the prayer, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you." The new translation, approved by the U.S. Bishops and awaiting Vatican ratification, will conclude "…under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." This literal translation from the Latin is taken directly from the humble prayer of the Centurion when he asked Jesus to heal his servant (Mt 8:8). In praying these words, we are explicitly calling to mind that we are addressing the same omnipotent and merciful Jesus he addressed.

Another biblical-liturgical link will be restored in the most commented upon change. Instead of saying "and also with you," we will begin to say "and with thy spirit." St. Paul, on several occasions, used to greet Christians with that phrase (see Gal 6:18; Phil 4:23; 2Tim 4:22; Philemon 25). His words illustrate that St. Paul was doing more than giving a salutation; he was expressly addressing someone close to God, who has God's spirit within. When we begin to use it at Mass, it will give a much stronger witness that we are part of a spiritual community, gathered together by God's spirit.

As Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, England, the head of the team of international translators, told the U.S. Bishops last week in Los Angeles, "In using a translation that is more faithful to Sacred Scripture, we are teaching ourselves and our people to speak [the] Bible! Lex orandi, lex credendi." Since what we believe is formed by the way we pray, the more we pray with the words of the Bible, the more our faith will be grounded in that saving revelation.

While these changes will likely not take effect for a couple of years — as the other parts of the project are completed and sent to the Vatican for approval — now is the time for faithful Catholics and their pastors to prepare for them. By doing so, we will much more fully appreciate them as well as be able to recognize that there is no revolution underway, no episcopal powerplay, and no desire to force-feed the faithful anything.

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.