Many Catholics are already getting used to the new English translation of the Mass; and the beautifully produced altar missals have been around for a few weeks now. The official launch is the beginning of Advent.
We are in a strange transitional period where most parishes are using the new translation, but some are not. This caused liturgical chaos a few weeks ago when I went to a funeral in a parish that is still using the old translation, with visiting mourners (including a number of priests) from parishes all over the country who had already switched, and didn’t know whether to revert back or acclaim even more loudly ‘And with your spirit’ and ‘It is right and just’.
The transitional missal texts on top of the old missal
I gave a talk on the new translation this week, which gave me an incentive to look into some of the online resources available for catechesis and general understanding of the process and the end results. One of the best sites is the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website, which has an extremely helpful section dedicated to the translation called Welcoming the Roman Missal: Third Edition.
There are articles, FAQs, sample texts, and a host of multi-media resources and downloads. Definitely worth a look.
One of the most helpful sections simply puts the old translation and the new one side by side, and highlights the changes so you can compare them easily. Here are the People’s Parts and the Priest’s parts, with commentary boxes.
When you see it like this, it becomes very clear, very quickly, how many words and phrases of the Mass were not just interpreted or re-phrased or even paraphrased, but simply cut out for the old translation. Some of this, I’m sure, was motivated by a desire for a noble simplicity; some of it was an attempt to find English phrases that could carry the meaning of the Latin without needing to map each word literally (this theory of interpretation was called ‘dynamic equivalence’). But some of it, unfortunately, perhaps stemmed from an unhappiness on the translators’ part with some of the sentiments and theology of the prayers themselves. Whatever the reasons, there is no doubt that we have a richer translation that brings us closer to the heart and mind of the Church’s liturgical prayer.
One nice factoid I discovered in my research (not on the USCCB website – I can’t remember where). In the debate about the dialogue ‘The Lord be with you… And also with you / And with your spirit’, it’s commonly pointed out that this is not a symmetrical dialogue, as if the prayers are interchangeable. The priest or bishop (and sometimes the deacon) is praying as an ordained minister for the people: ‘May the Lord be with you’. And in response, the people pray for their minister: ‘And with your spirit’. It’s only ever addressed to the minister, because it’s a specific prayer that the spirit given to him at his ordination may be strengthened and renewed, so that he may serve his people more faithfully and worthily, especially in this liturgical celebration.
The factoid was this, that Ronald Knox translated the response as: ‘And with you, his minister’, so that the theological meaning of the prayer would be built into the translation. I wouldn’t use this myself, but I like what it’s trying to do.
[But see Jack Mahoney’s article here, about the non-significance of ‘thy spirit’ and the significance of ‘with’ instead! Thanks Tony and Katherine]
A great series of books I would recommend on the new translation is called Praying the Mass http://www.prayingthemass.com/ in three volumes – The Prayers of the People, The Prayers of the Priest, and The Eucharistic Prayers. Really excellent and very practical content – helping you to pray more deliberately and consciously the words of the Mass.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the revised translation (though I’ve made my peace with it) but this transition period is starting to annoy me. So many parishes and individuals just want to go the whole hog now but feel that they can’t until Advent and so you still get old Mass settings.
I also know priests who have received their new Missals but yet refuse to use them until Advent! While I admire their obedience to the latter of the law, a huge part of me is just thinking ‘let’s just get on with it!’
The flip side of the coin is that I am also starting to get annoyed (I’m quite grouchy!) at parishioners who are still saying ‘and also with you’ even after more than two months!
Last week, the diocesan Vocations Director said Mass in our parish and he told the congregation off at the end because so many of them said ‘and also with you’ as he began the rite of dismissal. He gently reminded them that they were out of date, and he made them do it again! Fair play to him.
Have you seen Fr Jack Mahoney S.J. Article on Thinking Faith, The online journal of the British Jesuits ? http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20111116_1.
He has a different take on it.
Tony Charlton
Thanks Tony. It’s well worth reading.
I am a creature of habit and, having converted to Catholicism from the Church of England thrity years ago, I had become very comfortable with the Mass before the changes were made. However, some of the changes remind me of the wording in the Book of Common Prayer with its very rich language. Give it a year or so and my feeling is that everyone, young and old will be responding to the new Rite as though nothing had ever changed.
Time marches on!
“But some of it, unfortunately, perhaps stemmed from an unhappiness on the translators’ part with some of the sentiments and theology of the prayers themselves.”
Father, you may not wish to publish this comment, but don’t you think that this third option is, potentially, one of the greatest of all scandals? A group of people entrusted with the Sacred Liturgy decided to turn it from what it was into what they wanted it to be.
“Noble simplicity” and “dynamic equivalence” are wrong approaches to liturgical translation, but are points of view with which one can engage as a Catholic with Catholics.
Working out how to change “the sentiments and theology of the prayers themselves” in the Mass and then changing them are, I suggest, acts of uncatholic anti-catholics.
Interesting! This is the second article I’ve read about ‘and with your spirit’ today, so I thought you might like to see the other one, at Thinking Faith: http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20111116_1.htm
So very much more intimate and enveloping for me. To behold is to take the choice with fervour and also to allow oneself to be held. It is two way. Holy in spirit, ours and His. Far more powerful and healing for my soul.