Modifying mass
011212deViveiros12a Rev. Joe de Viveiros of St. Francis Catholic Church holds a pamphlet of new responses under the revised Roman Missal.
Robert Wilson/Record staff
Changes to the mass
Part of Eucharistic Prayer 1, said by the priest during the blessing of the Eucharist during mass:
Old translation: “When supper was ended, he took the cup. Again he gave you thanks and praise, and gave the cup to his disciples and said …”
New translation: “In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took his precious chalice in his holy and venerable hands, and once more giving you thanks, he said the blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples, saying …”
Greeting
Priest: “The Lord be with you.”
Old Response: “And also with you.”
New Response: “And with your spirit.”
Part of Penitential prayer
Response with new additions: “I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask the blessed Mary, ever-virgin ...”
WATERLOO REGION — Attending Roman Catholic mass may feel different these days.
That’s because since the beginning of Advent — the last weekend in November — English Catholics around the world have had a new translation of the Roman Missal.
The missal is the text of prayers and instructions for celebrating mass.
The language of the mass has changed. Some responses said by parishioners have changed and for priests who lead mass, there are new additions in the text and prayers of the mass.
The changes more accurately reflect the Latin text prior to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) when mass was said in Latin, said Msgr. Murray Kroetsch of the Hamilton Diocese.
The revised translations are also more biblically literate, he said.
At St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Kitchener, Rev. Joseph de Viveiros has been preparing his parish for the changes for about a year and a half.
There have been inserts in the weekly bulletin, studying sessions during the day and again at night for working parishioners, and PowerPoint presentations during the homily at mass to make sure church members are the same page — literally.
“People can embrace change if they know why it’s happening,’’ said de Viveiros.
He gave parishioners five reasons for the changes: a more accurate translation of the Latin text, restoring more poetic and evocative language, inserting more instances of the terms “God” and “Lord” instead of the word “Father”, adding more mystical language and being true to scripture.
As a parish priest and a priest of the Congregation of the Resurrection, de Viveiros, who has a master’s degree in liturgy, decided he wanted to make sure the 1,450 families who attend the Blueridge Avenue church had a clear understanding of why the changes are happening.
“I don’t think people had difficulty with the translations,’’ he said.
For some, the shift means a few stumbles here and there, particularly for regular churchgoing Catholics who have memorized prayers and know them by rote.
And for most, it means paying attention at mass to know when to reach for the pamphlet in church pews or the guide book giving you the new response.
David Perrin, a priest and president of St. Jerome’s University, said the new translation takes him back to language of mass said in his youth.
Although mass was said in Latin until the 1960s, Perrin said some of the current responses remind him of the Latin phrases that he memorized as a child.
“Liturgy by its very nature is familiar and predictable. You’re taken by the flow,’’ he said.
Like most parishioners, Perrin pulls out the printed cards in pews to follow along with the new translation. He said he enters into a “conscious intentionality” meaning he’s much more aware and focuses on what is being said in order to stay true to the new translation.
“I have to say it with the mass card in front of me,’’ said Perrin, who visits different Catholic parishes in the region for Sunday mass.
“I sometimes slip into the old wording,’’ he said.
For about 400 years from 1570, when the Roman Missal was first published by Pope Pius V, to 1970, the wording of the mass remained nearly the same. Each pope changed a few words here and there, but the liturgy remained the same for churchgoers until after the Second Vatican Council, Kroetsch said.
Under the direction of the Second Vatican Council, the liturgy was rendered in the vernacular, the language of the people, he said.
This time, the focus was not on being more ecumenical, but rather praying the same text in all Catholic churches. Non-English-speaking churches will be next when it comes to changes to the missal.
In Quebec, the changes will be implemented in two years, but they won’t be as extensive because many phrases are true to the Latin text, said Kroetsch, who was born and raised in Kitchener and ordained at St. John’s parish.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II announced that a new edition of the Roman Missal would be issued and two years later the text, in Latin, was published by the Vatican. It’s taken 10 years to implement the changes because every bishop has to vote on the new wording, Kroetsch said.
Kroetsch, director of the liturgy office at the diocese, said the new translation is a word-for-word translation — what is known as formal equivalence — whereas the previous Roman Missal followed dynamic equivalence, meaning the translation captured the central idea or essence of the thought, not the exact wording.
With paraphrasing, there is some interpretation that has to be done, but not with word-for-word translation, he said.
A familiar greeting recited at the beginning of the mass starts with the priest saying “The Lord be with you.” The response from the congregation in the new translation is “And with your spirit,” — slightly different than the previous standard response of “And also with you.”
This is an exact translation of the Latin: Et cum spiritu tuo, Kroetsch said. Plus, the greeting is taken from the letters of St. Paul in which St. Paul frequently greeted Christian communities with these words.
Kroetsch said mass is a public formal act of worship and the language needs to reflect that formality.
Prior to the changes, the Roman Missal used more colloquial language. One of the biggest changes to language is in the Glory to God prayer. The new translation is more faithful to the Latin expression, Kroetsch said.
Whole new phrases have been added: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory.”
During the invitation to Communion, more biblical passages have been inserted. Parishioners now say “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” The phrase, “should enter under my roof” refer to the book of Matthew, Chapter 8, Verse 8 when a Roman centurion appealed to Jesus to help him with his servant who was ill.
Kroetsch said the new translation is much more connected to the Bible.
“It’s more poetic because of the formality. There is rich imagery,’’ he said.
For priests saying mass, there may be some challenges with sentence structure that sounds awkward, he said.
“Priests will develop the rhythm and the cadence and then it almost starts to become second nature,’’ said Kroetsch, who presides as a priest at a parish in Burlington.
“It’s not there yet, but it will be soon,’’ he said.
For some critics, the new translation appears wordy, complex and in some cases grammatically incorrect.
For instance, the new wording of the Nicene Creed, includes the term “consubstantial” which for some is a mouthful. Meaning “of the same substance” in the context of Jesus being of the Father, the word dates back to 1483 and William Caxton, who is credited with printing the first Bible in English.
Dwyer Sullivan, a former priest and retired local Catholic high school teacher, said he’s reluctantly “mumbling” through the new changes.
“It’s so convoluted,’’ said Sullivan, who attends services at the University Catholic Community at St. Jerome’s University campus in Waterloo.
Sullivan, a vocal opponent of the new liturgy, said he’s concerned with the more wordy and complex statements and wonders why the changes were implemented.
He thinks it’s a “top-down” approach with little input from ordinary Catholics. The power remains centralized within the (church) hierarchy, Sullivan said.
Sullivan said it appears that the new text is way of going back to pre-Vatican II days when there was more focus on the Latin language.
“It wasn’t made to flow or be more contemporary,’’ he said. “Latin has nothing to do with Jesus or the Bible. It’s a language He never spoke.’’
Sullivan said the years-long process to revise and negotiate the changes to the updated version could have been better spent working on more important issues such as anti-poverty and antiwar work.
“It does not acknowledge liberation theology,’’ said Sullivan, referring to the poor in the church and working from the ground up.
“It’s not the most appropriate way to have the church move into the 21st century,’’ he said.
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