WELCOMING THE NEW MASS TRANSLATION

This coming Advent, Catholics throughout the English-speaking world will begin using a new translation for the prayers that we say in the Mass.

This new, third edition of the Roman Missal is the fruit of many years of work by the Vatican and bishops in America, Canada, England and elsewhere, working with the Vatican’s Vox Clara Committee and the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

The translators did a beautiful job. They have given us prayers that will help us to lift up our hearts and minds to give glory and praise to God in language that is reverent and inspiring.

This is not a new Mass. It is a new translation of the ancient Latin prayers of the Mass.
This new translation continues the liturgical renewal envisioned by the Second Vatican Council (1963-65).

This new translation restores the beauty of the original Latin. It lets us hear the many Scriptural allusions that are woven into the fabric of the Mass. And it helps us to experience how our worship on earth unites us in love to the liturgy of heaven.

The new translation of our Mass prayers will give us the strength we need for our Christian mission of the new evangelization. And it will inspire us to see the vital connection between the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist and his presence among us in the poorest and most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.

So I am excited to start implementing this new translation. Practically speaking, this means we will be learning together how to pray our familiar prayers in a new way, using new language.

Most of the changes are in the prayers that the priest prays. But the people’s parts also change. We will be praying a new translation of the Confiteor (“I confess to God”), the Gloria, the Creed and the prayer that we say before Communion (“Lord, I am not worthy”), among other changes.

Implementing this new translation means much more than simply memorizing new prayers. I really believe this new translation offers us a special moment of grace.

It is a fact of life that anything we do over and over again can become routine, something we just do without paying too much attention.

But we can never let the Mass ...