August 28, 2009
Liturgists look ahead to new Missal wording
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Ask any old altar boy how to respond to “Dominus vobiscum.” The old altar boy (there were no girls on the altar back then) will quickly say, “Et cum spiritu tuo.”
For decades of English usage, however, the response to “The Lord be with you” has been, “And also with you.” And that response is about to change, according to the new Roman Missal to be put into use in the United States in 2010 or 2011.
The “new” response will be a translation of the previous Latin response. The priest will say, “The Lord be with you,” and the people will respond, “And with your spirit.”
Other wording may take time to get used to.
For example, we have these familiar words of the Gloria: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.”
In the next Roman Missal, we will use these words instead: “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.”
To prepare for the changes, and to provide all Catholics with a means of learning what the changes are — and why they are being made — the U.S. bishops have begun an eduational process. And liturgists in Indiana and Illinois have been breaking new ground in working together to prepare priests and people.
At the national level
A new Web site launched Aug. 21 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was produced to educate Catholics about the forthcoming English translation of the new Roman Missal, the book of prayers used for Mass.
The site, www.usccb.org/romanmissal, has background material on the process of development of liturgical texts, sample texts from the missal, a glossary of terms and ans-wers to frequently asked questions.
Content will be added regularly over the next several months, ac-cording to an Aug. 21 news release from the USCCB.
The bishops’ Committee on Div-ine Worship hopes the site will be a central resource for those preparing to implement the new text, the release said.
At the local and regional level
In Indiana and Illinois, Matt Miller, director of worship for the Diocese of Evansville, has been among a group of people crossing diocesan lines to prepare for the new English translation. It has been a project seven years in the making, and it is about to blossom.
“Soon after the new English translation of the General Ins-truction of the Roman Missal was released in 2002, the members of the Federation of Dioc-esan Liturgical Commissions [in the dioceses of Illinois and Indiana] began discussions,” Miller said.
“By 2007, a multi-level approach for catechetical and liturgical preparation was outlined, with specific areas that addressed all those to be impacted by the new translations from the priest on down to the faithful person in the pew,” he said.
During the fall of 2008, Miller said, a detailed plan was de-vised that incorporated the planned projects of the International Committee on English in the Liturgy [ICEL] “Leeds Group,” the United States Con-ference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB] Secretariat for the Committee for Divine Worship, and the FDLC’s “Roman Missal Project,” as well as the expected resources from the publishers of liturgical books and liturgical music.