Liturgy WorkshopNew Translation of the Roman Missal 2011

Starting this Advent there are changes to the liturgy that are coming

First relax, it is not going to be like the upheaval after Vatican Council II

No structural changes to the Mass, only verbal, differences in translation

To be honest, many changes are seemingly cosmetic for the overall essence of the Mass

NOTE: In this presentation I will offer a lot of information. You need not write all of it down, I want to give you a bigger vision of liturgy and understand the foundations of how we got to where we are today

But there has been significant controversy over these linguistic changes Some fear these steps will take us back before VCII; dismantling all the progress in liturgy up to today; agenda to return to the Tridentine Mass

Some fear it will alienate the faithful by archaic phrases and incomprehensible terminology

Some say it will have an adverse effect on prayer Some say it will cause division in our parishes Some say these are highly controversial translations which bishops and many

highly respected liturgists consider to be seriously flawed: translators seem more versed in Latin than in English

Some say this is being imposed upon us by Rome, when we really don’t want or need these changes; People of God have no say in the matter: “pet project” of handful of bishops when VCII was overwhelmingly adopted 2,147 to 4

Some say the great vision of the Council: full, conscious and active participation of the faithful will certainly be compromised: clumsy translations are not beautiful and precious therefore it is not prayerful

Some say it is ludicrous for Church in wake of all its global problems today to take on something like this: discredits the Church and distances the faithful

Some say we must heed our pastoral instinct and just say no or wait to this initiative

In the course of this workshop I will try to address all these fears as I explain what is really going to happen to the liturgy

To be honest, before I started researching this change, I held to some of those fears, I just said: I read the changes to the liturgy and I laughed at some

of the awkward changes Then I got upset, “Why do we need to put this strain on

the faithful? It has taken us so long to get the phrases memorized by the faithful, why toss all this into turmoil over such little changes of translation preferences?”

I was somewhat baffled and said to myself, “I will do whatever Holy Mother Church commands me to, but wow, is this really necessary?”

I was not a fan of the changes but neither was I an adamant opponent: accepted in sort of a mini-tantrum

Then like many times in my life, Christ wanted to help me out and teach me to trust him more than my fears and my limited understanding of the situation

What was the instrument of God’s providence? None other than, Msgr. Rocha

When Msgr. asked me to do this workshop, of course I said yes: I am happy to help the parish But on the inside I was like, no I can’t believe this I am going to have to be a cheerleader for something I don’t agree with

or like: Let’s go team… rah… I don’t even understand why these changes are really happening You see the only liturgy I have ever known in the post VCII liturgy: I was

born in (are you ready for this) 1974 while the changes to the liturgy happened in 1963, 45 years ago

I grew up with the current translations and they are so familiar to me, they are all I have ever known, I have no concept of contrast with the previous translation

All the prayers of the Mass are second nature to me and I will blatantly admit the truth

I AM ATTACHED TO THE CURRENT LITURGICAL FORM:Now why? Why am I attached? (this is really important and will

be the point of contention for many of us) Is it because I have analyzed the translations from the Latin to the

English and agree that these are the most accurate and accessible forms?

No. I have never compared the current with the Latin (which I did in my research and found very interesting results, I will talk about that later)

Is it because I feel the current translations help progress the Church in our modern society the best?

No. I don’t even know what other options could be there. I am not a full time liturgist or least of all good translator: barely passed my Latin and Greek in seminary

Is it because I have studied extensively the development and history of the liturgy and feel this current translation best harmonizes with the flow of the Holy Spirit in worship?

No, I really did not have this vision at all. I knew why some things are in the liturgy but the overall vision, was blurry at best.

The real answer why I am so attached: it is all I ever have known and I am fearful of the change, or perhaps uncomfortable with the change

But Msgr. Rocha asked me to give this talk to you and so I began a journey,

a journey in which God opened my eyes to see the beauty of what is happening

a journey in which I understand the liturgy with greater love and passion than before

a journey in which I see the wisdom in what the Church is doing and now, after all this research I have embraced and I am excited about the changes

THIS JOURNEY IS WHAT I WANT TO GIVE YOU TONIGHT

To accomplish thisFirst we are going to get an overall vision of

the liturgy: Briefly what is liturgy, why is it important go into history to see in broad brushstrokes WHY and

HOW the liturgy formed into what we have todayThis will set us up to understand

the current necessity to change the translations to explore how the problem arose in the first place then the why behind the changes

we have a lot of ground to cover and I am going to be fast, so buckle up and hang on for the ride, this is going to be fun

What is liturgy? You tell me, what would you say…

definition (Catechism of Catholic Church #1070) our concept of liturgy is very deficient we need to recover deeper sense; when we don’t get the essence, we get

confuse and, well intentioned, try to add to the liturgy or change focus in the liturgy

Catechism of Catholic Church Part 2 1066-1209 Liturgy is crucial to the era we live in because we are now living

the sacramental economy (Catechism of Catholic Church #1076) Holy Spirit dispenses the graces of Christ’s Pascal Mystery through the

sacraments (Catechism of Catholic Church #1085) not dramatic representation of

events in Holy Week; IT IS THE EVENT; unbloodied sacrifice because it is mystical not historically present

Priests act IN PERSONA CHRISTI (Catechism of Catholic Church #1087) We need another workshop just on liturgy, what is it and why,

don’t have time for that now

History I will go over this very rapidly and not get into too much detail When was the first Roman Missal: guess the year

1441… BC Passover (440, 590: 12 or 13AD century for real one) What do I mean; well what is the Roman Missal: it is a detailed instruction on

the form of divine worship What was the first recorded instruction on Divine Worship, well the entire

prototype and prefigurement of what the Mass was going to be; that is PASSOVER

Exodus 12: Gives time of year to do it: 14th day of Nisan, 10th day get the lamb, specific type of

lamb: male, one year old without blemish Time of day to slaughter it: between the evenings, eat it in the darkness of night Celebrant: father of every family; before Levites became priestly tribe, originally the

father bore the priestly duties; kill the lamb and explain to family as he does it Ritual: how to cook the lamb, eat the lamb, number of people per lamb, what to do

with its blood, eat in haste ready to leave, unleavened bread because of this haste Memorial: do this every year for all generations; concept of Memorial:

Page 65-66 “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist”

PENDULUM PRINCIPLEWhen studying liturgy, you need to a keep balance

between 2 extremesOn one side we have Mystery and History: God and

his action in timeOn the other we have Contemporary and

Comprehensible: man in the presentStay in the middle to have the best of both worlds and

not become so hyper focused on God that you forget man or so focused on man that you forget God

On Exodus night there was perfect balance; all together; keep way of celebrating the history, not to update it, expresses Mystery of God’s action, that night all understood why they did it, understood and applicable

1441 Mt. Sinai Go to worship Golden calf: pendulum Levites chosen to be the priestly tribe for action

on that day

Laws of Leviticus Liturgy defined the chosen people Not secondary or just for the priests What separated Israel from world, living of the covenant Same with us, liturgy is the deepest expression of who we

are, family of God Pendulum swing; more to center Certain parts of these laws endure today; HISTORY AND

MYSTERY, certain things are purposely not updated or brought to immediate, contemporary comprehension Alb Praying posture in Mass Candles Purify hands before prayers Ordination rite, Sacred Chrism Laying on of hands Yom Kippor and rite to acquire forgiveness

Meeting Tent : Deuteronomy More liturgical laws about how to build the worship

space Then the concept of sacrifice for ceremonies, purify or

repentance Desert - swing of pendulum, complain, murmur, forgot

the Mystery and History Certain parts of these laws endure today

TabernacleDivision of the nave and sanctuaryKeeping the Bread of the PresenceMenorah lit near it Incense in worshipConcept of sacrificeConcept of bread and wine as thanksgivingCelebration of feast days, and how to do it

Temple; 1 Kings 5-9 explicit laws on how to adorn the Temple best craftsmen to do it: followed to the minutest

detail not free to do whatever they want, liturgy is more

than personal preference, God’s will Certain parts of these laws endure today

Gold tabernacleCentralize sacrifice of lambs to Temple, not at homesCentralize ceremony for Passover, Jerusalem; people

come togetherTemple became the enduring presence of God

RITUAL DEFINES US, LITURGY IS WHO WE ARE Ark brought to Temple by priests

Temple Destroyed832-580 BC, then destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar

Babylonian exileSynagogue came into existenceStudy Scripture not just sacrifice: LITURGY OF WORD

Scholars to explain the law: HOMILY

Made corollaries to law; PENDULUM STARTS TO SWING

Temple Rebuilt 516

Expanded in 19 ADTime of Jesus fairly large and beautiful againJosephus between 3-5pm sacrificed

256,500 lambs; 2,700,200 people

ii. Essence of the Mass: 33 AD NEW ROMAN MISSAL

Last supper Changes ritual - Jesus commands it Commands memorial

Resurrection, new day of worship Emmaus structure for Mass:

Liturgy of the Word: showed how Scripture told of Messiah suffering Liturgy of the Eucharist: Jesus disappears to show real presence in

Eucharist (Luke 24: 30-31) Synagogue and temple together

Pendulum balanced again: all rites and symbols both Jewish tradition and current practice

Certain parts of these traditions endure today Chasuble Stole Basilica Altar shape of tomb, relic of martyr: changed from wood to stone to

represent death of Christ

iii. Stages of Roman MissalOrigins: 1-4 centuries

Period of improvisationHomes not churches yetFollowed traditional schemes and models4 elements: offering, prayer, breaking bread,

communion

2. Epoch of Local Development 4-7 centuries

Basilica, house of justice in Rome, converted Church, little oratories, specific legal matters, principal altar, main judge

Create formulas and rites Start only Easter and Sunday Mass Christmas Mass next, first Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Cyril of Jerusalem 348 made procession Offertory introduced: just work to prepare for Eucharist

but became spiritual 350-650 had the most liturgical progress in history Establish canon, fixed text Roman style: sober, simple, clear, linear and not much

space for emotions or exaggerated symbolism: prayers were robust and juridical: express with exactness and synthetic

eastern style totally opposite

3. Epoch of Compilation 7-12 centuriesCompile and organize structure and text,

standardizeHoly Roman Empire spread roman liturgical

styleMissal, breviary, etc.Put crucifix on altar

4. Late Medieval Epoch 12-14 centuriesPENDULUM SWINGMaterial importance of celebration

exaggerated: sequences and music, legends and

apocryphal feasts; tears of ChristMass took all daypersonal devotions took place of participating

in Masslayout was like the San Clemente Church in

Romepriest does everything, faithful are there but

focus priest and Christ

5. Epoch of Stability 15-19 centuriesPENDULUM SWINGCouncil of Trent 1545; reformation dealing

with, stabilize theology, wanted to change language to vernacular but much too afraid

Created first RUBRICS1587 first congregation of Rites to govern

and guide300 years of stabilityArchitecture change: altar to center point

6. 20th CenturyVatican Council I

Reformed musicPromote daily communion and communion for

children tooReform calendar and feasts

b. Vatican Council IISacrosanctum ConciliumFinality: participation of the faithful: full, conscious,

activeGeneral Criteria

Noble simplicity: removes excessively complicated ceremonies, needless repetition that is not the essential roman style: noble too, not just simple, beautiful

Clarity and brevity: precise Comprehensibility: vernacular and teaching liturgy Communitarian dimension: liturgical acts belong to the entire

Mystical Body, not just priest, faithful play an essential part; laity help in rite and worship: readers, ministers: responses to people not acolytes

Biblical Dimension; fundamental and indispensible part, expanded Unity and Variety: not rigid uniformity, legitimate variances

TodaySacrosanctum Concilium 1963 under Pope Paul VI

Full, conscious and active participation of the faithfulEucharist is the source and summit of our Christian lives: Lumen

Gentium 11ICEL formed

Change Latin to English Saying in Italian: every translator is a betrayer; hard to do this and

capture the same thought with all its nuances in the other language: Greek has 5 words for love, what do we do when we don’t have the word in English or even the tense

Can’t merely translate word for word if you want full, active and conscious participation

Method was called Dynamic Equivalence: see the sense of the Latin text and then translate the meaning into English: maybe use different words or phrases, make it immediately accessible to the faithful

Drop repetition or awkward structures of the Latin, that don’t replicate in English

Problem Paraphrasing is not translation Changed meaning, whether by accident or agenda;

innocent or intended Fails to give what Latin intended and eliminate poetic

beauty in original Certain theologies were in vogue at the time and took

precedent over the history and mystery: each age has a theological fashion if you will but slowly should the Church incorporate this into its Tradition and patrimony

Overcorrection versus under correction Like Peter in the washing of the feet (John 13:6-10); impulse

was because of his love for Christ that we went to extremes First no, then yes whole body

Other countries did not have this problem: Spanish is not having a change

ii. Today: liturgiam authenticam Drafts carefully prepared, revised and corrected over 9 years: started

under PJPII, Cardinal Arinze (not Cardinal Ratzinger) spearheaded All Bishops in English countries consulted, they were able to invite experts

to comment and advise Methodology

Formal equivalence Page 3 example and further read Bishop Elliot; then above paragraph Reflect and there are some Sunday prayers that are great but many

seem to be lacking something and for longest of time I could not say why Actually many are bland and missing the Mystery; of course I am more

theologically sensitive than all of you, studied for 12 years, but deeper problem

Went and translated my own, won’t embarrass myself with the horrible translating that I did (in fact had to use a translating program on the computer) but the content from the Latin was not there; 90% no, 10% yes. It was a good prayer, but it just wasn’t an accurate translation

I was flabbergasted

4. Differences that make a big differenceWord grace omitted many times: specific theological reality

But not understood: job of the Church to make it understood Part of the mystery, truth and history Actually leads to inadvertent heresy: pelagianism; save ourselves by own

effort and not the grace of God Leads further: what we do is what matters most, not so much what God

does We make liturgy; the community over Christ; liturgy is no longer a gift to

us from God through Christ but something that we fabricate, our work, what we create

San Jose survey of deaneries and question was, What is the most important part of the Mass for you? The results were: #1 community, #2 music, #3 homily

My first answer was not even on the list: Eucharist, presence of Christ Did the liturgy cause this or was it a deeper line of thought in the

Church, who knows, what is objective is the EXAGGERATION OF THE PENDULUM

Loss of doctrine with our Blessed Mother; dropped adjectives and hurt theology glory of her virginity remaining vs. became the virgin

mother of your Son trendy ideological motives of these changes CHANGES SO FREQUENT THAT THERE IS NO LONGER

THE ROMAN MISSAL Loss of metaphors

Biblical allusions or direct quotes: receive you vs. come under my roof

So what, it’s the same thing: well the point is to quote the scriptures in this moment, not get a ball park figure

Style to Latin, get used to it in normal culture; if I started saying this talk by 4 score and 7 years ago; immediately thoughts come to your head; also there is a style and mystery to this phrase; it’s not common English or immediately comprehensible, how many years is that, but man it makes a lasting impression, this is style

TRUTH OF THE MYSTERY; read paragraph Christ draws us into his mystery: it is not just what we do

iii. Changes in responses We’re not going to go over all the priestly changes;

it would take a long time and you don’t have to say them, it’s not going to be a big issue: will mention one little bit

Greeting: BIGGEST CONTROVERSY IS HERE And with your spirit; what does this mean I had big issues with this one: read various

explanations and said people are tripartite; body, soul and spirit and I said NO

Soul and spirit same? What does this mean Here is what I uncovered

Reason for change Scripture

• Direct quote from Scripture OT and NT; Ruth 2:4 and 2 Timothy 2:22

• Probably phrase taken straight from synagogue History

• Early Christians used this from beginning; Fathers of the Church verify this

• Foreign to Greek and Latin world but kept: so should we• Living connection with history as we keep Amen, Alleluia,

Hosanna, Kyrie Elaison Mystery

• First in Hebrew: “Lord be with you” was greeting of kindness and recognition of a reality: The Lord is present

• Semitic response literally means “and also with you” your person literally

• Quickly history separated from Jewish context and went into sense of the spirit that the bishop or priest received in ordination

• Why only say with major orders, not lay people• Today the sense is this: priest acknowledges the Lord is present

in the faithful and asks God to bless their lives and common priesthood

• People acknowledge the power and leadership of the priest vested by Holy Spirit not by his own power

I confess: greatly, and triple affirmation; my fault, my own fault, my own most grievous fault: FORMAL EQUIVALENCE

Gloria: restores phrases that were never translated, largely returns to first English translation 64-69

Orate fraters: my sacrifice and yours: formal and theological: 2 modes of offering the

Mass: priest and priestly people with him Holy Church restored; why take out a mark of the

Church???? Sanctus

Accuracy: God of power and might to Lord God of hosts

Domine Deus Sabaoth: Sabaoth is Hebrew reference to countless angelic armies

Consecration For many vs. for all Latin is pro multis; in Gospels, not pro omnibus Some say Hebrew word means ‘all’ even though literal translation is

‘many’ This is argued by scholars Theology

Christ died for all, but this is not what Christ is getting at His blood will be shed for the redemption of souls, but there are some for

whom that redemption will be in vain; in other words, some people will be condemned

Highlighting man’s freedom, not the universality of Christ’s sacrifice Christ did die for all but does not force this salvation upon us, we choose

Invitation to communion Closer to Scripture and better theology Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say

the word and my soul shall be healed. Shift to God’s initiative; old; Lord I am not worthy (that I should) to

receive you… now some balk at this and say it is poor grammar; subject change,

better to keep all I or all God, not change subject when a conjunction joins them.

Not about proper grammar as it is theological focus: this is a minor fault but the theological focus is more important

Summary New translation is

RICHER, MORE ELEGANT IN STYLE (maybe not customary English, like Gettysburg address)

MORE TRUTHFUL IN DOCTRINAL CONTENT, CLOSER TO THE SCRIPTURE AND MORE SPIRITUAL/MYSTICAL/ MYSTERY

Will gradually deepen the quality and tone of worship

Conclusion Benefits

Privileged moment to live for future generations Reawaken the depth of the Mass, unite us with the roots of who we

are Transmit to next generation the Memorial, of why we do what we do Greater depth to the celebration, to the Mystery and History of the

Mass Reality check

There will be turmoil, cynicism and anger among some Most of it is attachment not a reasoned out assessment of the situation Transition not easy: better doctrine but need to teach

We need you to give the reasons and support it It will be aggravating even for all of us

Hard to accustom self to new way of saying things, get irritated This is normal, just getting used to it Remember to go over the reasons WHY so peace returns

Appendix Adoremus Bulletin: www.adoremus.org Parish Guide to Implementing the Roman Missal:

www.usccb.org Catechism of the Catholic Church #1322-1419

www.vatican.va Bishop Peter Elliot; Adoremus Bulletin November 2010 Fr. Edward McNamara www.ewtn.com then go to

library and liturgy; tons of common questions regarding liturgy and he is awesome: Jesus Christ, living and present in the liturgy

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper by Brant Pitre