Sunday, November 27, 2011

First Sunday of Advent Reflections

So, how was your experience with the new Third Edition of the Roman Missal? My parish did a great job adapting to the new wording and the people were quite eager for the changes. Our pastor reminded us in the homily that the prayers are now more clearly related to their scriptural foundations. He also used the Gospel reading from Mark "to keep watch" as being analogous to our need to be more alert and engaged as we pray this new Missal. All and all a truly wonderful morning Mass. Probably the biggest place of stumbling will remain saying "And with your Spirit" in all instances. Most did well for the first few instances, but reverted back, somewhat unconsciously, during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I particularly enjoyed hearing the more accurate wording for the collect and prayer after communion. Our pastor also used Eucharistic Prayer 3 which seemed to be a bit more reverent and majestic than then prior translation.

Enough with my experiences, how about you?

10 comments:

Shazamaholic said...

You can read my report here.

Anonymous said...

Geat new translation, and there were virtually no rough spots with the liturgy. It was a great improvement, and people were obviously more engaged than usual. The music however... We sang an Amy Grant song from the '70s and a number of WOW songs from the 80s and 90s, all performed folk style on acoustic guitars with a lot of warbled ooohs and aaaaahs. The music could not have been more disharmonious from the new translation.

Oh well. I am grateful for the new mass. Gives me hope that someday we will get some better music too. (hope it's not 40 years. I'll be dead of old age by then!)

Brad

Anonymous said...

Consubstantial? I know what it means but it seems so out of place and you can't tell me there wasn't another phrase that would have worked as well.

Keith

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I noticed the same problem as Brad did; there's a disconnect between the missal and the music at the 12:15 mass at my church.

-Mike Demers

Diakonos said...

Ours was a mixed bag.

1. Priest left out penitential rite. I think her got confused and I was waiting to see how the new Confiteor sounded...oh well next time.
2. People did pretty good with "and with your spirit" but blew it with "right and just".
3. Choir used the old (and as I understand it no longer allowed) acclamattion: "Christ has died, Christ is risen..."
4. Priest recited Eucharistic Prayer in very stiff deliberate manner as if he had never seen it before and had no idea what was coming (but even with that said, I liked the changes I could recognize).
4. People's parts for Sanctus and Agnus Dei were chanted in Latin as we usually do so no changes noted there.

Overall I think this whole new translation issue was way blown out of proportion as to its effects during implementation. Its simply one more time in church history that words or rites or such stuff change. What counts are the hearts and the faith of those offering the prayers and not so much how they are particularly translated.

Francesco said...

We did fine. The priest and the choir decided to sing every instance of the "The Lord be with you...", so even if most of us responded "and also with you" we sounded like we were in the minority. A few more weeks of this and we might not need that help.

At my mass there also was no penitential rite, could it have been a coordinated move on the part of priests?

I was doing okay until the Creed, when I bowed and couldn't see the new text projected on the wall. I think it will take some time for everyone to get used to the new translation.

My father, who grew up in Italy with the per-conciliar missal said that the new translation reminded him exactly of what he said in Latin and later in Italian. I guess that means that the new translation accomplished its goal of being more faithful to the Latin text.

Chrysostom said...

No, no phrase would have worked as well as "consubstantial", a literal translation of the Latin and a technical theological term.

It's like "only-begotten" - nothing else works in its place. Not "one and only", not "only", not "eternally generated".

Changing out "consubstantial" for anything else seems wrong - the Nicene Fathers shed blood so that we might say that Jesus Christ is consubstantial - homoousious - with God, instead of the Arian "like God" - homoios - or the middle-ground compromise, "of like substance", homoiousios.

Anonymous said...

What I find funny (both funny comedic and funny weird/pathetic) is to read the comments of people who are blindy, raging, against the new translation, both from the left (National Catholic Reporter), and the right (fisheaters.com forum). The left's visceral is predictable, but the right's is mindblowing. They claim to be Catholic, but they seem to have the same sort of total rebellion as Martin Luther, albeit coming from a trad POV (unbelievably, you should read some of the venomous comments trads have posted about John Paul II's future canonization). Many (but certainly not all) trads, specifically the SSPX crowd, definately have a quasi-protestant "I will not serve" nature, which comes off comedic when they claim to be "more" or "truer" Catholics than the bishops, cardinals, and even the Pope!

+ Benjamin.

Theophrastus said...

Does anyone know the story behind this Morningside Heights's parish apparent rejection of the new (and old) liturgy? Did they get an exemption from the Archdiocese?

Shazamaholic said...

Tim, have you ever seen the Elvis Presley-Mary Tyler Moore movie "Change Of Habit"? It was made in 1969 (produced by Joe Connolley and Bob Mosher, of "Leave It To Beaver" and "The Munsters") as the Church was in full post-Vatican II ... er, growing pains, we'll say. The movie does a good job in documenting the Church in those days, when the old guard who thought of it as a spiritual-religious instition were being challenged by the new blood who wanted it to be more of a social justice advocate. Anyways, I think this film prabably has the very first film dramatization of the Novus Ordo, in a scene where Elvis is singing "Let Us Pray" as the gifts are being brought up to the Altar (correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen the procession of gifts in any EF Mass I attended)-- perhaps this is also the origin of the guitar Mass? But if you look at the very end of the clip, the priest is ad orientem. The transistion to the new translation of the Missal made me think of this movie. If you never seen it, you should check it out. It's an enjoyable film (hey, it's Elvis). I might have to do a post on this on my blog, if I get the motivation and inspiration.

One more Elvis note. Have you ever heard Elvis' Miracle of the Rosary? Although Elvis loved and recorded a lot of gospel music, this was his only real Catholic recording (unless you also count "How Great Thou Art", which has become popular at Masses). Very nice song, and I prefer it to "Hail Mary Gentle Woman".