Mass Changes

Back in the 1960's, the Catholic Church made some dramatic changes to the Mass.  The entire "format" was changed and the Mass could now be said in the vernacular.  People around the world scrambled to translate the "new" Mass into their native tongue and in the late 1960's, the Mass of Paul VI was promulgated.

Unfortunately in the English speaking world, the translation into English was not very precise.  For example, the phrase "Et cum spiritu tuo", which literally means "And with your spirit" was translated as "And also with you" in the English.  In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II asked the English speaking world to make some changes to the words to make them more faithful to the Latin.  That work has been completed and one week from Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, the new translation of the Mass will go into effect in the United States.

The last time we as a school community will use the current translation is next week when we have our Thanksgiving Mass.  We will process out of the Mass carrying the Sacramentary, the missal the priest uses, to symbolize the change.  We will later bury the Sacramentary outside the windows of the Saint Basil Chapel.  We will use the new translation, the Roman Missal, for the first time as a school community on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  We will process in with the Roman Missal and have a special blessing over the book by our celebrant, Father Mark Cooper, OSB.

I met with all of the Theology classes yesterday in the Saint Basil Chapel to explain the changes and to go over the new words.  We purchased nice pew cards for our students and faculty to use during our Masses as we adjust to the new words.  I for one am looking forward to the change as the language is more lyrical, beautiful, and scriptural.