And also with your spirit.

Today's transition to the revised texts made for some very interesting vocal happenings at Mass this morning. The most common being the confusion over the new response "And with your spirit."  I had a feeling this would be the most difficult. First off, it is repeated five times during the Mass. Secondly, no one, not even the most diehard missalette reader, follows in the book for this response. And finally, by the time we got to the end of Mass many forgot that these words changed.  But all in all it went quite well.  The longer prayers, the Confetior and the Creed, were read perfectly although I did hear a bit of stumbling at the word "consubstantial."  Also at the Invitation to Communion there were quite a few who continued to use the old words.  The presider, a priest from Ghana, prayed Eucharistic Prayer III slowly and deliberatly with only a stumble or two.  I do know that our priests have been practicing and it showed.

I think we have to give it a few weeks and it will be as natural as if we have be saying these prayers for years. But then come Christmas Eve there will be more confusion than ever as those who only come to Mass for majoy Holy Days find that the prayers they are familiar with have been revised.  It should be interesting to say the least.

More on the Missal Launch

Having eaten my fill yesterday afternoon, which is probably why I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4 AM,  I opened my e-mail to read some more doomsday articles and comments regarding the launch of the revised English texts of the Roman Missal. At Thanksgiving Mass yesterday, our pastor mentioned that this would be the last time most of us would be praying the texts we have been so used to praying for close to forty years.  Some might see it as a sad ending to a Mass that has brought joy and comfort to many, but I see it as a new beginning.  My early years were spent with what we now call the Extraordinary Form, the "Latin Mass," but the dialogue Mass was what I was used to, so we at least prayed the responses from our personal missals. I still have mine from 1963.  As we transitioned into English, it was an exciting time, but I am sure there were many who bemoaned what they grew up with and who didn't like the change.  So too with the revised texts we will begin praying Saturday evening.  But I really don't anticipate the uproar that others predict.

I have presented twelve Missal workshops over the last year. I honestly have to say that I have heard objections from less than a handful of people.  Some may object to a word or two but overall the reaction has been good.  They like the idea that the language will sound more formal and more theologically accurate.  I had sixth graders, anxious to run home and share with their parents the meaning of the words consubstantial, incarnate and oblation.  Are we so used to texting and tweeting shorthand that we can't open ourselves to learning words that are more than four or five letters long?  Are the words that I learned early on in my formal study of theology really going to turn away people?

I am looking forward to the changes.  In fact, even though I rarely attend the Saturday anticipated Mass, I just might go tomorrow evening to be among the first to hear the new texts prayed. But today and tomorrow morning I will be praying the texts that I know so well. I will miss the familiarity of them, but I anticipate that very soon these new texts will become just as familiar.  Will it renew the liturgy and bring people back to church?  Probably not, for that I believe, will take more than new words, but a real change of heart that comes not from the formal words we pray, but from a personal encounter with Jesus.

Seven Days Till Missal Launch

It is now one week before the revised English translation is implemented in dioceses throughout the United States. I for one say, "OK let's get this going."  I have refrained from writing about the revised texts basically because I have been heavily involved with these texts for a long time. I have working on them on the parish and diocesan level for a few years. Since Advent of 2009 I have been writing articles and blurbs in our bulletin about the texts. I will, as of this coming Tuesday, have presented twelve sessions on the Missal in several parishes, certainly not as many as some of my colleagues but it was a significant number. I have written two brief articles on the revision published by Liturgy Training Publication. I have traveled around the country attending workshops conducted by the Bishops Committee on Divine Worship and the Federation of Diocesan Federation of Liturgy Commission. You could say I have been immersed in the Missal.

The workshops I attended were fun and I learned a lot from some of those who were on the ground level of preparing the texts. Presenting workshops was fun as well and I did not hear many objections to the texts from those in attendance, which is a good thing.  I must admit that when I first saw the "green book," the original texts that the bishops had to work with, I did not care for the texts at all. But over the years in following the debates, reading revisions and more revisions, studying them, and most of all, praying with the texts, I have come to appreciate the beauty in them. They are poetic, sacred, and express important theological terms and concepts much better than the current text.

Today at Mass, our priests briefly spoke about the texts. The pastor even practiced "And with your spirit" with the people. I am excited!  I confess I have already been saying the new texts softly for the past few months, but I am sure I too will need to glance at the laminated pew cards we will have tucked in with the missallettes.  As I wrote in our bulletin this week, and as our priests mentioned at Mass, we will need to be patient with our priests, for while in reality only a few words in the prayers  we in the assembly will pray are changing, for the priests there are significant changes, and they will have to have their eyes glued to the texts for awhile.  Also there are less instances where they could use "these or similar words." My pastor also informed us that there are slight differences in the layout of the new Missal compared with the present one. 

With seven days to go, I think it is important this week to keep our priests in prayer and to pray that these first few weeks of transition to the new texts goes smoothly so that these revisions will enhance our appreciation of the sacrifice of the Mass, lead us to reflect on the texts we pray, and most of all, to worship the Lord with our whole hearts and minds so that having been nourished by God's Word and His Eucharist we may "go in peace, glorifying the Lord with (our) lives."

Kids and the Missal Launch

I find it difficult to believe that I have been writing this blog for eight months and still have not written a post about the Roman Missal.  In twenty-four days we will be praying with the revised English texts and I have been preparing for its implementation for quite a number of years. As a pastoral associate, one of my responsibilities is parish liturgy. I also serve on the diocesan liturgy commission and have been facilitating and teaching courses, workshops and training sessions for liturgical ministers for over ten years. Before that I served in liturgical ministry since 1967 being part of our parish's first folk group and the youngest member of the first liturgy committee in 1971.  So when I first heard of the revised English texts of the Missal I began keeping up to date with what was going on and as time got closer I became more and more involved by attending national workshops and conferences and eventually presenting workshops on the revised texts.

Today I presented a workshop to the sixth grade at our parish school. I haven't been in in front of a class of children since I gave up my teaching job over fifteen years ago, but I have worked with children and looked forward to introducing the revised texts to them.  It was a wonderful experience.  I gave the kids copies of the revised texts and we had a lively conversation on the differences between the current text and the one we will be using on the first Sunday of Advent.  They were so interested, especially when I introduced words and concepts that might have been strange to them.  I was also very happily surprised at how much the kids did know about what we pray and do at Mass.

The most interesting conversation occurred when we look at the Creed. They were very surprised to learn how old the Nicene Creed was and the various reasons why it was so important to even have a definitive statement of our beliefs.  We talked about those beliefs and the discussion really went well when we came to the words "consubstantial" and "incarnate."  They were eager to offer their thoughts and I think following our discussion they understood the meanings quite well. I gave them the assignment to bring up these words at the dinner table and see if their parents knew what the words meant.  The teacher found this part of our discussion so interesting that she is putting those two words as bonus questions on their next religion quiz.

They had lots of questions but I chuckled that one of the questions was one that I heard at almost all the workshops I have done with adults.   "Will Mass be longer?"  What I didn't hear was any complaints about the words being used, their difficulty or how it wasn't the way we might normally speak. They seemed excited and I think they are looking forward to it. I hope that they will pass on this excitement to their parents.  The teacher even said she was going to let the other teachers know that would gladly do a presentation for their classes as well.

So, it seems that after my minor meltdown last week when I had to cancel some of my adult programs, God has shown me that He still can use my talents to reach people, even if they are little ones. Perhaps what God is telling me is that the way to reach the parents is to go through the kids, get them excited about being in relationship with God and worshiping Him in the sacrifice of the Mass.  Then maybe we will have more families in church on Sunday and we can begin the work of New Evangelization.