There is a certain irony in the executive director of the secretariat of ICEL (the Tablet, News from Britain and Ireland
Saturday, July 28, 2012
A comment from the other side of the Atlantic
The following appeared in the letters to the Editor in theTablet (a Catholic journal published in England for over a hundred years):
Monday, July 23, 2012
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In 1998 eleven conferences of bishops approved a revised translation of the Roman Missal which had been prepared by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy. This translation was denied the required recognition by the Holy See in 2002 which directed that a new revision be prepared, the one which we currently are using.
The 1998 revision translated the prayer over the gifts for the 16thSunday in Ordinary Time as follows:
O God,
you have fulfilled the many offerings of the Old Law in the one, perfect sacrifice of the New.
Receive the gifts of your servants and bless them as you blessed the sacrifice of Abel,
so that what each of us has offered to your honor and glory may advance the salvation of all.
And the current translation approved by the Holy Sea reads:
O God, who in the one perfect sacrifice brought to completion varied offerings of the law,
accept, we pray, this sacrifice from your faithful servants and make it holy, as you blessed the gifts of Abel,
so that what each has offered to the honor of your majesty may benefit the salvation of all.
The 1998 revision translated the prayer over the gifts for the 16thSunday in Ordinary Time as follows:
O God,
you have fulfilled the many offerings of the Old Law in the one, perfect sacrifice of the New.
Receive the gifts of your servants and bless them as you blessed the sacrifice of Abel,
so that what each of us has offered to your honor and glory may advance the salvation of all.
And the current translation approved by the Holy Sea reads:
O God, who in the one perfect sacrifice brought to completion varied offerings of the law,
accept, we pray, this sacrifice from your faithful servants and make it holy, as you blessed the gifts of Abel,
so that what each has offered to the honor of your majesty may benefit the salvation of all.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Meriting eternal life
The revised translation of the Roman Missal regularly uses the word merit in the prayers of the Mass. For example in Eucharistic Prayer II, we pray: “Have mercy on us all, we pray, that…we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life.”
My dictionary defines merit as the reward or punishment due, the quantities of actions that constitute the basis of one’s deserts, or a spiritual credit held to be earned by performance of righteous act and to ensure future benefits.
However, our Catholic faith is more clearly expressed in the Letter to the Ephesians which reads “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of you, it is a gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9a)
There is a principle that goes lex orandi, lex credendi, that is the rule of prayer is the rule of believing. I find a number of the prayers to be misleading at best. I wish the translators had shown as much care for content as they did for Latin syntax.
My dictionary defines merit as the reward or punishment due, the quantities of actions that constitute the basis of one’s deserts, or a spiritual credit held to be earned by performance of righteous act and to ensure future benefits.
However, our Catholic faith is more clearly expressed in the Letter to the Ephesians which reads “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of you, it is a gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9a)
There is a principle that goes lex orandi, lex credendi, that is the rule of prayer is the rule of believing. I find a number of the prayers to be misleading at best. I wish the translators had shown as much care for content as they did for Latin syntax.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
A Momentous Shift
This fall will bring the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Fifty years is a long time and much of the Catholic world is not old enough to remember that historic event when some two and a half thousand Catholic bishops gathered in Rome each fall for four years. The first fruit of their work was the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, promulgated on December 4, 1943, a document that resulted in the revision of the entire liturgical life of Roman Rite Catholics.
That document states that every liturgical celebration is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church. To appreciate the import of that statement one needs to have lived before the Council.
In “The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described,” a 469 page handbook describing the proper celebration of the liturgy, published in 1937, there is not a single entry in the index for “laity” or “congregation.” The Mass was the action of the priest. The congregation was extraneous to the proper celebration of the Mass.
By the mid-2oth century the “dialogue Mass’ began to be introduced, a Mass in which the congregation answered the prayers of the Mass together with the servers. This was considered a concession. In the 1950’s the seminarians at St. Joseph’s College, the minor seminary for the Archdiocese of San Francisco that I attended, the seminarians were permitted to join the servers in responding to the priest three mornings a week.
About 1960, the Congregation of Rites which was in charge of the liturgy of the Roman Rite had some concerns about this practice and published a document which prohibited the congregation from praying the Lord’s Prayer aloud in the vernacular while the priest was saying it in Latin.
An early 20th century catechism presents the understanding of the Mass that was common prior to the Council. A Catechism of the Catholic Religion by Bishop Louis Mary Kink, Bishop of Leavenworth, revised edition 1943, was designated as the official textbook for parochial schools in that diocese.
The book has three chapters under the heading The Holy Eucharist: On the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, On Holy Communion, and On the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The first chapter begins “The greatest of all the sacraments is the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments, because it is Jesus Christ, from whom we receive all grace.” It concludes: “The real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist requires that we offer Him our must humble and fervent adoration.”
The second chapter, On Holy Communion, in answering the question, What graces does Holy Communion give to our soul” says: “Holy Communion unites us most intimately with Jesus, increases sanctifying grace, and strengthens us in the practice of virtues.”
The third chapter, On the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, begins: “The greatest act of religion is sacrifice, which is a visible gift offered to God by a priest who destroys it to acknowledge God’s supreme dominion over life and death.”
It then explains that”The shedding of the blood and the death of Jesus take place in Holy Mass by the double consecration of the bread and wine.”
It continues “Christ gave the power to offer the sacrifice of the Mass to His Apostles and their successors in the priesthood” and “The principal parts of the Mass are the Offertory, the Consecration, and Communion.”
Note that the principal parts of the Mass do not include the scripture readings, the liturgy of the Word.
Mass takes place through the power given to the priest; there is no reference to the working of the Holy Spirit. And communion is seen only in terms of the individual and Christ.
The simple but profound greeting at the beginning of Mass, “The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all,” which did not exist in the earlier form of the Mass, invites a much richer understanding of the Mass.
That document states that every liturgical celebration is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church. To appreciate the import of that statement one needs to have lived before the Council.
In “The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described,” a 469 page handbook describing the proper celebration of the liturgy, published in 1937, there is not a single entry in the index for “laity” or “congregation.” The Mass was the action of the priest. The congregation was extraneous to the proper celebration of the Mass.
By the mid-2oth century the “dialogue Mass’ began to be introduced, a Mass in which the congregation answered the prayers of the Mass together with the servers. This was considered a concession. In the 1950’s the seminarians at St. Joseph’s College, the minor seminary for the Archdiocese of San Francisco that I attended, the seminarians were permitted to join the servers in responding to the priest three mornings a week.
About 1960, the Congregation of Rites which was in charge of the liturgy of the Roman Rite had some concerns about this practice and published a document which prohibited the congregation from praying the Lord’s Prayer aloud in the vernacular while the priest was saying it in Latin.
An early 20th century catechism presents the understanding of the Mass that was common prior to the Council. A Catechism of the Catholic Religion by Bishop Louis Mary Kink, Bishop of Leavenworth, revised edition 1943, was designated as the official textbook for parochial schools in that diocese.
The book has three chapters under the heading The Holy Eucharist: On the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, On Holy Communion, and On the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The first chapter begins “The greatest of all the sacraments is the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is the greatest of all the sacraments, because it is Jesus Christ, from whom we receive all grace.” It concludes: “The real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist requires that we offer Him our must humble and fervent adoration.”
The second chapter, On Holy Communion, in answering the question, What graces does Holy Communion give to our soul” says: “Holy Communion unites us most intimately with Jesus, increases sanctifying grace, and strengthens us in the practice of virtues.”
The third chapter, On the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, begins: “The greatest act of religion is sacrifice, which is a visible gift offered to God by a priest who destroys it to acknowledge God’s supreme dominion over life and death.”
It then explains that”The shedding of the blood and the death of Jesus take place in Holy Mass by the double consecration of the bread and wine.”
It continues “Christ gave the power to offer the sacrifice of the Mass to His Apostles and their successors in the priesthood” and “The principal parts of the Mass are the Offertory, the Consecration, and Communion.”
Note that the principal parts of the Mass do not include the scripture readings, the liturgy of the Word.
Mass takes place through the power given to the priest; there is no reference to the working of the Holy Spirit. And communion is seen only in terms of the individual and Christ.
The simple but profound greeting at the beginning of Mass, “The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all,” which did not exist in the earlier form of the Mass, invites a much richer understanding of the Mass.
Monday, July 9, 2012
The Communion of the Holy Spirit
One of the improvements, in my opinion, in the revised translation of the Missal, is in the opening greeting: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The earlier greeting used fellowship, a word that refers to companionship or association. Communion is much richer and has a depth of theological meaning. The Latin phrase is “communicatio Sancti Spiritus” which, even if one does not know Latin, clearly suggests the action of the Holy Spirit.
Our communion is not, fundamentally, the result of our efforts. It is gift from God though the work of the Spirit. At the heart of the Gospel, is the message and person of Jesus calling us into a new set of relationships, with God and with one another.
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus calls us to be family. He says that “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother and sister and mother.” He teaches us to pray “our Father.”
Paul in his 1st letter to the Corinthians uses the image of a human body with its diverse parts as an image of Church. Many parts but one life principle. In the Eucharistic prayer, we pray that “we, who are nourished by the body and blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”
In the Gospel according to John, Jesus prays at the last supper “that they all may be one. As you, Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (18:21)
This union with each other and with Christ in the Father is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a work of grace, that is, the gift of God.
The earlier greeting used fellowship, a word that refers to companionship or association. Communion is much richer and has a depth of theological meaning. The Latin phrase is “communicatio Sancti Spiritus” which, even if one does not know Latin, clearly suggests the action of the Holy Spirit.
Our communion is not, fundamentally, the result of our efforts. It is gift from God though the work of the Spirit. At the heart of the Gospel, is the message and person of Jesus calling us into a new set of relationships, with God and with one another.
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus calls us to be family. He says that “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother and sister and mother.” He teaches us to pray “our Father.”
Paul in his 1st letter to the Corinthians uses the image of a human body with its diverse parts as an image of Church. Many parts but one life principle. In the Eucharistic prayer, we pray that “we, who are nourished by the body and blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”
In the Gospel according to John, Jesus prays at the last supper “that they all may be one. As you, Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (18:21)
This union with each other and with Christ in the Father is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a work of grace, that is, the gift of God.
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