Catholic and Loving it!

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has released the new translations for the text of the mass here. On the one hand, these texts are being released in the US and not the UK, so we shouldn't read to much in to them. On the other hand, these texts are produced by the International Committee for English in the Liturgy so we can expect something pretty similar ourselves.

So why do we need new mass texts? In short.. because the current mass texts are appalling and fail to convey the meaning of the latin original. I'm no latin linguist, but 'Et cum spirito tuo' blatantly has the word 'spirit' in it. In spanish they say 'Y con tu espiritu'. So why do we say 'And also with you'? In these new translations 'Et cum spirito tuo' is translated 'And with your spirit'... 'The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.'

It doesn't just sound nicer, it adds depth to the mass. The response is a reference to the closing lines of the Second Letter of St Paul to Timothy which in the latin vulgate reads 'Dominus Iesum cum spiritu tuo'.

I'm going to avoid speculation on why the current translation is so bad but I don't think Francis Cardinal Arinze is wrong when he writes "this Congregation is confident that the universal use of these texts will greatly contribute to the building up of the faith througout the broad and diverse English-speaking world" [pdf]

A quick flick through (as quickly as one can through a stupid PDF - why don't these people use HTML) and I notice the following changes...

Fellowship is not the same as communion...

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.

The threefold repetition here is obvious in the Latin... Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...

I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

I think the 'new' gloria is beautiful, though it's going to play merry-hell with the clappy one...

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.
We praise you,
we bless you,
we adore you,
we glorify you,
we give you thanks for your great glory,
Lord God, heavenly King,
O God, almighty Father.
Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us;
you take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father.

God of hosts... Old Testament reference perhaps?

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

A bit of rearranging...

Through him, and with him, and in him,
to you, O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
is all honor and glory,
for ever and ever.

This one is going to raise a few eyebrows. I'm not sure why it's in BLOCK CAPITALS. Is the priest supposed to shout it or are the ICEL translators simply unfamiliar with Netiquette? Anyway, "cup" now reads "chalice" which isn't a big deal but it sounds more like the latin word for cup... "is shed" becomes "will be poured out" which changes the tense from present to future.

Most significant and most likely to cause upset is this... "for all" has become "for many". Which is not the same thing.

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT,
FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD,
THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT,
WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY
FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.

The words before the Lord's prayer are just about recognisable...

At the Savior's command
and formed by divine teaching,
we dare to say:

The lines after the Lord's prayer have changed quite significantly. Where it used to read "as we wait in joyful hope" it now reads "as we await the blessed hope". Again, the present tense becomes the future...

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil,
graciously grant peace in our days,
that, by the help of your mercy,
we may be always free from sin
and safe from all distress,
as we await the blessed hope
and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Nice reference to Revelation here...

Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who takes away the sins of the world.
Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

Nice quote from the Roman Centurian in Matthew 8:8 now restored...

Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.

It's going to be five, maybe ten, maybe a hundred years until we actually use these, but it's interesting to see where things are going. You can read the whole thing for yourself in hideous PDF here. Thanks to Fr Ray Blake for spotting this.