Today’s Mass: NEW WORDS – DEEPER MEANING – SAME MASS

It seems a very long time ago now since we started preparations to receive the revised Mass texts, and now that day is here. It is the expressed wish of the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales that we begin using, praying, familiarising ourselves with the new translation of the Mass from this weekend in preparation to receive the publication of the new edition of The Roman Missal, which will come into full effect on the First Sunday of Advent, 27^th November 2011.

Throughout the month of July we held weekly workshops discussing the Mass and why the need for the changes now – my appreciation and thanks to Anne, Dennis, Joan and Sharon who organised the workshops which were attended by a total of nearly 70 parishioners – for those who couldn’t attend, I have reproduced part of the text of a Press Release issued by The Catholic Communications Network.

The New Translation – why do we need one?

Until the early 1960s, Mass was celebrated in Latin throughout the world. At the Second Vatican Council it was agreed that the Mass could be celebrated in our own language, and in 1970 Pope Paul VI agreed the official Latin text that would be used. This was then translated into different languages to be used throughout the world. It proved to be a huge task which was completed in a very short time. However, because it was done so quickly, some of the richness of the original Latin prayers was, quite literally, ‘lost in translation’. It was seen that a further translation was needed. The new translation would keep the original words, meaning and style of the Latin as far as possible. The new translation also means a new edition of the Missal which will include some additional text such as, prayers for the saints who have been added by the Church to the liturgical calendar.

The New Translation - the four presences of Christ

The Second Vatican Council reminded us of our ancient faith: Christ is always present in his church, especially in its liturgical celebrations. So, each time we come to Mass we experience the presence of Christ in four different ways:

1.    Christ is present in the congregation – the people gathered together;

2.    Christ is present in the person of the priest;

3.    Christ is present in the Scriptures that we listen to during Mass;

4.    Christ is present in the bread and wine when it becomes Christ’s Body and Blood.

The more we are able to understand and join in the Mass, the more we will come to love it. The new translation will help us to do that because the words we will now use will say more clearly what our faith is teaching us.