Sigh. Harumph. Ergh. Argh. Oh dear. Those are the exact emotions I felt during the progress of Mass this morning. Now, I know that it is the human condition to resist change, and that I'm certainly not exempt from any kind of human condition, but I went from a little dismayed listening to myself and the rest of the congregation stumble over "consubstantial" during the Nicene Creed, to unsettled with the new word, "chalice" in place of "cup" during the Eucharistic Prayer, and then irritated with the word "many" replacing "all" in regards to exactly who Jesus came to save, outright saddened and angry that we no longer elicit God to "protect us from all anxiety" at the end of the most perfect prayer.I had loved the beautiful, thoughtful placement of that plea following our acknowledgement of all that IS through Him. And then, just when I was into a full-on feeling really sorry for myself that my Mass had been so hijacked,we told Jesus that He could make us worthy to "Enter Under Our Roofs." I giggled. Seriously? I mean, were there no linguists working on this new translation that had any sense of the beauty of language? The word "roof" serves only to make me think of 2X4's and men working with power tools.
To be fair, I like the new response, "And with your Spirit." And I love me some King James words like "Behold" and "O"--so I'm good with all of that. But, I'm not sure why we need to say that Jesus "suffered death" instead of "died" during the Nicene Creed, and let's suffice it to say that I was thrilled when Fr. elected to not choose the Penintential Rite option that would have had us all beating our chests and admitting to commiting sin through our most "grievous faults" times three. I might have been looking for the ushers to pass out hairshirts at that point.
Sigh. I admit that I haven't delved into all of the history of this new Missal--I've read the requiste columns in the bulletin, the booklets the boys have brought home from CCD, and a few articles in the Catholic Post--but the only thing I've really been able to garner about WHY this change has come, is because after Vatican II, the translation from Latin into the languages of the people was too rushed. So the big dogs in Rome have decided that we needed to revise the language of the Mass in order to get closer to the original Latin. Now, I adore Latin--love its intonation and formal, repetitive structure--Lent is even my favorite liturgical season because it is one of the few time of the year that we dust off the Kyrire, et al. BUT . . . without even knowing what I'm talking about in any official way, the creeping feeling in my skin at Mass this morning was enough to tell me that this move was definitely a conservative one--and one that seems to hold the people at an arm's length from the Mass.
Words are powerful--and they can serve to unite ("And with your Spirit") or alientate (i.e. "consubstantial"). Some of these changes are not what I think Jesus had in mind, with his disciples gathered closely around him in intimate quarters, raising common bread and a cup, asking for his friends to do this in memory of Him. Not what he had in mind at all.
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