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Third Sunday of Advent
12 December 2009
Dear Friends in Christ,
In the years after the Second Vatican Council, the Church’s sacred liturgy was reformed in two primary ways. First, all of the liturgical books were updated in the original Latin, and modifications were introduced to the rites themselves. Second, the new Latin books were translated into the various modern languages, so that the sacred liturgy could be celebrated in both Latin and the vernacular tongues.
This second part of the reform, the translation of the Latin texts, took place in great haste, and the results were far from satisfactory. Moreover, the principles which guided the translations were not carefully considered, and instead of a proper translation, the Church was stuck with what amounted in many places to an interpretation of the Latin text. Finally, to correct these problems, the Holy See issued a document in 2001 (called from its Latin title Liturgiam Authenticam and available online in English translation) which gave new principles to guide the work of translating again all of the original Latin texts of the sacred liturgy into the various modern languages. For the English language that work has taken almost a decade, but the process is now nearly complete.
Sometime in about a year (we do not yet know the date of beginning to use the new books), the Church throughout the English-speaking world will begin to celebrate Mass with the new and much better translation of the Latin texts. Given that most of us have the primary texts of the liturgy committed to memory, this transition will require some effort on our part, and it will take time for us to let the new translations seep into our memory and imagination and shape the way we pray together. In preparation for this move to the new texts, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has created a website with most of the Mass parts available for study, and there you can read for yourselves the results of an authentic translation of the Missale Romanum into the Roman Missal. The website is at www.usccb.org/romanmissal
If you visit the site, you can compare the words we now use to the new translations that we will begin to use next year. One good example of the change in texts is the Confiteor, the common prayer that begins the first form of the Penitential Rite at Mass. Here is the new translation:
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.