I had occasion this Sunday to attend Mass where the new translations of the Order of Mass were in use already. Or perhaps I should say that the new translation of the Nicene Creed was being used. After the homily the priest presider took his seat and when he stood up to begin the Creed, he and everyone in the Church scurried to find the text of the now familiar prayer. Directed to follow a slavish translation of the Latin text, “Credo in unum Deum” which for years we have been saying, “We believe in one God” is now “I believe in one God….” and thereby becomes a personal faith affirmation rather than an affirmation of the whole assembly. “One in being with the Father” is now translated “Consubstantial with the Father” and so on. One nice change is that “for us men and our salvation” is rendered “for us and for our salvation.” When the Creed was ended, everyone including the priest scurried to put away the “cheat sheet” until next it would be needed.

I have no delusions that in time the new translation will be a part and parcel of the praying community’s memory just as the prayers are now to which we have grown so accustomed but I am not sure I will live long enough in my case.

At the end of the Eucharist I asked the priest what he and his people thought of the new translation. His response, speaking for himself and for the people, is not printable here.

Nonetheless, it is coming and coming soon to the United States. At this November’s meeting the bishops of the United States will be asked to approve the final segments of the translation and submit them to Rome for what is called a “recognitio” and then a date, maybe the first Sunday of Advent in 2010 0r some other time in 2011 we will begin to use them in our celebrations of the Mass. The Our Father remains unchanged but we will have to get used to some other things. I predict windfall profits for the missaelette people, missal people and others who will produce, distribute and sell the “cheat sheets” which we will all need for some time.

+RNL

Tags: Missal Translation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under English. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.