LISTEN TO THE PODCAST for the NEW ROMAN MISSAL formation Course.
The Church's liturgy is constantly adapting to present our faith and spiritual practices more authentically as our culture continues to change. These adaptations reflect the timeless truths of our faith and our liturgical heritage while remaining true to the language, faith and liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church. The current form of the Mass that we celebrate in English has remained unchanged since it was first implemented over 30 years ago. With the lessons we learned since its implementation, and paying attention to the best translation practices available to us today, we have a new opportunity to express what the Church believes. The New Missal uses language which is not only closer to the original prayers (many of which are over 1,000 years old) but also reflects a more "formal" or dignified way of addressing Almighty God. The New Missal also includes changes made to the Calendar of Saints with the addition of many new saints, including our Canadian St. Brother André! We do not often think of it, but there is indeed a "Roman" Catholic way of praying. With a distinctive liturgical style that is true to our heritage and our way of worshipping God going back close to two thousand years, the New Missal will be an opportunity for all of us to encounter the Roman Catholic Mass again for the first time.
The language in which we pray together at Mass is special, a simple, dignified, formal way of talking to God. The language we use to speak with God should sound different than the everyday speech we use with our friends to help us remember Who we are praying to – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Some parts of the New Mass will have noticeable changes, such as the Gloria or the Creed, but other parts have not changed, such as the Our Father.
Many prayers at Mass will sound a little different than the words we have used for the last 30 years but this will give us a new opportunity to listen carefully to what we are saying when we pray. There is an expression that reminds us that what we pray shows and teaches what we believe: lex orandi, lex credendi. It is quite amazing to think that the words we will be using are close to the way Catholic Christians prayed for many centuries: it is proof of the timeless and enduring faith of the Church that we will hand on to the next generation of Catholic Christians.
In the West, the Mother Tongue of the Church has been Latin since the Church was established in Rome. After the Second Vatican Council, the Church gave permission for the Mass to be translated from the official Latin version into other languages with the approval of the Vatican. Pope John Paul II first announced the New Missal eleven years ago. The English-speaking world is the first language group to translate the New Missal from the official, original Latin text. The Catholic Church continues to produce her official documents in Latin and in this way every language group has a common 'reference text' to use to make sure we are saying and meaning the same things. At the last World Youth Day in Australia, it was a powerful moment when youths from so many different cultures could pray the Our Father together in one voice in Latin. It was a powerful sign of our unity of faith in public prayer in the Mass. Latin will not replace English as the language in which we celebrate Mass on Sunday, but understanding its importance as the 'core' or original language of the Roman Catholic Church is helpful and important.
When the Church decided to translate the New Latin Missal into English, the most up to date translation methods were used. Experts in Latin, liturgy, English, poetry, music and translation, as well as many other disciplines were all consulted in order to produce the best translation possible. The previous translation tried to keep the sense of the words in English but it was not trying to be as literally accurate as possible. After thirty years of experience with the current translation we saw that we had lost some important content by loosely paraphrasing the Latin prayers into English. We also noticed how we had compromised the Roman-Latin style of the prayers. The New Missal has the most accurate translation of the Latin prayers and it is closest to what the Church prayed for centuries. Sometimes the translators had to use words or phrases that sound more formal or 'old fashioned' to translate the Latin words and ideas into English because that was the most accurate way to keep the original meaning. But almost all of the translations were able to balance a good, accurate translation with simple and dignified language and a Roman 'style' of prayer that help us to remember that we are speaking to God who is deserving of all of our love and respect.