In the UK’s best Catholic weekly, The Catholic Herald, the indomiable William Oddie has comments about the first Sunday Mass with the new, corrected translation.
I like this bit:
Well, the new translation of the Mass is now up and running, and, at least in my parish, its launch seems to have passed off without any awkwardness at all. “And with your spirit” was confidently and (as far as I could see) unanimously declared, as though the congregation had been saying it for years (phone conversations, however, have elicited a certain difficulty elsewhere in remembering to say it. Maybe the most important thing to remember is to keep your eyes on the card). There was a real sense of occasion, I thought. We began, slightly shakily, using James MacMillan’s very splendid setting (used at the beatification last year), and the process of getting people’s heads around it has begun. All in all, it was a great occasion.
As in parishes all over the country, a series of sermons on the new translation, and on the Mass itself, also got successfully underway. I wonder how many priests said for the first time that the people’s response in that opening exchange between priest and congregation does not mean “and the same to you, Father”. “And also with you” can’t really mean much more: indeed, it was the perfect example of how the old translation, from the off, consistently reduced (ah, wondrous past tense) theological meaning in the movement from Latin to English. ….
[…]
Loading ...
Our parish has started preparing the people for the new translation. On Tuesday morning I attended the first presentation – mainly 2 videos by Edward Sri and receiving “A guide to the New Translation of The Mass”. There were only about a dozen people at this first showing of the videos – possibly because Trinidadians are usually “last minute” people….. ;-)
I eagerly look forward to the two following presentations (probably in a few weeks time) that will complete the series of videos, and to November 27th. I am so ready for uplifting words.
Not a lot of preparation here. Unless they step it up, there are going to be a considerable number of surprised people. That said, because the peoples’ parts aren’t dramatically different, I think it will be just fine in the long haul. We don’t seem to have any real pockets of resistance among those involved here, and I get around a bit, so I’m very optimistic about this. Perhaps the bigger issue will be how does this song sound after that, etc. The combination might sound like a hodgepodge for a while.