Liturgy Speaks a Language of Love

From Dan Conway’s The Good Steward, July 2006

Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

On June 15, during their national meeting in Los Angeles, the Catholic bishops of the United States approved a new English translation of the Order of Mass. This new translation involves the most basic and familiar parts of the Mass – the penitential rite, Gloria, creed, Eucharistic prayers and acclamations, Our Father and other prayers, and responses used daily. The changes are expected to take effect in the next year or two – following Vatican approval.

The new translation is bound to be controversial. For one thing, it changes expressions that have become a familiar part of the prayer of English-speaking Catholics since the early 1970s. Secondly it uses a stricter (more literal) interpretation of the original Latin, which is bound to be somewhat clumsy given the differences in grammar and syntax between these two very different languages. Finally, the new translation takes what might be called the blunt character (or directness) of “plain English” and attempts to provide the Mass with a richer and more expansive symbolic vocabulary. …

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