Need Spanish language resources for Mass
  • Pedro d'Aquino
    Posts: 128
    I have been asked to prepare music for a Spanish Mass for a Peruvian community that is honoring St. Martin de Porres. The celebrant wants to have the ordinary sung in Latin, but the rest of the Mass will be in Spanish. He also wants to use the Mass of the day, which is the memorial of St. Athanasius (May 2). I assume the readings will be the daily ones (Saturday in the Fourth Week of Easter).

    I have looked online for the appropriate texts and have found lots of different versions of everything. I went to a local church and asked to borrow the Missal and Lectionary they use. It was a Mexican Missal and a blue/green lectionary marked "Ferial".

    Now I have come to understand that the USCCB approved Spanish Missal is not yet published and most use the current Mexican missal and lectionary, although I have heard that the psalms should be taken from the version used in Spain. The daily readings published online by the USCCB accord with the Mexican version I found online, but not with the published lectionary used in the local church, which I now assume to be an unofficial lectionary (?). Then there is the question of propers. The online version of the Mexican Missal gives a proper Entrance and Communion antiphon but the printed Missal has proper orations but then directs the reader to the commons (of pastors or of doctors of the church). Also the translation of the orations doesn't match up with the online version. I had thought of setting simple chant settings of the texts of the Graduale Romanum translated into Spanish, but I don't know where to find a Spanish translation that is authorized.

    Finally, there is much written about the use of "vosotros vs. ustedes." Given that there seems to be a unified translation of the ordinary, would it make sense to use the "vosotros" form at least until the US version is made available?

    Any expert help would be appreciated.
  • benedictgal
    Posts: 798
    We are not allowed to use the new Roman Missal (Spanish) approved for the Mexican Episcopal Conference, as ours is still in the works. We also cannot use any "new" lectionary from Mexico.

    You are right in that it makes sense to use "vosotros" since we don't have our own Spanish language missal; however, having said that, I believe that the USCCB came out with something years ago that allows the celebrants to use "ustedes". Our bishop made note of that.

    The blue book is also not allowed for use. According to Msgr. Moroney (I posed this question to him 12 years ago at a conference), the only books we are allowed to use are the big red fat lectionaries (comes in a four or five volume set). These blue and orange books have a translation that is tinged with liberation theology and were never approved for use. Based on his answer (and subsequent follow up), my diocese removed these books from liturgical usage.

    This whole thing has caused a headache. If you live along the Texas border (or of the border states), you used to be able to cross the Rio Grande and get the books you need. However, violence notwithstanding, this has become more of a challenge because of the translation issues.
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