Chris, to your point, I would add that there has to be a primary meaning to hone in on, even if we have more than one correct meaning. We must exclude incorrect meanings. “We are (as) merciful as the Father” strikes me as incorrect, even if the grammar technically works. How can we, each and everyone of us, be currently as merciful as is the Father in the here and now? It seems to be a pat on the back rather than a call to conversion and holiness. The same goes for second-person present renderings.

Fr. Krisman, I suggested “estote” because the verse jn Luke 6 seems to be the Scriptural basis for this text. At the very least the intent seems to be that one thinks of that text when singing the refrain. I think that “may we be as merciful as the Father” could work, but I wish they had picked a meaning and had ran with it. I would have no problem with that as the refrain...if the text said that.

My mistake. You are right....I misread one of your responses. :P

But I am still not comfortable with it being so loose.

Whatever it is, "Ite, Missa est" does not translate (to me) "Go: She is sent." The "Go:" is correct, but "Missa est" seems to me not much more than "(the) Mass is (accomplished/finished/done/over)."

Indeed, if it meant anything along those lines, it would mean "Go, she was sent." It is a common elementary Latin error to look at the "est" and think that it forms the present passive. Actually, that would be just "mittitur" (one word); "missa est" is in the past tense.

But then, "Go, she was sent" doesn't make much sense as a dismissal, does it? Rather, according to Fortescue:

"Its [missa] meaning and derivation, once much discussed, are not really doubtful. It is a late Latin form for missio [So Collecta, Ascensa, Ingressa, Confessa, etc.] and meant originally merely 'dismissal'. Avitus of Vienne († 523) uses it for the dismissal from churches or law-courts in the most general sense: 'missa fieri pronuniantur' (= the people are dismissed). [Ep. I quoted by Rottmanner: Ueber neuere u. ältere Deutungen des Wortes missa; Tübinger Qtlschr. 1889, pp. 532 seq.] So it occurs constantly for the dismissal of the catechumens in the Eucharistic service. St. Augustine, for instance: 'post sermonem fit missa catechumenorum.'"

Presumably the form was obscure even to people in the middle ages, and would explain why "missa" came to be the name for the Eucharistic service: hearing "Go, it is missa," and being unable to parse the last word, they assumed that that was the name of what what happening.

Getting back to the music, which I recall was how this thread started.........
personally I think this hymn, though pleasant enough, would be direfully monotonous if one performed the whole 7 minutes of it.
As an alternative choir piece there is an attractive arrangement of a Cherubini melody, setting the words 'Like as a Father' which is actually a canon, and therefore very appropriate to less experienced singers. If we are to have any sort of 'Year of Mercy' celebration I shall suggest it as an alternative. Maybe people know it?

It seems we "might" be using this piece somehow at some Masses during the Year. It has been suggested for example to use it as as "prelude" during Advent. (At my church, a "prelude" is a choir anthem sung before the pre-Mass announcements.) I think it is too long to use at Mass, but probably not all the verses will be sung on a given day.

Is anyone else looking at incorporating it into Sunday Masses? And if so, how?

(Drum roll, please) . . . and now----wait for it, restrain yourselves--- there are official matching vestments to go along with the song!! And there are banners and stoles and posters and books and coffee cups. Someone has said that they've even rolled out chasubles with a rainbow motif. How cute is that? I mean, come on, aren't you just so thrilled and excited????

Just think, everywhere you go during the Year of Mercy, that three-eyed creature will be watching you.

Some interesting notes from the rites for the opening and closing of the Holy Doors at each Cathedral or other location the Bishop designates as having a Holy Door:

This hymn is sung before the procession to the Holy Door at the Cathedral for the opening. Antiphons or the Litany of the Saints are given for the procession. There is an antiphon to be sung during the opening of the door and then they give the Entrance Antiphon from the Roman Missal to be sung as the people process into the Cathedral.

For the Mass to close the Holy Door (a Sunday in Ordinary Time next November), the rubrics actually suppress the Introit and say that the hymn for the Year of Mercy is sung to begin Mass.

Charles,

Sing Allegri's Miserere as part of the year of mercy.

Just have your sax or electric guitar riff it, right? Something like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqxeWupa_e8

Or, we could just bite the bullet and sing the hymn (sometimes opt. 4 can be our best friend) ;-)

Door-closing music for the introit would stretching the definition of aptness, but here's a recessional (I have fond memories of Jonathan Dimmock accompanying Eil nora in an 18c Viennese fashion):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHWmjncxfOU
and a beautiful Moroccan tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lUUFNVXNmM

Door opening and closing only happens at Cathedrals and places designated by the Bishop to have Holy Doors. It probably doesn't apply to you.

For the Mass to close the Holy Door (a Sunday in Ordinary Time next November), the rubrics actually suppress the Introit and say that the hymn for the Year of Mercy is sung to begin Mass.

Nice.
So the whole world must implement Option Four.

Not really. First of all, not the whole world... just Cathedrals and places with designated Holy Doors. And that rubric might only be in English speaking countries. Or only in the United States. I'm not sure.

Also it can't be "option four" because there are no options given. The Year of Mercy Hymn is made the only option - thus it becomes the proper... sort of... or something...

Allow me to make the obtuse comment. Perhaps the mandate to use this piece, from top to parish, is a political one.

"Swing a new church into being"? Oh, wait. That's been done already.

Here's an SAB arrangement.

Works with the existing organ accompaniment, and relies on it (pedal C) in the verses.

(The blank measures are there to remind my non-readers to breathe and/or wait for short interludes that I add on things so that they will breathe...)

We had a chance on Tuesday to sing this hymn, and it was lovely. The petitions were sung by a cantor. People joined in to a certain extent, not bad for its first hearing.

Does anyone have a source for an all-Latin version of this? My boss is mandating that we do it sometime. One would think that it's been translated into the Church's official language. I'd rather not blow off the pro/recessional spot and do the English version. If I had Latin I could do it for Offertory, which would limit the number of verses.

In St. Peter's for the opening of the Holy Doors we did the refrain in Latin(over and over and over again!) and the verses were done in 7 or 8 different languages so it was not all in Latin. And I was told by my Latin Professor at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music that the refrain is missing the verb...

I've used it with the adult and school choirs during Sunday Masses when I couldn't find a hymn that reflected the day's Gospel or Communion Antiphon.

Still haven't used that hymn, and in three more weeks it will go away for good.

@afries52 I do the same thing quite a bit. In fact, for Advent I'm using the Taizé "Wait for the Lord" as what I might call a "common Communion antiphon" for the people (I guess similar to what is done in the Graduale Simplex and By Flowing Waters), but with the Psalm verses associated with the antiphon of the day. Maybe not ideal, as you mention, but I guess it's better than some random hymn.