Our parish priest wants to me quickly to prepare all immediate groups for rolling out the new Roman Missal, 3rd Ed., and present it to him by the end of this month.
This task, gratefully accepted, has been passed on to me ... I have researched: LTP, FDLC, USCCB, GIA, OCP, and WLP, for their available material. I do find it a bit overwhelming to choose one resource with the most effective training material. The priest has given his thoughts on level of preference in order: LTP, FDLC, USCCB, WLP, GIA, OCP, but has not given a full review for himself ... hence the reason I am doing it. From this I will be preparing an outline for several Teaching Masses (the Mass in slow motion) for our parish. We will use this Teaching Mass to not only reintroduce (for some introduce) the Mass element by element, freeze frame, to the parish, but also make the parish aware of the changes and what we will do to ensure they can sing the Mass with as little transition as possible. My eyes are crossing at this point.
I am interested in feedback on the resources you all have been looking at, your own composite of material, etc. I am off to prepare for choir rehearsal tonight ... blessings to you all and your rehearsals.
I find it all a bit baffling really. I'm unclear why all of this is necessary. If your parish is like mine, only a fraction will be "trained." Everyone else will just show up on Advent 1 2011 and say and listen to the new thing. That's about it. Is it really necessary to make such a big deal out of it, explaining every change? People who are curious can easily look it up. Most everyone else will just go alone. The benefits of this change are going to flow naturally from usage, not from prior cognition and training.
jeffrey, I think the clergy have learned from the experience of the 1970s that surprise in the liturgy is a Bad Thing, so some advance preparation and instruction is a good idea. Also, some wise pastors are turning this change into an opportunity to provide people some needed catechesis about the meaning of the Mass.
Both answers sound reasonable. I've wondered if memories of 1970 figure into this! Of course the two cases are hardly comparable. And the 2nd reason is very good.
In our Diocese, we're using the opportunity of the new translation to first have a series of study sessions on liturgy and the Eucharist first, and then later have sessions on the new translation. By packaging the two topics together, we're squeezing in some much needed education of the faithful. The video and book series that will be used has been locally produced in conjunction with our diocese and another local diocese. I think they'll make it available to other dioceses once it's finished.
You may want to look into the "Mystical Body, Mystical Voice" (I think that's what it's called) program through the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein, Illinois. They do nothing but quality work up there.
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