Kathy, You are so right. At the past couple ordinations that I've assisted with, my bishop has used the new translation for the Eucharistic prayer (usually the Roman Canon). It is simply amazing. I can't wait to hear the whole Mass with this higher language.

...we, your servants and your holy people, offer to your glorious majesty, from the gifts that you have given us, this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.

Ahh.... heavenly.

I love my bishop. :)

This is how the prefaces end, leading into the Sanctus

"...And so with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your glory, as without end we acclaim"

"...and so with the Powers of heaven, we worship you constantly on earth, and before your majesty without end we acclaim"

"...and so we, too, give you thanks, and with the Angels praise your mighty deeds, as we acclaim"

Etc. etc.

Glorious!

Jeffrey:

May the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus intercede on behalf of eradicating the NAB. It would be great to at least use the Grail Psalter for the Responsorial Psalm. I have had to substitute it for the last three months. The wording is so much richer and better than the NAB.

Yes Kathy! I'm thrilled that you are thrilled too. I've been going nuts about this for a full year, and I'm sure people are sick of hearing about it from me.

But yes yes yes it is a watershed in the history of our lives.

They are, to a certain extent. I just don't like the mixture of the beautiful ICEL settings and the ugly Spirit and Song junk. It's a bad combination, kind of like serving filet mignon with french fires.

Incidentally, I saw the LP version of the Roman Missal in person. It is UGLY. The drawings are horrible. It is not a very attractive book at all. Luckily, I am giving a Magnificat Roman Missal (Chapel-edition) to a priest friend of mine. I may be seeing the CTS Roman Missal in person very soon.

We have LTP. I don't care about pictures--I'm a words girl. As Lenny on the old Law and Order used to say, "The way to a woman's heart is through her ears." And these words are magnificent. People will hear them, priests will say them. The way to the Church's heart is through her ears, or as St. Paul said, "Faith comes by hearing." Or as St. Thomas said, "Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, sed auditu solo tuto creditur."

This is our religion: "For through him the holy exchange that restores our life has shone forth today in splendor: when our frailty is assumed by your Word not only does human mortality receive unending honor, but by this wondrous union we, too, are made eternal." (Preface III of the Nativity of the Lord)

The move is from prose to poetry, from memo to love letter. It couldn't be a more dramatic shift. As the new translation of the Exsultet says, "Let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples"!

I can understand your point, Kathy, but, Liturgiam Authenticam also mandated that the book which contains these words should also be noble and beautiful in appearance. LP's version is neither, in my opinion.

Kathy, I don't know if you have anything against visuals, but, these are important. Please note what Liturgiam Authenticam states:

120. The books from which the liturgical texts are recited in the vernacular with or on behalf of the people should be marked by such a dignity that the exterior appearance of the book itself will lead the faithful to a greater reverence for the word of God and for sacred realities.83

Thus it is necessary as soon as possible to move beyond the temporary phase characterized by leaflets or fascicles, wherever these exist. All books intended for the liturgical use of priest or deacon celebrants are to be of a size sufficient to distinguish them from the books intended for the personal use of the faithful. To be avoided in them is any extravagance which would necessarily lead to costs that would be unaffordable for some. Pictures or images on the cover and in the pages of the book should be characterized by a certain noble simplicity and by the use of only those styles that have a universal and perennial appeal in the cultural context.

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Evidently, Liturgiam Authenticam seems to regard beauty as an important component of the book. I cannot say the same for LP nor Catholic Books.

Indeed. Let me go on the record as having nothing against visuals.

Now let's talk about the words some more!

This is what I find so exciting. Our religion makes very bold claims. The Bible, if you think about, makes revolutionary promises and stern demands. None of this is polite, small-talk-acceptable, fit-for-the-workplace conversation matter. Yet the old translation somehow feels polite.

A lot of the currently popular hymns fail in just this way, I think. They say only nice things, and they say them in a nice way. A lot of current church architecture likewise bends over backwards to be non-offensive. On the positive side, people feel welcome--when they bother showing up for Mass. On the negative side, who cares? There doesn't seem to be much depth or much anything.

If banality is the problem, the new translation is the answer. Finally we will be speaking about bold things in a bold way. Salvation does not feel like a Coke commercial; it feels like the cross and the resurrection. So let's speak honestly about it IN PUBLIC.

I also got to read through the Collects. They do not sound as clunky to my ears as some have claimed.

That’s the thing, BG: they’re designed to be heard, not read silently. When read aloud (even to the mind's ear) they resonate with layers of meaning entirely lacking in their prosaic predecessors. It’s like hearing Eliot, Pound or Jones for the first time, if you’ve only ever read them (and their footnotes!): it’s a revelation.

LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;

(Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock)

As drops that dream and gleam and falling catch the sun
Evan'scent mirrors every opal one
Of such his splendor as their compass is,
So, bold My Songs, seek ye such death as this.

(Pound, Grace Before Song)

I have watched the wheels go round in case I might see the living crea-
tures like the appearance of lamps, in case I might see the living God
projected from the machine. I have said to the perfected steel, be my sister and for the glassy towers I thought I felt some beginnings of His creature, but A,a,a, Domine Deus, my hands found the glazed work unrefined and the terrible crystal a stage-paste.... Eia, Domine Deus.

(Jones, A, a, a, DOMINE DEUS)

Kathy,I believe those remarks came within the context of the Catholic Truth Society presenting His Holiness with a beautiful, personlized rendition of the Roman Missal.

My bad, it was the Australians; however, he did receive the CTS personalized Missal yesterday.

Kathy, I know that you are rightfully stressing the importance of the words, but, the book, itself, should be noble in appearance. You don't have to be sarcastic in your remarks.

In my experience, there is a certain hesitancy among Catholics to talk about our religion out loud. It's true about Catholic homes, Catholic parishes, Catholic chancery staffs--Catholics in general. Part of this hesitancy is, I think, laudable. The spiritual life is in many ways a delicate and personal thing. On the other hand, there are a lot of spiritual things that we have in common, in two ways. They were given to us all, and they were given to us as a church, together. Talking about them among ourselves could be an important part of the New Evangelization.

Part of what attracts me to the new translation is its forthrightness. It's not reserved--it's bold. And these are our PUBLIC words. They're not memorized formulas, either. People will change by speaking and hearing them.

Oh man, I can't wait!

Ok, you win. Nothing good can come of the new Missal. The forces of evil are too strong for God.