Wednesday, November 16, 2005

What is not to understand about "must follow"

It always irks me when our bishops want to debate whether to implement instructions from the Vatican that are not optional.

The Vatican, which has said that all translations must follow literally from the Latin,

These corrections of mistranslations would ease much of the suffering of those who know, but can do little to change the errors. One of my favorite irks
The second would change the prayer "Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" to "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."

Big difference there. We place too much emphasis on our bodies and too little on our soul in our society, and here the Mass has been mistranslated to do the same.

And locally, we have the experience of the misguided "throwing the blessing back" motion with our hands when we say, "and also with you." This extending the arms is a priestly gesture not to be used by the laity. Perhaps this will help rid us of that.
The third follows the priest's blessing of "the Lord be with you." It would change the congregation's response from "and also with you" to "and with your spirit."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'll get an identity at some point, but it's already late and (as usual for me in such circumstances) I feel a great need to post a pontification pertaining to the aforementioned point.

Regardless, it is worth noting a couple of things: 1) Every U.S. parish with a Mass in Spanish (and perhaps other languages) already has the faithful kneeling prior to Communion in prayer by saying "Señor, no soy digno de que entres a mi casa, pero una palabra tuya bastará para sanarme el alma" (lit. Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter into my house, but one word from you will suffice to heal my soul.)

It also makes me think of the responses to the non-Gospel readings. In English, it's "Thanks be to God," but in Spanish, it's "Te alabamos, Señor" (We praise you, Lord) Interestingly, in Latin, it's simply "Deo gratia," which is a play on words that means both simultaneously: Deo gratia is literally, Thanks be to God, but gratia (thanks) also means grace, so in Latin we respond by offering both thanks and grace to God. But grace can only come from God. Thus, it follows that the grace we offer to God is exactly that which he grants us to offer. When we return it to him, it is in the form of worship -- or praise (thus the Spanish response).

Solution: teach the kiddos Latin. Pray for a better future. Then, they'll know what's going on either way.