Friday, October 1, 2010

Corrected Roman Missal: "Everything old is new again..."

From Brad Noel at Southern Fried Catholicism:

http://www.kandle.ie/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/roman_missal.jpg"I have been attending our parish's classes on the changes in the Roman Missal (BTW: everyone's invited to attend; they are on Sunday mornings in the parish hall from 9:30am until 10:30). I'm even slated to teach a few of the classes myself. One comment/question that was raised during the class last Sunday piqued my curiosity.

One parishioner remembered, as a little girl, attending the older form of the Mass (now known as the Extraordinary Form but often called the Tridentine Mass) and how the prayers were all said in Latin. Like most Catholics then, she used a hand missal which contained two columns of text for all of the parts of the Mass: one column in Latin and, in the other column, a translation in English. This parishioner asked if the new translations we'll soon begin using were similar to the ones she read each Sunday at Mass as a little girl. I thought it might be interesting to actually compare an older, popular (but unofficial) translation of a well-known Mass prayer (in this case, the Gloria) with our current version and with the version we'll begin using late next year..."

Pre-Vatican II (Unofficial)                                      1975-Present (Official)                            

Glory be to God on high,                                         Glory to God in the highest,                         
and on earth peace to men of good will.              and peace to his people on earth.                  
We praise Thee.                                                       Lord God, heavenly King,                            
We bless Thee.                                                        Almighty God and Father,                            
We adore Thee.                                                       We worship you, we give you thanks,           
We glorify Thee.                                                     we praise you for your glory.                        
We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.                                                                            
O Lord God, heavenly King,                                                                                           
God the Father almighty.                                                                                                 
O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son.    Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,    
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.   Lord God, Lamb of God,                              
Who takest away the sins of the world,            You take away the sin of the world:                
have mercy on us.                                                 have mercy on us;                                     
Who takest away the sins of the world,                                                                                
receive our prayer.                                                                                                            
Who sittest at the right hand of the Father,     You are seated at the right hand of the Father:   
have mercy on us.                                                 receive our prayer.                                        
For Thou only art holy.                                        For you alone are the Holy One,                     
Thou only art the Lord,                                        you alone are the Lord,                               
Thou only art most high, O Jesus Christ.          you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ.       
Together with the Holy Ghost                             With the Holy Spirit,                                   
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.                in the glory of God the Father. Amen.             

"Now, compare the older, unofficial translation with the new 2007 official translation that we will begin using in Advent 2011:"


Pre-Vatican II (Unofficial)                                  New (Official)
Glory be to God on high,                                     Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth, peace to men of good will.          and on earth peace to people of good will.
We praise Thee.                                                    We praise you,
We bless Thee.                                                     We bless you,
We adore Thee.                                                    We adore you,
We glorify Thee.                                                   We glorify you.
We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.       We give you thanks for your great glory.
O Lord God, heavenly King,                               Lord God, heavenly King,
God the Father almighty.                                     O God, almighty Father.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son.   Lord Jesus Christ, only Begotten Son.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.  Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
Who takest away the sins of the world,            You take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.                                                 have mercy on us;
Who takest away the sins of the world,            You take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.                                                receive our prayer;
Who sittest at the right hand of the Father,     You are seated at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.                                                 have mercy on us.
For Thou only art holy.                                        For you alone are the Holy One,
Thou only art the Lord,                                        you alone are the Lord,
Thou only art most high, O Jesus Christ.          you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
Together with the Holy Ghost                            With the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.                in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

"Needless to say, I was really surprised at a few things. First, it is really shocking how much was actually changed with the 1975 "translation" of the Gloria (middle column above). Entire phrases were omitted and others were moved. And there were other, more subtle changes, too. For example, notice how "peace to men of good will" (from the Latin "pax homínibus bonae voluntátis") was changed to "peace to his people". The latter is much more broad and less precise and, importantly, it is less scriptural because it does not correspond to Luke 2:14, the origin of this line. Both the pre-Vatican II and the new translations, correctly translate this famous line from the gospel (the newer version uses "people" instead of "men.")

So, I'd say the answer is "yes, the new translation is very much like the older one that most Americans used before the vernacular Mass was introduced in the 1970's..."



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