Lost in translation

The Catholic Church has been working on a more accurate English translation from Latin in the Mass for many years now. It seems that the process is complete but we still may have up to 2 years to prepare for the change. As with most things, we learn by repetition so this may take some effort. The first step is to realize this is a change that actually makes the liturgy more faithful to original intent. Still after so many years this may be difficult.

Here is some examples of the changes:

"Peace be with you" - our current response is "and also with you". The new response will be "and with your spirit".

In the penetential rite form A we will return to the line "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grevious fault".

The Gloria will have changes including the beginning which will go like this: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of goodwill. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory".

The Creed will change with the main change from "we believe" to "I believe".


The Sanctus changes to Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts.

The Agnus Dei will change to "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed".

There is even a change to the dismissal where the Priest or Deacon will say "go forth the Mass is ended" or "Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord" or "Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life".

And there will be many changes in the words the Priest says in all the Eucharistic Prayers and other prayers he alone speaks.

Again, we call them changes and yet they are. But these changes are the original intent of translations from Latin to English from decades ago. Our prayers and responses will be more faithful to what the Church truly intended. And they help return us all to a liturgy more faithful to that which has been handed on for centuries.

I've checked several sources and most agree we should start seeing these changes late in 2010. Check out the website http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/ for a more detailed explanation.