Let us now rejoice give thanks to God that the Novus Ordo Missae in English now has a translation that befits the celebration of Holy Mass.
What was the experience in your parish?
A blessed Advent to you all.
Vox.
A corporal work of mercy.
Click on photo for this corporal work of mercy!
6 comments:
It was relatively painless. There were a few 'and also with you's but by the third time everyone seemed to be on the same page.
The visiting priest informed us that the diocese had mandated standing with a profound bow at Consecration -- a surprise for those of us who regard the bow as the option for those who are unable to kneel for some reason. He also informed us that processing with the Lectionary will continue since we don't have a Gospel Book.
We still haven't received our copy of the Roman Missal, so the Mass was celebrated using what appeared to be photocopies. Not sure that he had everything because the Dismissal was certainly not according to the new Missal.
The translation itself was wonderful. Church finally sounded like church. The only fly in the ointment was that the translation was marred by the Angeles setting. The priest concluded the Eucharist prayer with a wonderful gregorian alleluia and the people responding with the Angles Amen truly sounded silly. The Angeles setting really does sound silly and out of place when juxtaposed with the rest of the new translation. I have no doubt that it will be abandoned after the year of mandatory use ends. Here's looking forward to Advent of 2012
There was a lot going on today.... reading the letter from Abp. Collins, blessing of the new missal, blessing of the advent wreath, new mass parts, new prayers and responses. But lovely Advent music (Wachet Auf and Conditor Alme Siderum along with hymns). I'm in the choir and found it a little hard to focus on the mass with all the newness. But it will come.
Here in Victoria, all went pretty smoothly. The new translation was wonderful, and people caught on pretty quickly. My friend and I both mentioned how moving the new Eucharistic Prayer (III, in this case) was.
As I mentioned before, Catholics in Victoria have been instructed to stand after the Agnus Dei, and remain standing until we receive Communion. After Communion, we are free to kneel, sit, or stand as the mood takes us. Well, we all stood as instructed, and as the Communion Hymn began, I was thinking, "Hey, this isn't so bad." Then the Ministers left the Sanctuary to distribute Communion, and the entire rear two thirds of the Cathedral sat in unison, with a big whoomf, while the front several rows remained standing. So much for uniformity! (To be fair, they also did this before, when we knelt after the Agnus Dei, but it wasn't nearly so dissonant to have a mix of kneeling and sitting as it is to have standing and sitting.)
In my little country church I played the organ and was constantly up and down so much trying to figure out when to play what that I almost forgot about the kneeling issue. The new words are like a dream come true. For fun earlier I looked in an old missal (1950's) where there's Latin and English side by side. Darned if the English translation of the 1950's wasn't just like the 2011 one or so it seemed at quick glance.
And the kneeling. Well I knelt for a moment after the Agnus Dei but then had to get up to find a piece of music.
I received communion. The bow seemed perfectly normal. I walked back and KNELT for a moment. Then hopped up to play some communion music.
The NEW MASS (Angeles) was reverent though I botched it up a lot.
But my heart goes out to those who are being ordered around. I think that to let people know what you believe is important, and then to just do it. What will "they" do if you kneel down? Drag you back up to your feet?
I would reiish such a confrontation. Bring on the TV cameras! Oh to be a martyr.
Well Vox, my expereince was disheartening.
Coming up to the new mass, I was filled with excitement and curiosity. I've seen countdowns for the new translation and read many interesting things from blogs on the blogosphere (Yours, Catholic Knight, Fr. Z, ...), got a series of handouts from the internet from my archdiocese that explained the translations, an app from Cale Clarke called "The New Mass" for Iphone (which has a more biblical explanation of the changes for Why's), and a pew card for the new responses.
So what happened when I got to my parish? The same old usual. Same old procession, same old 4 sandwich hymns from our current Parish only hymnal (not Gather thankfully!), Homily, consecration, etc. Though it was cool to hear the new eucharistic prayer and collect. Reflecting on the Mass, I didn't feel at all elevated in soul and body. I felt like it didn't do what it was being touted to do by everyone, the blogosphere, the diocese, etc. Were it not for my lectoring and a decent homily by my priest who usually goes far out into academia land (as he was/is involved in teaching and committees in the Church so that's his audience 85% of the time), It would have been even more saddening.
There is a few small gems though out of it today. I helped an older lady in her 40's once with the responses and the pew card. I saw a young elementary school boy and his mother do a simple/moderate bow before receiving the Eucharist. Also, I gained an even further appreciation for the TLM, for even a simple low Mass would have seemed better for me today.
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