{"id":8154,"date":"2004-01-16T08:19:26","date_gmt":"2004-01-16T08:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/liturgical_language.html"},"modified":"2004-01-16T08:19:26","modified_gmt":"2004-01-16T08:19:26","slug":"liturgical_language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/liturgical_language.html","title":{"rendered":"Liturgical Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Tablet, a look at the English translations of the liturgical texts<\/a><\/p>\n

The first draft translation of ICEL\u2019s new Missal is being sent out to bishops\u2019 conferences this month. From a copy obtained by The Tablet , it is clear that the change in approach is startling. The Confiteor , for example, begins: \u201cI confess to Almighty God\/and to you, my brothers and sisters\/that I have sinned exceedingly.\u201d At the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer, the celebrant says: \u201cThe Lord be with you\u201d to which the congregation replies: \u201cAnd with your spirit.\u201d He says: \u201cLet our hearts be lifted high.\u201d They reply: \u201cWe hold them before the Lord.\u201d He says: \u201cLet us give thanks to the Lord our God.\u201d They reply: \u201cIt is right and just.\u201d Preparing the altar, the priest says: \u201cBy the mystery of this water and wine \/ may we be made partakers in his divinity \/ who deigned to share in our humanity.\u201d At the consecration he says: \u201cWho on the day before he was to suffer \/ took bread into his holy and venerable hands.\u201d The Creed, perhaps surprisingly, says \u201cFor us and for our salvation\u201d, but in Eucharistic Prayer IV gender-inclusive language is jettisoned: \u201cYou formed man in your own image \/ and entrusted the whole world to his care\u201d.<\/p>\n

We asked a senior British liturgy expert who has long argued for greater fidelity to the original to look over the translation. His verdict: it is closer to the Latin of the Roman Rite, and in this respect a marked improvement on the Missal in use. But it is otherwise \u201cless successful than the 1973 versions in finding a consistent modern English register\u201d. Many of the translations are \u201cmannered\u201d and \u201cpointlessly archaic\u201d, he says, while others are \u201cunnecessary and rather aggressive departures from venerable renderings which long predate the 1973 ICEL versions\u201d. He also believes it is \u201cecumenically retrogressive\u201d to abandon versions of the Gloria and the Creed agreed for common use with other Churches. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This piece is typical Tablet<\/eM>: meaty and interesting, and biased, which is fine, as long as you understand that from the beginning. I can’t argue with his account of the politics involved this, because I know nothing about that, and I am interested in the comments of the expert they cite here – they strike me as valid and important criticisms – but I will say that what I find absent from this piece is the concern of many, not just “wealthy American traditionalists,” that the English translations were faulty because they were wrong<\/strong> – and yes, I understand when we’re talking about translations, “wrong” is a tricky kind of evaluation, because of the many layers of language. But, for example, he cites the use of “and with your spirit” in the English as a congregational responseas a a new and startling innovation. Well, that’s what the Latin says<\/strong> – et cum spiritu tuo. Still. And that’s what it means. And that’s how it’s rendered, for example, in Spanish: “Y con tu espiritu” I don’t know exactly how one could make the case that “and also with you” is a justifiable or “faithful” translation of the Latin here. And those more knowledgable than I can certainly come up with more examples. The most instructive thing is, indeed, to compare the ICEL translations to the Spanish, for example. It’s illuminating.<\/p>\n

Lectionary links here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Tablet, a look at the English translations of the liturgical texts The first draft translation of ICEL\u2019s new Missal is being sent out to bishops\u2019 conferences this month. From a copy obtained by The Tablet , it is clear that the change in approach is startling. The Confiteor , for example, begins: \u201cI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLiturgical Language - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/liturgical_language.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liturgical Language - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the Tablet, a look at the English translations of the liturgical texts The first draft translation of ICEL\u2019s new Missal is being sent out to bishops\u2019 conferences this month. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}