By Lisa Greey —
Happy New Year! Today marks an important day in the universal church as the beginning of our liturgical year. Today marks an important day in the English speaking church as we fumbled our way through the new mass translations. Hopefully your pastors have prepared you and your fellow parishioners for this moment. If not, I hope to offer a few reflections here about the new translation and Advent, which is my favorite season in the Church!
First off, just a few points about what’s not changing – the mass itself is not in fact changing. It has and always will be “the complex of prayers and ceremonies that make up the service of the Eucharist.“ (Newadvent.org) Bread and wine still become the body and blood of Christ, which we are blessed to receive. The liturgy of the Word and Eucharist will still happen! However, the translation of the mass from Latin to English has been revised. So what we say and hear will be somewhat changed. We will hear and recite words much closer to the original Latin and much more clearly connected with scripture. If you go to mass in French or Japanese, you will hear this much closer translation, and now English-speaking Catholics will be in greater unity with all other language groups around the world.
This is going to be a challenge to get used to – and I’m sure there will be some fumbling and perhaps laughter as we are forced to step off of autopilot and actually think about what we are saying! If I say “The Lord be with you,” you automatically would respond “And also with you.” Well now we will say “And with your spirit.” Why? Because this is a) a much closer translation and b) more clearly expresses the reality that the priest stands in the place of Christ at mass. He contains the “spirit” of Christ as the priest at mass. Gives you more to think about right? I want to encourage you – read up on these changes. Look into what the new responses mean. You will see how biblically based the mass is, and hopefully have a more meaningful experience of mass!
Now – a few thoughts on advent. Advent is a time of waiting as we remember all the years when the world was waiting for Christ to come and save us from sin. Waiting is not easy, and we discussed a few weeks ago. One Advent, I was in a period of waiting for God to reveal some things about his plan for my life to me. I was getting frustrated. In my prayertime, I realized something quite amazing. I thought about how difficult it must have been for God to “wait” to send Jesus to become man. I thought about how desperately God wanted to save his people from sin. Yet he too had to wait for the perfect timing, in his perfect plan. Then I thought about the joy God experienced in setting this salvation plan in motion. That at the moment Mary said yes, Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and God’s plan for salvation began in human time and space. This Advent, let’s really follow in Mary’s footsteps and “ponder” these mysteries in our hearts. Let’s use advent to meaningful wait as Christmas approaches. Let’s prepare our hearts to receive Jesus at Christmas time, and give our lives more fully to him.
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