27 November 2011

While I didn't have to deal with a new Mass translation today, I certainly have seen plenty of commentary on it, ranging from a friend who teaches at a Roman Catholic school exulting "this is a GOOD thing!" and rejoicing in all the Biblical echoes restored in the corrected English, to several posts various places by sometimes informed, sometimes pretty uninformed Protestants which essentially boil down to "I don't like the way the Catholic church does things" (yes... that would be because you're Protestant), to some big articles which were either shamefully biased or thrillingly honest, depending on whom you asked. I also re-checked the French translation, which I know about as well as the prior US English text from going to a lot of Roman parishes in France over the years, and which has all along been way closer to the new English.

I did, however, smile at the 8AM Eucharist I was celebrating as this occurred to me: You wanna see groveling (gasp!), formal (gasp!), grammatically complex (gasp!), often Latinate-root-vocabulary (gasp!) texts?  They've been right there in our 1979 BCP all along, and in all the BCPs before that, and nobody howled: 
And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching thee to grant that, by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion.
And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.
And although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offenses, through Jesus Christ our Lord;
By whom, and with whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.
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