New Catholic Mass Debuts In The U.S.

If you are Catholic, yesterday was not only the beginning of a new liturgical year (with the first Sunday of Advent) but also the start of a new liturgy too.  I was home for the holiday and actually went to the first new mass with the first new "script" since the Vatican II changed the mass to English almost 40 years ago.  The revisions, which are meant to track closer to the original Latin, are not as extensive as I was led to believe though some of them are certainly strange.

The biggest change is that the response to "the Lord be with you" has been changed from "and also with you" to "and with your spirit".  Which means...what exactly?  As I recall from taking Latin in high school, some Latin just does not translate very well.  Also, words like "begotten" and "consubstantial" are tossed into the mix just to confuse everyone.  It seems odd to make this big revision when the previous mass was so clear. Now they're just muddying things up again.  My theory is that the real reason the church is doing this to remind everyone who is in charge....The Vatican!

Hundreds of American priests are in a bit of revolt over the new mass, according to a piece in today's TIMES. I can report that the priest at my old parish in Maryland was clearly not happy about the change and said as much during his homily. He even related that other priests in the diocese were also not pleased by the change up.  But, he wearily said they will change anyway and that everyone will get used to mass 2.0 eventually.  As they say, when in the Roman Catholic church...