More literal

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

Sometime in the next couple years the Mass prayers will change because of new translations by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). ICEL, which is made up of representatives of 11 of the world's main English-speaking bishops' conferences, oversees common English translations of Latin liturgical texts for approval by the bishops' conferences.

The prayers are being translated following guidelines of Liturgiam Authenticam ("On the Use of Vernacular Languages in the Publication of the Books of the Roman Liturgy") issued in 2001 by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.

These rules require liturgical translations to more strictly and completely follow the original Latin - in other words a more literal translation of the official Latin text than what has been used for the last 35 years.

Why the change? Bp. Arthur Roche of Leeds, England, president of ICEL, explained to the U.S. Bishops that, in many places, the more literal translations will restore scriptural references that disappeared or were less evident in the earlier liturgy translations.

We've known for nearly a year what some of the new translations would be, after they were approved by the U.S. Bishops last June. But it wasn't clear what the proposed translations looked like until Bp. Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, shared some in an article in America magazine (5/21/07).

Here are some proposed translations Bp. Trautman released, which give a sense of this new translation style:

• "Accept O Lord, these gifts, and by your power change them into the sacrament of salvation, in which the prefiguring sacrifices of the Fathers have an end and the true Lamb is offered, he who was born ineffably of the inviolate Virgin" (Prayer over the gifts, Season of Advent).

• "O God, who suffused blessed John with the spirit of mercy" (Collect for St. John of God, March 8).

• "Cyril, an unvanquished champion of the divine motherhood" (Collect for St. Cyril of Alexandria, June 27).

The changes the bishops approved last June include:

• Whenever the priest says "The Lord be with you," the people will respond "And with your spirit."

• In the first form of the penitential rite, the people will confess "I have sinned greatly ... through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."

• Before the preface, when the priest says "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God," the people will respond "It is right and just."

• The Sanctus will start "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts."

As Liturgiam Authenticam puts it, "Liturgical texts should be considered as the voice of the church at prayer."