WELCOMING THE NEW TEXTS OF THE MASS

Introductory Rites: The Gloria

The “Gloria” is sung on most Sundays and major feasts, and rarely (if ever) recited. Because there will be new musical settings due to the changes in wording, this is where we’ll notice a lot of change. Compare the two texts below:

Current Text New Text

Glory to God in the highest, Glory to God in the highest,

and peace to his people on earth. and on earth peace to people of good will.

Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God We praise you, we bless you, we adore you,

and Father, we worship you, we give you we glorify you, we give you thanks for your

thanks, we praise you for your glory. great glory, Lord God, heavenly King,

O God, almighty Father.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,

Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,

the sin of the world: have mercy on us; you you take away the sins of the world: have

are seated at the right hand of the Father: mercy on us; you take away the sins of

receive our prayer. the world, receive our prayer; you are

seated at the right hand of the Father,

have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone For you alone are the Holy One, you alone

are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, are the Lord, you alone are the Most High,

Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the

glory of God the Father. Amen. glory of God the Father. Amen.

After calling to mind our sins and the need for God’s mercy and assistance in the penitential rite, we then sing the “Gloria.” This hymn of praise, which has been a part of the Mass since the sixth century, blesses God’s holy name because we are filled with joy and gratitude at the very thought of all God’s graces and favors. This text echoes the words of the angels in the Gospel story of Christmas (Luke 2) and reminds us that our praise and thanks to God—again, our “eucharist”—is centered in Jesus who comes among us as God’s Word. In the words of one of the Mass “prefaces,” we “echo on earth the song of the angels in heaven.” Earlier in these notes we saw that it is the whole church which is at prayer in the Liturgy. That “whole church” includes the church in heaven as well—which is sometimes called the “church triumphant.” When we celebrate the liturgy, we are indeed entering onto the heavenly liturgy as well—the great hymn of praise and thanks that continually goes up before God. At that moment, all of God’s creation stands before the Lord in one great “attitude of gratitude.”

The changes reflect several of the principles mentioned in the second of these articles. The wording of the Latin text is: “pax hominibus bonae voluntatis”—peace to men of good will. That is the wording of the Gospel text of the song of the angels in Luke’s Christmas story. Our familiar “his people on earth” doesn’t exactly say that, does it? This is a good example of how a translation can sometimes significantly change a meaning. By now using the words of the Gospel text, we are more pointedly called back to the Christmas story.

What about all those verbs? These seem like too much, but look closely. These are things we do at Mass: we praise God, we bless God, we adore, we glorify, and we give thanks. This sentence really expresses the reasons why we come to Mass. The truth is that all of these verbs are in the original Latin, and our new translation simply restores all of these words and brings back richness to the text and to Mass.

Sometimes the little details can be important—one letter, an “s.” Notice that the new translation says that Jesus takes away the “sins” of the world. Sin is both a very personal thing and also a “shared condition” among people. There’s a significant difference, though, between just owning up to being part of “sinful humanity” and acknowledging that I have my own, personal sins. Jesus is our Savior…and He is very specifically my Savior. The repeated statement “you take away the sins of the world” reflects the reading of the Latin text. But in terms of the structure of the hymn, there’s a nice balance here:

you take away….have mercy on us;

you take away…receive our prayer;

you are seated…have mercy on us.

Folks with an ear for English composition might find this more pleasing, and that’s also one of the guidelines of the new translation: to produce a text that flows with beauty and dignity. We ought to bring the best of our language to this best of our prayer!

Because this text is almost always sung, learning new music and new words at the same time might be a bit more of a challenge. Recognizing this, the U.S. bishops have encouraged parishes to work on these sung texts starting in October. In the next few weeks we’ll be taking time to begin to learn some of this new, sung prayer. As with all the changes, this gives us the opportunity to take a new look at how we pray together week after week. This “breaking up the routine” may be one of the most beneficial aspects of the work we do in the weeks to come!

Next week – we look at text of the Creed: our great, shared statement of faith!

(This is the fourth in a series of ten articles prepared by Fr. Ritter and Joanne Denyer. You may wish to save them all.)

All ten articles will be on our parish website: www.stjoesylvania.org