Out with the old, In with the new

 

 

All Church going Catholics remember the Sunday when the priest announced upcoming change in the Catholic mass. That Sunday, I thought to myself, “This is so weird and will NEVER catch on…”. Now however I’m almost completely comfortable with it. Yes, I do make a few mistakes here and there (I mean the Nicene Creed is LONG!), but essentially I have acclimated to the new wording. After it changed in 2011, one of my friends continued to use the old phrases; the ones he had known his entire life. I told him, “You know you’re saying it wrong!?!” and his response was “Who cares how I say it. It all means the same thing!” Knowing how different the new changes seemed to me, I could only imagine how strange it seemed to adults who had been saying the same, routine phrases every Sunday for decades.

 

 

So why was the wording of the Catholic mass suddenly changed anyway??? When the Latin mass was translated to English some 40 years ago, it was somewhat of a rush job. The church knew there would be another translation in the future. Literal translations were not very strict. In comparison to the Spanish mass however, the literal Latin to Spanish wording was closer in meaning. Also, some Latin words do not have a direct translation into English; therefore context clues and symbolic meaning were essential.

Looking in hindsight, I like the changes in the Catholic mass because it made me think about the meaning behind the monotonous phrases I had been saying my entire life. We can assume the old phrases and new phrases mean the same thing, but did we know what they even meant in the first place?!?