The Lord be with you… And with your spirit

There has been a lot in the Catholic press recently about the new translation of the Roman Missal; a number of articles have questioned why we will be adopting this translation in the next couple of years and why we need to change at all. It is worthwhile examining how the current English translation came about and how the new translation was developed.

This article is the first of a series on how this new translation has come about.

Vatican II and the Mass

When the Second Vatican Council was announced by Pope John XXIII in 1959, it was welcomed by those who were involved with the renewal of the liturgical life of the Church. This movement to renew the liturgical life of the Church can be traced back to the 19^th century and to the work of Abbot Prosper Gueranger of the Benedictine abbey at Solesmes. In 1903, Pope Pius X described sacred music and liturgy as not something belonging to a restricted circle of experts but belonging to all the people of God. In particular he encouraged “active participation in the sacred mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church”.

In 1955, Pope Pius XII reformed the rites of Holy Week and the Easter Vigil to underline the Paschal Mystery as the centre of all Christian life. At this time, the Mass was still essentially the same Mass formalised by the Council of Trent in the 16^th century; sometimes known as the Old Latin Mass, the Tridentine Mass, and since Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”, the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

One of the key documents of Vatican II was the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. This document addressed the desire of the bishops participating in the Council to reform the liturgy including the Mass.

“In order that the Christian people may more certainly derive an abundance of graces from the sacred liturgy, holy Mother Church desires to undertake with great care a general restoration of the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become unsuited to it.”

The document goes on to state what the revised Mass should be like

“The rites should be distinguished by a noble simplicity; they should be short, clear, and unencumbered by useless repetitions; they should be within the people’s powers of comprehension, and normally should not require much explanation.”

The document also allowed particular parts to be spoken in the people’s “mother tongue” instead of Latin.

The revised Mass was not created during the Council but by a body known as the Consilium which was led by Fr Annibale Bugnini and consisted of an international body of experts known as “periti”. This body worked on a simplification of the Mass, often referring to very early texts of prayers and rites used in the early Church. The revised Mass was approved by Pope Paul VI in 1968 and a new Missal promulgated in 1970. The Missal of 1970 was in Latin and it acts as the master copy for all translations into other languages.

The new Mass is referred to as the Mass of Paul VI, the Novus Ordo or the Ordinary Form of the Mass. When Roman Catholics refer to the Mass, this is the Mass that they are referring to. This new Mass was simpler than the Mass that preceded it and fostered participation by the people in responses and by being able to hear most of the prayers of the priest. New Eucharistic Prayers were introduced to serve a variety of needs. The new Mass allowed for the celebration of the Mass by more than one priest. Accompanying the new Missal was a revised Lectionary that placed a much greater emphasis on the role of sacred scripture, especially the Old Testament in the life of the faithful.

This new Mass was eagerly awaited by all those who wanted to transform the life of the Church.

The next article in this series will be on how the current English translation of the 1970 Missal came about.

CAFOD Haiti Appeal

As a member of the Caritas Federation, we are supporting our partners to assist with the relief effort following the earthquake on the Caribbean Island of Haiti on January 12, 2010

As rescuers search for survivors among the rubble following the earthquake, our partners will be carrying out needs assessments.
Follow the latest on our Haiti blog

At present there are no accurate figures of the number of dead and those made homeless by the quake, but it is clear that with a population of around nine million people – with three million living in the devastated capital Port Au Prince – substantial humanitarian assisance will be required.

Any money pledged will help our partners supply water, food, medicines and shelter to the worst affected areas.

Please donate to the CAFOD appeal for the victims of the easrthquake in Haiti. You can do this online here.

OliveAid

The Holy Land has long had a special place in the heart of our parish due to Canon Jim’s activity with the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. The OliveAid project has in te last year become a pet project of the parish of St John the Baptist Purley.

The parish has so far sponsored an entire field of new olive trees near Bethlehem.

Thousands of Olive trees have been destroyed in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza strip. Farmers have been deprived of their economic livelihood causing families to be forced into poverty. OliveAid’s aim is simply to restore the injustice suffered by the Palestinian people by replanting the Olive groves and providing families with a sustainable income from olives and olive based products.

We have identified over nine sites within the West Bank where sustainable Olive groves can be planted. Each site has been carefully selected and prepared to accept three year old Olive saplings with have been sourced locally and are certificated against disease. Irrigation has been secured and each site is fenced where necessary. Most importantly we have ensured that all OliveAid sites are positioned in non conflict areas ensuring the long term security of the Olives groves and their crop.

A local management infrastructure provided by The Institute for Community Partnership working in partnership with local farmers and the community monitors both the planting and the ongoing husbandry of the trees to ensure that they reach their fruiting maturity in seven years. OliveAid intend to plant 2,000 trees in the Apr 08 Mar 09 season with a further 3,000 trees next season.

We cannot accelerate the growth of the Olive tress but we can with your help maximise the number of trees planted this season so please give generously.

You can find more about OliveAid at http://www.oliveaid.com.

Welcome…

Welcome to the Roman Catholic parish of St John the Baptist in Purley. We are a thriving parish in the London Borough of Croydon. We are a community drawn from over forty countries.

There are a number of parish groups that you might like to get involved in and a variety of Masses dependent on your needs.

We hope that you can use these pages to find out more information about us and hopefully drop in to one of our Masses or parish groups.