When celebrating a bilingual Mass at Sacred Heart, I pray the Collect and Pray after Communion in both Spanish and English. I pray it in Spanish first without the concluding phrase followed\u00a0imminently\u00a0by the prayer in English with which I conclude.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I prayed:<\/p>\n
Oh Dios, que por la Concepcion Inmaculada de la Virgen Maria
preparaste a tu Hijo una digna morada,
y en prevision de la muerte de tu Hijo
la preservaste de todo pecado,
concedenos por su intercesion
llegar a El limpios de todas nuestras culpas.<\/p>\n
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
prepared a worthy dwelling for your son,
grant, we pray,
that, as you preserved her from every stain
by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw,
so, through her intersession,
we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.<\/p>\n
As soon as the people answered Amen<\/i>, I realized something amazing. \u00a0Finally both prayers said the same thing! \u00a0Both languages now express unity in the Church at prayer by praying with the same words and concepts. \u00a0The English translation has been brought in line with other translations of the Mass by making it more faithful to the original Latin prayers.<\/p>\n
While celebrating Mass in both languages for the two and a half years I\u2019ve been a priest, I had noticed the much richer and formal language of the Spanish translation. \u00a0Even when I was young and I would attend Mass in both languages, I enjoyed Mass in Spanish more, but not due to the music or the language. \u00a0I always enjoyed the music more in English and had more ease speaking and understanding English than Spanish. \u00a0As a priest I realized what made the Mass in Spanish more attractive \u2013 it was the beautiful, poetic language of the prayers. \u00a0That has now been achieved in English with the new translation of the Roman Missal.<\/p>\n
I laugh when the media tries to raise trouble by reporting how in the Creed we now say Jesus is \u201cconsubstantial\u201d with the Father rather than \u201cone in being\u201d with the Father. \u00a0They cite this as an example of \u00a0where the language has become harder to understand. \u00a0I asked a group of middle schoolers the other day what a substance was, one kid answered right away, \u201cit\u2019s a thing, something that exists.\u201d \u00a0So I told them that God the Father and God the Son are the same substance, they are the same thing, they exist together, they are consubstantial. \u00a0They all understood it. \u00a0Actually, I believe that \u201cconsubstantial\u201d is clearer and easier to grasp than \u201cone in being.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new translations of the Collects are much richer theologically. \u00a0The premise for my homily yesterday came from the Collect. \u00a0The prayers much more quickly raise the mind to God.<\/p>\n
We will be glued to our pamphlets and hymnals for a while longer and I may at times get lost with the Missal, but I truly enjoy praying with the new translation. \u00a0In a matter of months, we will all forget how it used to be and fully embrace the new translation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When celebrating a bilingual Mass at Sacred Heart, I pray the Collect and Pray after Communion in both Spanish and English. I pray it in Spanish first without the concluding phrase followed\u00a0imminently\u00a0by the prayer in English with which I conclude. Yesterday I prayed: Oh Dios, que por la Concepcion Inmaculada de la Virgen Mariapreparaste a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n